Hotel 1898

While in Barcelona I stayed at Hotel 1898. I must say that this is the fanciest hotel I've ever been to (compared to Marriotts and Embassy Suites). The staff was very friendly, helpful and best of all they spoke English (except the bartender - more on that later). My room was a quiet, interior room with a courtyard view. At first I had a problem figuring out how to turn on the lights. There were no switches anywhere! Then I saw a place near the door for the room key. When I inserted the key, the lights came on. So I removed the key, and about 30 seconds later the lights turned off. So the key needs to be inserted while I'm in the room. The king sized bed took up most of the floor space, which is fine because most of my time in the room is spent sleeping. The bathroom was very elegant and had a nice large shower. There was a LCD TV (not HDTV) with various Spanish, German and English channels. I ended up mostly watching a German video music channel which tended to replay the same songs, most of which I hadn't seen before including the new Madonna and Green Day videos.

During the stay there were two small problems. One afternoon the power was out, and a bellboy had to open up the room, and one morning there was no hot water, making for a very cold shower! Apparently these things happen with a new hotel (it opened in October).

One evening I decided to have a drink at the bar before going out for dinner. I ordered an apple martini and the bartender didn't understand me. He finally figured out "apple" and proceeded to pour me a glass of apple liqueur on the rocks. I said "No, a martini!". They he realized I wanted Vodka, so he poured Vodka in my glass until I said "good". Then he did the same with a Martini mix and gave me a stirring straw. After mixing this concoction, it wasn't too far off, except it wasn't in the proper glass.

I would recommend this hotel to anyone staying in Barcelona. It is within walking distance of many sites, including the Gothic Quarter, shopping district, and even the Temple de la Sagrada Familia if you don't mind walking farther.