Day 2--Barcelona

Friday we were up pretty early and opted for the hotel breakfast. It was okay. Some local meats and cheeses, some typical hotel scrambled eggs, etc. A large coffee machine with different options. I don't think it was really worth the cost, but it was convenient. I was disappointed though that there was no "free" coffee other than that machine with breakfast. Usually a hotel will have access to coffee through the day. They said to use the machine in our room but I need cream, not powdered "whitener."

Our only definite plans were Park Güell at 11:00, and taking the Barcelona Bus Turístic to get there. It was hard to decide which of the two Hop On, Hop Off buses to take. I had chose this one because the routes were longer, and I thought at first we'd go to some of the places it went to, like Tibidabo--but then I found out it doesn't actually go to Park Güell or Tibidabo. It's more like "Look up there, that's where it is."

We got to Plaça de Catalunya around 9am, when the bus was to start, and got on the first Blue route bus. It heads up the Passeig de Gràcia, where we had been the night before. We could sort of see the Gaudi homes from a better viewpoint (top deck on the double decker), but at the same time, there were trees in the way LOL.  Then we headed across to the Sagrada Família. We passed this building on Av. Diagonal.

This is the Casa de les Punxes, it's not a Gaudi building. It's a co-working/event space now.

We then went past the Sagrada Família. I took pictures but I will wait and put them with the pictures from the tour we did on the Saturday.

We continued on to the next stop, the Sant Pau Recinte Modernista and got off. I wanted to tour it, but we hadn't bought tickets because you don't need a specific time and we hadn't wanted to lock in. We didn't have time right then because we were on our way to Park Güell for 11am. 

This beautiful place was the hospital until 2009! The grounds are large and lovely, though we couldn't go in.

 

We did go in the little gift shop and got Christmas gifts. Basically the only gifts we got on the whole trip!  I thought this B&W image was cool and historic, though of course it wouldn't have been taken with a digital camera's details LOL. 

This was around the side as we waited to get back on the HOHO bus. If we were to ever go back, touring this place is at the top of the list. 

We got back on the bus and the next stop was Park Güell. The bus's route map was not very clear on where we were or how to get to the entrance...there seemed to be multiple entrances and we weren't sure exactly where to go. So we followed the small group that had also gotten off and headed up hill. Shortly, the ladies in front of us asked a passerby, in Spanish, where to go. He answered that they could walk straight uphill, or take the path to the left which would be "more comfortable" and he showed how it had switch backs with his hand.  I was able to translate! However, looking at the map after, we did not take any path to the left! So maybe I translated wrong...I knew izquierda is left, and mas comodo was comfortable. Anyway, it wasn't too bad, but it is up a pretty big hill. And it was getting hot. 

We got to the "side" entrance near the parking lot. It was only about 10:30, I guess we could have gone a bit slower on the incline LOL. We sat on a bench in the cool shade and relaxed. Then, at about 10:50 I thought I would get the tickets out, just to double check that there wasn't a specific entrance to be at. 

I couldn't find the tickets. 

I had the new backpack and things kept getting lost in it. I knew I had had them before we left, because I took them out of the big envelope that I was keeping all our paperwork in. I frantically dug in the bag. Nothing. They had come through email, so I had the email, right?

I went to get my phone out of the bag, and couldn't find it. Rob had his phone so I tried to log into my email, but the only options I had to get a code was a text to my phone....or to that email! I tried so many different ways and I was THIS close to melting down in public. 

Then I realized I was wearing my smart watch. If my phone actually was in my bag, it would be connected. I checked my watch (it was about 10:55 by now), and it was connected! I used Find My Phone and it started making that annoying sound, deep in the bottom of the backpack!  Yay!

I SO close to crying. On other trips out of the country, I've never had phone service when we've travelled out of country but this time we did set it up. I was able to get into my email and find the tickets, and we were able to enter a minute or two before our 11am time slot.

We entered at the right side, and first thing we wanted was a bathroom. The trail goes to the right, and straight ahead. The sign for the bathroom pointed straight down. Uhhh. So we went to the left, and the next path is on the left, and it went down to a much lower level, so we went down. There was a nice picnic area, with a guitarist, but we could not find a bathroom. So we went back up.

We went over to where the main entrance is, in the lower centre of the map, there's two light circles that are on either side of the entrance. There's a large black building there with the bathrooms. However, they were closed for cleaning. We waited, it was quick for the men, but quite a bit longer for the ladies. 

After that, we had no idea where to go and we followed the trail that goes to the bottom left, up to the Three Crosses hill (Turó de les Tres Creus). 

There's the Sagrada de Familia on the horizon towards the right side. 

I believe this is Casa Trias. Not sure about the house in the background. 

We could also see Mont Tibidabo in the distance--an amusement park and church area.

The pink house is the Gaudi museum, the two buildings at the bottom are on either side of the main entrance, the building you can see just to the left is the washrooms, and the top left is another cool area we saw later.

Another shot of Montjüic. You can see how easily it would be for smog to get trapped over Barcelona.

We came back down and around to the top of the Hypostyle Room (Sala Hipòstila). It's a sand covered, flat area with benches around the front edge, and a rock wall along the back. If you go, make sure to fill up your water bottles just before the stairs to go down to this as it seemed like you couldn't get back to it because it was one way traffic. 

We snagged a bench and sat to rest. They were very well designed and quite comfortable, despite being concrete!

It was a fun place to people watch. There was a school group of little kids, like 2-3 year olds that came through. They were adorable in their matching outfits.

This open area was huge! I was zoomed in here quite a bit!

 

The benches run along the front here.

After our rest, we headed to the back of this open area and found more washrooms. The men's was quick but my line was long. It was pretty cool though, it was IN the rock wall. There were two ladies behind me chatting, don't think they knew each other but one was from Ottawa!

We then headed through this cool area, and came out at the Hypostyle Room, which we had glimpses of from above--all the columns. It is amazing!

We did not see the whole area. Everywhere you look, there's details.

The outer columns had an angle to them. I heard a guide telling a funny story about that mushroom roof you can see through there. About how Gaudi drank too much coffee, and for a week kept all his cups and used them in the design, which is modelled after a poisonous mushroom--his doctor had said the coffee was like poison too.  No idea if it's a true story!

Mosaics on the ceilings!

To get down from here, you use the grand staircase. It is one way traffic, but busy.

There's the mushroom roof on one of the gatehouses.  Keep in mind this was a model home for the development Gaudi was asked to design!

Rain is collected from the roof of the Hipostyle room and fed these water fountains. However, due to drought, most of the fountains in Barcelona were shut down. We didn't get to see the Magic Fountain light display either.

This is taken from the gatehouse with the blue and white twisty spire. It's actually a gift shop/book store but we saw the same items as at the hospital earlier. It was fun to walk up to the top but very narrow and crowded because it's two way traffic up to a very small room. We didn't go in the other house. There was a line. 

We started walking down the "road" and realized we wanted a bathroom again. We stopped a little maintenance van and asked where the bathrooms were. They didn't understand, Rob said "water closet" because the sign said W/C. They were even more confused. I said Baño, they didn't understand. I had watched a video about Catalan, and learned Aseo meant bathroom, and they understand that. But they didn't know where it was except near the main entrance where we had already been. So we went back there again. 

Gaudi was a lover of nature, and it shows in this park. Hard to believe this was supposed to be a housing development! Plumbago Articulata. So many plants and flowers everywhere!

Some work was being done. You can see people walking on the path above. 

This looks down into a playground and picnic area.

Not sure what he was photographing LOL

I love seeing signs like this, and what they can tell you about the local culture. 

The grand avenue where we stopped the maintenance van. We were near the entrance we came in and decided it was time to go. We spent about 2 hours there. We could have spent a bit longer if I had researched it a bit better and downloaded a better map. I didn't change the time on my camera, so it's set to home time, and the pictures tell me we entered at 5am and this one was at 6:45am. In Barcelona time, it was 12:45pm. 

I don't know the exact routes we took. I wish I had set my watch to track the GPS! This is a general idea of the size of the park. Came in on the right, went downwards to find the bathroom, went to the center gate area for the bathroom, then The Three Crosses on the left, the large open area that's the roof for the Hipostyle Room, around to the Hipotyle Room, down the staircase, the gatehouse buildings, the playground/picnic areas.

Google Image tells me this is an agave plant! We thought it was a large snake plant. 

This is the Suzuki Jimny, which Rob really wants to come to Canada. There are rumours that Toyota is bringing it here. We were amazed at how tightly packed cars were in the parking spots along the street. And consider it's a hill, and they're mostly standards!

We found where the bus stop was, and there was already a long line. Conveniently, there's an ice cream shop there. The prices seem high when converted. It was busy though. If you zoom in on the Google satellite map, you can actually see some Bus Turistic at the stop. While we waited, the other company drove past to their stop a few yards away. No line up there! They actually came about 3 times before we got on our bus. Finally it came, and less than 10 people got on. The next bus took about 5 (but it still had empty seats!), and we got the next bus. The line was way longer when we left.

The next stop was Tramvia Blau-Tibidabo. I had hope to go here but was really disappointed when I found out it's still a bit of a journey from the bus stop to the top of Tibidabo. There's a funicular to go up, but I couldn't figure out the cost. It's included in the tickets...but the area I wanted to go is the Panoramic area which is free and I couldn't see a price for the funicular for that ticket. There is the "Emblematic Rides Pass + Coco Lum" under the Panoramic section of the fare table, for 19€ and that seemed like a lot for a 4 min funicular ride if the area was free. The weather had turned cloudy and we just didn't feel like figuring it all out. 

Torre Andreu (La Rotonda) is one of the landmarks we saw on the bus. It goes up into some nice areas and I thought we might get off and walk around, but it was around 2pm, the bus was very full and we thought we might not get back on!

The bus goes into the Barcelona Football club and you can get off at the museum/gift shop. The stadium looks like it's going to be HUGE. I think they said 100, 000 spectators!

It then goes back out to a main street, Av. Diagonal. It's a very popular shopping street, and there's a cool tram down the middle, and it's covered in grass! We decided to get off where the blue line and the red lines meet at the Plaça de Francesc Marìa. There's a McDonald's there so we decided to check it out.

We ordered from the kiosk. Rob got a McExtreme Pulled Pork combo (it might have been the Double) and I got a McExtreme bacon cheeseburger (I think). Rob headed downstairs to the bathroom. There was more seating down there, and the bathroom was tiny. And not clean! We waited a long time for our order. The number went from "being prepared" to ....not on the sign. We asked and they said it wasn't ready. It took too long. It came to 21.68€ which was $32Cdn. Not worth it.

We opted to sit in the middle of Av. de Josep Terradelles. Many of the streets have a park like area running down the middle, similar to the popular La Rambla. 

His burger looked slapped together. Considering how long it took, they could have aligned things a bit better! The cheese is not the typical "American processed" cheese. It's "a delicious smoked cheese medallion." The pictures for both the single and the double show only one slice of cheese. We think they threw one in the vicinity of the box but missed the burger so they had to put another one on.

He picked wedges instead of fries. They were pretty good. He got a drink, and I got an Orange Fanta...and promptly it fell over on the bench and I only had gotten one sip! 

And then it started raining lightly of course. This is my burger, with its one slice of bacon that also wasn't exactly ON the burger. The combo also came with a small McFlurry which was a nice treat.

We walked back to where we got off and got on the next red line bus. This is one of the main Bus Turistic stops. It was a little maddening to see all the (free) headphones that people had thrown there (we're on an open air double decker).

This is the Arenas de Barcelona. It was a bullfighting arena. In 2011 it was raised and converted to a mall. You can go up to the roof and have great views. There's a cinema (only movies in Spanish), restaurants and over 100 stores. 

The elevator on the right takes you up to the roof. Again, on another trip...

This is around the Plaça d'Espanya, where the legendary Magic Fountain is. Unfortunately, it's been shut down for awhile due to drought. Of course, a few days after we left, Spain had enormous rain falls. This whole area was pretty neat, being built for an International Expo in 1929. 

Like everywhere, it was construction season. We thought it was neat seeing workers in their hi-vis laying under trees, sometimes on grass and sometimes on the concrete, having their post-lunch siesta.

This is the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. It was also built in 1929 for the International Expo, which was part of the plan to modernize Montjuïc. There is a lot to see in this area!! Unfortunately, my camera battery was dead and I had to switch to the phone.

We decided to get off at the Telefèric de Montjuïc and go up the cable car. But first we had to look for a bathroom. We were trying to stay hydrated, okay? LOL. No bathrooms! Nothing even on their big "You Are Here" maps. We pay for the cable car, the young cashier did not even attempt to understand any English. It wasn't really an issue, but another example of European service. The ride was 11€ each, one way. It seemed like a lot but there was no way we were going to walk up! Originally my plan was we would come by metro, then take the funicular up to the cable car. We decided to just do the cable car since we were there.

While I enjoy being at heights, and the vast, soaring views...I hate being unstable. I've done ski lifts, open cable cars, and gondolas, and I'm never chill and relaxed even though I'm loving the view.

The right seemed very short for 11 Euros. Whatever. We got off at the top and walked around a little trying to see if there was a bathroom. There wasn't, but there was an exercise trail through the woods. Looks like it was a popular place for bathroom breaks. 

Then we walked around the backside of the castle and started our way down the mountain, courtesy of Google Maps. It's a neat area, with a huge botanical garden, but man, they need a couple bathroom buildings! I also thought we'd be able to get to the Port Cable Car and take it, but again, the map was confusing and I didn't know exactly where the station was. 

We had a fun walk back down to the base of the cable car to get the bus again. Thanks to Google Maps!

We got to the stop and waited. And waited. The bus info said it could be 30 min between buses but this was a bit longer than that!

Eventually, quite a line formed. We were getting tired, but were committed to taking the red route all the way back around to the Plaça de Catalunya. We could have got off at the Columbus monument and walk back up (Rob would not consider the Metro!), but we stuck it out.

There's Montjuïc in the background.

Port area

This is El Cap de Barcelona, an abstract sculpture. Created in 1992, the Head of Barcelona is a 64-ft. abstract statue by American Roy Lichtenstein.  It is at the far end of the walk along the harbour that we had done the day before. So, one end is Columbus, one end is this.

This is the Estación de Francia, a gorgeous looking (from the photos I see when figuring out what this is) train station.

There was a slow down on the road and we saw this accident. Just like here, there was an absurd about of police and rescue vehicles for what seemed like only one vehicle.

Scooters and motorbikes everywhere!

Several times we had seen these cute little fire trucks zooming around Barcelona. They have an adorable siren. 

This is the PRBB Parc de Recerca Biomèdica de Barcelona. It's a little strange looking, with a wood-like shell. It's quite a landmark though as there's not really a lot of tall buildings in most of Barcelona.

Another shot of the traffic. It seemed like pretty well behaved traffic, though motorbikes could be unpredictable. In some areas they were using the bike lanes...not sure if that's allowed though!

Another shot of the Sephora slide. I do wish we had gone in and done some shopping--if only our kids had given us their Christmas lists early!!

It was late by the time we got back to the hotel and freshened up. We tried to go to a highly recommended Scobies Irish Pub right around the corner, but they don't serve food anymore. So we went back around to New York Burger Pelayo. Not to be confused at all with New York Fries! I had this awesome coconut lemonade (above). So yummy!

It was really good! Even the very simple salad was nice. I had read that Spain doesn't really do a tossed/garden salad like we do at home, so it was nice just to have a simple lettuce/arugula/tomato salad.

Some views from the rooftop again.

Directly across from our room. 

Took this shot at the Park Guëll I think but somehow it's in a weird spot in the files.

And that was our first full day in Barcelona! Long, tiring, exciting. We headed to bed because we had to be up early the next day to go to the Sagrada Familia!