by Chris Green

Created on: April 20, 2008   Last Updated: April 21, 2008

You can't really miss the "B" Hotel, or is it Hotel "B"?

There's a damned great stainless steel letter B on the roof.

This is not some new way of advertising that you're the second best hotel in town (not such a bad idea on reflection, as who's going to argue with you?), but it's just the B from its home city Barcelona, affectionately known as "Barca" to both locals and soccer fans alike.

A good hotel can really be the icing on the cake of any city break, and the "B" was no exception.

It wasn't cheap, the daily rate at weekends being 180 Euros for a double or twin room, and that's before you tack on breakfast at 13 Euros each. However, the weekday rate was hugely reduced to 100, so overall we spent 380 Euros on our accommodation for 3 days.

This is somewhat more than we usually spend but our air flights with BA from Heathrow were entirely funded by Tesco's Clubcard points converted into Air Miles!

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

You can see that "B" from the Placa de Espanya, where we got off the Aerobus from the airport. This is also the "B's" nearest Metro stop, being only two hundred yards away; that's when you become proficient enough at finding the right entrance/exit from the bowels of the earth under a huge roundabout.

As I approached towing slightly-larger-than-cabin-baggage behind me, I thought "My God, it's a bit modern for us isn't it?"

Well the B really is only 3 years old, but its styling seems more "Bauhaus" than "21st Century Chic". This is no bad thing as it will no doubt continue to look stylish without "face-lifts" for decades to come.

In a city where even 100-year-old buildings can look as unusually fresh as the day they were put up, this should come as no surprise.

The entrance is guarded by a solid oak sliding door which somehow manages to get out of your way just in time, every time, despite my distrust of these things when fitted to shopping malls. There are gentle ramps in the marbled floors to suit both suitcase haulers and wheelchair and buggy pushers. The lobby is two-stories high with the breakfast lounge forming an overhanging mezzanine.

The multi-lingual staff speaks excellent English, which is just as well, as I don't suppose many people, me included speak Catalan.

Whilst the entrance to the lift lobby seemed to be jealously guarded by a Danny de Vito look-alike, he took the hint that we didn't need our cases ushered to our room, since they were only overnight bags and had wheels. Thus, there was also no embarrassment trying to find a suitable tip amongst

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