Mediterranean cruise and European adventure - Day 3 - Barcelona

Barcelona

We woke up, got ready and ate breakfast in our hotel. Like in London, we had to pay for it, but that’s okay because it was a nice spread of hot and cold foods and was tasty and convenient. I’d rather pay for good breakfast than have a “free” breakfast that’s crummy. We went back to the room and gathered our things before making our way to the metro station. It was very close to our hotel and thankfully not at all busy. We bought a single T-10 metro card. It’s a 10 ride card for €10 that can be shared by multiple people so long as they are traveling together. We wouldn’t need all 10 rides, but it was still a better value for us because single rides are €2.20. 

We found the appropriate platform and waited for a train to take us to Sagrada Familia. Upon emerging from the train, we all ooohed and aaahed at the impressive sight of the huge church. Because I wasn’t sure how long the metro would take us, I had again overestimated the time it would take and we found ourselves quite early for our 9:30 entry time. So we did a little shopping and bought an overpriced fridge magnet and an overpriced shirt for Emmaline. The later of which we purchased because they wouldn’t let me use my credit card for the magnet and we hadn’t yet found and ATM to try to get any Euros out yet.  

After that, it was about time and we made our way over to the church for our reservation to go up into the Nativity Tower. We took the elevator up to the top of the tower and took in the view of the city, which was incredible. Then it was time to climb down down down 300 steps to the bottom again. After that, we picked up our audio guides and went through the 7 different areas with audio information. It was very informative, but I think at some points Emmaline had a difficult time understanding some of it. Partly it wasn’t geared towards kids and partly because, not being a christian, she doesn’t have context when it tells you to look for the three wise men and so forth. 

The church is really incredible. At first glance, to me it seemed random in design, but then after hearing the audio guide, I better understood the eastern facade is the Nativity (birth of Jesus) which is warm, organic and inviting and the western side is his death (the Passion facade) and it’s more austere and difficult to take in. Ultimately, there will be a glory facade as well, but as the church is still under construction, it’s not there yet. It’s a little strange to visit a church that’s been under construction for over 100 years and still has another 8 years to go. 

I wasn’t sure what to make of Gaudi before we visited Barcelona, but now I definitely appreciate his work. His love of nature and organic style, the fact that he thought about form and function and that he appreciated both the beauty of simplicity and could also make something unique that had a lot going on. In his time, while he was successful, he was a little ahead of his time and not appreciated by everyone. 

We left Sagrada Familia around 11:45 and went back the area of our hotel in search of lunch. We went to the lunch spot I had chosen for us in my initial research and sat down to eat only to be presented with a breakfast menu. We are often okay with breakfast for lunch (or dinner) but nobody was feeling like breakfast again and as they weren’t going to be serving lunch until 1 PM, we opted to go elsewhere. There were a few options nearby and we chose one of them. It ended up being terrible and nobody was impressed by it. Oh well. 

From there, we went back to our hotel to relax for a little bit and regroup before making our way on foot on a little walking tour I had found online and modified somewhat to match up well with a book that we had found for Emmaline called Mission: Barcelona. In the book, it has pages dedicated to various sights around the city and then the kids are supposed to find certain elements at each site and kid-friendly information is given about them. We used it some at Sagrada Familia as well. 

On our walking tour we started at nearby Placa de Catalunya around 2 PM. From there, we walked south down La Rambla and saw several small sights there. La Rambla was very busy and crowded with lots of tourists as well as locals shopping and moving through the city. Eventually we veered off into the Gothic Quarter which was much more quiet and beautiful. First stop was a chocolate and pastry shop where we enjoyed a delicious treat. After that we went into a cute little shop with handmade jewelry. Emmaline bought herself some earrings and I selected a gift for someone. 

After treats and shopping we continued to see several other sites in the Gothic Quarter. If you should happen to be headed to Barcelona in the nearby future and you would like this tour, please let me know and I would be happy to send it to you. I’ll have to find the original source because bits and pieces of it are not mine and I would like to give credit where it is due! We ended our tour at the Disney Store in Barcelona where I bought myself a Barcelona/Mickey Mouse t-shirt that I love. 

After this, we walked back to our hotel, stopping along the way to obtain some money from an ATM, arriving back around 4:30 in the afternoon. Until it was time for dinner, we relaxed at the hotel, did a little packing up and Emmaline watched some cartoons in Spanish.  We were sort of uncertain about dinner but found a place that looked good so we made our way over there at 6:30 which is apparently really early for people in Europe. Back in Austin, it would have been hopping, but we were literally the only people in the entire restaurant. Our meal was really good. I had a bunch of tapas and Roger had an actual meal. Emmaline ate most of Roger’s, not liking the tapas we had ordered for her. So he ate her tapas instead. It all worked out in the end. 

After dinner, we went around the corner to a pastry shop and had some amazing dessert. Emmaline had drinking chocolate, I had a chocolate and orange cake/mousse thing and Roger had chocolate mouse with passionfruit. It was really really good. 

We got back to the room and got everything packed up in preparation for checking out and embarking aboard the Disney Magic the next morning.

Click here for Day 4.