Past students who enjoyed a downmarket Hotel Espana with me and colleagues on field trips in 2001 and 2005 may be interested in news of a revamp and a review in the Daily Telegraph which now rates it one of the best budget hotels in Barcelona:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/hotel/36328/Hotel-Espana-Barcelona-review.html
The 2001 December field trip is infamous for the huge snow fall that fell on our first night and remained for the whole week, cutting off the region of Catalonia and causing power black-outs in the city. All our field work sites were inaccessible.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1715514.stm
Ironically Barcelona in December was a late replacement for our usual summer field trip to the Yorkshire Dales. That year the Dales were largely out of bounds due to the foot and mouth disease outbreak.