LODGING "The Hotel Colón is right in the center of everything. It's near the Barri Gòtic, the Barrio Gothico. It has a very nice lobby, very helpful staff. They are sweet and friendly. If you want a modern hotel as opposed to a traditional one, although you won't be in Barcelona proper, stay at the Hotel Arts. You have to walk about 25 minutes to get to the main port in the downtown area, but the hotel is on a nice sandy beach. There are a lot of good little open-air restaurants that face out onto that beach."

BARCELONA TIME "Do not expect dinner at 6:30, American time. You have to move your clock to a different rhythm. People start eating around 9:30, which is even kind of early. A lot of people begin their night around 10 and stay up really, really late at clubs and discos. People have siestas in the afternoon. Be aware of that, too, if you're planning to shop in the afternoon, because everything shuts down from around 1 or 1:30 until around 4:30."

DINNER "It's hard to get bad food in Barcelona. At night, if you're looking for really classic, great Barcelona food, there's Botafumeiro, which has unbelievably good seafood. It's probably the best restaurant in Barcelona. They have she-crab with this dipping sauce that is so delicious. They also have great cigala, which is like a large crawfish. It's not a langoustine, it's not a lobster, and it's bigger than a shrimp. Everything they have at Botafumeiro is good. Everything a la plancha [grilled] is good. It's almost like a classic old New York restaurant. They have photographs on the wall of various famous people eating there. It's a place where you wouldn't be surprised to see somebody smoking a cigar."