If you are in Barcelona and fancy a few hours of tranquility and lovely architecture, I can recommend the Poble Espanyol, up in the hills – Montjuic to be precise – overlooking the city.

I went there with our friends, John and Anita during our recent holiday.  My wife, Kath, got to stay with the kids in Calagogo. But she got the guitar concert the night before in a lovely mountain village called Pals! The five teenagers we had between us preferred the beach, swimming pool, sleeping, hanging around the houses and the beach parties. Fair enough. But one of us had to hang around with them just in case.

The Poble Espanyol was built in 1929 for the Barcelona International Exhibition. It’s a life size display of architectural styles from around Spain. It was so popular during the exhibition that it was decided to keep it going – the original intention was to dismantle it after the exhibition finished.

I think they made a good call there.  It really is a relaxing and intriguing place. Many of the buildings now have shops or cafes and restaurants on the ground floor. Arts and crafts and some very nice food and drink. You are spoilt for choice.

Here are a few photos.

This (below) is where we had lunch. A lovely cafe called Casa Arribes, serving food and wine from Arribes del Duero,  a region next door to Portugal. We had a tasting menu which was just delicious!  The red wines of the region are powerful, aromatic. Pirita and Terrazgo were the ones we tasted. Made from grapes unique to the region – one, I think, called San Juan. There was a lovely tangy white as well.

This one’s from the start of the visit, when we stopped for a quick refreshment. Yours truly in the pink shirt. Drinking Coke!

Maybe not the priority if you are only briefly in Barcelona, but if you have a bit of time definitely worth a visit.