2023 was a busy year. We'd been busy sorting through some intense life changes and between this and our expensive start
to the year in Sao Tome & Principe we hadn't had the time nor budget to fit in many trips. For almost every single year pre COVID 19 we had
chosen to be abroad on my birthday since I was about 16 years old. So with my birthday coming around again and us having not been on holiday since
January this year we decided to take the plunge on a semi last minute trip to Andorra, and how else could we get to Andorra then via the Spanish
city of Barcelona.
This would be a five day trip including our flight days, but fortunately the flight days were early/late enough to allow us to make the most of
these days as well. We'd also be renting a car to get around. Andorra is not a long way from Barcelona but because of the group size of four and
the route we wanted to take we decided it was best to rent a car for cost and flexibility.
Although our morning flight landed at 09:55am in Barcelona by the time we'd cleared the airport formalities and collected our rental car it was nearer 11am. From here it was around another hour drive to Montserrat. This meant that we didn't start our exploring and hiking till nearer 12pm. By this time it was getting hot, about 30°C in fact. As a result of the time and the heat we put sunscreen on and decided to take the cable car up the mountain. Doing so saves some time and the most strenuous part of the ascent. From the top of the cable car it's a much more pleasant meander along the ridge line with just a steep climb up to the actual summit of Sant Jeroni. Don't mistake this for it being short or easy though. It is still a 2 to 3 hour hike if you include walking back down as we did. The views at the summit are impressive and it was nice to experience a slice more of Catalonia than just the city of Barcelona. We were here on a Saturday and although people were around it was not overly busy. The walk down is also very pleasant with photo opportunities over Montserrat. Once we reached the base we had ice lollies and drinks to hydrate as we explored the town before heading on towards Andorra.
On our drive back from Andorra we had hoped to stop at the Frexinet winery, but we were behind schedule and had missed the wine tour and upon our arrival the venue was very shut to visitors. It was a Monday after all. Due to this we simply made a b-line towards our second stop of the day, Sitges. Sitges is a small beach side town popular with Spanish tourists. It was much what you'd expect from a sea side town with a main pedestrianised high street with boutique restaurants and shops mixed in with dashings of commercial chains. The beach here was nothing spectacular but the short boardwalk is very nice with art installations, some pretty old buildings and churches. This was more a brief stopover for us but we enjoyed our time here in the nice weather before heading back to Barcelona and dropping the car off.
We had only two nights and a day and a half to explore Barcelona, but this was more than enough
if your prepared to get in some steps. On our first night we went out to have a nice meal and celebrate my birthday with
cocktails along the beach front. Although we ended up tired and the venues here shut up quite early so we didn't have a
very late one.
The next day one of our group woke up feeling under the weather, perhaps with a cold. This made the day more of a challenge
but we still managed to visit the famous artistic Casa's around the city, Barcelona Cathedral, Las Ramblas, La Boqueria Food Market,
Gothic quarter - Plaça del Rei Plaça Sant Jaume Jewish Quarter Plaça de Felip Neri, ride a cable car up to Park Güell &
Gracia & Turó de la Rovira and visit Käthe Wohlfahrt a Christmas shop that's open all year round even in June. We didn't have
enough time to visit Camp Nou however we did manage to visit the main Barcelona Club sports shop.
On the last day before our flight home we spent the morning visiting the Sagrada Familia and enjoying a drink and a meal
before we headed to our late afternoon flight.
Next stop the landlocked country of Andorra.
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