[Evans, Marv]

All you need to do is go online and search for thing to see & do in the Catalonia area around Barcelona and Barcelona itself. I haven't been there for decades, but I can tell you about one thing that was the highlight for me of an entire trip to Spain. West of Barcelona is a village of Cardona. Next to the village is a ninth century castle that is now a parador. We were driving back to the north western portion of Spain and spotted it from the highway. Decided to stop and see if they had a room. We were lucky enough there was a cancellation and got a fantastic room. Rooms are booked up to a year in advance. The kids would probably love it, especially at their ages. It's a real castle situated above the village of Cardona. Our room had a large window looking to the west out over the village as the sun set. The wall the window was in was about 6 or 8 feet thick. The castle had a fire place six or seven feet high, a walkway around the top of the castle wall where soldiers used to patrol, and lots of areas to explore. We took a walk into the village, which was beautiful and ancient. The people weren't that interested in tourists at that time, but the village was great to see. You can do a search for the Parador de Cardona and try to maybe make it one of the places as part of a loop trip through that portion of Catalonia.