Honeymoon: Spain Day 1 - Barcelona

Hola! We are back from our vacation to Spain! It had been a great trip! Spain is filled with rich history and colorful cultures; Pretty much an underrated country in our humble opinion.

As we followed a tour, it is unfortunate, we had a little lesser time than we wished for at some cities. On the other hand, it was fortunate that we did our research and were able to sneak out of the tour for some little fun of ours in Spain. :)

Day 1 of the tour was spent in Barcelona. Love this city much for its' arty flair of great architectures by the famous Antoni Gaudi.

Antoni Gaudi's Casa Mila

We started the day with a tour round the city with some introduction to famous buildings and structures before heading to our first attraction of the day: Park Guell by Antoni Gaudi.

Park Guell is a UNESCO world heritage site which was constructed from 1900s. The park was constructed as part of a housing development site which had an unsuccessful launch because of its location being far from the city center.

Antoni Gaudi's house

The main terrace consist of a long bench which was beautifully decorated with mosaic titles, and is the focal point of this park.

It was great just sitting there breathing in the fresh air and enjoying the cool breeze and scenery. We only had a short moment of such luxury as we had to camwhore and snap away before making our way down to the main entrance, where the famous El Drac and the two houses (now souvenir shops) are, to meet the tour group.

Next, we visited Antoni Gaudi's master piece - Sagrada Familia!

Sagrada Familia is simply AWESOME! Everyone should see it at least once in their lifetime. I cannot stop raving to Mr Kwek about Antoni Gaudi genius-ness. Every little detail on the four pillars tells a story. Every little detail was so carefully constructed to life, it is no wonder, it takes so long to complete the cathedral!

It is unfortunate, IMO, the new section was not being constructed in the same concept as Antoni Gaudi as it is being designed by another architect. The new section being constructed is of a modern simplified look.

Still, it will be great if we have the chance to go back and see this great cathedral when it completes works in 2026!

After that it was lunch time and free & easy for the rest of the afternoon at La Ramblas. We splitted ways with the rest and headed straight to our main attraction : St Josep La Boqueria. It is the largest fresh food market in Barcelona. It isn't as big as we thought it will be. Anyhow, we headed in to find El Quim, the tapas bar, which has great reviews online.

We were very lucky that there were two empty seats when we arrived! *Cheers! to no waiting!* We sat down and asked for an English menu. We asked the friendly staff for recommendations and went ahead to order as recommended.

We were taken aback by the BIG portion of tapas. Well, it totally changed our impression on tapas and felt cheated for the tiny sized tapas at big prices in Singapore. No more tapas in Singapore, please.

The tapas were so good! Especially the double fried egg with fresh baby squid. Perfectly oozing egg yolk with fresh chewy squid = Heavenly!

We had Cava (Spain Sparkling wine) too. That's how the local have their tapas- either with cava or their local beer.

After having a fulfilling meal, we headed out to explore La Ramblas and made our way to Palau Guell. Another of Antoni Gaudi's great art and an UNESCO world heritage site. Palau Guell was the house of politician Eusebi Guell which was often used for exhibitions, concerts and events for Guell to show off his wealth in the past. Now its is an exhibit on its own (12 Euro per ticket) with spectacular architectures and a roof terrace that allows you to have a view of Barcelona skyline.

So glad we found it as it was hidden in a lane and totally merge with the other buildings. High chances of missing it if you don't specially look out for it.

After a quick visit around Palau Guell, we headed to the Christmas market! It was our first time visiting one and it was not as exciting as we thought it will be. Still, it was fun, walking around looking at the various Christmas ornaments being sold. We bought a couple of souvenirs before heading back to the hotel.

And you thought this was the end of our day?
you are so wrong!

We headed out for a champion league game at Nou Camp!

Mr Kwek was over cloud 9 excited about this. 2 days before we were due for the trip, he headed online to check out for any games out of curiosity. Lady luck was with him and it so happen the day we landed, there was a game featuring F.C Barcelona and Celtic.

Nou Camp is very magnificent. All of a sudden, Singapore's Stadium looks puny!

People there were of high spirit. Half the time I wasn't aware what was going on. I just cheer on whenever the people cheered.

I got bored after awhile and took out a chocolate nougat to eat while Mr Kwek continues to cheer on!

Mr Kwek casually made a comment, hoping that 6 goals will be scored in the game to make our tickets worth the price (121 Euro per ticket for middle seating). Once again lady luck was with him and we saw 6 goals scored by F.C Barcelona!

We left the game 10 minutes earlier to avoid the human traffic (77,000 seating, 80% filled) and missed the final goal scored by Celtic.

By the time we went back to the hotel, it was 11pm+ coming 12am. We quickly wash up and got into bed before the alarm rings at 6am for the second day's tour to Valencia.


Honeymoon: Spain Day 2 Valencia

Honeymoon: Spain Day 3 Alicante & Guadix

Honeymoon: Spain Day 4 Granada & Cordoba

Honeymoon: Spain Day 5 Seville

Honeymoon: Spain Day 6 Caceres & Salamanca

Honeymoon: Spain Day 7 Segovia & La Rozas Village

Honeymoon: Spain Day 8 Madrid & Toledo

Honeymoon: Spain Finale - Comerc 24