Barcelona

Going to Barcelona with my wife for a few days coming up.  I have to attend a conference in a hotel on la Rambla. So will be around there all the time. Half work trip half adventures with wife. So what should we do or eat?

All my work travel paid off. I had enough points to pay for Disney flights, fly my parents out to watch the kids this trip and get my wife out for free.  Yay butt earned miles. 

It's been a long time since we were there- 14 years now.  But I suspect that the area you are staying has hardly changed- which is good.  Wander around, find the little tapas bars, and have the small snacks that come with a glass of wine.  It's a great experience.  

There are a couple of great art museums- one for Picasso and another for Miro- they are both masters and should be seen if you can.

Do some looking up Gaudi architecture.  If you have the time, go visit the cathedral that is still under construction.  We were able to climb to the top, which was both spectacular, and uncomfortable due to my fear of heights.  But seeing the top structure up close really lets you see how massive the cathedral is. 

Hard to say a specific food- it's been a long time.   You will be next to the Med, so seafood.  

While we are not really religious, we also go into as many churches as we can, as there is a lot of very old art all over them.  (we did spend more time in one, as we were tracing my wife's grandfather- and we found his birth documents in one of the churches!)

You'll have a great time.

I'll second everything alfadriver says above.  I've been there a couple times in the last 5 years.  If you like soccer, catch a FC Barcelona game if they are in town.  It's quite a spectacle.

The tourist busses are a reasonable way to see some of the Gaudi buildings.  I haven't been inside La Familia (the Gaudi cathedral mentioned by alfadriver), but I've heard it's well worth the effort.  It sounds like it's best to buy tickets online as the place can be really busy.  Maybe this time of year is a bit quieter than when I've been there.

You have to go to a good restaurant and have a Paella. Heads up, restaurants dont even open like till 8 or 9 pm

The cathedral for sure

Go down to the harbour and walk around looking at the super yachts.

Red wine.

Pete

4 year old woke up with the flu. Oh man. Hopefully he gets better soon.  I'm flying in my parents to watch the kids and I don't want to get them sick. 

My son was there two years ago, I asked him for input and he will when he gets within WiFi range.  He's in Cafayate, Argentina now.

Ian just checked in, no Internet but I got a text.

Ginfizz is a local (or Spanish) drink, pronounced oneword.  Tapas come with the drink, more drink = better Tapas.  Use local, smaller venues, you can do a Chili's at home.  Most people speak english and are friendly, he had a great time!  He also did the surrounding area including Mallorca.  ooh and northern Spain has prosciutto made from the Black Foot Pig - only place in the world.

Mallorca is to Spain as Sardinia or Corsica is to Italy, little different language, different culture & foods.

Have fun, take pictures.

I love Barcelona, based on my one trip. Apologies for being lazy with accents below, and probably some stuff that's outside your schedule, and the general braindump of it all.

Good advice generally above.

We stayed at a tiny hotel not right at La Rambla, but not too far away. Based on that, I don't think it'd be a terrible walk to a couple of my first recommendations:

I really liked starting the day at a little coffee shop called Faborit (Passeig de Gràcia, 41, 08007 Barcelona; there's a really nice outdoor seating area out back), which has the added bonus of being next door to Gaudi's Casa Batllo, which is  less overrun than the Sagrada Familia, and totally worth a tour. Not that the Sagrada Familia isn't worth it, because it totally is. We went to the cathedral near sunset, and I gather it's better do do it early or late, as the sun comes in through differently colored stained glass depending on morning/evening. It really is a stunning place. Casa Batllo was more to my tastes, and had a lot of interesting features that were very different, both in terms of design and construction details...

NOHOME's right about paella. Walking on the beach and stopping for paella is something I would recommend very, very highly. About the only thing I didn't get right there was that I had zero cash on me and wasn't prepared for the otherwise reasonably-casual place to have a bathroom attendant I didn't have a tip for... Again, you're not a miserable walk from there.

I've never been there, but stumbled into some really tasty beer from Barcelona since then, and if you happen to wind up near the brewery... Cervesa Montseny.

It's a neat place to just wander around. From La Rambla you're also right at the Gothic Quarter, which is a good area to do some of that wandering...

We did a tour to Girona with a stop at the Dali museum in Figueres; that was a day well spent. Girona's beautiful (it's also where a lot of Game of Thrones is filmed, so there was more GoT stuff than straight history as I might've preferred on the tour, but it was still awesome). The Dali museum was neat, but I was mostly struck by how the sky in Figueres I'd swear actually looks like the skies in a lot of his paintings. It was really neat.

The hop-on/hop-off bus tour was neat, too, with some guidance, some sights, and a neat loop that took us to the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya and over Montjuic.

Don't miss the jamon Iberico.