To Prepare for our 2007 Ireland trip I attended a convention in Spain. It was a great trip and a cool way to bring in the new year.
Itinerary
Day 1 > December 28 > Start Tour
Day 2 > December 29 > Hola Barcelona
Meet your Tour Director & check into hotel
Barcelona city walk
Flowers, pedestrian boulevards, and decorative pavement make Barcelona a great walking city, and your Tour Director will show you where to stroll. See the Mercat de la Boquería, where the bright colors of fruits and vegetables, spices, fresh seafood and meat -- not to mention about a hundred different types of cheese -- vie for space in the market stalls. In the city center you'll see the Monument a Colom, a towering statue of Christopher Columbus. Gaze at the city stretched out before you, the mountains in the distance, and the Mediterranean Sea at your back. Then it's on to the best walk in the city, Las Ramblas, a mile-long pedestrian street that offers up the carnival of urban Barcelona. Have your palm read or browse through the strip's famous open-air shops. Enough walking for one day? Pull up a chair, order a café con leche, and watch the parade of street performers from your seat.
Day 3 > December 30 > Barcelona Landmarks
Barcelona guided sightseeing tour
See brilliant Barcelona, a city of graceful Gothic churches, wrought-iron balconies and wide, grand avenues filled with outdoor cafés. Throughout the city, daringly innovative buildings sit side-by-side with the medieval past. A licensed, local guide will show you some of the high points of this architectural showcase. First stop: the pointy spires of the La Sagrada Familia (Church of the Holy Family), a half-finished church complex that became the obsession of Barcelona's famously eccentric architectural genius, Antoni Gaudí. Continue to the Spanish Village, where you'll view replicas of famous buildings and sights from every region of Spain. Then step back to the past with a journey up to Montjuïc (Hill of the Jews). See the fortress built atop an ancient Jewish cemetery. Site of numerous battles to control Barcelona, this hill was also the location of the 1992 Olympics.
See Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia
Day 4 > December 31 > Gerona & Figueras
Gerona & Figueras excursion
Travel through the rolling land of northern Catalonia to Gerona, a hilly medieval town with narrow streets connected by stairways and pastel buildings lining the waterfront. Climb the 90 steps to the Baroque cathedral. Tour the antique Jewish quarter. See the Arab baths. Then continue to Figueres, a bustling village that is the hometown of Catalonian surrealist painter Salvador Dalí. Stroll the Rambla, the road that locals amble down for their traditional midday or evening walk. Tour the Dalí Museum, located in a theater next to the house where he lived until his death in 1989. See a great collection of works by the artist, including a Cadillac with ivy-covered passengers you can water yourself.
Salvador Dalí Theater Museum visit
Day 5 > January 01 > End Tour