Vince & Aubrie
Things To Do
La Sagrada Familia
It’s practically illegal to go to Barcelona and not visit La Sagrada Família, Gaudí’s extraordinary temple dedicated to the Holy Family—also known as the world’s largest unfinished church. The illusive end date remains a mystery—local theorists speculate it will never be done in order to preserve its in-process cachet. Be sure to book a ticket ahead (dates are available three months out) so you can get inside and gawk at the vaults and rainbow stained glass. When you go, spring for the extra audio guide and a trip up to one of the two towers—the Nativity Façade is our favorite.
Mercado de La Boqueria
La Boqueria might be Barcelona’s oldest market—it started life in 1217 as a mere huddle of meat stalls on La Rambla—but tradition isn’t staid. More than 200 stands unite like a foodie’s choir: traders’ shouts, the clink of glasses, welcome greetings sung out ("holaaaa"). Though, for all the atmosphere, it’s the smell that gets you: warm, ocean-salty, freshly fried fish: the kind that lines your nostrils, excites your stomach, makes your physician tense, and has to be washed down with a glass of cava. Grab a fruit smoothie from the technicolored stalls as you walk in. Then do a lap: the deeper you venture, the better the value.
Park Güell
Park Güell is an almost make-believe landscape: home to Barcelona’s famous mosaic lizard—the image on a thousand postcards—plus spiral towers that look like fairground slides. The city’s grandest park began life as a collaboration between entrepreneur Eusebi Güell (hence the park’s name) and Antoni Gaudí. It’s important to know your ticket options. The free ticket gets you into the park, but not into the best parts. For that you need a Monumental Cove ticket. Know that you need to book in advance online, and arrive promptly for your allotted slot—there’s zero wiggle room with timing.
Picasso Museum
A museum spread over five palaces—we’d expect nothing less for Picasso, who moved to Barcelona as a 14-year-old boy and made frequent trips back throughout his life. Downstairs, a courtyard and Gothic archways lead into white studios that illuminate his works. Upstairs, the rooms are lavish: epic painted ceilings that almost drip crystal chandeliers. Visitors flock here to see Picasso's work, but the special setting is why they come back again and again. If you’re expecting Picasso’s big-hitters, you might be disappointed—for a few minutes. Guernica resides in the Reina Sofía in Madrid, The Weeping Woman at London’s Tate Modern. What Barcelona’s museum has, is everything around those postcard images. In chronological order, it shows every brushstroke (all 4,251 works’ worth) of how he moved from a classically trained painter (see Ciencia y Caridad in Room 3) to a Cubist pioneer, plus some things we never knew he did, like ceramics.