Perfect Portaventura - Day 5

[Nimbus]

Previously: Day 4

Day Five - Thursday 6th June 2013 - Trip to Barcelona

Earlier in the week, we'd booked a coach trip to Barcelona with our holiday rep. Yes, it was more expensive than travelling to Barcelona ourselves via the train or bus. But, hey, we were on holiday so why not.

After a rushed breakfast in the morning - the breakfast at the Caribe only started at 8am and the trip began at 8:25am - we caught the coach at the rendezvous point. Of course, being a coach trip it took half an hour to go around the resort picking up folk from other hotels. Then it took another hour or so to get to Barcelona.

Thankfully our Liverpudlian guide, Eddie, was pretty amusing and knowledgeable so the time passed quickly.

First stop - Parc Guell. Originally, Count Guell and Gaudi meant this to be a housing development for 60 houses but in the end they only built 2, one of which Gaudi lived in. I think Gaudi spent all his time doing his mosaics!



The above photo shows Gaudi's old house. Anyway, we were given about an hour and a half to look around here. So here are a load of photos...















I have to say that this was probably the highlight of the trip. Parc Guell was pretty amazing - and we didn't even get to look in Gaudi's house nor the museum. You could probably spend half a day here without too much trouble.

Back on the coach, our next stop was the Sagrada Familia, the famous church by Gaudi. The bus stopped a little distance away and so we walked up and around it, looking at the wonderful architecture.





Even though Gaudi started work on it in 1882 it's still incomplete - hence all the scaffolding, cranes and work going on around it. It's a pity, because it means you can't really see much of the exterior on a couple of the sides (and it somewhat ruins your photos).

BTW, the trip did not include entrance to the Sagrada Familia. Anyway, there was a queue a mile long to get in (apparently this is normal).

After getting some sandwiches and drinks for lunch, we strolled back to the bus and had a little tour of the city, seeing other Gaudi buildings such as Casa Mila (the Quarry) and Casa Battlo (House of Bones). We were then dropped off at the top of the Ramblas in the centre of Barcelona and given a couple of hours of free time.







We probably didn't make the best use of this time and ended up just walking up and down the Ramblas and down some of the smaller alleyways instead of, say, visiting the cathedral nearby. We should have looked at the guidebook we had to see where to go.

After tiring out our feet, we stopped in a little cafe for the usual afternoon ice cream and coffee.



At the Plaza Cataluna near the Hard Rock cafe, we then rode the coach up towards the Olympic stadium where the 1992 Olympics took place.



The stadium was unfortunately closed as they were preparing it for a concert - so we weren't allowed inside. Spending only a few minutes here, we headed further up MontJuic. There we enjoyed the views over the city of Barcelona.





That was our final stop. Subsequently it was back on the coach and then a long journey back to Salou - but back in time for dinner at the hotel! We'd spent just over 10 hours on the trip - although around 3 hours of that were spent travelling to and from Barcelona. Still, we had a lovely time and saw quite a few marvellous sites.

Overall a pretty good day. I'd recommend spending a day in Barcelona if you can.

Next: Days 6, 7, 8 (the end)

[mobeckwith]

oh thanks for that,ive often wondered what the coach trip entailed,the ramblas look like my sort of spain.

[ali-s]

Barcelona is definitely on my list. Thanks for the report.

[Nimbus]

There are a number of different coach trips - ours was the "highlights of Barcelona" trip (or something like that). In the brochure they had listed a version which also went to the aquarium but that didn't seem to be available.

There are other coach trips which include a visit to the Camp Nou football stadium and the fountain light show but we weren't interested in these.

Ramblas is just a long half-pedestrianised street with shops and cafes on either side and stalls and (supposedly) entertainers in the middle. We weren't particularly impressed.

Thanks for reading!

[DIBBadmin]

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