Scott Barronton (00:00)
Have you ever had just 48 hours in the city and wondered if you could, you know, really truly experience it? That was us recently in Barcelona. We had two days to explore and we set out to make the most of every moment
from dramatic mountain views to jaw-dropping architecture that feels like it belongs in a dream. This trip was a whirlwind and in the best way possible. And so in this episode, we'll take you along for the ride as we share how we spent a short but unforgettable escape in one of Europe's most captivating cities.
So today we're going to answer the question is what can you do with just 48 hours in Barcelona? And it turns out that that's quite a lot. So back in episode 24, we covered two days in Barcelona when you're on a cruise, but you you just have a few hours a day that you're spending in Barcelona. But this time we're actually going to spend two full days and those nights in Barcelona. And so.
Can't wait to share some of our experiences with you. So we squeezed in Mountain Views from Montserrat, Gaudi's incredible architecture, right, all over the city, and then some unforgettable late night tapas. So Scott, let's share how we made the most of these two amazing days in this really, really incredible city that you definitely need to visit.
Scott Barronton (02:04)
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Scott Barronton (02:56)
Well, the first day when we arrived in Barcelona, we got checked into our hotel and one of the things we wanted to do on that first day was to go up to Montserrat. We've never been there before. It was something that people were like, you can't miss it. And so we started looking at how would we get up there and all of the logistics. And you want to talk a little bit about that?
Yeah, so this is not something that we'd really planned ahead of time except for to kind of say this time if we have time we want to go to Montserrat.
So I knew that you could book a tour. I had already kind of looked that up, but that really didn't fit in with our schedule. And so when we arrived by lunchtime that day and we knew that we were gonna have some time that afternoon, we were like, let's go this afternoon. The weather was nice. So that's something else too. Like, I mean, yes, of course you could go.
but I think it makes it so much more enjoyable for the weather to be nice. So I just got online real quick and was looking at some different options, reading some blog posts. And so basically there's, so you could book the tour that I was talking about. And a lot of those, do like hotel pickups and they combine with something else.
they have like a winery tour or they take you somewhere else. Some of them just simply drop you off. It's kind of more like transportation and they just drop you off. And so then the other things that these blog posts were kind of talking about is, okay, well then how do you get there using public transportation? And basically what it amounts to is if you're not in that main train station in Barcelona, you take the metro, then you take the train, and then there's basically two ways to get up there that's from two different stops.
So that train ride up, the first stop, you can take that aerial cable car, which is what in my mind, kind of always think about when I think about Montserrat, that yellow cable car going up. That's just what I knew about. The next stop, there's also a funicular that takes you up. And then once you're up there, you can visit the monastery, which is actually free. there are shops, there's places to eat.
there's hiking, all over. I guess I should back up and say, if you had a car, you could also drive. And there was parking, right? And you could, know, kind of park far away. But probably most people aren't gonna have a car. I wouldn't recommend a car in Barcelona. if you're just, you're staying there, it would be a hassle to kind of park.
And then the other thing that we thought about it's already, after lunch, we actually had lunch at the hotel after we checked in. And so you were like, let's just take a Bolt up there and then we'll figure out how to get back. whether that's a Bolt or maybe we can do that transportation to go back. And that actually for us ended up being a really great option for several reasons.
Number one, we had gotten up pretty early and had to take an early flight. actually both took naps on the way and it was, It was like 45 minutes to an hour to drive there from, from town. And so, yes, I definitely got a nice nap in and kind of woke up right, right as we were getting close by. The driver was so great because he had actually even turned off the direction sounds and stuff on.
his phone and I think he just let us have a nice little rest. And what we came to found out is that it wasn't really any more expensive to do that. And we'll talk about that in a second. So especially if you have a lot of, a good number of people and you could, or a few people, I guess you can fit up lot of people, in a Bolt but a few people, you could split that.
But actually being really great, we kind of got to see something different as well. And so by the time we got there, there was really only two more what, funiculars that were going up, two or three more that were going up. And then we had probably a little over an hour, but we did have to make sure that we had that back down. So personally, that is what we opted to do. It was gorgeous. We kind of wanted to see the scenery, ride that funicular. So we did that, walked around a little bit.
and then ended up coming back down. We didn't really go into the monastery other than like the little courtyard, the bells were going off, it was time for mass, we saw the nuns, go into mass. The other great thing about going that time of day is a lot of as we were going, where he dropped us off, we had to walk a little bit, everybody was leaving.
Everybody was going back to those tour buses, minus, just a few people that were kind of hanging around. So once we got on the, in the funicular, there wasn't a line to go up. There wasn't a line to come back down. so it really ended up being a great time to go now. that's a something that I was going to mention about, you were talking earlier about taking a tour, to get up there and, the tours are going to leave in the morning and they're going to take you up there and spend the day. So.
For us, it wasn't an option to take a tour to get up there. Yeah, that's true. But you would be kind of in those crowds. And we just kind of wanted to do, I think we just really just kind of wanted to do our own thing. And so it actually ended up being great for us. Then, of course, as we were staying there, we were like, we might ought to check to see what time that funicular leaves.
what time that aerial tram leaves. And we actually took probably, I think the next to the last aerial tram down. So we kind of scooted on down there. I think it was almost seven o'clock. And you could buy your ticket for the tram ride down and then your ticket on the train, I guess I should say, back to the main station.
in Barcelona kind of as a package deal.
So those are kind of the options. And then it was super easy at the those train stations.
are right there across from the tram, across from the aerial cableway. And then it was just very clear how we got back. highly, highly recommend for whether as a matter of fact. in addition to all of the logistics of how we got there and stuff is what would you see when you get up to Montserrat? Because why are people going to Montserrat? And so I wanted to talk a few minutes a little bit about that.
so that's a good point, Scott. So what do you see? let's describe what you see once you get there, like all the logistics get there. Why do you visit? So up at the top of Montserrat and it's a mountain, right? So you can see it, from Barcelona, and,
When you get up to the top, there's a monastery up there. And like Melissa, we didn't go into that, but you can take a funicular that goes up even higher. so, it's going up. I don't know, 20, 30 degrees slope or something like that. It's a real, real climb, but you take this funicular to get up there on the way up to hop on the funicular anywhere you want to. I think it's about the same views. Obviously the ones that are further down the mountain.
are going to get the best views cause they're just looking down, but I'll, I'll save that and say, when you're coming back down the mountain, make sure you get on the front of the car. in one of those first rows because you're going to have this unobstructed view of basically just downhill on that track. And the way the funicular works is there's two cars and as one goes down, the other one goes up.
And so at one point in the track, you have to pass one another on this little, carve out, but, know, go up to the top of Montserrat and you have these amazing 360 views from up there. You can see all around you. Melissa said we were there on a day when the skies were just beautiful and blue, high visibility. So we got some really good photos, also great opportunities to get some.
nice selfies from up there and, there's going to be a lot of people doing that, but, there's just plenty of places that you could go and get some great pictures. Matter of fact, we could have gone a really long ways on those hiking trails once we got up to the top. Yeah. So, I mean, this is somewhere where you literally could go in the morning and spend all day, walking around. and like I mentioned, we did the funicular,
to the top, then there was one that you could take down lower, could hike all those different trails. So, I mean, you literally could spend all day. They had, food and drink options you could probably do in between or, pack yourself something to bring, but there's plenty to do all day.
So one of the other things that we did while we were in Barcelona this time is we decided that we would get a Metro pass and that made it really convenient for getting around town. whether we were taking the train or the bus or, a tram in the city, we were able to get basically anywhere we wanted to around Barcelona. And I think that's just a really good way to, to move about the city. felt really safe.
There was lots of visible security around. Not that it felt like they needed to have the security. It's just they were there and they were present. And so, at all times it felt really safe using that transportation. Yeah. And I wanted to mention that they also do have an app and we kind of saw that, but only be in there two days and we really needed to like get on the Metro right then. We just went up to the kiosk and got, like a two
day pass so that we would have it for the rest of time. And then it was super easy just, using that in and out for everything. And then we took a bus one time, just made that really easy. Well, one of things we wanted to do when we got back, from Montserrat is that evening we wanted to go out for tapas. something that we had planned to do. And so we went back into the Gothic quarter and, basically I had just looked up,
where there were large concentrations of tapas restaurants, you can get tapas just about anywhere in Barcelona. So you don't have to go to the Gothic Quarter. It's just that there were quite a few right there in that area.
We would say too since you're going kind of from place to place. It was fun just to kind of walk and then just see, this place looks interesting. So I think we ended up going to what? Three different places. And it was funny because you're right, we decided to wait a little bit until later. But being on the weeknight, it almost seemed like we almost were too late. The second place was closing as we were getting ready to leave. But then I think the third place we went was staying open.
long time and it was more of a restaurant but we still kind of made our own little tapas with that. I think a lot of places were open till at least 11. Of course they didn't open till eight or nine but then they closed around 11 ish and then a lot of them were open till around one.
So the first place we decided to stop at had the top is like on the bar that you could see the pinxtos I think you call it where you just pick what you want and then, pay by the toothpicks and got a couple of drinks. The second place was more order kind of off the menu, but still tapas style. and then Scott, we actually took Taylor's advice and tried something new.
Yeah. if you listen back in episode 109, we talked to Taylor from the culture craving couple. And one of things she said is that in, Spain, they don't drink the sangria that's there for the tourists. And so, she had recommended that we try the vermouth. And so we did that and, Melissa ordered the red or the white so that we could get a different, taste of it. And was really good.
had never had it before. I'd always thought vermouth as being something you put into a martini, but I thought it was like really dry and not something that you would drink by itself. And I think unfortunately it would be very difficult to get the type and the quality of vermouth here in the States, right? Unless it was like specially imported. It's, it really is not kind of the same thing, right? This was all local.
So absolutely fantastic. It was really fun to try that. We tried that at a couple of different places. And it was usually served in like a wine bottle. like, they would open a wine bottle and that was it. now the, we're going to talk a little bit about a bar that we went to and did a masterclass, but that, bartender actually recommended the, Martini brand of vermouth. And so that is something that we can get here in the U S and I tasted it and it's very similar.
Okay, good to know. Yeah. But
So one of the things that I would just remind you of, and we talked about this back in that episode, is when you're out having tapas, there's no expectation that you're just going to camp out there at that one restaurant and that's what you're going to do. It's really expected that you go in, you have maybe a tapas or two, have a drink, and then you pay and leave and go to the next place. And so, it's a little bit like bar hopping.
but you're just having tapas and some drinks. One thing I would say though is that I felt like drinking vermouth all night long would be a really tough thing to do. so feel free, everybody in there is gonna probably most likely be ordering a beer. So I would say if they're locals, they're probably ordering a beer or a glass of wine or the vermouth. Yeah, we definitely saw a lot of people drinking beer and
in the master class we asked them, are the locals drink? We're gonna talk about that in a second. The other great thing about the tapas is like Barcelona, really is a huge city, With probably hundreds, if not thousands of restaurants. And so this gives you an opportunity to just experience a few, right? And so that's the nice thing about tapas is you're not tied into, my gosh, out of all these restaurants, I've got to pick one place each night. So that's the other thing that makes it fun.
Well, speaking of Sangria while ago, we had already booked a Sangria masterclass before we spoke to Taylor. And we're really glad that after that episode, I didn't cancel that masterclass because it was a really fun night that we had and we enjoyed learning really the roots of Sangria. Yeah.
It was funny because honestly, so it was, just Scott and myself, do in the class that night. And so we just kind of had him all to ourselves, but that was the first thing we asked him is, do locals drink sangria? Yeah. And he laughed when we asked him that and he was like, yeah, not really. Yeah. So it's true that the locals don't drink sangria,
And so one of their national cocktails is sangria and it comes from a time when their wine making process wasn't so great. So they were making wine, but the wine was, yeah. And so they needed a way to dress it up just a little bit. And that's when they would add some fruit, some additional spirits to it and juices.
with a little bit of simple syrup and that's how the Sangria came about. In the south of Spain as well, it's very hot there and they were really looking for something refreshing. so Sangria was very popular in south of Spain as well. So let's hear from the master himself. We had just an opportunity to talk to
Alvaro, who is our master class instructor.
Scott Barronton (17:21)
tell me
how Sangria was created in the beginning. The Sangria was created in the beginning, and one of the theories is because the wine wasn't very very good in beginning of Spain, and they were starting to mix with some ice inside, and some pieces of fruit, and then this is one of the reasons, and the second one would be because in the south of Spain it's very very warm, and they were starting to use actually some ice inside to try to make
something more refreshing to drink. This is one of the reasons about it. That's That's good, right? Okay, and so then tell us, so we just did a Sangria making class. Yes. And so how can people find you and book, like what's the best way for them to book the class? Yes. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much. Are you recording? Yes, I am. Okay. Actually for this class I'm in the Viator and I'm Trip Advisor and through the website straight to Chulapio Barcelona website.
And then you can go straight and find the website, the Sangria Masterclass. You can just book any. All right, perfect. And we will put the link in the podcast, but it was absolutely fabulous because not only did we do get to do the red Sangria and the white Sangria. Oh, got, he always, it was absolutely fabulous because not only did we get to the red and the white, but we got to do the Kava Sangria and we had never had Kava Sangria.
for those of because we didn't know but it turned out to be our favorite it turned out to be our favorite but it's the sparkling it's the sparkling and we learned absolutely so much because we were making sangria completely wrong yes no clue how to make sangria so come to Barcelona and book this sangria master class and again we'll put the link in the show guys. so much to be here on this class today.
preparing to those amazing sangrias, now you know how to make it. For sure you can prefer those sangrias at home, in a barbecue or whatever you want. And we will. Yes, definitely we will. Thank you so much.
Scott Barronton (19:30)
So we learned three different ways to make the sangria. Now, Melissa, I think that we have tried to make sangria at home before. In our mind, it was red wine, Sprite, because we had seen people make it with Sprite, and fruit. Yes. And if you mix those three things together, you ended up with something like a sangria. Yeah. And that was the recipe that we had gotten from, I think, like a winery one time as well. So this recipe was completely...
not that at all. And I think he even asked us, like, what do you know about sangria? How have you made it before? But here's what was so interesting. Because of the roots of sangria is that it really came down to, well, how does your grandma make it? Well, how does your grandma make it? And so, guys, this is probably why you do not want to order sangria in Barcelona.
is because it's honestly probably going to be some kind of pre-made commercial sangria because he said the problem is Barcelona. yeah, unless probably you go somewhere really, really remote and really, really local. I would say maybe in the south of Spain, because what happened is,
this bartender works here for a while and made this really good sangria and then they went somewhere else and then this other bartender came and they make it differently and they didn't have a consistent product, right? So you go to a restaurant one week and you loved it and then you go back and it's something completely different. And so they needed a way to standardize that. And like you can buy sangria, premixed sangria or a sangria mixer also.
here in the US too. And so you're not getting the real Sangria. So just like be aware of that, right? I'm sure they sell a ton of it, but, just knowing that changed our whole perspective. yes, Scott, I'm super glad that, that we did that because we really learned a lot from him about, know, why did they put ice, in the wine and, and just like so many different things. and then as far as the types, so we had had red Sangria.
obviously that's probably the most popular. We had had white Sangria, but we had never had the Kava Sangria. So the Kava Sangria is the sparkling. So usually in the sparkling wine to make the Sangria. And so what was your favorite? Well, I would say that we had something similar to Kava when we were trying to make it with the sprite because that was the sparkling. yeah, I think.
a kava ended up being both of our favorites. yeah, absolutely delicious. And it's funny because he said that that is the case for a lot of people. one of the things I really liked is he taught us how to tweak the sangria. So if it's a little bit boozy or it's not sweet enough or whatever, he taught us how to tweak that and hint on this. We're not going to give you his recipe or
You got to reach out to us and, get a hundred thousand people to follow you or something like that. but, know, the recipe that he gave us is you don't tweak the spirits. So you don't tweak, tweak the wine. You don't tweak the, there were four different spirits that go in there along with the wine. You don't tweak those and you're tweaking the, the juice or the, simple syrup.
Yeah, and then he also showed us or told us like, okay, if you wanted to have a party, like here's how you would make a batch of it and then here's what you would add later and people can kind of make their own, have the base of it ready and then people could choose red, white or kava. So it was just really, really cool. He has a really cool bar there that actually funny enough, I think our class was at six. So we did the class. We also finished the class with a table of tapas that were
part of that and then they were about to open the bar. They have live music that comes in and stuff like that. So just a really neat place. Yeah, I'm sorry we didn't get you back over there for the crepes. So and they're open in the morning as well for crepes. So it's Chalupio cocktails and crepes, but we're going to put the link to the actual master class in the show notes. So if you're in Barcelona, highly recommend that. He also gave us a couple of great recommendations for restaurants.
one of which was like two doors down and we hightailed it there after because after all that sangria three glasses of sangria with all the spirits like we needed some food besides just the top is more food i guess i should say and i would say just as always in barcelona asked for food recommendations because the next night when we went out or sorry the first night that we went out
We went to a couple of tapas places and we had asked for a recommendation and they'd actually sent us to this Mussels restaurant, which was really good. And so we just ordered a pot of Mussels and finished off the night there. So make sure to ask for recommendations and get those from the local people.
another thing that we did while we were in Barcelona was to visit some of the architectural highlights, which we absolutely love about the city. And one of those was the La Sagrada Familia. So this is the cathedral that they've been working on for what, couple hundred years now? A hundred years, I think.
Because what weren't they supposed to finish it on the hundredth anniversary? They were going to finish it on the hundredth anniversary of his death. Oh, okay. Okay. You're probably right. So yeah. So a long, like a long time. Yeah. Yes, for sure. So they've been working on it a really long time, over a hundred years now. And they, I don't know if they're ever going to finish it, but they were supposed to have it finished. And we had talked about this back in.
I think episode 24 at that time, they were saying they were going to have it open in 2026 was, which was the hundredth anniversary of his death. now that's no longer true. They're not going to open it in 2026. They still have lots of scaffolding around it. And Melissa, you even mentioned at one point that it looked less complete this visit.
than it did when we were there in 2019. Yeah, and I still need to go back and compare those pictures, but I was like, I really felt like the spires were different. But then as we got close to it, it was like, oh, they're adding, all these adornments and stuff like that. But yeah, I was like, it looks it looks like they took stuff off or something. So, yes. So, but I will say that it is a lot more embellished on the outside. So we were there in 2019.
It's a lot more embellished on the outside. I would say it's a lot more Gaudi than it was. Now we did not go into it this time. We have the information about going into it in episode 24, so we didn't really feel the need to go back inside. But if you've never been, definitely worth a visit, but buy your tickets ahead of time. Yeah, you have to get the tickets ahead of time.
they're estimating right now another 10 years on the completion. We'll see if they make that, but, make sure you go see it. Even with the scaffolding around, it is truly a sight to be seen. And go on both sides. So two of the sides really have parks where you can kind of get a good view. And then it's really just like restaurants and
Five Guys and McDonald's and stuff like that on the other two sides. But I said I wasn't going to say this on, tell about this on Instagram, but I'm going to tell about it here is that go on this. I don't know which side is even the front. But on one side of it, there is a playground off to the side. And guys, that is the spot because like people like tourists, people outside of the. OK, it's the one without the lake.
Let's just say it that way. So if you see the lake, it's on the other side. but there's just literally, I mean, there's so many people trying to take pictures and then you have buses and all these things. And so we just kind of walked around that park and came on the backside of this playground and you get this amazing view with no people. And it was just like, this is the spot. I said, I'm not going to share this on Instagram because I'm just not. so thanks for being a podcast lister. You get the, the photo spot for the La Sagrada Familia
It is a great photo spot, but let me just say every little angle of that, cathedral or Basilica is, is so different. And so depending on which side you're on, you're going to have just such totally different views and they are far out there. Like some of these, you're like, that's a church, So anyhow, go see that it is truly a wonder to, to visit.
But we also, because we like this Gaudi architecture, and it's so unique and so different, we also went down to see some more of his work. And we went to the Casa Batlo, which is on Passeigh de Gracia. And that is a great place if you want to do some shopping. Yeah, so this is where the like the high end
shops, I mean, there's also like places like Zara and stuff too, but like the high end shopping as well. we went there because we wanted to see the architecture, but in that area, we saw basically every shop you could think of, whether it was Louis or, matter of fact, I went there and ended up buying an, a new suitcase. I've told you guys before, I've, I love TUMI That's my personal favorite. Melissa has her own.
But, I've, I've had a TUMI and on this trip, the seams started coming apart on it. I mean, this, the suitcase has literally traveled over 1 million miles with me, over the last, 15 years or so. And so, it's, it's time to retire it. Matter of fact, it's gone. actually got rid of it. you did. I set it out by the road. thought maybe somebody would take it, but.
They didn't. It was, yeah, nobody knew what it was, but it was pretty, yeah, was, it was in rough condition and the thing was, And you had just always, you would never could find the style. Cause you kind of get in, get in the thing, a style that you want. And she was great because if you're familiar with TUMI they have the little leather things that they put your initials on and she made them. You were said, I don't have one for this one. She made you a bunch and all kinds of different colors. So was just a fantastic experience.
Also keep in mind that when you shop in the EU, you also get that tax. You get the tax rebate. You didn't have to have your passport. You had to have a copy. So always keep a copy of your passport, on your phone. They actually have one of the places where you have to go to get your rebate processed, on that street. And then you just drop it off at the airport.
So it's a great way to kind of just do all that at one time. But I wanted to say the other thing about the architecture is that we had actually, like we had seen some of this, we had actually the Casabatia, we had only gone by on like the hop-on-hop-off bus last time. You also had your good camera with you this time. And so that really prompted us wanting to walk and go by a lot of these places and take some photographs with your camera.
let's talk just briefly about where we stayed. because I think that is part of a successful trip to Barcelona. And at first we weren't sure. I had looked at neighborhoods and purposely looked at places that were closer to the beach. Cause we said that we wanted to go back to the beach. we ended up not doing so because the weather wasn't so great the last day that we were there. but.
We chose this neighborhood called Poblano. And, it was near the beaches, not too far out of the downtown. I mean, it's really on the skirts of the downtown area. And so we stayed at a hotel called the Hoxton Poblano. I think we found a new favorite hotel. Yeah. So it is a chain, but there's not a ton of them. What's really neat, they're super stylish.
Their kind of claim is that they do it a little bit differently. When you get there, they try to have a room for you. And then they have sort of a flexible checkout policy as well. If you live near one, you can become a member and get like benefits at their bar and food and drink and stuff like that. So Hoxton, like I said, check them out in different cities around the world because it is really a cool concept. had a rooftop and a rooftop pool.
We ate lunch there one day. had breakfast there one day, but we really enjoyed the hotel. They actually upgraded our room. We had like a little couch and stuff like that. We booked it through one of our travel credit cards. One of our AmEx is I think where it gave us some, food and credit benefits and some different things like that. But we really enjoyed it. It was very neat and very stylish as well. And it was really in a great area. So it was within walking distance to
the La Sagrada Familia and we actually from our window had a view of it kind of Cate Corner which was really cool as well and it was in a it was on a different walking type of a street another kind of rambla called the diagonal that would kind of take you Cate Corner to there's a beach closer but kind of Cate Corner to the beach so a great place lots of I would say international restaurants there's a little mall there
still downtown, still very convenient. There were trams, there was a park. mean, if you had kids, there was a playground that was really cool. as well. but that area also felt very local. mean, obviously people, stay in there a lot, a lot of tourists and stuff like that, but, that area felt local. There was a bar next.
door that seemed to fill up with locals in the afternoon. There was just a lot of international type of restaurants as well. think there's a university right there in that area. Yeah, think you're right. And so if you want something that's not necessarily right there in the Gothic Quarter, right there at the waterfront, or you just want something a little bit different, that neighborhood was really great. we even walked that Rambla, kept going toward the Sagrada Familia. We even walked.
most of the way, or all the way, one day. it, it was just a great place to stay, to walk. And like I said, you could do shopping, you could go eat over there at that little, that little mall area too.
Well, Melissa, my only regret about this trip is that we never found a place to have my favorite dish, which is octopus. Well, we, we sort of had it at the one place that he recommended, but it was a different, it wasn't the grilled.
right that you love it was it was like tempura style yeah so it wasn't exactly i know so guess what that means we also didn't get a chance to go to the beach like you mentioned because of the weather so guess we'll just have to go back to barcelona again well since this is a destination we need to ask the question is what is it that we need to pack for this trip so i definitely think you're going to do a lot of walking no matter what so definitely good walking shoes but i feel like they could be
tennis shoes or sandals probably. Still layers as well. It was interesting because we felt like the day we had lunch on the rooftop, we kind of had to grab our jackets and sweaters and we're like, it's so windy. It's going to be so cold up at Montserrat. And then it was very warm up there. So I think just having, those layers, think jeans or pants are fine. Like you could do, you could do dinner either way. I only had pants because
this trip was in combination with Italy walk. And then I was going to South America. So I just didn't pack those jeans, but you had a couple of different, pairs of jeans. So I think just kind of like smart, casual, stylish with layers, just, just really works. And then a rain jacket we had that, the weather was kind of off and on back and forth. so I think those kinds of things, just work really well. And then of course, having a bathing suit in your bag, just in case. Yeah. And also don't forget your.
international power adapters. So you're going to need those on this trip as well. Yes, your international power adapters. And I would always say for somewhere like this, always have that backup battery too for your phone. know, knowing, if you end up needing to call a Bolt, like the one night we ended up staying out late for dinner and during the week.
the Metro closes at midnight. And so we ended up having to call the Bolt to get back. You just don't want your battery to die, take pictures, all that kind of stuff. So the battery backup. we'll put the links to all of our favorite things and kind of our packing list for Barcelona in the show notes as well.
Well, in just two days, Barcelona gave us stunning views, unique architecture, and very lively neighborhoods full of culture and really good food. And so from a ride up to Montserrat to exploring Gaudi's work and ending each night with tapas, the city left a lasting impression. And I believe this is why I love Barcelona so much.
What city inspires you in the same way? Remember, the world is full of sunshine and surprises. Make 2025 the year that you explore beyond the familiar.
