Staying in Barcelona's Avenue of Luxury

This is going to sound dumb, coming from someone who lived 14 months in Madrid in the sixties, but I was not fascinated by Barcelona until I heard The Alan Parsons Project's Gaudi in 1987.  Ever since then I have been trying to convince Mary to spend some time in Catalonia and we finally did so in late 2014.  In luxury.  When we travel we are usually a thrifty couple, staying in guesthouses or affordable hotels.  For this trip we splurged on a very nice hotel, Casa Fuster, on the Paseo de Gracia.  Here we are on the rooftop bar, with Barcelona's Avenue of Luxury stretching behind Mary all the way to the Mediterranean Sea.

From the top of the Passeig de Gràcia (that's in Catalan) you can hike, or use the excellent public transportation, to all of these Gaudi masterpieces:  Casa Milà (a.k.a. La Pedrera), Casa Batlló, and La Sagrada Familia. 

Those magnificent structures are impressive. Pro Tip: get tickets online in order to skip the lengthy lines if you want to go inside.  But you can enjoy Barcelona by simply walking around, joining the mass of humanity strolling La Rambla, getting lost in the "Old Town" and finding other Cathedrals.  Or going to parks outside of the central city and running into a Dragon Gate or a monastery almost a century old.

We did not rent a car in Barcelona.  The subway and the "Hop-On/Hop-Off" buses more than sufficed.  We did take two trips outside of Barcelona.  One was to a small castle for a very personalized wine tour -- since there were only six of us in the minivan -- arranged by our hotel's concierge.  The other trip is highly recommended: go to one of the many travel agencies and take a modern bus 45km north of the city to Montserrat.  Just do it.  Many thanks to my cousin Teri Mari for that suggestion.

The last set of photos are from Park Güell, a fantasy land of a park, designed by Gaudi, that looks down upon the city.  Warning: the climb to the park is very steep.  One of the alleys leading to it has several escalators (and not all of them were working).  The buses and the subway stop at the very bottom of the hill -- you must be prepared to hike.  The hike is well worth it.  Once you are inside you will feel like you are in a Theodor Geisel book with all of the bright colors and odd shapes.

With all of the hiking we did every day it was nice to get back to a luxury hotel to rest.  Then we would go out again to find a restaurant (or bring some food back to our room) and then stroll  the Paseo de Gracia at night.  Barcelonians dine very late in evening.  One time we were the only diners enjoying a paella on the sidewalk as everyone else was still getting home from work, sometimes with their children in tow, after 7 PM.  If you don't want to eat alone in a restaurant in Barcelona plan on getting there after 9 PM.

We only spent 8 days in Barcelona.  We would have liked to stay longer.  We only visited one museum in a metropolis full of them: The Picasso Museum in the older part of town.  It was superb.  We thought we might do more indoor attractions, but as you can see from the photos, the November weather in Spain had no rain falling on the plain.  The locals were very friendly and we felt welcome everywhere we went (it helped that I know español).  So it was a tad alarming to see this graffiti as we climbed down the hill from Park Güell after another fantastic day in Barcelona:

If you have a week to spend in Iceland...

Iceland is a magnificent country.  An other-worldly island.  We put almost 2,000 km on a rental car in September 2017 and we highly recommend visiting this majestic place.

Trip Diary:

First day

We arrived into Keflavik International Aiport and get our a car by 8 AM, with very little sleep, and
immediately head south and drive along the bottom of the island.  Think Idaho's Craters of the Moon, except there's moss and lichen on the volcanic rocks.  No wildlife other than seabirds.  We blew off the famous Blue Lagoon that's nearby (instead we went to a much more scenic hot springs a few day later near Lake Myvatn).  Eventually we get to some civilization and we start to see small horses and/or sheep along the road.  Saw two excellent waterfalls in South Central Iceland: Skogafoss and Seljalandsfoss.  Make sure you continue hiking to the left of Seljalandsfoss until the hiking trail ends.  Ended the day by arriving late to our Guesthouse in Mosfellsbær (we wanted to avoid staying in the expensive capital of Reykjavík).

Second day

The second day was spent doing most of the "Golden Circle", beginning with Þingvellir, the National Park where the European and American tectonic plates are separating.  Then it was north to Geysir ... as in ... the geyser that ALL other geysers in the world are named after.  Poor Geysir is dormant, but the hot spring next to it, Strokkur, erupts every 4 minutes.  Then we drove further north to another tremendous waterfall, Gullfoss,  and back down south to a volcanic crater "lake", although it's really the water table rising up out of the ground.

Third day

One of the best hikes we've ever done to the tallest waterfall in Iceland: Glymur.  Walk through tundra, crawl through a "cave", cross a fast-moving stream, hike up to waterfall, all with a clear blue sky (got lucky that day).  Then we visited one quaint small village on the ocean, Akranes, and walked around the capital of Reykjavík at night.

Fourth day

On this day we spent most of the day in the car.  We did over 600 km of driving to the north of the island because we were staying two days in Akureyri.  Bathed in Natural Hot Springs, drove around their biggest lake (which still had some waterfowl in September), and saw the Waterfall of the Gods -- Godafoss.  We also purchased tickets for a whale watching trip.

Fifth day

One-word description of whale watching in a fjord: FANTASTIC!  Highly recommended! Our hostess said we got real lucky to get THREE Humpbacks together for 45 minutes, they're usually solitary when they feed.

Check out our video here:  All Three Have Gone Down For A Dive

It was also the best night for the Aurora Borealis according to everything online.  However, it was 95% cloud cover over Akureyri., so even though we went to the top of a hill from 11:30 PM to almost 1 AM, it was no Northern Lights for us.  Even folks at the airport that were under clear skies said that you could only, maybe, kinda sorta, see some color ... but nothing spectacular.  So visit Iceland after early September if you want a night show.

Sixth day

The sixth day was spent driving back to the capital since we decided to fly back one day early due to the approach of Hurricane Irma.

Random Thoughts:

Almost everyone spoke very good English.  We were glad we got the not-so-ripoff full car insurance when on the 3rd day a truck kicked up some gravel and CRACKED the windshield.  Yikes!  Twice I almost hit a black ram.  The first time they crossed the road and an evil black sheep stopped and gave me a dirty look before scampering off.  Flippin' mutton!

We didn't eat puffin or whale (wouldn't think of ever doing the latter).  Did have the best lamb sirloin I can recall and some of the best salmon we've ever eaten.  Cooked in the kitchen of our guesthouse, which was terrific.  Bought liquor and wine at the airport, otherwise we might have gone broke.  Alcohol is MIGHTY expensive in Iceland.

Now I fear we've done most of the island. Did not see the glacier where "Game of Thrones" filmed some scenes "North of The Wall" and we did not do any Ice Caves. And one the Top 5 waterfalls was simply too hard to reach in our humble rental car; Dettifoss.

Overall one of our favorite trips in our 30-year marriage!

If you go to Iceland, please, PLEASE be a good tourist.  Do NOT drive off-road since tundra-damage takes centuries to recover.  Do not try to pet the sheep or horses off the side of the highway.  Plan your bathroom breaks intelligently -- wash closets can be hard to find (pro tip: follow the tent signs and go to the campgrounds).  Lastly, don't even think about stopping on the roads to take a picture: find a place to properly pull over.  This way the locals will have a better view of us than what this humorous painting depicts:

Edit: I would be remiss if I did not give a shout-out to The Reykjavik Grapevine.  Excellent free newspaper that captures the vibe of the capital.  All in English.  Think Creative Loafing, but wittier.  Check it out here: The Reykjavik Grapevine