You've got a friend in Me(d) - Day 4 - Barcelona

[Scruffette]

Day 4 - Barcelona

Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell & more tapas

The alarm went off this morning at 7.20am. We had one day in Barcelona and intended to make the most of it!

Breakfast was included in our rate (as we booked direct with the hotel) and consisted mainly of pastries with a few hot items as well.

We left the hotel at 8.30am to catch the metro. We got on at Liceu, changed at Passeig de Gracia towards the Sagrada Familia stop, for today’s first port of call.

We arrived just before 9am, which allowed us plenty of time to take pictures. We walked all around this beautiful structure photographing from all angles.



Lots of photos!











I’d pre-booked tickets online for the Sagrada Familia. Anything to avoid standing in a long queue in the sun in August. The tickets were booked for an entry time of 9.30am-9.45am. We’d also added on an audioguide each and a trip up one of the towers. This was 29€, or 27€ with Ollie’s student card.

Bags were checked outside and we picked up our audioguides. Actually, I made Ollie line up to get them as he had forgotten his student card while I snapped some more. Fortunately he didn’t need to show this.





The auidoguides were definitely worth it. At first it only appeared to have 7 guides on it, but some came in several parts. The snippets were full of some really interesting information.



Walking into the cathedral was a breath taking experience. I’m not sure I've ever loved the inside of a building so much before. The way the light was shining through was truly beautiful. I just stood and stared for a far while! Unfortunately, my pictures don’t really do it justice.















Our tower tour was at 10.45am. We went for the nativity façade. I had to choose when booking online, and wasn’t too sure of the difference. I’m sure the view was great from both sides.

We were taken in a lift up which was quite long (queue tower of terror jokes). We actually shared the lift with a family who we spotted again on the cruise a few days later.

Some pictures of the view:







The view was quite enclosed in places. It did give a good close up view of parts of the building.





The spiral staircase down was not fun…



It seemed to last forever and I was a bit conscious I was holding people up. Once down we completed our tour of the Sagrada Familia and headed out around 12pm.



We took the metro to Lesseps (via Diagonal) for the next stop of Park Güell. There was a fair walk from the metro stop to Park Güell (via a hill of course). Near one of the entrances they have an escalator I believe.

Our stomachs were rumbling by now and we found a little café – or Bracafe to be precise. We ordered the local Barcelona speciality of a piazza each and a coke. We went for a Hawaiian and a Bolognese pizza and shared. (Once in Verona, Ollie offended an Italian chef by asking him to put Bolognese on a pizza. It tasted good though!) The bill came to a reasonable 19.50€.





The split



We stopped and bought some water on our walk up towards Park Güell. Again we had prebooked tickets for an entry time of 1.30pm for 7€ each. I’m glad we did this as the next available tickets were for 6pm. Only a section of the park is ticketed, but this is the section with the most impressive architecture.

We followed the route as suggested on the map and enjoyed a stroll around. Beautiful.















There were some amazing views, I think better here than from the top of Sagrada Familia. More snaps:





We could even see the Sagrada Familia.



At this point, I realised I hadn’t charged my camera and my battery died. We weren’t carrying phones with us today (which felt quite liberating). I managed to get one or two snaps later, but not as many as I would have liked.

We spent around an hour in the park, and then enjoyed a wander around the open public area. There were a lot of slopes to climb but the views were amazing.

There was a strange man in leopard print singing at the top of this hill.

[Scruffette]

After our tour was done, we headed downhill (fortunately) to the metro station. Ollie suggested we walk back to the hotel instead. My map didn’t cover where we were, but we decided to go for it anyway, grabbing some drinks en route.

This turned out to be a really good idea and I enjoyed the walk back. There was even a tiny bit of a breeze in places.

We were trying to ‘Gaudi spot’ on our walk. It surprisingly difficult to pick out Gaudi architecture, as several building were trying to emulate his style. I used the adjective ‘Gaud-ish’ frequently.

Look, genuine Gaudi!



We stopped at a Carrefour on La Rambla for the essentials – a six pack of water for the cruise (2,28€), two bottles of cava (3,80€ and 7€), a six pack of cider (1,99€), some bars of milka chocolate for the office (2,40€ each) and a bag for life with pictures of catalunya on (1€).



Back at the hotel we had a well earned power nap! After this, we put on our swimmers and headed up to the rooftop pool.



This is what it should have looked like:



When we got there, it was empty with workmen stood in it. Never mind, we found some comfy seats in the shade and ordered a jug of sangria for 10€. This was a welcome sit down and chill out for an hour or so. We got so many glasses out of the jug.



This slightly blurry picture is no reflection on the quantity of sangria I consumed.

It was off for dinner next. As yesterday, we had our 2 other tripadvisor recommendations in hand.

Before dinner, we stopped to buy the obligatory magnet.



We spent a while trying to find our first choice. It turned out it had closed down –we weren’t the only people looking for this either! Our second choice was closed as they were on holiday.

We made the sensible decision of heading back to Bodega Biarritz, as the meal had been so good last night.





There was a wait again, but we ordered two mojitos in the queue for 5€ each. There were 3 couples in front of us and the wait was 15 minutes or so. We were sat at the table next to our one last night
.


I was pleased to see that most of the offerings were different to last night and they clearly vary their menu based on what’s available.

Again, I’m not sure what most of the options are.

Two lots of croquettes, the smaller one is mushroom.



Patatas bravas



There’s definitely a quiche and some chorizo on this plate. The rest is anyone’s guess, but it was all really tasty.



Halfway through the meal we were moved to spaces at the counter. I don’t know if this meant we had ordered too much food for a regular table?

Suitably stuffed, we headed out again on the hunt for ice cream. We tried a second trip advisor recommended place, Gelati Di Marco.

This place was chaotic. It wasn’t clear you had to prepay before you chose your ice cream. However, it was so busy that you couldn’t see the ice cream flavours, so how could I decide how many scoops I wanted? The pay till also seemed to be in the wrong location for people to flow in and out of the shop. We pre-paid and then had to fight a bit to select our ice cream – there didn’t seem to be any queue. Others seemed to be able to order and then pay.

Eventually we went for bounty, after eight and kinder to share. The ice cream was nice, but not a patch on last night’s.

We sat on the steps of this church (not sure what this was called, although it wasn’t too far from the hotel) and enjoyed our ice cream whilst watching a street performer with a giant hula hoop.



We stopped for water on the way back to the hotel and headed to bed, ready for an exciting day tomorrow – we’re going on a Disney Cruise!

Coming soon : Day 5 - Boarding the Disney Magic

[The Hulk]

Great day,Barcelona looks lovely. We are going for the first time in April for 3 nights so looking forward to it now I've read your report 😊

[stecee]

Another great day
We saw the exterior of the cathedral a couple of years ago when we visited Barca on a cruise. We were very disappointed we didn't have time to see the inside, it's very impressive isn't it.
Great photos of the architecture. It's a beautiful city.

[Sotong]

Great photos and report in Barcelona, going to spend some time there again one day! Recently finished my trip report of a holiday similar to yours.

Waiting for next few days of your report and to see and hear about your experiences of the Disney Magic.

Gillian.

[Scruffette]

Originally Posted by The Hulk

Great day,Barcelona looks lovely. We are going for the first time in April for 3 nights so looking forward to it now I've read your report 😊

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I really want to go back to Barcelona. Have a lovely time

Originally Posted by stecee

Another great day
We saw the exterior of the cathedral a couple of years ago when we visited Barca on a cruise. We were very disappointed we didn't have time to see the inside, it's very impressive isn't it.
Great photos of the architecture. It's a beautiful city.

See more...

I got a bit snap happy taking photos! Definitely worth a visit if you go back. Thanks for reading

[Bobsledwheels]

Another lovely day - we never made it to the Gaudi park but had the same feelings walking into the sagrada familia - such a stunning building and the way they play with light is unbelievable.

Looking forward to tomorrow!

[Scruffette]

Originally Posted by Bobsledwheels

Another lovely day - we never made it to the Gaudi park but had the same feelings walking into the sagrada familia - such a stunning building and the way they play with light is unbelievable.

Looking forward to tomorrow!

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It's one of my favourite buildings I think! Thanks for reading

[Gill H]

What a lovely day. It's a shame we only have one evening in Barcelona but we have prebooked Sagrada Familia (just entry as we won't have much time). Can't wait to see it.

Park Guell will have to wait for another trip - and I'm sure there will be another trip!

[batleyboy26]

Only just seen this as Gill H has commented and it has come up in my new posts but love your day. We went to BArcelona at Spring Bank and visited Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell and ate at Bodega Biarritz so was lovely to rad your report and see all the photos.