A short trip to Barcelona in January. Doesn't that sound great? That is exactly what a colleague and I thought when we were sitting next to each other at work at the beginning of a dreary day at the start of the new year. Thinking that a break would be great, we booked our tickets, got our vacation days in, and all that was left, was to wait for three more weeks.

We left for our flight early Saturday morning (okay, it was still nighttime), but it is always said that the early bird gets the worm. We arrived in Barcelona before 11 a.m. and after dropping our bags off at the hotel, we went straight into the city center.

One of the first things we did was, of course, go shopping. We both found a few great pieces of clothing and jewelry. It was so nice to see how friendly all the people were and how much they seemed to love their jobs. After the shopping, we stopped for a quick bite at the La Boqueria Market. The almost overwhelming amount of choices made sure we didn't leave hungry. 

When we came back to the hotel, we quickly changed our outfits and left for our dinner reservation. This was at Jaqueline. We enjoyed delicious food and champagne with some live music. It was an awesome way to kick off the first day of this four-day trip.

On our first full day, we got up a bit earlier than I would have wished for, given our full day yesterday, but it was for good reason. We paid a visit to the Ikono Museum. This is a museum with several different themed rooms to take stunning pictures. We of course took a lot. I would say that the room with all the lanterns was my favorite.

After the museum, we left quickly, because we wanted to catch a table at the rooftop bar of Hotel Colon. After waiting a bit in line, it was finally our turn. We were a little disappointed with how full it was and with the service at this place. It did give us a few great pictures, but it is not a 'hidden spot' that Instagram would have us believe. What do you think, were the pictures worth it?

This evening we had more dinner reservations. This time at the Nobu Hotel restaurant. And yes, we did dress up for this one. I will take any excuse to wear a pretty dress. And, although a bit pricy, the drinks and food (okay, we only had dessert), were great too. 

On Monday we got up on time with the plans to go to the beach/town a little outside of Barcelona. We had a hard time deciding how we would go there, but we ended up choosing to take a taxi. The funny thing is that the taxi driver took the wrong route, which ended up taking us an extra 16 minutes and extra cost to drive on a tollway. After a while, we ended up in Garaf, where we had the whole beach to ourselves. It gave us some downtime; listening to the ocean waves. Don't you just love to stare at the waves and get lost in thought? Afterward, we had lunch at a seafood restaurant in the village. And would you know, we saw that a tram/train drove to the town from Barcelona. We had found our cheap way back. If we only had known about that sooner.

We closed this day by getting some dinner at a restaurant serving local food and a massage both of us desperately needed. 

On our last day in the beautiful city of Barcelona (time flies when you are having fun), we got up early after a very short night to join a group tour to Monserrat. And let me tell you, this was the highlight of the trip for me - alright, I just love mountains. It was just so pretty to drive between those large mountains. It always makes me wonder how the natural forces made those mountains. And it gave us stunning views (and pictures).

After making our way back to Barcelona City, we had just enough time to do some last-minute shopping before taking a taxi to the airport. It has always had for me to believe that, just 5 hours later I would be standing in front of my apartment again.

When shall we go again? Anyone?