Crave a European adventure that’s safe, easy to navigate and offers flavors to die for? Let me recommend Barcelona. 

From the moment we arrived we fell in love. The city is beautiful and clean. There was a small homeless encampment we walked by several times where the people were playing chess and the trash truck stopped to make a pick up. We didn’t see trash anywhere. Roads and sidewalks were washed down daily.

Most locals most speak English and all we encountered were polite and helpful. We would simply ask the concierge an area to explore and off we went. 

Our favorite places to explore were side walking streets filled with small shops, eateries and artists. Locally made clothing, decor and trinkets were fun to find. Remarkably, during business hours these side streets were lively but once the business closed the streets looked completely different. No signs or markers just closed metal doors with no indication of what was behind them.

We try not to look like American tourists when traveling and certainly are respectful of cultural differences. A couple of times though we forgot tipping could be seen as an insult. There is no place to add tips on credit card receipts when we left euros on the table someone chased us down to return it. 

I plan to visit again and again to this beautiful city and country. Spain is a delight in every way.