Any good tips for visiting Barcelona?

Yes! I had a great time there on a trip last winter. what kind of place are you looking to stay in & how much are you willing to spend? we stayed in a b & b called Vrabac that was very conveniently lcoated and very cheap but it did not have the amenities of a hotel...bathrooms were down the hall. it was clean, but the rooms that faced the street were very noisy, so I'd only recommend it if you can get a room not on the street or if you bring earplugs! however, in the winter season, much cheaper than a hotel. In terms of tourism, go see all the Gaudi architecture--and it's well worth paying for the actual tour of the Sagrada Familia. Park Guell is a really fun place to stroll around and get a great view of the city and see more crazy Gaudi architecture. If you are interested in history, specifically history of hte inquisition, I would recommend visting the tiny ancient synogogue in the old city--there they can set you up with a tour that I think they only do on Saturdays, where they take you all through the old city and walk you through the history of the Jewish community in barcelona before, during, and after the inquisition. Fascinating, and not something you'll find in the tour book. It's a walking city so bring good shoes because you will want to walk everywhere to take in all the sites.

Ditto to everything Gaudi. Also, avoid the strip of big dance clubs where it looks like everything is happening, but actually are just full of tourists and sleazy people with loud, bad techno music. Instead find a little club off the beaten path - my friends and I did that and had the best time dancing the night away.

go to the MACBA (modern art museum) and then wander around in the neighborhood around it -- it has a reputation for being a "bad neighborhood" (b/c poor north african immigrants live there), but i found it really beautiful and full of surprises.

I would most certainly check out the Miro Foundation, the Picasso Museum and most unmissable, Dali's house in Figueres, about an hour form the city, that is incredible.

If you speak some Cathtillian Spanish, take a refresher course now. That is always the way to connect to people who are not tourists. And even being able to bumble around a little is fun and usually generates good will.

and if you speak catalan, even better.

So, how many people still speak Catalan? Dr. Stephen Maturin (in the Patrick O'Brian 20-volume series about the Brit. Navy during the Naoleonic Wars) used Catalan alot during his spying missions in parts of Spain.

Sk, are you going to Barcelona?!?!? Wasn't swimming all summer in Greece good enough for you? Why would you go to Barcelona when you have that great lake house with summer just coming on right here at home? How can you leave us, your book group? and go to Espana without us? Flutherers, please try to dissuade SKFinkel. We need her.

lots of people in catalunya speak catalan, certainly more in the smaller towns and villages than in barcelona, but even for many who live in the cities, castillian is their *second* language.