Six Not-to-be-Missed Sights in Beautiful Barcelona!

posted by Jon Mansell

I think that Barcelona is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe and had the opportunity to explore it's many charms in 2012. You have cobblestone streets, wide boulevards, amazing architecture, great food and Mediterranean weather. Add in museums, shopping, music and Catalan culture you have a great vacation destination!

A week is an ideal length of time to spend in Barcelona. But regardless of how much time you stay in this former Olympic city, here are six sights not to be missed:

1. La Rambla - this is the most famous street in Barcelona. This wide boulevard stretches  several blocks and is teeming with tourists and locals. Lined with beautiful, historic buildings such as the Opera House, it ends at the waters edge where you will see the 1600 foot statue of Christopher Columbus pointing to the New World.

2. The Gothic Quarter - surrounding the Cathedral in the old town is a labyrinth of narrow streets and alleys filled with shops and cafes. When walking through the "Barri Gotic", just imagine King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella welcoming Columbus home from the New World in 1493!!

Start 2023 Off Right and Set Your Travel Intentions!

The Sagrada Familia

To start 2023, I booked a flight to Spain and a Writers' Retreat in Barcelona in April (on my Bucket List). I plan to spend another 7 weeks traveling to Southern Spain, Marrakech in Morocco, and then hop over to the cities of Prague, and Vienna. Fingers crossed that there will be no more cancellations this year!

I head back to Puerto Vallarta in mid-January and leave the Canadian snow and cold behind to soak up the heat and humidity. Mexico is on my bucket list at least twice a year and it definitely kept me sane through the craziness of COVID. I know it is difficult for some people to get away but if you can, do it!

Travel puts me in a different headspace and opens me up to new, exciting places and languages and food and people and.....!!!! When I see something new my mind goes on a journey too. Right now I am working on my Spanish again. Even though I spend a lot of time in Mexico, I don't practice my Spanish as much as I should. One of the reasons for this is Puerto Vallarta caters to many English speakers and therefore using my English helps locals working in tourism. That's what I tell myself anyway. Some of the places I plan to visit in Spain will require me to be more fluent.

One of the things I do is set my intentions and then build my vision board at least twice a year. My vision board includes all the things I want to accomplish, including my travel. Our world only shut down completely for a short period of time because of COVID but many people decided not to travel and I don't blame them. I continued to go to my happy place in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico but even that required much more planning than usual. I also had to be prepared to change flights, directions at the last minute. One of the positive things was I didn't have to quarantine or test for COVID going into Mexico. Leaving Mexico was a different story, of course.

I spent the summer months the last couple of years close to home with a couple of trips to Vancouver Island, a few trips trips to Vancouver to visit family and friends, and even a quick trip into Washington. I live in the Okanagan Valley so we usually have beautiful weather in the wine country but unfortunately during COVID we also dealt with horrendous forest fires and never-before experienced heat domes!

Getting off the continent of North America and going overseas was a challenge, one I tried to take on twice but the trips just didn't come together. I can't remember how many trips were changed or cancelled by the airlines. 

I managed to go on the Outlaw Country Cruise out of Miami last February with my daughter along with a great lineup of musicians. The headliner was Emmylou Harris, namesake of my granddaughter,  along with Rodney Crowell, Albert Lee, Lucinda Williams and many others. It was amazing that many of the musicians were still singing, considering many of them are older than me! In fact, Lucinda Williams beat the odds by coming back after a debilitating stroke 5 months before. She couldn't play guitar any more but her voice was strong. The old saying, 'Where there is a will, there is a way" was shown in her ability to sing again on stage.  We also spent some time in Miami and the Florida Keys and then I flew straight back to Mexico rather than returning to Canada first.

Even though I love my birth country, I'm excited about leaving Canada once again. If you can't escape this year, considering being an armchair traveler for a little while. Even that will open up your mind to new and exciting things. Buenos viajes!