Post written by Laura
My most recent 2025 trip was another European mini backpacking adventure, this time travelling from Barcelona to Andorra to Toulouse by bus with my friend Bridget!
Itinerary
- Day 1: arrive in Barcelona mid-afternoon
- Day 2: explore Barcelona
- Day 3: depart Barcelona and bus to Andorra La Vella
- Day 4: Canillo & Meritxell, Andorra
- Day 5: Ordino & La Cortinada, Andorra
- Day 6: depart Andorra La Vella and bus to Toulouse
- Day 7: explore Toulouse
- Day 8: lunchtime flight home from Toulouse
Barcelona
This was my third visit to city, the other two being short day trips. The first was my first ever EDT (Extreme Day Trip) which was to Barcelona back in 2003 when a past friend and I discovered it was perfectly possible to fly out of Stansted at the crack of dawn, have an exciting day exploring a European city and take the last flight home again. It was a bit easier then when you didn’t need to be at Stansted 3 hours before the flight departed!
My second visit was in 2010 when Chris and I were staying for a few nights along the nearby Costa Brava with 3 of our then teenagers. The 5 of us decided to take our hire car to the city but spent about 2 hours trying to find somewhere to park so we didn’t see too much on that occasion.
Having never visited the Sagrada Familia, the most famous of Spanish buildings, on either past visit, this time Bridget and I had pre-booked tickets and we were set!
Antoni Gaudi
Barcelona is synonymous with architect Antoni Gaudi, well known for his imaginative buildings, as mentioned, the best known of which is the Sagrada Familia, the huge unfinished basilica.
Above is the Casa Batllo, a building once owned by Josep Batllo, a Barcelona businessman who, back in 1903, owned several local factories. He commissioned Gaudi to transform the building both inside and out.
Today it’s a UNESCO world heritage site located at Passeig de Gracia and it was the first building we noticed as we arrived from the airport by train into de Gracia station. Our hotel was a 3 minute walk from there.
Tree-lined La Rambla is the most famous pedestrian street in Barcelona, stretching down the centre of the city for over one km. It’s name comes from the Arabic word for sand as La Rambla was originally part of a river bed.
La Rambla splits the lively Gothic Quarter to the east and the equally lively El Ravel district to the west.
I remembered from 2003 that La Rambla was full of street entertainers and especially the ones who spray themselves silver or bronze and pretend to be statues… but I didn’t see any this time.
Sagrada Familia
Complete with crane! This building has never been finished despite construction starting in 1882 when Gaudi was still alive. I found my old photos of the Sagrada Familia from 2003 when there were 4 cranes, but apparently the structure is estimated for completion in 2026!
Every part of the Sagrada Familia has meaning or significance and no corner or space is ignored. The 12 bell towers represent the apostles and the central spire is the ‘Tower of Jesus’.
Sculptures have been placed at the top of the towers to represent evangelists such as Evangelist Luke and Evangelist Mark.
If you wish to enter Sagrada Familia tickets need to be booked in advance as they sell out quickly. I booked ours a week before this trip and the only slots left were at 18.45 or later. Tickets for the towers had long since been spapped up as they were sold out.
Tickets can be booked on the Sagrada Familia website. If you can’t find any available on there, try a third party website as I did when I was able to grab the last few slots for our required day via Booking.com.
We were allowed to enter 20 minutes before our ticket time and we didn’t have to queue. Understandably security is tight and we had to have our bags scanned.
The inside of the Sagrada Familia is huge and the above section represents a forest of trees with the knots being called ‘capitals’.
Sunlight streaming through the stain glass fills the space with bright vivid colours which reflect in different places depending on the angle of the sun.
Once you’ve had a look around the vast interior, the visit continues underneath the cathedral where there is a museum which takes you on a historical journey with a great deal of information and notable highlights of this impressive architectural masterpiece.
Parc Guell
Another place to find a big concentration of Gaudi designed buildings is Parc Guell.
Having arrived by metro at Lesseps station then climbing many steps in 30 degree heat we were disappointed to turn up at Parc Guell to be greeted by a notice which said ‘all tickets sold out for today’. We hadn’t pre-booked a ticket and you need one to enter the site 😕
If you wish to visit Parc Guell it is therefore advised to pre-book tickets on their website! Apparently entry used to be free and you could wander around Parc Guell at your leisure until it became a UNESCO site about 5 years ago.
La Gracia
Parc Guell is situated in La Gracia which is considered to be a trendy neighbourhood where leafy plazas, boutique shops and cuisines from around the world can be found.
As we wandered round, we did find one square which wasn’t very leafy and didn’t seem very trendy but it did have a fabulous ice cream shop where we appreciated a rest and a cool down.
In August each year the residents of La Gracia participate in a week-long festival called ‘Festa Major de Gracia’ where they decorate their streets with lights, ornaments and balloons. The above street was being prepared as we walked past.
Gothic Quarter
Gothic architecture dates back 2000 years in ‘Barri Gotic’ the Gothic Quarter. Many of these medieval buildings have been built on Roman foundations.
Barcelona cathedral is located in Barri Gotic and you can pay to go inside and take a tour if you wish.
Placa Sant Jaume is the name of the plaza where the Government of Catalonia building can be found.
Colourful alleys with quirky little shops are abundant in the Gothic neighbourhood.
Home on Earth is an ethical shop which sells ‘products which promote tranquility and balance’ in your home.
Such as these lovely coconut shell lamps.
Chris and I have kitted out our new house with mango wood furniture. As explained above, mango wood is sustainable and is one of the reasons we chose it. I spotted these bowls also in the ‘Home on Earth’ shop.
The Gothic Quarter has an art vibe with several art galleries. We found one which was free to enter and had a focus on ‘trash art’…
The above display features old plastic products which have been stuck together, painted and each has an inspirational word or phrase. This colourful display looked most effective. And the owner didn’t seem to mind us taking photos.
There was another cool place called ‘Maxo Galleria’ an art gallery and shop which contained street art prints and paintings.
And it was playing 70’s music 🎵
Ciutadella Park
Parc de la Ciutadella is the largest park of Barcelona and also home to the city’s zoo.
There is a large baroque fountain and monument called La Cascada which was designed by Josep Fontsere, who was once the principle of young student Antoni Gaudi.
Within Parc de la Ciutadella, tropical plants and folliage can be found in huge glass greenhouses.
There are many different types of trees and green open spaces within Parc de la Ciutadella.
Bright green parakeets can be found in Parc de la Ciutadella. These are not native to Barcelona, they had previously been introduced as pets.
Back outside of the park and Barcelona has its fair share of street art… but this time with so many colourful photos already captured in and around the city I didn’t go on a street art photo mission!
This was the closest Bridget and I got to the marina on this visit. Both of my previous visits included landing in the heart of the marina with its many eateries as that is where the cable car terminates! The start of the cable car is on Montjuic which was where we eventually managed to park the car on visit number 2 in 2010!
La Boqueria
The bustling La Boqueria food market is located just off Las Rambla.
An impressive and very nicely presented fruit stall.
The market is worth a wander round to see and sample local produce.
The obligatory market spices photo!
Food and drinks
Sky bar 1: Kimpton Vividora
Bridget had found a website with suggestions for ‘Barcelona’s best sky bars’ so during the late afternoon on the day we arrived we thought we should try a couple. This would give us a good oversight of the city… 😂
The first bar was called the Terrassa de Vivi which is located at the top of the Kimpton Vividora Hotel.
Barcelona is a popular destination for stag and hen do’s… as we were reminded by a noisy Welsh hen party drinking their way through the cocktail menu 🏴😂
These were our drinks in the Kimpton Vividora sky bar. Bridget had the ‘Saint Basil Spritz’ which was made with lemoncello, Saint Germain, citrus, basil, cava and tonic and I had ‘Red Cherry Spritz’ made with tequila, cherry brandy, citrus, cava and soda. These refreshing spritzes came with snacks 🙂
Sky bar 2: Barcelona Edition Hotel
The second sky bar was on the roof of the Barcelona Edition Hotel and also gave us great views of the city.
The sky bar wasn’t too busy and had a more relaxing feel.
And this bit of chill time was an opportunity for me to upload the first few photos to start drafting this blog post!
Lunch
Located in the Gothic Quarter, lunch on our main walkabout day was a ‘soul bowl’ each, vegetarian for me and full of all things healthy 😇 This lovely little air conditioned place was called ‘Soul Cafe BCN’.
4 Gats Restaurant
Following a recommendation we had pre-booked a table at the well known ‘4 Gats’ restaurant, which means ‘4 cats’.
A perfect start to the meal with excellent sangrias as we made ourselves comfortable in impressive historic surroundings with a feline theme.
We had ‘Bunyols de Bacalla’ (cod bites) for a shared starter which were small but tasty.
My main was ‘Suprema de Llobarro Salvatge’ (sea bass) which was delicious but again, rather on the small side. In fact I had 2 carrots which would make a strand of orange cotton or a single piece of cress look chunky! Seriously, I had never seen such a tiny and slender carrot 😂🥕
Bridget ordered a well done steak which turned up red raw and with blood dripping from the middle. She asked for it to be cooked for a little longer but it arrived for the second time as still pink, still very chewey and so, unless Bridget had a spare 24 hours to chew her way through it (which we didn’t with things to see and places to be) it wasn’t edible.
Crema Catalana 4Gats was their speciality creme brulee which we both had (one each) for dessert. The portion size was generous, it tasted amazing and we thought it was a lovely redeeming feature.
Until we got the bill. The total amount was €124 euros (£54 each) so not budget friendly and not even value for money. And they refused to knock a little off for the uneaten chewy steak.
Tapas bar
For our second night we toned things down a bit and rather than a fancy restaurant we opted for late night tapas in a fab little tapas bar just around the corner from our hotel.
We ate our tapas at around 10.45 pm which was late for us but not really for the average Spaniard. This was a relaxing and inexpensive end to a busy day of sightseeing in Barcelona.
Accommodation
We stayed for 2 nights in the Hotel HCC Taber which I highly recommend! The central location was perfect. A few minutes walk to the Passeig de Gracia metro and train station. As it was located at the north end of Las Rambla this meant the area was a bit less touristy and had lower prices.
The room was spacious and despite being on the 8th floor, we had a large balcony with fake grass to look like a little garden. The buffet breakfast was generous and overall the room, breakfast place and hotel was spotlessly clean. The staff were friendly and helpful too and gave us a voucher for a complementary glass of Cava each.
Summary of Barcelona
I loved visiting colourful and vibrant Barcelona again and it was great to see and experience both new and forgotten sights. As a city, generally Barcelona is expensive and not particularly ideal for the budget traveller. However it is possible to walk to most places, use public transport, eat tapas and refrain from €15 cocktails if you wish to stretch your euros a little.
Budget
A few Barcelona costs:
- Twin room with breakfast in hotel for 2 nights: £298 (total inc city tax) £149 per person
- Flight from Stansted £52.99
- Entrance to Sagrada Familia £29.32
- Train ticket from airport to city centre £4.31
- Metro ticket per single journey £1.15
Barcelona is fairly walkable and although we walked for over 10 miles in one day we were able to get everywhere we wanted to see on foot. The only exception was one metro ride from Liceu on Las Rambla to Lesseps as this would have been a long uphill 30 degree slog!
The full cost of this trip will be shown at the end of the Toulouse post 💰
Travelling to Andorra
I had pre-booked our one-way bus tickets to travel from Barcelona to Andorra with Get Your Guide at a cost of €30 per person.
Metro green line L3 stops at the bus stop so after breakfast we just had to get to Universistat stop (at the end of the line), walk outside the metro station and we were at the correct bus stop.
We were anticipating a bus station with snacks and coffee available but no… this was literally a bus stop along ‘Diagonal’ a main Barcelona road.
The bus arrived at 11:15 on time, we found unallocated seats and we were on our way to Andorra. The bus wasn’t full so we were fortunate to have a double seat each to stretch out with plenty of room.
The journey through Spain…
As we approached the Pyrenees the scenery changed from the dry dusty landscapes of northern Spain to magestic mountains and emerald lakes.
Next up: Andorra La Vella
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