City Breaks - Some of the Favourites

Contrary to what they've been telling you on HBO's hit series Game of Thrones (We're all a bit addicted in the office) Winter isn't coming. The last week has seen some glorious spells of sunshine and today should see the highest temperature of the year so far, which isn't really saying much, but we'll take it anyway! It's around this time thoughts of the Summer holidays and getting away start to invade the membrane, where shall we go this year? For starters here's one place well worth considering...

Barcelona

As Queen sang, "Barcelona, such a beautiful horizon, Barcelona, like a jewel in the sun". And to be honest Freddie and the gang wern't wrong. After my visit a few years ago I've always said if I could speak the lingo I'd move out there in a jiffy. One of the first things that hit's you about the city is that even though it's an urban hubbub of activity, you never really feel enclosed or rushed like in other busy cities. The main roads are paved with palm tree's and flowers, so you can be wandering down the busiest road through the centre of the city and never feel overawed by fumes, traffic and chaos. Maybe it's the ethos of Barcelona, it's all rather relaxed. The city itself is almost cut into half, the new part and the old town part. The new town has large buildings with all the banks and the financial sector, but if you head down towards the coast of the city, you'll encounter swerving roads and cobbled streets, most of them leading back on to Las Ramblas where you can sit in a cafe watching the world go by or walk down it's centred avenue and take in the mixture of street dancers and acts, much like Covent Garden but on a grander scale.

There's a veritable array of thing's to do, like you'd expect in any major city. With museums galore you can visit the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona or my personal favourite the Museum d'Historia de Catalunya which spans the entire history of the city of Barcelona, the province of Catalunya and it's people, well worth a visit!

There is one place though that you simply cannot miss out on seeing, it's not a museum per see, but I can say it's something which I've never seen the like of before! It's one of Gaudi's greatest creations (you can see his influence and work around the rest of the city) La Sagrada Familia.The pure size and majesty of the church really is something to behold, from both outside and inside. It says something when building started in 1882 and I don't think it's actually been officially finished yet!

For the Football nuts out there a tour of Barcelona's Camp Nou is one of the first places to venture out to, you don't really realize the scale of it until your inside, the stadium has actually been dug into the ground, so when you enter at ground level, you come out onto the terraces halfway up. Barcelona as a city doesn't do things by halves, if it's going to do something it's going to do it with grandeur and awe, but oddly in saying that it still feels almost understated and calm amongst all the splendor of it's huge architecture.

So yes in summery, Barcelona. If your looking for culture, sun & plentiful amounts of tapas, you can't go wrong!