Barcelona during a pandemic - part 1
A surreal and slightly curtailed holiday.
For the past few years, Rob and I have got into the habit of a Spring holiday somewhere warm, and a chance to do something other than just holidays based around festivals. This year the destination was Barcelona - a place which had been on my list for many years, but I’d always been put off by stories of crowds, over-tourism and petty crime. Turned out I got what I wanted but for entirely the wrong reasons!
As the date came closer, the media stories were growing about the coronavirus epidemic having reached Europe, Italy badly hit, and Spain started to get concerned too. Still, the Spanish cases were largely based around Madrid, with some in smaller towns in northern Catalonia, so we figured we were still safe to travel, with no alerts telling us otherwise.
The Wednesday before our flight, we had booked a hotel at Gatwick airport, so took our luggage to work and whilst travelling on the M25 to get to Gatwick the news was announced that the WHO had declared coronavirus, COVID-19 to be a pandemic. Now we were more worried, did this mean we shouldn’t travel? We continued to the airport, checked in and went for dinner at the Giraffe restaurant next door to our hotel (Bloc hotel right in the middle of the terminal!) and that night I scrutinised the web for information relating to travel, airline advice, insurance etc. All indicating there was no reason not to travel and we’d lose everything we’d paid should we cancel voluntarily. Our hotel room was fun though - the TV, lighting, blinds etc all controlled by an app on my phone.
Got up early to check in. Our booking included express security, so we sailed through the security control and went for breakfast. I’d never before been more worried before going on holiday, it should have been a time to be excited. However our flight left on time, fairly empty, so no problems with our hand luggage and most other people also looking like holidaymakers. The only difference to a usual flight was that there were no refreshments served, otherwise a stress-free journey.
Arrived at Barcelona El Prat airport, where we easily found the shuttle bus to take us into town (having pre-booked tickets to save hassle, turned out later to be a good call!). Our accommodation was a short walk from Placa Catalunya, the Fashion House Hotel - a hostal/B&B located in a turn of the century block. We were warmly greeted by Loan, who checked us in and showed us around, giving tips on where to go and how to get there. I'd booked a studio in order to have en-suite bathroom facilities, which also came with a kitchenette - I was looking forward to having a coffee in my room, so was a bit perplexed to find this as the coffee making facility!
Thanks to the knowledge of Facebook (it sometimes works!), I found out how to use it and bought some ground coffee. Am now rather tempted to get one for myself at home.
I note that I failed to get any pics of our accommodation, but it was a simple but airy and clean room, overlooking a central courtyard.
After settling in, our first stop was to Passeig de Gracia to see if we could get into one of the Gaudi houses Casa Battlo, as I hadn’t pre-booked. One of the fortunes of the current situation was that there was no queue to get in! Staff were cautiously spraying each customer with hand sanitiser, then handing us a set of headphones for the augmented reality guide (wondering if those were sanitised?) and then allowing us to explore the house at our leisure.
Surprisingly Rob had heard nothing about this house before, but as soon as we walked in, he realised why I was happy to pay the rather extortionate admission charge. Such an incredible place, not a single straight line in the building; some describe it as the “house of bones” but I thought it felt like a magical underwater kingdom. The augmented reality tour showed how rooms would have looked like when furnished, which was an interesting touch but mostly I was distracted by the amazing building around us.
After the tour we went next door to Casa Amatller. Not by Gaudi but another Modernista architect, Puig i Cadafalch, and in a style more akin to British Arts & Crafts. We decided not to do the tour but instead stop for a hot chocolate in the cafe and pretty terrace (the house was built for the chocolatier Amatller) but we did get to peek at the beautiful entrance lobby on the way.
The rest of the afternoon was spent on a mini tour of some more modernista buildings in Barcelona - Gaudi’s Casa Mila,
Casa Comalat
and Casa De Los Punxtes.
We decided to just see the buildings from the outside, which on reflection was a bit of a shame, given how things were to rapidly change over the next couple of days, but we were pretty tired after a long day.
Went back to our hotel for a rest out on the terrace, after stopping for beers at a local shop, then after freshening up and charging the phone, set out for food. We didn’t want to go too far on our first night, so ended up in a “real food” type restaurant down the road called Pirineu en Boca At the front they sold locally sourced meat, fish, cheese and other produce with a small restaurant at the back - one feature of the restaurant was that you could order what cut of meat you wanted from the shop counter and they’d cook it to your taste. We weren’t quite brave enough for that, so instead I went for a lamb dish that was delicious but slightly out of my comfort zone - consisting of a mountain of small cutlets of meat on the bone. This came with a choice of soup or salad; I went for the former which was absolutely wonderful; and a local cider which I was fortunate enough to have the last bottle.
After dinner we went for a drink at a craft beer place up the road, Bar Centro, which was nice, with an interesting range of beers. slightly pricey though!
spotted this beautiful lobby on the way back to our hotel - this district is full of charming Modernista architecture
the full gallery for this day can be viewed via this link: https://vampyresheep.smugmug.com/Holidays/Barcelona-2020/Barcelona-Thursday-12-03-20
For the past few years, Rob and I have got into the habit of a Spring holiday somewhere warm, and a chance to do something other than just holidays based around festivals. This year the destination was Barcelona - a place which had been on my list for many years, but I’d always been put off by stories of crowds, over-tourism and petty crime. Turned out I got what I wanted but for entirely the wrong reasons!
As the date came closer, the media stories were growing about the coronavirus epidemic having reached Europe, Italy badly hit, and Spain started to get concerned too. Still, the Spanish cases were largely based around Madrid, with some in smaller towns in northern Catalonia, so we figured we were still safe to travel, with no alerts telling us otherwise.
The Wednesday before our flight, we had booked a hotel at Gatwick airport, so took our luggage to work and whilst travelling on the M25 to get to Gatwick the news was announced that the WHO had declared coronavirus, COVID-19 to be a pandemic. Now we were more worried, did this mean we shouldn’t travel? We continued to the airport, checked in and went for dinner at the Giraffe restaurant next door to our hotel (Bloc hotel right in the middle of the terminal!) and that night I scrutinised the web for information relating to travel, airline advice, insurance etc. All indicating there was no reason not to travel and we’d lose everything we’d paid should we cancel voluntarily. Our hotel room was fun though - the TV, lighting, blinds etc all controlled by an app on my phone.
Got up early to check in. Our booking included express security, so we sailed through the security control and went for breakfast. I’d never before been more worried before going on holiday, it should have been a time to be excited. However our flight left on time, fairly empty, so no problems with our hand luggage and most other people also looking like holidaymakers. The only difference to a usual flight was that there were no refreshments served, otherwise a stress-free journey.
Arrived at Barcelona El Prat airport, where we easily found the shuttle bus to take us into town (having pre-booked tickets to save hassle, turned out later to be a good call!). Our accommodation was a short walk from Placa Catalunya, the Fashion House Hotel - a hostal/B&B located in a turn of the century block. We were warmly greeted by Loan, who checked us in and showed us around, giving tips on where to go and how to get there. I'd booked a studio in order to have en-suite bathroom facilities, which also came with a kitchenette - I was looking forward to having a coffee in my room, so was a bit perplexed to find this as the coffee making facility!
Thanks to the knowledge of Facebook (it sometimes works!), I found out how to use it and bought some ground coffee. Am now rather tempted to get one for myself at home.
I note that I failed to get any pics of our accommodation, but it was a simple but airy and clean room, overlooking a central courtyard.
After settling in, our first stop was to Passeig de Gracia to see if we could get into one of the Gaudi houses Casa Battlo, as I hadn’t pre-booked. One of the fortunes of the current situation was that there was no queue to get in! Staff were cautiously spraying each customer with hand sanitiser, then handing us a set of headphones for the augmented reality guide (wondering if those were sanitised?) and then allowing us to explore the house at our leisure.
Surprisingly Rob had heard nothing about this house before, but as soon as we walked in, he realised why I was happy to pay the rather extortionate admission charge. Such an incredible place, not a single straight line in the building; some describe it as the “house of bones” but I thought it felt like a magical underwater kingdom. The augmented reality tour showed how rooms would have looked like when furnished, which was an interesting touch but mostly I was distracted by the amazing building around us.
After the tour we went next door to Casa Amatller. Not by Gaudi but another Modernista architect, Puig i Cadafalch, and in a style more akin to British Arts & Crafts. We decided not to do the tour but instead stop for a hot chocolate in the cafe and pretty terrace (the house was built for the chocolatier Amatller) but we did get to peek at the beautiful entrance lobby on the way.
The rest of the afternoon was spent on a mini tour of some more modernista buildings in Barcelona - Gaudi’s Casa Mila,
Casa Comalat
and Casa De Los Punxtes.
We decided to just see the buildings from the outside, which on reflection was a bit of a shame, given how things were to rapidly change over the next couple of days, but we were pretty tired after a long day.
Went back to our hotel for a rest out on the terrace, after stopping for beers at a local shop, then after freshening up and charging the phone, set out for food. We didn’t want to go too far on our first night, so ended up in a “real food” type restaurant down the road called Pirineu en Boca At the front they sold locally sourced meat, fish, cheese and other produce with a small restaurant at the back - one feature of the restaurant was that you could order what cut of meat you wanted from the shop counter and they’d cook it to your taste. We weren’t quite brave enough for that, so instead I went for a lamb dish that was delicious but slightly out of my comfort zone - consisting of a mountain of small cutlets of meat on the bone. This came with a choice of soup or salad; I went for the former which was absolutely wonderful; and a local cider which I was fortunate enough to have the last bottle.
After dinner we went for a drink at a craft beer place up the road, Bar Centro, which was nice, with an interesting range of beers. slightly pricey though!
spotted this beautiful lobby on the way back to our hotel - this district is full of charming Modernista architecture
the full gallery for this day can be viewed via this link: https://vampyresheep.smugmug.com/Holidays/Barcelona-2020/Barcelona-Thursday-12-03-20