Christopher Gray reflects on a memorable festive season getaway

A fabulous five days in Barcelona perfectly occupied for Rosemarie and me the usually rather lacklustre period between Christmas and New Year. With flights and accommodation arranged by the immensely helpful staff at Co-op Travel Botley, we had nothing to think about but idle pleasures, some of them, of course, concerned with the table.

A spur-of-the-moment decision during a cab ride to a festive party led us to cancel our airport parking and commission the same happy driver to take us to Gatwick on Boxing Day morning. This was money well spent in bringing a more relaxing start to our break. An additional outlay of cash to secure priority boarding and extra legroom seating on our easyJet flight was worth it too.

Our base in the Catalonian capital was the four-star Avenida Palace Hotel, in a marvellously central location. A quiet, well-run establishment in the grand style, it can boast of starry visitors in the shape of The Beatles, who stayed there when they performed in the city in July 1965. Today the hotel has a suite packed with Fab Four memorabilia. This gives, according to the website, “a lot of romantic exotism [sic] to the guest”.

Exoticism for us was principally supplied in the first days through visits to some of the remarkable buildings bequeathed to Barcelona by the modernist architect Antoni Gaudí. They were easily reached on foot; indeed, all our exploration in the city was done without recourse to public transport (as it has been for us in the past in such cities as Rome, Paris and Istanbul). Our one journey by train was for Sunday lunch in the sunshine at the fashionable seaside resort of Sitges, which at this time of the year shows little evidence of its being a summer mecca for gays.

Having ignored a colleague’s advice to book on-line to visit Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia church, we arrived to find an off-puttingly long queue to get in. No matter: viewed only from the outside from all angles, the vast and ornate building proves an overwhelming experience. Still a work in progress nearly 90 years after Gaudí’s death (he was run over by a tram in 1926 and now rests in the crypt), the church is expected to be completed within the next 20 years.

One whole day — lunch apart naturally — was spent on a morning visit to La Pedrera, Gaudí’s world-famous apartment block in Passeig de Gracia, and later to his Parc Güell, on a hill behind the city, over which it affords fabulous views. This was originally conceived as a garden city development before becoming a public open space packed with structures that are a lasting testament to the imagination and technical mastery of their creator.

The seven-Euro admission charge to the park’s monuments was a surprise since our Pocket Rough Guide had said it was free (the one instance of error we detected in this admirable handbook). But we happily paid up, and were glad we did.

The 15 Euros charged at La Pedrera was not grudged either, especially as this bought admission to a fascinating exhibition on the career of the architect which is housed beneath the brick arches of the attic. The sense of fun that imbues his work is especially evident on the roof terrace, where the elaborate chimneys include one encased in the shattered fragments of many champagne bottles.

The country’s own contribution to the joyful delight of bubbles — I mean cava — was much sampled during our stay. One popular watering hole was at a bar called Obama, next door to the hotel. This boasted a life-size sculpture of the US president on a bench at the entrance. He proved as popular for people to pose with as the human statues for which Barcelona is noted, particularly in the Ramblas, its most famous thoroughfare.

Our first stroll along it took us to the Mercat de la Boqueria, with its mouth-watering displays of glorious food, and on to the Gran Teatro del Liceu which, with nearly 2,300 seats, is one of the biggest opera houses in Europe.

Our plan was for a 10-Euro guided tour. But once we discovered that decent seats at a performance were to be had at a price only ten times greater, we decided to splash out. Jules Massenet’s enchanting Cendrillon (Cinderella) supplied a festive finale to our holiday. Since this was a co-production with Covent Garden (where it was seen in 2011), was conducted by Andrew Davis, and featured Cheshire-born mezzo Alice Coote as Prince Charming, it was almost like being at home.