The apartment was magnificent as described! It was very clean, quite spacious and well laid out. Maria Luisa came with a translator and she was amazingly kind and generous. Along with sharing neighborhood information, she taught us how to use everything -- the dishwasher, washing machine, showers, etc. -- and left us with biscuits, chocolate, champagne for Christmas, ice as well as many other essentials. The flat had all the tools for cooking. Building had an elevator but it was literally just on the 2nd floor and easy to walk up a single flight. Balcony was lovely (it was too chilly for us to use it much in winter). The neighborhood was really nice. A 20 minute walk to the centre (Gothic, University, etc). Near train from the airport and much major transport. Great location!!

There are, however, two 'warnings' I would give:

1) To travelers who hate NOISE. If you come in winter (as we did) make sure you are VERY CLEAR on how to operate the heating. We struggled with the remote and when the system turned on, it banged quite loudly in the radiators (at our heads) early in the morning (and at night). I truly believe if you know how to set the heat properly, you can avoid this noise. So if you come in winter just make sure you REALLY understand how the heating system works. My friends also said the upstairs neighbors in the room by the balcony were loud -- stomped around and talked all night. But we came over the Christmas holiday so it's probably an anomaly with people celebrating... If noise bothers you, however, it may be worth questioning. We did not hear excessive noise in the other bedroom.

2) The en-suite bedroom with attached bathroom has no door to separate bedroom from bathroom. So if you want privacy when on the toilet you need to use the separate bathroom (or if you don't want to smell up your room, you'll want to use the separate bathroom!). REALLY not a big deal -- just something to be aware of.

Note that my two "warnings" are just me trying to be a diligent reviewer. I would very happily stay in this flat again on another trip to Barcelona. The noise factor I think is resolvable/livable but given that we're noise sensitive folks I couldn't not mention it :)