Live the Life You Want to Live in Catalonia, Spain
"Barcelona, the great enchantress, has left an indelible impression on my heart." — Hans Christian Andersen
I returned on Sunday from an inspiring week in Catalonia, Spain including Barcelona, where I took the obligatory photo above at Antoni Gaudí's Park Güell. The last time I was in Barcelona was 1995 when I was backpacking through Europe. This time around I stayed at Grand Hyatt Barcelona and not a hostel, and I hired a private guide to take me to major Gaudí sites like Park Güell, Basilica of the Sagrada Familia, and La Pedrera - Casa Milà. We also visited the Fundació Joan Miró, where my dress blended right into some of his delightfully abstract paintings.
Something else happened while I was in Barcelona, and I've debated sharing it. But I know you have questions about the demonstrations and rioters you see on TV in some European cities lately. After an amazing opera on Saturday night in the spectacular Palau de la Música Catalana (whose stained-glass ceiling is the Nine Muses Travel website's main image), I walked toward the metro with a helicopter above and its spotlight shining across the street from me. I saw young boys running by now and then and a crowd gathered at Plaza de Catalunya; I joined them to find out what was happening. First of all, I do not condone anyone doing what I did, which was to stay and take photos and videos of what I was witnessing: teenage boys and very young men gleefully causing damage to public property, blocking roads with bikes and huge trash bins, and running off to avoid police vans when they drove by. As unsettling as it all was to see, I felt strangely safe as a bystander because none of them were interested in us spectators. We might as well have been invisible. We were not their focus. I learned 100 people were arrested that night, and half were minors. I still LOVED my time in Barcelona.
Here's what I can say about what's happening in the world right now. Anything can happen anywhere, even in your own hometown. You still need to live the life you want to live. My clients receive travel insurance quotes with Cancel For Any Reason benefits, and that's one way you can feel your travel investment is protected if you change your mind later for literally any reason. If there's a city you've been dreaming of seeing, we can discuss hotels apart from touristy areas. And I'll always encourage exploring a country's smaller cities and authentic towns with fascinating history, notable art and architecture, and experiences with locals to get a real taste of the culture, cuisine, and everyday life.
That's exactly what I did last week through Catalonia, courtesy of the Catalan tourism board. I visited UNESCO sites (Tarraco Roman Ruins in Tarragon and the Royal Monastery of Santa Maria de Poblet), a Modernist wine cathedral, an ancient castle, a Modernist masterpiece mansion, Gaudí Centre Reus, rural hotels, five-star resorts, and seaside escapes. I was especially impressed by Tarragona (on the sea, Roman ruins), Reus (filled with Modernist facades and design), and the hilltop town of Horta de Sant Joan, where Picasso once lived and developed his cubism style. "Everything I know, I learned in Horta," he said.
As our small group of travel professionals finished our walking tour of Horta and headed to a private olive oil tasting with the Spanish Tom Hiddleston, I looked across our hilltop road to majestic and mysterious Santa Bàrbara Mountain and fell in love with its surrounding Sierra de Pesells range to the north in the late afternoon light. We passed an apartment with a terrace overlooking these peaks, and I took a photo of its For Sale sign. I envisioned living my version of Under the Tuscan Sun where I'd hire local townspeople to help me renovate it and fall in love with one of them and live my days gazing from my deck at the ever-changing light across the mountains in front of me, laptop open, as I work on your trips from Spain. Maybe everything I would need to know I could learn in Horta too.
There are so, so many places of peace, beauty, and inspiration to be found around our wonderful world. Live the life you want to live, and let me help you do it safely, comfortably, and joyously.
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Nine Muses Travel designs journeys to inspire artists, arts lovers and the culturally curious.
Danielle Dybiec
Founder & President
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