Melissa's European Adventures: Barcelona

While we are all yearning to travel again, I’d like to share one of my family’s most memorable vacations to locations we can’t wait to return to someday! ​

​​Myself being of Spanish heritage and my husband of Italian descent, we’d always dreamed of going to Spain and Italy with our children. One day, during one of my many “what if we went there” vacation planning exercises, I found the perfect Disney Cruise Line itinerary that would take us there. Thank goodness, my husband went along with the idea! I booked it, researched, and our dream trip became a reality! We felt this was the perfect way to bring our children to Europe (ages 8 and 6 at the time). A cruise would provide us with the ideal way to experience multiple cities and countries that would otherwise be incredibly difficult to do on our own via planes, trains, and automobiles. ​Plus, the cruise would provide us with a consistent “home” to go back to each evening and to stay overnight throughout our journey. To top things off, it was a Disney Cruise! 

​As we started planning, we decided to spend a couple of days in Barcelona pre-cruise, as it would give us time to explore the top sites in the city, and allow us time to get adjusted to the time difference before boarding the ship. ​We flew overnight to Barcelona and hit the ground running as soon as we arrived. We started off by checking into our hotel right off Placa de Catalunya and enjoyed breakfast at an outdoor cafe. It felt so surreal at that point! We had no time to waste, so we dove right into sightseeing. We got multi day tickets for a hop-on hop-off bus. Kristen also rode the hop-on, hop-off bus during her time in Barcelona and we both agree that it is such a great and easy way to get around the city. We first rode the bus around a couple of loops without getting off so we could just see and soak in various areas. 

That evening, we visited the Spanish Village, enjoyed another outdoor cafe for a quick bite and took in a spectacular Flamenco show. The cafe gave us just a small taste of the delicious cuisine that was in store on this trip, with traditional patatas bravas, pan con tomate, and the first of numerous glasses of sangria. The show was a feast for the eyes- I never realized how meaningful and moving dance can be. Even my children were captivated by the show! ​

I had endlessly researched restaurants prior to our trip, however, our first dinner ended up being totally spontaneous, at a location we stumbled upon. We accidentally found Carrer de Blai, also known as “the tapas street of Barcelona”. We were drawn to the pedestrian street, it was so lively and full of small restaurants and bars. Needless to say, we thoroughly enjoyed our first experience with Spanish pinchos- savory appetizers served on a cocktail stick. There was no menu- you just choose from the vast variety of pinchos kept in trays on the bar counter, then at the end, the server counts up your different colored toothpicks to determine your bill. Such a unique and absolutely delicious experience! 

​The next day we took advantage of the hop-on, hop-off bus to take us to many highlights such as Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, and Camp Nou (home of the Spanish professional football club, FC Barcelona). Of course, we included a snack stop for churros; not just plain churros, but churros stuffed (Yes, I said stuffed) with Nutella and strawberry jam.

​Sagrada Familia and Park Guell opened our eyes to the absolutely incredible and beautiful architecture created by Antoni Gaudi. ​I was amazed by the interest my children had in learning about the history and art; they were drawn to how unique his designs are.  

We made time for shopping and more indulgences, too. La Boqueria Market is where I fell in love with shishito peppers, manchego cheese, and Cava wine. My children were in awe of all of the various market stands overflowing with bread, cheeses, meat, produce, chocolates… so naturally, they settled on crepes and pizza! Our evening included a stroll through the medieval streets of the Gothic Quarter and the popular area of Las Ramblas. Our time in Barcelona was wonderful; I was in awe of the beautiful city and it's friendly, warm people. As sad as I was that our time in Barcelona had come to an end, I was beyond excited for the next part of our journey - a 7-night Mediterranean cruise onboard the Disney Magic!  ​Stay tuned for the next blog post in this series, our first port of call - Naples, Italy.