You've got a friend in Me(d) - Day 3 - PortAventura and Barcelona

[Scruffette]

Day 3 - PortAventura and Barcelona

We woke with the alarm at 7am this morning, as we had some packing to do!

We managed to fit almost everything into the one large suitcase, to make travelling around Barcelona easier later on.

We had to pay to store our luggage and I was impressed the lockers could fit our case.

Breakfast was similar to yesterday, but they still did many to vary the items a bit. There was no chocolate sauce for my waffle, so I improvised by using Nutella.





I promise I ate at least two pieces of melon to counteract all the pastries.

We walked into town towards the bus stop, stopping at the mini supermarket at 9am when it opened. We bought bread, cheese, chorizo, crisps, water and of course sweeties.



The bus arrived at 9.15am and we were at the park at 9.35am.
Our bags were searched on entrance on the park, and today they said we had to get rid of the food in Ollie’s bag. I was a bit annoyed by this. I don’t mind if this was a rule that had been made known to us, but yesterday they searched our bags and had no objections to our large packets of crisps.

Ollie was a bit sneaky and went and threw away the crisps, but kept the bread, cheese and chorizo which were hidden further in his bag. I’m not normally a fan of rule breaking, but I felt they were inconsistent here so didn’t mind!







We joined a rope drop crowd at the rope closet to Shambhala at 9.40am and they dropped the rope at 10am.



Ollie power walked while I ambled (carrying the bag with 4 litres of water). I wasn’t mad enough to ride Shambhala again! I was going to take a leisurely walk and have a sit down and wait for him. However, he was gone a while as most rides don’t open until 10.30am or 11am. Ridiculous when the park opens at 10am!



Only two rides were open – and one of them already had an hour and 50 minute wait!







Anyway, Ollie rode Shambhala three times. He got on the first ride of the day, and then took the single rider queue with no wait and got on rides three and five of the day!



He managed a go on Dragon Khan as well.

We contemplated Angkor as we hadn’t ridden it yet, but then realised it’s just a ride firing water at an opposite boat and we would get soaked. We passed and it was my choice next.

I chose something more my level – the mine train! The wait was only 15/20minutes, so that was a winner.



Ollie expertly assembled our sandwiches after this so they could be eaten in a queue line. This lunch was a vast improvement on our sad sandwich yesterday.



Stampida was next.



Again the wait times were very off, it said 30 minutes and was actually an hour and 5 minutes.



At least we had sandwiches to eat! We chose red this time.
We decided to buy our ride photo from Stampida, to mark the occasion of my first ‘woodie’.

We did the kiddie Woodie coaster next – Tomahawk. No express passes here, so the wait was less than 15 minutes. I’m a fan of the tamer rides

We took a wander round the park next, snapping some pictures and enjoying the theming. I know I’ve been a bit hard on some of the aspects of the park, but it really is very pretty.









We had a quick go on the pirate ship and walked right on. Fortunately no one threw up like when we rode the one at Drayton Manor last year.

We headed into the Bubblebou show at 2.35pm for the 3pm show, and it was already quite busy.



The man unfortunately was having a bad day with the bubbles.

Ferrari land, coming soon…





We headed out the park next and a bus turned up fairly quickly, we were driving away by 3.55pm. We stopped for water and some cokes (proper coke – we are on holiday after all).

We were back at the hotel for 4.20pm and sat by the pool and chilled in the shade. This was a lovely relax. A couple nearby ordered pizza, so naturally we decided we needed one. However, they had just stopped serving. Never mind.

The reception called us a taxi around 5.30pm and it was a very quick journey to Salou train station, costing around 13.50€.

I pre-booked the train tickets in advance on the Renfe website (I’m glad I pre-booked as much as possible given post-Brexit exchange rates). However, at the train station the train times on the board didn’t quite match up with what we’d booked! We managed to work out which train it was (a few minutes different to the pre booked train)

The train was fine and only about 10 minutes late. We secured seats on the aisle opposite each other. I found it a bit odd that the screens on the train displayed which stations the train had stopped at, but not where it was stopping later! The journey last about an hour and 20 minutes.

Ambitiously, the plan was to get the metro to the hotel, complete with luggage. Annoyingly, we had to leave the train station to go outside and get the lift to the metro station.

We bought a T10 card between us for 9.95€. This was valid for 10 single journeys (including changing on metro lines) and we could both use the same card. This just meant once validated, we had to pass the card back to whoever was second through the barriers. The back of the card was marked with the number of journeys remaining. From my research, this worked out the cheapest way to use the metro for us.

I had pre-printed a metro map, which was good as there were none available in the station. We took the L3 to Liceu on La Rambla, a short walk from the hotel

We arrived at the Hotel Gaudi at 8.30pm. I emailed a few days before requesting a room on a high floor facing Palau Güell. We got one of these requests, our first floor balcony looked onto Palau Güell.



Some obligatory room pics:









The location of the hotel was great, just of La Rambla, near a metro station and not too far from the sea.

It was definitely dinner time. There was a nice atmosphere walking around late in the evening.

Whenever we’re away, we Tripadvisor a few places first to get some ideas of where to eat. It’s good to avoid the dilemma of when you’re both hungry and don’t know what you want to eat!

We chose Bodega Biarritz, a small traditional tapas place not far from the hotel. There was a queue outside, but they kept us occupied by offering drinks. We both had a sangria (3.50€). Well, when in Barcelona
The line took maybe 20-30 minutes. We were sat a high barrel like table. The tables were crammed in a small space and I did have a coat hook in my side.

Cosy.



There are no menus, you go to the counter and order. They go down all the food on the counter, tell you what it is (in very good English fortunately), and you say yes or no. I found this a bit daunting and difficult to keep track of how many tapas we’d ordered!

They then heat up your food and bring it to you. Obviously we went for another sangria each as well.



Here is what our food looked like. I can’t remember all of it, but it was really tasty!

This was a croquette of some description



A goat cheese tart



This could be anything



This plate includes a quiche, garlic chicken skewer, chorizo skewer and two things probably containing cheese.



I think we also had a mini burger of some description.

I don’t have the receipt, but I remember it coming to around the 50€ mark with drinks.

Our greedy selves were contemplating ordering more. They say they prioritise new customers first, but you are welcome to order more if no one is waiting. We decided against this in the end, opting for ice cream.

Of course, we had sussed out ice cream places in advance. We went to Mann Gelats, but it was closing up. We asked nicely and the lady serving let us order, but there was only a small selection left out to choose from. We shared a scoop of Bueno and a scoop of stratiacella. This ice cream was really creamy and super tasty. A big hit (and much better than the ice cream we tried the next night). In fact, I’d rate this as the best ice cream all trip.

We stopped off for some water for the room (1.50€) and had a quick walk to the sea as we were so close. We were back at the hotel around midnight and set our alarms for another busy day tomorrow.

Day 4 - Barcelona

[stecee]

Another great day
From your photos Port Adventura does look nice, it reminds me of parts of Island of Adventure, though those wait times...
It looks like you have another nice hotel.

[Sotong]

Loving this as in 2015 my DD and I spent 5 days at Port Aventura before a day in Barcelona and then a week on the Disney Magic.

We also found Port Aventura hot and busy, but as we stayed on site we went later on in the day when the day trips have left, it was a lot quieter then. We plan to return as my daughter dislocated her shoulder on a trampoline a few weeks before we went on holiday and had general surgery on it to repair it so we didn't go on the big rollercoasters.

Looking forward to your Barcelona days as whilst been there a few times for the day from a cruise ship never really seen all of the sites.

Gillian

[Scruffette]

Originally Posted by stecee

Another great day
From your photos Port Adventura does look nice, it reminds me of parts of Island of Adventure, though those wait times...
It looks like you have another nice hotel.

See more...

It was very pretty. I suppose the wait times are expected in August. Thanks for reading

[Scruffette]

Originally Posted by Sotong

Loving this as in 2015 my DD and I spent 5 days at Port Aventura before a day in Barcelona and then a week on the Disney Magic.

We also found Port Aventura hot and busy, but as we stayed on site we went later on in the day when the day trips have left, it was a lot quieter then. We plan to return as my daughter dislocated her shoulder on a trampoline a few weeks before we went on holiday and had general surgery on it to repair it so we didn't go on the big rollercoasters.

Looking forward to your Barcelona days as whilst been there a few times for the day from a cruise ship never really seen all of the sites.

Gillian

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Good idea going later in the day. We got there earlier and then didn't have the stamina to keep going in the heat! Have fun doing all the big rides next time

[Bobsledwheels]

Ouch those wait times!

Tapas look lovely. Barcelona does have some great spots for a bite. Can't beat tripadvisor!

[Scruffette]

Originally Posted by Bobsledwheels

Ouch those wait times!

Tapas look lovely. Barcelona does have some great spots for a bite. Can't beat tripadvisor!

See more...

The downside of going in August. Won't be an issue for us in future though luckily.

I really want to go back to Barcelona - lots more food to try!

[Gill H]

Thanks for this. Really looking forward to going to Barcelona for the first time (albeit very briefly!)

[Scruffette]

Originally Posted by Gill H

Thanks for this. Really looking forward to going to Barcelona for the first time (albeit very briefly!)

See more...

Barcelona is now one of my favourite European cities. Even a brief visit I'm sure will be nice