A week with Harvard seniors

Last summer I was contacted by Maribel and Phil from Maribel's Guides, one of the best travel sites and tour agency to help you planning and organizing your trip to Spain. They had a group of seniors from Harvard who were coming to Barcelona and they were looking for a local tourguide to help planning all their culture-focussed activities as well as some restaurant reservations.

And after an intense scheduling and booking process, the group finally arrived on March 18th. I met them at the airport (Maribel and Phil were also there), and our ride to their hotel in the city center was our first contact: I started loving them already - and I must say they started loving me aswell!


Our first two days were devoted to exploring Barcelona: the Boqueria Food Market, the Cathedral, the roman ruins of the Museum of History of the City plus the Picasso Museum in the afternoon made for a very complete saturday tour; while Park Güell, Sagrada Família, Casa Batlló and Casa Milà/Pedrera (both appartment buildings inside!) were covered on Sunday.
On Monday we went to Girona for the day: Arab Baths, Cathedral, Jewish Section and an amazing Catalan lunch at one of my favorite restaurants there, Cal Ros.

Tuesday was a free day (many wanted to do the Jewish Section and the Miró Foundation, that couldn't be included in our city itineraries for lack of time). Then Wednesday we headed to Tarragona. We walked along their impressive Roman Walls, passed the forum ruins, visited the Cathedral (despite the restoration works going on inside, they loved it even more than Girona!), and had lunch in Les Voltes, a restaurant located inside some of the Roman Circus Vaults. I love this setting! And after lunch there was still some time to see some more circus ruins and visit the Amphitheater. It was a beautiful day!

But sadly everything has an end! Although they would have loved to keep me for the rest of their trip (they were continuing to Bilbao next), I'm only licensed to give tours in Catalonia so I had to stay and on Thursday I took them back to the airport. Once there Judy, one of the group responsibles, gave me an envelop with a (very generous) tip and a note, that I want to share with you: