Jonny and I used to enjoy a city break and with no children and two incomes we could afford to go on a few.

I loved New York! It was an amazing experience watching the 4th of July fireworks over the Hudson River and literally everything about my memories from our holiday make me smile. My Dad had lots of air miles that he gave us so we even got to fly Club Class! Amazing and we felt like super stars!

We didn’t always go so far afield though and catching the Euro Star somewhere new was always just as exciting. I loved Bruges where we spent a New Year’s Eve eating chocolates and drinking champagne…

My favourite of all our mini breaks though was when we flew to Berlin. I don’t know what it was about that trip but we had the best time. Jonny and I are really not party animals but we stayed out drinking and dancing till 6 in the morning one of the nights we were there and the Checkpoint Charlie Museum blew me away. It was a fabulous trip!

Times changed of course and with children our holidays are a little less city break and more child friendly these days. Beaches and even holiday parks in the UK have taken over from cool cocktails and interesting museums and the only time I see the early hours of the morning is when I am up feeding the baby. I’m not complaining, I love being a family but it would be quite nice to have another City break one day.

The children are old enough now to be left for two or three nights with our parents so we could do it but alas that other thing happens when you have children – the money pot is severely depleted! Oh well… A girl can dream can’t she!

And as a little dreaming exercise I thought entering the Tots100 and Holiday Gems competition to win a mini break in Barcelona would be just the ticket. The competition is to write your dream itinerary for a trip to Barca and the prize is a three night trip to try out your itinerary for real!

Well… Had to give it a go didn’t I!

Obviously this is a mini break for Mummy and Daddy only. The prize, should we win it, would mean I would have to actually put my money where my mouth is and actually leave the children for three whole days. I could do it! I could do it for a wonderful and terribly grown up weekend which would hopefully include comfortable beds and no one wanting to wake me up in the middle of the night!

My Itinerary

DAY 1

We would have to start the break at the Aire De Barcelona spa. Not particularly Spanish as this is a traditional Arab baths but my reasons are twofold. Firstly Jonny and I once had a Hammam treatment when we were in Turkey. The thing is we had Florence with us so we had to take it in turns and it wasn’t nearly as enjoyable so I would like to do it properly. My second reason is that if I am child free for four whole days I want to relax and unwind and be carefree so a spa treatment would set me up beautifully! This spa sounds amazing on the net!

I would then like to lightly lunch in a tapas bar before an afternoon of shopping. The evening would be a sunset stroll around the town followed by cocktails and dinner somewhere fabulous!

DAY 2

We would of course be staying somewhere amazing and after waking in my luxury hotel I’d like to take on a bit of Spanish culture for the second day. Visiting somewhere like The Sagrada Familia would be very interesting and then after a couple of cold cerveza’s it would be interesting to just walk around and find out more about the city which banned bull fighting a couple of years ago.

After an evening meal somewhere friendly a trip to the Barcelona Opera would be wonderful and i could pretend like I was in the film Pretty Woman.

DAY 3

Day three would be the football day and really and truly a bit of a sacrifice on my part. I can’t stand football but my husband loves it and although I know very little about the sport I know enough to know that if we were in Barcelona he would love to see a game! It’s interesting that FA Barcelona are owned and operated by the supporters very different to football here I suppose. Jonny would want to do everything he could for his football day so we would have to take a trip to the FC Barcelona Museum as well and watching a game! Aren’t I just the perfect wife thinking of football!

We’d finish football day off by finding somewhere that did a big fat juicy burger! Jonny and I have had burgers in practically every city we’ve visited and we wouldn’t want to abandon the tradition!

DAY 4

Before leaving I’d like to get a marvelous make-over in a top salon while Jonny could just have a bit of a treatment – he loves all that so it would be no hardship for him! I’d have my hair and nails done and then we’d hop in a horse drawn carriage to the Botanical Gardens before a Spanish lunch and a private jet home! (They did say dream itinerary didn’t they?)

Here’s hoping for the win and Viva Espana!

This post is entry for the Holiday Gems Blogger Competition.