Barcelona & Madrid in 8 Days: Highlights from Our 2025 Rick Steves Tour
Dave, Liz and Gen Run, Ruck and TOUR Spain
Dave's STEPS (walk, ruck, run):
June 8 - 10,004 (travel from Tarragona day)
June 9 - 19,934
June 10 - 19,837
June 11 - 15,368 (travel to Madrid)
Barcelona
Barcelona blends motion, art, and coastline.
We arrived in Barcelona via regional train from Tarragona in the early afternoon. The train was pleasant and quite scenic as it hugged the coast and passed through beach towns such as Stiges. The train ran exactly on time and had a stop just a few blocks from the Hotel Gran Via at the station Placa de Catalunya.
We checked into the Hotel, found the agenda for the day and explored the Eixample neighborhood until the orientation meeting at 5:30. At the meeting we met our guide for the tour, Javier and all the other tour members. Javier was a wonderful guide and the group was fantastic. We made friends right away and went for a run.
We spent 3 nights in Barcelona at the Hotel Granvia. Javier, our guide, was very good, knowledgeable and informative, so much so that he even recognized known pickpockets. Another tidbit we learned was Gran Via means "Broadway".
The tour basically scheduled about half day guided tours and the other half on our own. Some dinners were with the group, while the rest were on our own, lunch was on our own and breakfast was included with the hotel. It was fun to try different restaurants. The food in Spain was spectacular.
Liz has dietary restrictions. She was able to find delicious, reasonably priced food she liked at local grocery stores and markets. For weight, she filled her ruck sack with books from the library in the hotel, and returned them before we left.
Our favorite attraction in Barcelona was the Sagrada Família Basílica originally designed by Antoni Gaudí. It was architecture that I have never seen nor imagined.
Ruck Sack!
Basilica does not even fit in the photo !
Words to describe the Basílica are hard to come by and don't seem to do it justice: EPIC. One of a kind. Impossible. Symbolic, breathtaking, towering. Soaring spires! Kinda Art Nouveau but kinda gothic?
The Basilica has been under construction for so long! But that did not take away from the grandeur, immense scale and intricacy. Visiting was an emotional experience. It was amazing hearing from our exceptional guide all about the structure and history, especially how it was conceived from an UPSIDE DOWN model.
We of course did a tapas crawl and toured the block of discord. The block was more of a block of "clashing architecture styles" for us. Our guides described the differences between Modernista architects, Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Antoni Gaudí, Josep Puig i Cadafalch and Enric Sagnier
We roamed around the huge Park Guell during our free time on our own. We took a taxi there. There were no general admission tickets available but a helpful local told us to buy a ticket to a timed admission to one of the buildings or museums inside and that would get us in to the Park. The locals were very friendly to us. It worked! The park was a delight. As a hydrologist, the best part of the park was how well Gaudi designed the drainage. There was absolutely no erosion thanks to his ingenious design.
Another highlight was the Cathedral.
Gen bought a fake Prada bag on the street.
Discord or clashing architecture? Spectacular either way. Nothing like it.
This camera gargoyle is cool and showing off ahead of its time ;)
Sagrada Familia from Park Güell
As a group we toured the Gothic Quarter and Picasso Museum. He painted a lot of pigeons when he was older.