Europe · Spain

Barcelona

A long weekend with Gaudí: Sagrada Família, Park Güell and Montserrat. Flight from Vienna, four nights in Eixample.

We run Barcelona as a long weekend, four nights, and that is enough. We stay in Eixample, the grid district with chamfered corners that Ildefons Cerdà designed in 1859. The Sagrada is a ten-minute walk away, Passeig de Gràcia with Gaudí's Casa Batlló and Casa Milà fifteen.

The Sagrada Família has been under construction since 1882 and completion is planned for 2026 — one hundred and four years. We go in the morning, when the east windows throw blue light across the nave; in the afternoon the west side turns it red and orange. Entry including the tower is booked a month ahead. Tickets are not sold at the door at all.

Park Güell has had a paid zone since 2013, covering the monumental section and the bench of broken ceramic. The rest of the park is free and most people do not know it. One day goes to Montserrat, the monastery in the sandstone peaks an hour by train from the city: the rack railway up, then the midday singing of the Escolania boys' choir, one of the oldest in Europe. The rest is the Gothic Quarter, the Boqueria market, and tapas in Gràcia in the evening, where the prices are still local. We only walk along Barceloneta beach; the water there is murky and the sand was trucked in for the 1992 Olympics. If you want to swim, take the train to Sitges, thirty-five minutes down the coast. Lucia leads this one and speaks both Spanish and Catalan, which locals appreciate more than you would think.

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