We Didn't Love Barcelona

But now we do.

We didn’t love Barcelona during our first visit in 2007. It was our honeymoon and we had just spent a week and a half in Portugal.

Back then, Lisbon was a hidden gem, full of colorful charm, eager inviting locals, exotic hilly landscapes and a manageable flow of tourists. (Starbucks, which had a store only a block from our Philadelphia home back then, h…