See brilliant Barcelona, a city of graceful Gothic churches, wrought-iron balconies and grand avenues filled with outdoor cafés. Throughout the city, daringly innovative buildings sit side-by-side with the medieval past. A licensed, local guide will show you some of the high points of this architectural showcase. First stop, the pointy spires of the La Sagrada Familia (Church of the Holy Family), a half-finished church complex that became the obsession of Barcelona's famously eccentric architectural genius, Antoni Gaudí. At the top of Güell Park, another of Gaudí's masterpieces, is a terraced area where you get a fantastic view of the park and Barcelona City. The vibrant colours of the tiles are breathtaking. Then step back to the past with a journey up to Montjuïc (Hill of the Jews), a fortress built atop an ancient Jewish cemetery. This was the site of numerous battles to control Barcelona, and also the location of the 1992 Olympics.

Flowers, pedestrian boulevards, and decorative pavement make Barcelona a great walking city, and your Tour Director will show you where to stroll. See the Mercat de la Boquería, where the bright colors of fruits and vegetables, spices, fresh seafood and meat -- not to mention about a hundred different types of cheese -- vie for space in the market stalls. In the city center you'll see the Monument a Colom, a towering statue of Christopher Columbus. Gaze at the city stretched out before you, the mountains in the distance, and the Mediterranean Sea at your back. Then it's on to the best walk in the city, Las Ramblas, a mile-long pedestrian street that offers up the carnival of urban Barcelona. Have your palm read or browse through the strip's famous open-air shops. Enough walking for one day? Pull up a chair, order a café con leche, and watch the parade of street performers from your seat.

Tapas purportedly originated when bartenders set a small plate ("tapa") over patrons' glasses of sherry and wine to keep the flies out. The bartenders starting piling the plate with cold cuts, olives, or salad, and the bite-size snack was born. (We're unsure how they kept the flies out of the cold-cuts... maybe that's how the sandwich was invented?) Over time these working-class snacks have become more elaborate, with each region adding its own specialties and cooking techniques to create unique tastes and combinations.

Take an unparalleled glimpse into the development of Picasso’s genius. Bringing together the Spaniard’s early and late works, the museum traces the evolution of Picasso’s art from his realism-based schoolboy exercises of the 1890’s through his Blue Period in 1904, and then jumps into the artist’s remarkable late work. A series of 1950’s oil paintings shows Picasso’s explorations of Velazquez’s Las Meninas, in which he transforms the original into a perspective-shifting explosion of color and line. Visit includes the use of audioguides.

Paella is a Valencian rice dish with ancient roots that originated in its modern form in the mid-19th century near Albufera lagoon on the east coast of Spain.