Barcelona..........where to go and see?

RCCL on Voyager in early November. Anyone have suggestions of
some tours, areas to see and things to enjoy..........seeing\eating,
you name it in Barcelona. A total of 3 days there --- before and after
cruise.

Thanks! (Not young enough to hike like crazy or bike all over the
place, but not ancient either)

First take the Bus Touristic (buy tix for 2 days, so you can hop on
and off on the second day)

Then...
Walk La Rambla. Check out the cathedral and medieval streets and
perhaps the Picasso Museum
Check out Gaudi's La Pedrera and Sagrada Familia (also Parc Guell or
Casa Barillo if REALLY interested)
Take the funicular and cable car to Montjuiic and see the museums and
the park
I found the Aquarium underwhelming, but others enjoy it.

Eat late, enjoy tapas and paella.

Mark

On Jun 13, 3:35 pm, (berry) wrote:
RCCL on Voyager in early November. Anyone have suggestions of
some tours, areas to see and things to enjoy..........seeing\eating,
you name it in Barcelona. A total of 3 days there --- before and after
cruise.

Thanks! (Not young enough to hike like crazy or bike all over the
place, but not ancient either)

On Jun 13, 5:35*pm, (berry) wrote:
RCCL on Voyager in early November. Anyone have suggestions of
some tours, areas to see and things to enjoy..........seeing\eating,
you name it in Barcelona. A total of 3 days there --- before and after
cruise.

Thanks! *(Not young enough to hike like crazy or bike all over the
place, but not ancient either)

We spent 3 days there after our transatlantic ... Very nice artsy
city ... November is a good time to go ... good sightseeing
weather ...
They have the Touristic bus which is a great way to tour ... 3
lines ... covering all the sights ... easy hop on hop off most
places ... and one stop was close to our hotel ... a bonus ...
Architecture is the main attraction all around ... Especially the
churches ... but the city itself has some great looks everywhere ...
We found that out of the way restaurants filled with locals were the
best places to dine ... over the "best rated" place we also ate at ...
Surprisingly ... not much English spoken in comparison to other places
in Europe we've visited ... The bus guides are all fluent though ...
Not impressed with Ramblas ... lots to shop ... but to me too
touristy ... and pickpocket/bag snatching ... We actually watched one
I was suspicious of ... and sure enough he was ...
This city really never sleeps ... we stayed in the Born district and
nightlife abounded all around until all hours ... great section to
stay in ...

On Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:44:32 -0700 (PDT), "Mark (SF)"
wrote:

Walk La Rambla. Check out the cathedral

We really enjoyed walking on La Rambla -- best of all on a Sunday when
there's more going on and you can see adorable little family groups.

I wanted to mention if you are there on a Sunday, be sure to be in
front of the Cathedral at noon when the local people come to dance the
Sardana -- a beautiful Catalan circle dance. Not only is it graceful
and lovely, but you are allowed to join in. It was fun and makes you
feel a part of their culture. It's a slow dance so you don't have to
be a professional to manage it!

Judy
..
================================================== =============
Judy Heuman

They let me and the cow do the bunny hop with the Sardinia...all the
Spanards were laughing(we were seniors)
"Judy Heuman" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:44:32 -0700 (PDT), "Mark (SF)"
wrote:

Walk La Rambla. Check out the cathedral

We really enjoyed walking on La Rambla -- best of all on a Sunday when
there's more going on and you can see adorable little family groups.

I wanted to mention if you are there on a Sunday, be sure to be in
front of the Cathedral at noon when the local people come to dance the
Sardana -- a beautiful Catalan circle dance. Not only is it graceful
and lovely, but you are allowed to join in. It was fun and makes you
feel a part of their culture. It's a slow dance so you don't have to
be a professional to manage it!

Judy
.
================================================== =============
Judy Heuman

number6 wrote:

On Jun 13, 5:35*pm, (berry) wrote:
RCCL on Voyager in early November. Anyone have suggestions of
some tours, areas to see and things to enjoy..........seeing\eating,
you name it in Barcelona. A total of 3 days there --- before and after
cruise.

Thanks! *(Not young enough to hike like crazy or bike all over the
place, but not ancient either)

We spent 3 days there after our transatlantic ... Very nice artsy
city ... November is a good time to go ... good sightseeing
weather ...
They have the Touristic bus which is a great way to tour ... 3
lines ... covering all the sights ... easy hop on hop off most
places ... and one stop was close to our hotel ... a bonus ...

Note - there are two lines of the hop-on hop-off buses. One is called
Barcelona Tours I think and is a red double decker and I think it is
more expensive and less inclusive than the BusTuristic. You need to
check and see if they are still running in November. They may have a
more restricted schedule in the fall/winter.

I bought our tickets on-line for two days, and picked them up at the
airport. They don't start to 'run' until you get on the bus for the
first time, but it isn't like the buses in London which start at the
hour of the first trip. These buses if you start at noon on Friday,
you don't get a half day the next day as part of your day.

We arrived Friday and embarked on Sunday, and we did one loop of the
bus on Friday afternoon so that we wouldn't have any big decisions to
make while we were all jet lagged.

Architecture is the main attraction all around ... Especially the
churches ... but the city itself has some great looks everywhere ...
We found that out of the way restaurants filled with locals were the
best places to dine ... over the "best rated" place we also ate at ...
Surprisingly ... not much English spoken in comparison to other places
in Europe we've visited ... The bus guides are all fluent though ...
Not impressed with Ramblas ... lots to shop ... but to me too
touristy ... and pickpocket/bag snatching ... We actually watched one
I was suspicious of ... and sure enough he was ...
This city really never sleeps ... we stayed in the Born district and
nightlife abounded all around until all hours ... great section to
stay in ...

number6 wrote:
(berry) wrote:

RCCL on Voyager in early November. Anyone have suggestions of
some tours, areas to see and things to enjoy..........seeing\eating,
you name it in Barcelona. A total of 3 days there --- before and after
cruise.
Thanks! *(Not young enough to hike like crazy or bike all over the
place, but not ancient either)

...
Surprisingly ... not much English spoken in comparison to other places
in Europe we've visited ... The bus guides are all fluent though ...
...

They have a language situation.
The authorities are pushing the speaking of Catalan
at the expense of Spanish. To get an official job
there it is compulsory to be able to speak Catalan.
The latest version (as reported in El Mundo at the
beginning of the month) is that immigrants are
being pushed to learn Catalan, and locals are
encouraged to greet visitors in Catalan.

As a tourist you may not see anything of this,
but if you want some Brownie Points, then
a few words of Catalan may not go amiss...

I found a few phrases would often result in a broad smile in return.
Following are some major examples. (Note that many are shared with
Spanish - indicated by parens)
- I'm working from memory here, so don't accept this as authoritative
and I will willingly accept corrections! (all accents and diacritical
marks removed for cross-platform legibility)

si us plau - please
(gracias) - thank you

bon dia - good day
(hola) - hello
adeu - goodbye

(si/no) - yes/no

Mark

On Jun 14, 5:20 am, wrote:

As a tourist you may not see anything of this,
but if you want some Brownie Points, then
a few words of Catalan may not go amiss...

Correct me if I am wrong. Isn't Catalan the dialect shared by the
Basques and the region of Spain where Pablo Casals is/was from?
Castilian is the branch of Spanish where "s" is pronounced as "th" or
as one has a lisp. "r" is definitely rolled. It is the version of
Spanish most often taught in US high schools and colleges.

--
________
To email me, Edit "blog" from my email address.
Brian M. Kochera
"Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once!"
View My Web Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~brian1951



On 6/14/2008 11:59 AM Mark (SF) plucked Senior Frog's Magic Twanger and
said:
I found a few phrases would often result in a broad smile in return.
Following are some major examples. (Note that many are shared with
Spanish - indicated by parens)
- I'm working from memory here, so don't accept this as authoritative
and I will willingly accept corrections! (all accents and diacritical
marks removed for cross-platform legibility)

si us plau - please
(gracias) - thank you

bon dia - good day
(hola) - hello
adeu - goodbye

(si/no) - yes/no

Mark

On Jun 14, 5:20 am, wrote:

As a tourist you may not see anything of this,
but if you want some Brownie Points, then
a few words of Catalan may not go amiss...

Correct - in that Barcelona's native language is Catalan. Castillian
is the "official" Spanish as spoken in Madrid.
Although it's fair to say that anyone you meet will likely speak
Spanish, most signs will list Catalan first, Spanish second, and
sometimes English third.
It seemed that the "lispiness" of the Castillian dialect you describe
is mostly retained in the Catalan language. (For instance, I recall
hearing "GRA thee us")

(discussing language in Basque country is waaaay out of my area of
experience)

Mark

On Jun 14, 1:37 pm, Brian K wrote:
Correct me if I am wrong. Isn't Catalan the dialect shared by the
Basques and the region of Spain where Pablo Casals is/was from?
Castilian is the branch of Spanish where "s" is pronounced as "th" or
as one has a lisp. "r" is definitely rolled. It is the version of
Spanish most often taught in US high schools and colleges.