It is the time of year when my mum visits. After Paris, Edinburgh, Brussels and Bruges in previous years, we thought somewhere in Spain would be the logical choice for a short break in Europe. The first time I visited Barcelona back in 1999, I was travelling on my own. Luckily, I met some friendly travellers from the UK and Korea, and had a great time. It surprised me how much I remembered about the trip and the places I went to with my backpacker friends.
The situation was quite different this time. Even though we did not stay in a five-star hotel (quite the contrary, the hotel we were in - Hotel Peninsular - had only a one-star rating and was an ex-convent), we had a little more money to spend on food. The result was having two big meals everyday in great restaurants, including Bar Central at Mercat de la Boqueria; Set Portes, a popular choice amongst the locals; Los Caracoles, where they are known for their snails and chicken and the 4 Cats, where Picasso had his first exhibition.
Mum and Lisa had a great time shoppping from clothes and shoes to Salami and Chorizo, whilst Brad and I took advantage of the prefect weather and spent most of our time looking for good spots for photography.
In between stop-overs at the resturants and shops, we visited La Pedrera and Parc Güell. It was at night when I went up to the roof top of La Pedrera before, so it was nice to take some day shots of the interesting architecture. We also spent a relaxing afternoon at Parc Güell. I liked the fact that the Park was busy but still had plenty of space to sit down and enjoy the view.