Non-Stop to Barcelona

Spare Me the Pain of Reading Your Blog and Give Me the Itinerary

DAY ONE: Travel

DAY TWO: Land early and check into the Hotel Arts. Spend the day settling in and enjoying the amenities, including the spa located on the hotel’s top floor. Have an early dinner or late lunch at Enoteca Paco Pérez.

DAY THREE: Relax by the pool in the morning and head to Montjuïc for the afternoon. Explore the various botanical gardens and Font Màgica de Montjuïc before touring the Joan Miró Foundation. If you’re already sick of jamón ibérico, head down the mountain for lunch at a Venetian spot, Xemei, or stay atop Montjuïc for paella with a stellar view of the city at Martinez. Have dinner at Cruix, especially if you didn’t get paella earlier, then stroll around the Parc Joan Miró where his sculpture, Dona i Ocell, is located.

DAY FOUR: Brave la Rambla but make it worthwhile. Spend the morning and afternoon with the Barcelona Cooking School. Come back later to grab a bite at El Quim de la Boqueria, because the market is the only redeeming thing about la Rambla, and head to Tablao Cordobes for flamenco.

DAY FIVE: Wake up early and get a morning run in along the Mediterranean with the locals. Start the afternoon at Barcelona's Arc de Triomf and head west into el Born for an art walk. Stop at Foto Colectania, Museu Moco, and Museu Picasso de Barcelona and any galleries that catch your eye. End your afternoon at Bar del Pla if you can't wiggle your way into El Xampanyet and on your way back, maybe grab a vertmut and some tinned fishies for your friends at Bodega Vidrios y Cristales. P41 back at the Hotel Arts is the perfect place for a small dinner and a nightcap later.

DAY SIX: Check out of the hotel and take the train to Girona. Get a xuixo at Bar Cacao while you wait for your room at Casa Cacao to be ready. Spend the day exploring the city. This would be a great day to have dinner at El Celler de Can Roca, but if not, dine al fresco at Plaça del Vi 7 or Sol Gastrobar.

DAY SEVEN: Brunch at the hotel if you don’t have lunch reservations at El Celler. Take the train back to Barcelona and check into the Cotton House hotel.

DAY EIGHT: Visit Casa Batlló and Casa Milà in the morning and dine at Disfrutar for lunch. Hit up the Passeig de Gràcia before or after for some shopping. Visit MACBA and have dinner at Pelai before heading back to the hotel.

DAY NINE: Take a tour of the Sagrada Família. Get your final Gaudí fix at the Torre Bellesguard before capping off your trip at ABaC.

DAY TEN: Travel

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Once upon a time when I was married, we decided that the next vacation we took would be about food somewhere in Europe. I immediately picked Spain, knowing that the pièce de résistance would be El Celler de Can Roca, a repeat winner of the coveted title of Best Restaurant in the World and holder of three Michelin stars. Located in the picturesque Catalan town of Girona, we'd fly non-stop to Barcelona.

But first I needed to actually secure a reservation, which was the trickiest part of this whole puzzle. You see, reservations go live exactly eleven months in advance on the first of the month (local time). So at precisely 5 PM ET on the last of the month, me and my poor internet connection saw just how quickly the anonymous masses swallowed up an entire month of reservations. On my second try, I nailed it. We were set for June 2, 2020. I planned a perfect itinerary with stops to Menorca, Mallorca, and Ibiza, but was thwarted by a global pandemic.

El Celler graciously allowed me to move my reservation to June 2021 but international travel was still a mess and so was my marriage; I shed a little tear and told the reservationist I had to cancel . In hindsight, I should have sold that time slot on the black market.

Anywho, 2022 was going to be my year. Now a pro at the web reservation system, I snagged a table for two in September 2022. I ditched the husband and extended the reservation to my true ride or die–my mom.

Day One – Non-Stop to Barcelona

I firmly believe in prioritizing one airline so that you are best able to maximize your loyalty points; I am #TeamUnited for life. We flew out of Newark on Friday evening, making a quick stop in the newly re-opened Polaris Lounge. The lounge was overcrowded, the bartenders were visibly irritated, and the dining area was an uncleaned mess. Plus I never eat from buffets. So my mom had a martini and I had a glass of sauvignon blanc and we headed to our gate.

Armed with glass #1 of cava and paired with the cutest little lady across the pod divider, I snuggled up for bed and woke up in Europe. Another perk that came with my United loyalty was a complimentary plan from Timeshifter to offset jet lag. Starting three days before your trip and continuing for three days after, the app gradually helps you shift your time awake to reset your natural circadian rhythm to match the local time. I would give myself a B in terms of my commitment to the plan, but I still felt the benefits, especially on the return trip.

Day Two – Barcelona

We landed bright and early on Saturday morning and headed to the Hotel Arts, which was in between La Barceloneta and the Olympic Village on the Mediterranean. From our room, you could see the W Hotel down the shoreline. However, this is not the property (or city) for you if want a beach resort. The beach was created as part of the city's redevelopment for the 1992 summer Olympics and is filled with imported Saharan sand that felt mixed with dirt. Come to the platja for the casino and the clubs, not the platja itself.

We spent the first day relaxing by the adult-only pool, which quickly became quite the party scene. Even I woke up branded by Moët. My mom vetoed the magnum, so I had a glass of rosé while mum continued to ask if anyone served the Tempranillo from the plane. Fun fact: it's exclusive to United.

After a few catnaps and croquetas, we headed back to the room to freshen up for dinner. Enoteca Paco Pérez is the Hotel Arts' upscale, seafood-focused Mediterranean restaurant. Despite the restaurant's two Michelin stars, the wood, white lines, and airy terrace ensured that nothing felt too stuffy. I was still self-conscious about photographing my food (how clichéd) so you'll have to take my word that everything was superb.

Day Three – Barcelona

After a leisurely breakfast at Marina, located on the hotel's terrace, we enjoyed the morning at the property's other pool but headed out before too many strollers showed up.

The rest of the day was spent high atop Montjuïc where we explored the various botanical gardens before touring the Joan Miró Foundation. Say what you will about his work, it was lovely to learn of the love that this man had for his wife and daughter.

Day Four – Barcelona

La Rambla is Barcelona's equivalent of Times Square. There are way too many people in a very underwhelming space that is brimming with pickpockets, but it's a tourist's rite of passage to check it out so off we went.

We spent the morning with the Barcelona Cooking School, where our chef, Juan, led us first through the Mercado de La Boqueria so that we could select our ingredients. We learned that one of the market's most noteworthy restaurants, the eight-seat-impossible-to-get-into, Direkte, had an unheard of last-minute cancellation but surprisingly no one from our group bailed. Mom and I didn't need another full-on tasting menu anyway and had a blast whipping up a gazpacho, tortilla española, pan con tomate, paella, and crema catalana ourselves.

After our feast, we did the obligatory walk up and down la Rambla and grabbed an al fresco bite and a cartoonishly large sangria for mother before seeing a flamenco show at Tablao Cordobes. I was enthralled with the dancers and had no idea that the entire performance was improvised. A+, ten-out-of-ten, would recommend, gold star show.

Day Five – Barcelona

We started another gorgeous morning in Barcelona with a seaside walk followed by the prettiest cappuccino of the trip.

We kicked off the next adventure at Barcelona's Arc de Triomf before heading west into la Ribera.

We started at Foto Colectania, continuing on to Museu Moco, and then Museu Picasso de Barcelona. The permanent collection presents a comprehensive look at Picasso's formative years and damn could that man paint. His portrait of his baby sister's communion is delicious, I loved his flirtation with pointillism, and there is a video of a ballet-dancing horse. The temporary collection was the first public display of Brigitte Baer's personal archives and was extremely NSFW. Picasso was working out some intense feelings about voyeurism and conceptualized quite a few...unique representations of the penis.

I love art. I try to check out local galleries wherever I go and save up most of my souvenir money for a local find. My mom knows this and has contributed two cherished Venetian pieces to my budding collection. She of course wanted to contribute to this year's batch and I thought these 3-D photograph frames were clever and representational of our visit and so reasonably priced. The adorable and delicious beer they provided made the decision easy.

I really love Roy, too.

Day Six – Non-Stop to Girona

It was time to pack our bags and head non-stop to Girona. European trains are the Veuve Cliquot to America's Amtrak André and we arrived in forty short minutes. The town smelled like chocolate because of local Willy Wonka, Jordi Roca. Originally, I had planned to stay at the Hotel Museu Llegendes de Girona but El Celler opened its own boutique hotel in the interim and Hotel Casa Cacao did not disappoint. While we waited for our room to be ready, we ate at Bar Cacao and I tried to see how much of the menu I could devour solo while mommy had her obligatory cappuccino. Of course I had to have the xuixo, a deep-fried, sugar-coated, butter-laminated pastry filled with crema catalana that originated in Girona and left a permanent impact on my heart. I would pay a heavy premium for a xuixo to go with my coffee right now.

We then ambled about the storybook town until I had a nice, thick sweatstache and seriously regretted wearing my stupid Millenial skinny jeans.

Make sure to view Museu d'Art de Girona's collection of Romanesque works, explore the Banys Àrabs, and trek up to the Muralles de Girona while your mother smartly waits for you at the bottom of the hill.

Girona also has primo street art.

We checked into our room at the Casa Cacao and mom wanted to burn off all that energy she saved not walking up hills, so we headed to Platja de Sant Feliu. It was a tranquil spot to spend the afternoon catching up on our reading.

Day Seven – Girona

Did I want to get a big brunch the day before the trip's keystone? Yeah, but when life hands you another xuixo you don't hand it back. Good food, a great view, and another grande cappuccino for mother dearest.

So was El Celler de Can Roca everything I dreamed it would be? Pretty much. It was exactly what you'd expect from a place with an accolade like "the best in the world." There was a chicken puff in the bite-sized history of the restaurant that I still think about on lonely nights.

The Roca brothers can do it all, including make a superb romaine salad with nettle sauce and an"ajoblanco" of macadamia nuts, Trocadero lettuce purée, lettuce granite, celtuce confit, swede confit, and pickled cucumber. Since I'm a loser who can't eat crustaceans in a region fortified by the crusty-shelled critters I went with"Ramats de foc" lamb (with smoked sheep's cottage cheese, lemon verbena, artemisia, rue, thyme, rosemary, sempervivum, wild blackberry, fennel flower, verdial olive, ratafia, and walnut oil) and made a big ol mess of those sauce dots. Did you know that people love it when you roll food up to them in a cart? Could be anything...Italian ices, hot dogs, or a juicy poularde brioche with truffle and fresh herbs sauce. I love food on carts.

For our blonde course, ma went with poached langoustine and I went with more cava and some albariño.

Dessert was fun! We smashed some sugar balls, rang bells to call the sheep home (they refused to budge), and watched servers juggle foam in the air for other tables (meant to make us jealous that we did not opt for the larger menu).

We then rolled ourselves to the station for our train back to Barcelona and were immediately asleep for the night after checking into the Cotton House Hotel.

Day Eight – Barcelona

The Cotton House was converted from the neoclassical Fundación Textil Algodonera, the old Cotton Textile Foundation, and is easily the most attractive hotel I have ever visited. I should have a list of hotels-worthy-of-taking-a-bath-in because this is definitely an entry. More importantly, the Cotton House is located on the picturesque Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes and just a short walk from the tourist spots.

We hit up Casa Batlló and Casa Milà and, what can I say, I was into it. Sometimes tourist spots are popular for a reason and these are worth the visit. Get a picture with your mom on the balcony and embrace your tourist status.

We walked away from the pretty shops and storefronts into the quieter neighborhood of l'Antiga Esquerra de l'Eixample where our next meal would be taking place.

Disfrutar is so weird and the skills that the chefs display are so impressive that the taste of the food is almost besides the point, but that too is spot-on.

Disfrutar likes to incorporate booze into their food. At one point the server poured whiskey on my hands and made me rub to activate the aroma, which was a lo-fi way to play with the interaction between smell and taste. I don't have a picture of that but here's mother with her frozen passion fruit ladyfinger with rum.

A crunchy mushroom leaf et moi.

Plus asparagus with elderflower and macadamia.

Mumsie and multispherical pesto with pistachio and eel.

Macaroni alla carbonara, from a spray can.

(Not-your-chophouse's) pepper steak.

Liquid salad.

Multispherical tatin of corn and foie.

Chocolate peppers with oil and salt.

And lastly a raspberry conglomerate.

Day Nine – Barcelona

At last we ventured over to Park Güel, which was covered with crowds. However, the architecture, weather, and company more than made up for it. I regret not buying art from one of the hawkers along the path, but if art aint your thing they have droll little bird callers which are annoying as hell.

Next we toured the still-unfinished Sagrada Família. You all know about Antoni Gaudí's basilica and have seen pictures of the crane-covered Catholic church, so I went abstract.

This one is called Neon Eucharist.

This one is #jesus.

We capped off our trip with one final three-Michelin-star dinner at ABaC. Mom and I would have be more than satisfied splitting a paella but ABaC did not disappoint (we were a bit slap-happy at this point though). Hidden behind a large grey wall and shrouded in foliage is a glass complex that looks like it should be Elon Musk's Swiss doomsday bunker but is instead a restaurant and a hotel.

Here we have "Metamorphosis of tapas," Peru in a ceviche with cocoa, scallop, and lucuma, and ma.

Mom again, but this time with dried hanging tomato with herb bread and parmesan textures served with liquid tomato salad.

Just a pretty plate of calcined roots, seeds, and bark, with chervil horchata, smoked escamorza, and preserved truffles.

Red prawn with picada textures, braised hazelnut juice, and grilled romesco bread (not mine).

Marinated and grilled pigeon and carrots cooked with romesco sauce, hummus, and marinade with hints of coffee, spices, and lavender.

This was cool to look at but not what we really needed (which was Alka-Selzter).

I brought the balloon back to the hotel because I am a happy little girl.

Day Ten – Non-Stop to Newark

Bye bye Barcelona! You were beautiful.