TLDR: Exploring Barcelona for stop 1 of our adventurous Honeymoon in Europe!
My husband and I were one of the many couples who dealt with Covid wedding drama. We were legally married in November 2020 with an intimate ceremony in my in-laws backyard. Though the ceremony was perfect, we still wanted the wedding we planned and dreamed of with all of our friends and family. We celebrated our Big Fat Indian Wedding with 200+ guests in Punta Cana exactly a year later in November 2021.
You can understand my boss’ confusion when I put in a “Honeymoon” PTO request 2 years after we were legally married, but my fellow Covid couples can probably relate. Though it didn’t come right after our legal marriage, or even after our Punta Cana ceremony, we treated this vacation as the extravagant trip that we had imagined forever. While technically we had been married for almost 2 years at the time of this trip it still felt different and like a rite of passage and thus we hired a fantastic travel planner, Uncorked Escapes, to handle all of the logistics, and to transform our trip from a “vacation” to a “Honeymoon”. You’ll see throughout these next few posts how Michelle Manas and Natalie Neesan knocked the planning out of the park, and built a personalized experience that was absolutely perfect.
With that said, let's get to our first stop on our 2-week trip: Barcelona!
Day 1: Tackling Jet Lag with Mimosas and a Little Partying
Barcelona was the one and only stop on our trip that was a repeat offender for me. I visited Barcelona with my cousin, Reetika, during our backpacking trip in 2014. Even though it was my second visit, this city did not disappoint! We arrived in Barcelona on Saturday morning and were immediately greeted by our private car to take us to our hotel, The Edition. After our overnight flight all we wanted to do was sink into the hotel beds, but also knew we needed to try to fight off our jetlag. Unfortunately for our tiredness, our hotel room was not quite ready for check-in so we instead explored the area, ultimately helping us fight the jetlag.
The Edition hotel is nestled in the Gothic Quarter which is a great area to walk around. The Gothic Quarter has an abundance of bars, restaurants, and shops to explore so it was easy to walk around and find plenty to do. We ended up at Elsa y Fred for a quick bruch, a cute Gastrobarwhich had a very warm and homey feel. We ordered some tapas, a manchego montadito and a couple mimosas to refresh, recharge, and relax.
After finishing up with brunch, we headed to the Edition’s rooftop, a must-see and a great spot for a cocktail. The views and ambiance at the rooftop are gorgeous! Once our room was ready we immediately went to the room and fell asleep for a couple of hours - waking up just in time to get ready to head to dinner.
For dinner we made our way to Bar Cañete for tapas and wine. Bar Cañete was a cozy yet sophisticated restaurant. The staff made it feel like we were in their family kitchen being served local tapas. At dinner we needed to make a decision - what’s our next move? Our night could go two ways at this point: 1) going to sleep early and waking up at the crack of dawn or 2) exploring the Barcelona nightlife.
As tired and exhausted as we were, we decided since it's Saturday night we should explore at least a little of the nightlife. On our walk home from dinner we found a small Irish pub that looked inviting, McCarthy’s Bar. We stopped in to grab a quick drink but ended up staying for an hour as the staff and fellow customers were so friendly. At McCarthy’s we asked people for recommendations on where to go that night. Everyone kept recommending one night club, The Razzmatazz, which was also a popular rec from our friends back home. While getting ready for the night out, we were shocked to realize the club didn’t even open until 1am, and I am sad to report that we did not have it in us to even attempt that. Instead, we found a club with much more reasonable hours, CDLC Barcelona. We lasted here a couple of hours before the exhaustion finally took over and we made our way back to our comfy bed.
Day 2: Exploring Barcelona with some Unexpected Detours and “Go BARCA”!
Our second day started exactly as Uncorked Escapes planned for us but ended in a very unexpected way (more on that shortly). For our second day Natalie planned a private tour of Barcelona, with our own private guide and driver to take us around. We walked around the El Born neighborhood, where our guide pointed out the unique architecture and local shops. While in El Born we took some time to go inside the Catedral de Barcelona, our guide explained the unique stained glass patterns throughout the Cathedral. See if you can spot the F.C. Barcelona seal hidden somewhere in the stained glass!
From El Born we drove up to Montjuïc to see the old olympic stadiums, Placa de Carles Buïgas, the Barcelona Pavilion and wonderful panoramic views of Barcelona. These views were easily my favorite in Barcelona. You get all the gorgeous views but without the crowds - this area was very peaceful with all the same Barcelona vibes. From Montjuïc we drove to the famous Gaudi houses. On the way to the Gaudi houses we drove past La Monumental, an old bull fighting arena that has been converted to a shopping mall (as bullfighting is illegal in Barcelona). We ended this drive at Casa Batlló and Casa Mila, 2 of the 3 Gaudi houses in Barcelona. Both of these houses truly have a very unique and gorgeous architecture. Casa Batlló’s design is inspired by the Catalan legend of St. George and the Dragon. From the Gaudi houses we made our way to our final stop on the tour: La Sagrada Familia
Unfortunately we only saw La Sagrada Familia from the outside this time around as we had to cut our tour short due to some (thankfully) short-lived medical issues for my husband. The Edition hotel staff really supported us and were a huge help arranging for a doctor, helping take him to the ER, and even providing us with translated paperwork to help the doctors get the info they needed. Thankfully we were discharged after a couple of hours and feeling much better! Again, we can’t thank the staff at the Edition enough for all their help and continued check-ins throughout the rest of our stay.
Now, a normal human would choose to stay home and relax after going to the hospital. But Ashvin apparently had a surprise that he had been planning for weeks that he really didn't want me to miss out on. I am a huge soccer fan and have a personal goal to visit as many soccer stadiums as I can. In the weeks leading up to our trip Ashvin found out that FC Barcelona had a home game while we were there and bought us suite-level tickets to the game! We were very lucky to be able to watch Barcelona win 4-0 against Real Valladolid to wrap up this crazy day.
Day 3: Tasting our way through Barcelona
After an exhausting Day 2, we chose to sleep in on Monday and keep a relatively leisurely day! Our first stop wasn’t until lunch at Teresa Carles. Teresa Carles is an entirely vegan/vegetarian restaurant with a very nice ambiance. We both enjoyed our meal (even Ashvin who tends to roll his eyes at all vegetarian restaurants). I will say, even though we enjoyed our meal, I was a little disappointed in the lack of options that are available on their lunch menu. As I always do, I had looked up the meniu prior to arriving and had already picked something I wanted, only to find out it was only available on their dinner menu. I would love to go back and try their dinner menu, but probably wouldn't return for lunch.
The afternoon led to our favorite Uncorked Escapes planned activity in Barcelona - a tapas tour! We spent the evening on a personalized tapas and wine tour with Hidden Bodegas. Our tour guide, Eli, was an absolute delight! She took us to 3 local family owned tapas restaurants in the El Born area. At each restaurant she had pre-selected a couple of tapas for us to try - keeping our dietary preferences in mind. She also expertly paired a delicious wine at each stop and served as our personal photographer, so we could get our perfectly curated couple shots at each spot. At the end of the tour she even recommended her favorite cocktail and wine bars to explore.
Day 4: Relaxing with a side of Flamenco
The best way to describe our final day in Barcelona is - utter relaxation! The only thing we had specifically planned for Tuesday was dinner so we decided to again take the morning easy and sleep in.
For lunch, I really wanted to make sure I ate some paella before we left Barcelona. I remembered seeing a restaurant on our walk the previous night that had vegetarian paella so we made our way to Prado de Flores for some wine and paella. I thoroughly enjoyed the paella, it was exactly what I was craving. Expertly spiced with a variety of vegetables and the ratio of crunch to soft arborio rice was divine. Ashvin on the other hand wasn't the biggest fan, he learned paella just really isn't his cup of tea - everything from the veggies to the texture wasn’t great for him.
After lunch we headed back to our hotel rooftop to finally enjoy the pool. As mentioned earlier, the Edition rooftop is gorgeous. The pool itself is a small wading pool, but it was still very refreshing to sit in the pool, enjoy a rose or mimosa and enjoy the rooftop views. I had a couple glasses of rose and took a nap in the cabana chairs for the entire afternoon.
After such a relaxing day we decided we wanted to venture out for the evening, and we had a late dinner so we had plenty of time to explore. We made an impulse decision and bought tickets to go see a nearby Flamenco show at Flamenco Palau Dalmases. The Flamenco show was no frills, but absolutely breathtaking and impressive. If you have the time to spare, I definitely encourage you all to check out a Flamenco show while in Barcelona! We ended our evening with dinner at Restaurant Paco Meralgo. Literally everything on this menu looked great and we loved everything we ordered! The food, ambiance, drinks everything was worth the trip out to Paco Meralgo!
Our relaxing day was an excellent way for us to end our stay in Barcelona. Barcelona proved to be adventurous, surprising, exhilarating, and relaxing. Overall, everyone says Barcelona is the foodie’s paradise. Coming from 1 vegetarian and 1 non-seafood-loving meat eater, we learned that either we aren't foodies or it wasn't the right food vibe for us! Still, Barcelona was the perfect start to our honeymoon!
Next stop: Ibiza
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