I must admit to being totally in the dark about this city other than it’s in Spain on the Mediterranian. I am going there for a business trip on April 1st and would like to spend the weekend before exploring the city? What is there to see? What’s the weather like, will there be any activity on the beaches? What are the local dishes? What is this area they call Iberica?
No idea about an area called “Iberica” - are you sure you don’t mean Iberia? As in the Iberian peninsula - the part of Europe containing Spain and Portugal?
As to Barcelona - a great city and a great tourist destination. Lots of night life - evening meals don’t start till 9 and bars don’t close till the early hours. - and plenty of places to visit. I’ve been there on business a few times and spent a week there on holiday last summer.
Things to see include a lot of stuff by the Modernist architect Gaudi (Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, etc), the Picasso Museum, and Los Ramblas - a one and a half mile pedestrian street and one big tourist trap (good fun to stroll along though - just hang on to your wallet!).
Local dishes - don’t know if its really traditional Catalan but seafood paella was the classic dish in many restaurants. Lots of tapas bars and we found a brilliant South American restaurant that did the best steaks ever.
Not sure about the weather in late March - I’ve not been at that time - but I doubt the beaches will be busy. For more detailed and accurate info try asking on Virtual Tourist or Trip Advisor forums.
Here are the climate statistics for the city and the 10 day forecast
I was there in late March and the weather varied from warm to coolish. It was never hot enough to hang on the beach but it was definitely t-shirt weather. It cooled off at night and one needed a light jacket. Watch your purse/backpack/wallet - there were loads of very skilled pickpockets when I was there but it’s still a lovely city.
How true.
Also, avoid buying anything in the cafés along this thoroughfare. Six months ago a glass of orange juice and a red wine cost me €27 (£20 or $40).
I think this is more suited to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
The wife was in Barcelona a few years ago for a conference. Many attendees got ripped off. One group of attendees out sightseeing said their perp was a man who looked like a businessman, nice suit and everything. He jumped out of the elevated train just before the doors closed with a bag or two of theirs.
When the wife was checking in at the airport to fly back to Bangkok, she was standing in line at the counter. Someone passing through passed in front of her. It turns out the guy passing through in front of her had picked the pocket of the man in front of her in line, taking his money, plane ticket AND passport! She said to her eyes, the perp had simply walked past in front of her, a fraction of a second. The airport police said this was a common occurrence. Indeed, these are highly skilled pickpockets, so watch out.
But she was not ripped off and enjoyed the place.
The most recent thread on this same subject. The OP there was asking about Barcelona and Mallorca but most of the information he got is on “Barna” (one of the nicknames sometimes used by the locals).
Something I didn’t mention in that thread: Barcelona is bilingual. Well, it’s one of those cities where you can hear almost any language spoken by man, really. But the thing is, both Spanish and Catalan are spoken there. You will see some signs on both languages, some in only one. The two languages are similar enough to be extremely confusing to foreigners, specially those who don’t know about the duality.
By Iberica, are you referring to the foods? Jamón Ibérico and suchlike? It’s a family of dried-not-smoked meats, specifically the best quality.
Sorry, overtimed. I’m afraid Barcelona is one of those things I can talk about for hours.
The configuration of El Prat airport (damn, I forgot this on the other thread too) is such that you can take a good look at its wonderful shopping facilites as you go to get your luggage and get out. While I really suggest getting most of your shopping done in town, there’s some stores there that have the greatest “chocolate a la taza” ever (not the “chocolate in a cup” itself, but the powdered or tablet chocolate you make it from).
I love the artisan stores that set up shop in Portal del Angel. That’s the other street that leaves “down” from Plaza Catalonia. You can take it to walk to the Cathedral.
Oh, and for the sake of Og, Ogette and any divinities you believe or do not believe in… do NOT play monte!
the Parc Guell is great- the longest bench in the world, and if you come the right way, you get to ride the outside escalator. Great views.
Montserrat is about an hour’s train ride out of the city- you can take a bus or gondola up to the monestory, where you can explore the ancient grounds, or hike to the top of the mountain.
A couple hours train will get you to Figurres (sp?), home to the Dali musem. Lovely place. I found the Picasso museum in Barcelona to be the b-rate, backcatolog stuff,mostly.
Thanks for the advice. Not only did the dealer get mad at me when I started taking pictures, so did guy the playing. hmmmm 
I enjoyed the flea mearket in front of the Columbus statue at the end of La Rambla and actually got a couple of items at a good deal. I probably paid too much for a medium sized painting of a Spanish Dancer and Guitar Duo from a street artist on La Rambla, but it was cool and so was the older artist gentleman that painted it.
The coolist thing was the parade of tall caractertures that people carried upon there shoulders (all you could see was thier feet) accompanied by children and adults playing drums and wind instruments. Very, very cool. The living statues were also interesting and I threw a couple of Euros there way as well.
I also took the tour bus so that I could see where I want to go next time. I spent the previous week in Milan getting stuffed to the gills by a supplier that wanted our business, so I dieted a bit and didn’t really sample the food this time. I’m coming back here in July for work. Definitly want to spend more time at this very cool place. 