If you're looking for serenity in the city centre, go to Parc de la Ciutadella and hire a rowing boat.

You can float around the beautiful lake with just the sound of fountains and ducks in the background.

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Stay in Badalona: 5 minutes by train outside the city. Much cheaper and quieter, and no tourists

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So you remember the Barcelona Olympics and the amazing views of divers silhouetted against the sky line? Well, a hot tip if you want to get away from the hot city and avoid the beach: go to Montjuic.

Swim at the Olympic pool (sadly you can't dive but you can imagine you've just won gold with a triple pike). Take a packed lunch and get a swim - some of the best city views in the world all for under a fiver.

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My tip is to visit the quirkiest little bar ever. It's attached to the waxwork museum on La Ramblas and is called Bosque les fades.

It's decorated like a fairy grotto, trees, a haunted castle, stars and candles everywhere (it even has its own waterfall). Ok, you may be thinking tacky but to me it was truly enchanting. And if that doesn't tempt you it has sangria on tap!

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This Benedictine Monk retreat makes for an amazing break from the bustle of Barcelona. You can get a combined ticket from the station which includes the cable car.

The views from the top are stunning. Inside you can visit the Holy Grotto and listen to the world renowned Montserrat Boys Choir. Time your visit so you are there before 13:00 when the choir sing.

www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/montserrat-spain.html

www.pbase.com/ralf/montserrat

www.funimag.com/funimag14/montserrat01.htm

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Last Saturday we did a tour to the Pyrenees, which was beautiful and for us (my girlfriend and I) the best day of our two weeks in Barcelona. The thing I really liked was the size of the group. We always do tours like this when we travel, but all the time you have to deal with large groups of 50 people or more. This time we were only with 9 which was much better.

The view I loved the most was at the mountain of Vall de Nuria.

tel:+34 93 211 95 66
email: tours@rabbies.eu.com;
www.rabbies.eu.com

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A two-hour trip outside of Barcelona to the small town of Figueres on the regional train was a pure delight. You can walk from the train station to the museum and the works of Dali opened up a whole new world in art for me.

The thing to miss in Barcelona is paying to go into the Sagrada Familia. It is an architectural wonder to behold but we felt the 20 euros spent to go in and up was a total waste of time and money. It is a construction site inside and totally disappointing.

PL. Gala. Salvador Dali, 5, Figueres;
tel: 972 51 1800;
Open: 9am - 7.45pm (Jul - Sep), 10.30am - 5.45pm (Oct - Jun);
www.salvador-dali.org/eng;
horarios.renfe.es/hir/ingles.html

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A medium-sized wetland reserve right next to Barcelona El Prat Airport. Hundreds of birds and a nice beach too (if you don't mind the sound/sight of jets passing overhead about every 2 minutes!).

Catch the 95 bus from Ronda de la Universitat, just off Placa de Catalunya, The 95 runs every 20-30 minutes. Ask for tickets for the El Camping del Toro (Brava) stop - about 20 minutes SW out of the city centre. You end up by a Repsol petrol station on the wrong side of the busy autovia. Best to use the underpass about 100m up the road, even though it’s better suited to hedgehogs than humans. When you emerge the entrance lane to the reserve is fairly obvious, about 50 metres back toward the city.

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Take a day trip out of Barcelona to the amazing Dali Museum in the town of Figuera. Its an easy (though rather long) train journey out of Barcelona - making it an excellent day trip destination.

The Museum is set in the town's old municipal theatre and it is an amazing spectacle - everything that you would expect from Dali and more. Dare I say, even those who usually detest art galleries will love this place. You will find many of Dali's paintings brought to life as sculptures in the amazing courtyard areas and well as all manner of weird and wonderful paintings and objects from the world's best known surrealist.

Once you have had your fill of Dali, there are plenty of shops cafes to wonder around and watch the world go by.

Figueras (Spanish), Figueres (Catalan)

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