Arrival & First Day in Barcelona

*record scratch* I’m sure you’re wondering how I ended up here!

Ray and I decided to book a trip to Spain in March and just got back a couple days ago! I’ll be posting our adventures and a few fun stories from the trip over the next few days.

We embarked on our journey out of Denver on a Thursday afternoon. Our original itinerary was supposed to take us from Denver to Dallas, then to Barcelona arriving early Friday afternoon. We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to get checked in and ready for our flight. We didn’t realize that there were some pretty bad storms in Dallas which delayed our first flight by roughly 3 hours out of Denver, which then would have caused us to miss our connecting flight to Barcelona. After the delays became too close for comfort, we chatted with the gate agent to see what our options would be. The first option offered would have connected us through Philadelphia instead, arriving in Barcelona on Saturday. We thought about it for a minute before overhearing a fellow passenger mention she had a connecting flight to Madrid she was worried about. We then asked the agent if there was any chance we could connect from Dallas to somewhere else in Europe instead. Somehow, we managed to get a flight to London, then connection to Barcelona, still arriving on Friday (but about 8 hours after our originally planned time). Thank you Brandon from American Airlines for saving our trip!!

We went straight to our hotel when we arrived and got a quick dinner at LalQila before calling it a night.

On Saturday, we went to Crois Spazio Bar, a favorite from Ray’s visit during my semester in Barcelona for breakfast before heading over to the Sagrada Familia to admire the progress made since 2019. The middle spire has gotten so much taller and they have added some new details. We then walked on the pedestrian Avenida de Gaudi towards the Hospital de Sant Pau, enjoying a quiet moment with the locals.

Next we took the metro down to the Gothic Quarter. We wandered around for a bit enjoying the familiar sights and surroundings. It was a beautiful, sunny, and warm day which felt as if the city was welcoming us back! :) We grabbed some lunch at Bar del Pi - I got a “bikini” (ham and cheese panini) and Ray got a ham and bread with tomato sandwich.

After this, we made our way up to the Bunkers del Carmel for my absolute favorite memory of the trip! During my semester I visited the bunkers twice - once with CIEE and friends I made through the program, and once with Ray. The visit with Ray was right at sunset and was one of the best days of our trip, plus the view is pretty spectacular up there! We hopped the fence to stand on the rooftop of the bunkers, at which point Ray handed his phone to some tourists who were enjoying their afternoon and popped the question! I (of course) said yes and am so excited for this next step! We spent a while up there together admiring the view and celebrating. 

We made our way down for dinner afterwards at Cerveseria Catalana, a favorite from all of my times in Barcelona! We ordered “pimientos del padron” (shishito peppers), patatas bravas, a ham plate with bread, white sangria, espressos, and crema catalana. Everything was delicious! 

Successful and exciting first day of our trip! 

Amy