Barcelona is highly recommended. Even though it rain half the days I was there. I would not want to visit Spain in the middle of summer. October was just right, a bit cool, but doable without a jacket.
Certainly, the Spanish routine sounds romantic, but for a visitor, it is pure torture in the beginning. You eat breakfast at the regular time, so it is about 9 or 10 am for me. BUT, lunch doesn't start, at the earliest until 2PM; and dinner, at 8PM. At 8PM, it's senior citizens' special. First of all, I don't like going to bed with a full stomach. Second, good god, I need food! They don't even serve lunch at noon! A couple times, I have had to resort to the roadside sharwma stand because I was so hungry.
Here is what I would do.
1. Visit the La Brambla (or something like it).
There is a great market in the middle of it. You can pick up some pretty cool, fresh sea food there. I wish I had my camera with me in Barcelona. Man, I saw some pretty weird stuff. The whole heads of goat, a giant pot of anchovies, all kinds of Jarmon (or something like it, it's essentially ham, the equivalent of prosciutto), and fresh fruits!
2. Visit all the Gaudi buildings you can find, starting with the famous church, Sagrada Familia.
In true medieval fashion, they still haven't finished this thing after 100 years. Then go have some coffee next to the church. Oh, also make sure you do the elevator deal. It's really cool to clime up there. You really get a better feel of how the church was built.I also went to Casa Batllo.
The style is really quite different (I guess it's not a church). I unfortunately missed the apartment tour. You probably want to go earlier in the day. The building really is unlike
anything I have seen.Casa Mila was also kinda cool. I went to the roof and skipped all the presentations. I was so Gaudi'ed out. But the roof is truly unique.
3. I would do the Picasso gallery, and the Miro foundation. They have a lot of work by the artists since they are organizations started by Picasso and Miro. If you don't find the quality to be top notch, at least, you will get a good feel of the evolution of the artists since there are so many pieces there. Lunch at the restaurant in the textile museum right across from the Picasso museum was pretty decent. I easily spent two hours at the Picasso gallery, then lunch there.
I would actually take a day to go to the Olympic park, walk through stadium, then go to the Miro Foundation (since it is in the same area). The Olympic stadium is really small. I guess I am pretty Americanized. The stadium is like a quarter of the size of the fussball field in Philly. Anyway, after the Miro foundation, you can walk down a bit, and catch the gondola down to Barceloneta. Walk along the beach, and maybe get some seafood. There is a little cafe right at the corner of the beach. I set there for an hour, watching the ocean.
The Miro Foundation was really inspirational to me. After I went through it, I felt maybe I didn't need to go to B school to figure out what I want to do. Maybe I should just pick up an brush and start painting. The freedom to express what and how you feel. Miro was so special. He invented his own language in art, in how to communicate through art. The style, the artistic expression was just so different.
The only thing that kinda sucked was the that Miro Foundation restaurant was really packed. I left the place starving because I didn't want to wait.
Food is generally cheap, or cheaper in Spain. For $10-12 bucks, you can easily have a "menu" that has appetizer, entree, and desert.
Man, adjusting back to the normal feeding schedule was a pain in the ass too. After I went back to Switzerland, it took me four or five days to shift my tummy back to its regular routine. It's like a stomach jetlag.
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