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History with Spain

13 august 2012 • Travel time: with 21 June 2012 on 01 July 2012
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Spain, 21.06. 12-01.07. 12. Costa de Meresme, Santa Sussanna, Aquamarina Aqua 3* hotel

This is the first trip to Spain, I really wanted to see this country, hearing rave reviews from those who have been there, a keen desire to look at the works of Gaudi, Salvador Dali, watch flamenco, listen to the Spanish guitar, feel the spirit of Spain ...

The general impression is very contradictory, as a beach holiday is not the best option, as knowledge of the world is definitely not on the coast and not in the tourist season.

Barcelona…. There are very strange impressions from Barcelona, ​ ​ it looks like a vinaigrette, each object is interesting individually, but to see and feel Gaudi, you need to go see Gaudi ONLY, if the Gothic Quarter, then it is better to take a tour to talk about style, time, etc. port, teleferik, Montjuic, Tibidabu, singing fountains, if shopping - then this is not combined with viewing the city.


Seeing more than 2 objects a day on your own is not realistic, even for the most hardy, you get very tired of a HUGE number of people.

If you want to see Barcelona, ​ ​ feel this city, you need to go to Barcelona, ​ ​ check into a 2 * hotel (only spend the night and wash, there will be no rest) for 3-4 days, prepare for the trip, read and roughly plan routes and get a good guide . The Orange guide helped us a lot (hours and days of museums, approximate cost (real + 10-15%) addresses and maps, in a good scale, most importantly, all metro lines, names of terminal stations and transfer points).

In general, with maps and orientation, everything is very well established, at Bus Touristik stops you can take a free map of Barcelona, ​ ​ quite detailed. There are no problems with movement, to travel in the subway we bought T10 (ticket for 10 trips) 9.

25€, you can use both in the 2nd and 3rd passing through the turnstile, if you don’t get lost, you can go through the turnstile together, just walking very tightly one after the other. It must be borne in mind that you pass the ticket through the turnstile not only at the entrance, but also at the exit at some stations. A single metro ticket costs 2€. Taxi from Park Guell to Plaza Catalunya 6€.

I must say right away that the Spaniards are very friendly, and even on the fingers, without knowing English, you can explain yourself and TRY to understand and help you. Our neighbors found a funny way to ask for directions, they simply showed the name of the object they were looking for in the guidebooks, they were shown, they were escorted to the right place. I think even a minimal Spanish phrasebook said from the Internet will make your journey much easier, it's always nice to hear "Hello" and "Thank you" in your native language.


From the coast to Barcelona, ​ ​ we rode Renfe trains (the logo looks like a bitten bagel, it’s easy to remember, it’s useful to find the entrance, in Barcelona the entrance to the trains is combined with metro stations), we bought “Bono Tren” 26 € this is a ticket for 10 trips back and forth, at the box office you need to say “Bono tren Barcelona-Santa Susana, T10 is more expensive, but it can also be used on the metro, the cost depends on the zone. Bono-tren can be used on any number of people by punching it the required number of times at the landing station. Single round trip ticket costs 16.5€. At small stations, the ticket must be punched in a box on a pole, at larger stations it must be passed through the turnstile, the ticket through the turnstile will have to be carried out at the exit, if you haven’t punched it at the entrance, then at the exit you will have to look for a station worker who will let you out.

You also need to take into account that, returning from Barcelona at 6-7 pm, the train to Catalunya Square comes already full, there are a lot of people at the station, so if you go far, you need to fuss to get in quickly. The trains are comfortable, there is a toilet in the car (in the tail).

In Barcelona, ​ ​ all the main ones are mainly concentrated at the Plaza Catalunya station. You do not need to go to the surface to transfer to the subway. In order to travel by metro, you need to know the destination station and the end station of the metro line (direction). There are signs, it is not difficult to navigate, a metro map is needed.

Before an independent trip to Barcelona, ​ ​ I would advise you to take a sightseeing tour, of course, it will not give an idea of ​ ​ ​ ​ the city, but it will help you navigate, in the Natalie tour, this tour includes the “Spanish Village”, a small architectural Spain in the open, you can’t get there yourself enough energy and time.

We did not orient ourselves and took a tour - an aquarium and fountains. Thanks to our guide (I won’t write my name because I violated the instructions), she took us to the Rambla, gave us 2 hours to walk there, asked the driver to take us past La Pedrera and the Quarter of Discord. The aquarium didn’t impress at all, even the kids weren’t thrilled, but it’s beautiful, but the tunnel is impressive, but it’s boring, it seems to me that you need to talk about fish, just watching, I repeat, it’s boring. The tour is designed for 4 hours in the aquarium, we looked at it in an hour, we had another hour to eat or shop (shopping center opposite the aquarium), we looked at the port and the embankment.

Fountains…. You can't miss it, it was one of the most vivid impressions, such an atmosphere, VERY, VERY beautiful, romantic, the music is so well chosen, the spectacle is enchanting. Of course, you need to go to Montjuic for the whole day, a magnificent park, such architecture and fountains for dessert.


If you live on the coast, it is better to go with an excursion, the action ends at 11-00, you may not have time for the last train, and a taxi costs 120 €.

What to watch is better on your own (you yourself regulate the time spent).

Rambla was not impressed at all. What I liked very much is the mimes, people work their bread in such a way, with such dignity, this is a performance. Another point that is VERY STRONGLY annoying is the every minute need to get accustomed to your bag and keep track of things. Pickpockets, guides warn about them, they are everywhere, on the ramble, in the aquarium, on fountains, in museums, on the streets. Catalan women carry bags on their stomachs, embracing them with 2 arms.

Discord Quarter. Battlo's house (Casa Battlo) is a must to go inside, there is an audio guide in Russian, the entrance and guide costs 17.5 €. It is better to try to get there early, there are not many people, it is better to look, pictures without other people's backs.

House Mila (Casa Mila), you can get on the roof with impossible chimneys.

Sagrada de Familia.

We got here at about 13-00, the queue was long (entrance for individual tourists from the side of the revival facade), but it moved very quickly, we stood for 30-40 minutes, entrance + audio guide + rise to the top 24 €, everyone now relax, walk, listen, look...It fascinates, impresses, frightens with its scale and significance, and such dissimilarity of facades, it is very interesting. One question torments me: “How did he come up with it and implement it? What was going on in this man's head? How did he feel when he thought about it? ". Climbing up (the rise time is indicated on the ticket) is necessary for those who

1. Not afraid of heights and confined spaces (an elevator takes 50 meters to one of the towers, you go down a very narrow spiral staircase back)

2. Who wants to take a closer look at the detailed study of Gaudi and the remake.


It should be noted that there are people ahead of you who take pictures of everything, and sometimes a lot of people accumulate in the tower, at some point I became very scared in this crowd, there was nowhere to go, traffic jam and VERY narrow.

Park Guell. It's easy to get there on your own. There are signs everywhere, the climb is steep. Here, the sooner you arrive, the better you will see everything. At 11 o'clock I arrive by sightseeing buses and there is nothing to be photographed in the park, it becomes impossible to look. The park fascinates with its idea, live music is played in the galleries, whoever likes it can throw some money. The site offers a very beautiful view of Barcelona. The colonnade… there are no words, the sensations are surreal, it’s hard to believe that these are all human creations. Gingerbread houses, a lizard, a hall of 100 columns, a mosaic…

There are toilets at the top exit, vending machines, costs 0.5 € - 15 MINUTES - i. e.

That is, if there are a lot of you, just don’t slam the door when you exit, and during this time you can pass 5 and 10 people.

Now about food, there are no problems with food, there are enough places where you can eat, it is better to stock up on water in advance, in all tourist places a 0.5 bottle of mineral water costs 2€, in a supermarket 0.36€.

Gothic Quarter. Even if it seems to you that this is just a gap between houses, feel free to go, this is street  . For a complete sense of time and greatness, you need a guide. We walked around, turning our heads, looking in guidebooks for what it is, near each building. The architecture is impressive. History smells...And time does not smell very good, it is clear why there were epidemics ...

But this is all a cover, you will not see real Spain here. Good PR, colorful advertising.

Blanes. One of the main attractions of Blanes is the botanical garden, or rather, two.


One bears the funny name of Marimurtra (Jardi Botanic Marimurtra) and is an amazingly beautiful park with almost 4000 tropical, subtropical and Mediterranean trees, flowers and shrubs, of which more than 200 are practically the last on the planet. Considered one of the best in Europe. The second garden - Pinya de Rosa - is a huge collection of all kinds of cacti from all over the planet (more than 7.000 species).

So, from Santa Susanna to Blanes 10 minutes by train 4.45 € in both directions, then from the station by bus to the city 1.5 € one way, from the central square on a yellow tractor with trailers 4.5 € round trip (check the schedule at the bus stop, walks in 1 hour) Marimurtra or 6 € 2 botanical gardens, we only had enough for Marimurtra, and I'm not such a fan of cacti.

When visiting Marimurtra (entry 6 €) we were given a free ticket to the cactus park.

It is very beautiful, the views from the cliff are magnificent, but the garden itself ...in Sochi, the botanical garden is much richer and more well-groomed. We had a good time, and the happy ones went down to the port, to a restaurant (I unfortunately don’t remember the name, the hotel guide advised), the menu is in Russian, the waiters understand Russian, they ate lobsters, paella, drank sangria - kava, fanta and potatoes for the child fries, for 4 it turned out 105 € with a tip.

In Blanes, especially to the train station, you need to go by bus, this time and extra. expenses, if your goal is Girona, Fegueiros and France, then you are here or Lloret del Mar. The towns are very picturesque, the beaches are bays, there are a lot of people on the beach, life is seething.

If your goal is Barcelona, ​ ​ then you still need to consider options with a more convenient transport interchange.

Because of this city, I will visit Spain again. We were lucky we took the Girona tour. Fegueiras. There was a great guide Konstantin. The man is sick of his work.

It was the best guide out of 4. We didn’t get into the cathedral, we had to choose either to listen to the guide or go see it ourselves. We chose Konstantin. He has his own biased version of the development of history, but as one of the interpretations it was interesting.

The city seemed to me alive and interesting, more real. You just want to walk along it, breathe ...The old part impressed me more than the Gothic quarter.


We rubbed the cat's ass on the pole with the hope of returning here again, the cathedral is a must-see. The start of construction of the Gothic Girona Cathedral dates back to 1312, but this does not mean that construction began from scratch. The first Christian church on this site existed even before the Arab conquest of Iberia. In 717, the Arabs converted the church into a mosque. The Franks in 785 conquered the city from the Arabs and only in 908 the church was consecrated again. By 1015, the Romanesque church was in a sad state.

The place breathes history….

Have you seen Alice Lewis Carroll's dreams? I think they looked almost like this. The Dali Theater Museum ...you just have to see it. It would be nice to read about Dali first, then listen to the guide and understand that there are a lot of lies in the official version for encyclopedias ...then look at his paintings and understand that there are A LOT of lies ...Dali's childhood and old age will be horrified. The incomprehensible death of Gala and his own ...Impressions ... , there is something to ask Yandex, I want to read about him ...to understand this person.

Dali is large and not standard. The pictures are mesmerizing. Installations are scary. Guides say that someone accepts, someone categorically does not accept Dali. I don't understand everything, but it's interesting. Might need to go back.

It's also a pretty uneven tour. As a natural phenomenon, the mountains are amazing. Its geometry, size. Ascent to 800 meters above sea level along a narrow and steep serpentine.

Access to the beach from the hotels of the 2nd line (all more or less new hotels are on the 2nd line) through the bridge over the a/m and railway roads. From our hotel 100-150 meters, the road to the beach from the room (5th floor) took 10 minutes. There is no entertainment on the beach. You can sail on a large pleasure boat to the islands. The boat comes to the beach.

Behind our hotel (across the field) there is a supermarket (like our crossroads) where we bought water, wine, all sorts of things, gifts upon departure. In the evening, on the square behind the calving (towards the mountains), a fountain works, with illumination, water beats out of the ground in a certain order. It's funny.


About the hotel. The hotel is on a very good European 3. Clean, without pathos, the pool is small and occupied in the morning by the Germans. Food - you will not stay hungry, you can choose from a permanent menu. Those who write that the food is monotonous are right of course, but at home you also eat quite monotonous food. Everything is reasonably tasty. In the morning drinks are free, at lunch or dinner you need to buy.

The waiter escorts you to the table, he needs to be told what you are drinking, if you haven’t finished drinking the bottle, they will hang your number on it and bring it tomorrow. Bottle of house wine 6€.

The room has 2 beds, a wardrobe, a large mirror, 2 bedside tables, a TV, a hairdryer, no refrigerator, the possibility of renting was not specified, there is a plastic table and 2 chairs on the balcony. You can smoke on the balcony. Safe for a fee 18 € per week + deposit 10 € returned upon check-out.

Our lucky room was on the top floor in the right wing with a sea view. The room is cleaned after 2 o’clock, they don’t take a tip (they tried to leave 1 €, they lay for 3 days) in order to change the towels you need to throw it on the floor (everything is written in the card that is in the bathroom), if you want to change the bed, you need to put a special card ( will be brought in 7 days).

There was one moment, the shirt that I put under the pillow on the first day was thrown on the bedside table, then I put it in the closet.

Otherwise, there are no complaints about the staff.

It should be noted that check-out from a room in Spain in almost all hotels is at 10 am. Possibility to extend the room 15€ until 12:00.30€ until 15:00. In our version, there was a big check-in and there were no free rooms. The hotel has a luggage room and a shower (no hair dryer). We checked out, handed over our luggage, and went to the beach, then we came, washed, changed, went to eat in the lobby bar, took a last walk, and it was already 5 pm all day. There is no safe at the reception, so I had to carry documents and money with me. The hotel staff tries to help, I liked it.

Well, that seems to be all. My resume If you are between 18 and 45 and you are traveling in a small company or as a couple - it is better to choose another town (boring here), if you are traveling with small children who cannot swim, it is better to choose another town - the entrance to the sea is very sharp.


If you are looking for a relaxing holiday or are planning to only spend the night in a hotel and aim for excursions in all directions, you are here.

My resume is to go "see Spain" this is out of the tourist season and to Andalusia or other non-tourist provinces. As a beach holiday in Santa Sussana, there is not enough developed infrastructure for this money.

Translated automatically from Russian. View original
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