Candles Blowing in Barcelona

Planning a birthday (or even valentines, anniversaries, etc) celebration for your partner is always not an easy assignment. It should comprise the elements of surprise, pleasure, unique, creative, and to a certain extent, budget. Try googling the web and you will get a list of ideas or suggestions.

A romantic getaway is one of them. It may not be the most creative or novice idea but I suppose what matters is, it works. No?

So, the boy was turning a year wiser in December and I decided to surprise him with a holiday. I started off searching where would be a good place to go in Europe during the cold winter of December! Since we were still in Denmark, it would be impractical to travel all the way to the East for a few days vacation.

After going through the options, Barcelona it was!

The temperature was perfect - a humble 15 degree Celsius with showers of sun in December! Plus, it was just about 3 hours flight from Copenhagen to Barcelona.

I broke the surprise to the birthday boy after all was booked, as we still needed to take leaves from our bosses. He was surprised and delighted. So, it worked! Anyway, who doesn't like a secretly planned vacation as gift?

The flight to Barcelona was a pleasant one. We started to find out how do we get to our hotel. There were information counters in the airport which we turned to for assistance. As expected, we needed to take a combination of train and bus.

In general, the transportation system in Barcelona was fairly good. The Spanish were warm and friendly too, except they might not speak much English, which then limits the extent of conversation you could exchange with them.

There were plenty of attractions in the city (Placa de Espanya, Montjuic, La Rambla, La Sagradia Familia, La Pedrera, Casa Batlló  just to name a few) and some, out of the main city. For example, the Montserrat monastery. The latter was recommended by an Argentinian friend who was living in Madrid. Since the boy is a Catholic (though not a typically religious one), he appreciated it.

Once you are in the city centre, you will not miss the famous Spanish square - Placa De Espanya. It is a major transportation hub in the city. Surrounding the square, you will find Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, The Venetian Towers, Les Arenes and the magical Montjuic fountain.

Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. In the night, the water fountains along the street would be lit up and water pouring out from the fountain sprinkles. 

The Venetian towers on the right.

 Les Arenes. The observatory is opened to visitors and you can see the bustling of Barcelona city from above. It is also opened during the evenings for night view.

The very busy square of the city - Placa de Espanya. Many cars were passing by the round-about and right in the middle, stood an elegant piece of architecture.

We spent quite an amount of time setting up tripod to take photos on the busy street. It was a challenge especially there were so many pedestrians walking along the streets and not to mention, tourists who were like us, trying to get some decent pictures of the famous square.

Do come back for the night view and the magical fountain of Montjuic which is right behind the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. This square and its surrounding exudes vibrancy, music and colours in the night, which should not be missed.

More about the trip in the next post.