Harton Away

A group of Year 9 students spent a week in Barcelona this July. We were very centrally located with our hotel, The Hotel Comercio being just seconds from the famous Las Ramblas of this amazing, vibrant city.
We arrived late afternoon, got settled then went out together for our evening meal in the Restaurante Catalunya in the Plaza Catalunya. We then took a metro up to Montjuic to see the dazzling Magic Fountains, a beautiful light and water display accompanied by music like “Barcelona”. A lovely end to our first day.

On Monday we toured The Nou Camp where Barcelona FC play followed by an afternoon visit to the breath-taking Sagrada Familia by Gaudi. We were lucky enough to see the engineers and architects at work. In the evening we had a delicious tapas meal at Micky’s Restaurante on Las Ramblas. Everything went down well with the exception of the calamares! We managed to fit some shopping in at the end of the evening down at the Port.

On Tuesday morning we left Barcelona behind and spent the day at Port Aventura theme park. After doing lots of wild rides, getting soaked on the water rides and taking it more gently on the Hobby Horses we watched some of the entertaining shows. Tuesday night’s meal was at The Hard Rock Café, the pupils enjoyed it, though I think the teachers found the music a bit loud!

On Wednesday morning we took the local bus up to Gaudi’s Parc Guell and had a wander round there. There were some lovely views of the city from the top and we saw the famous Gaudi dragon. In the afternoon we visited the Picasso Museum in the Gothic quarter. We had free time to go shopping in the well known Corte Ingles department store. Our evening meal was at Restaurante Brasil on Las Ramblas and we managed to fit even more shopping in at the Port! To end the evening off in real Spanish style we went to Tarantos Tablao where we saw an exciting, passionate Flamenco show.

Thursday, our last full day….We went by coach to Figueres to the Dali Museum in the morning, then spent a relaxing afternoon at the beach in Rosas nearby. We had dinner at the very fancy Restaurante Santa Monica opposite the Port Vell and then had one last hour to see the artists on Las Ramblas before returning to the hotel to pack.

Friday is a bit of a blur as we got up at 4a.m. to catch our flight back home. We had a fun-packed, cultural, real Spanish experience.