Saturday, July 9: La Sagrada Familia, Barceloneta beach, and Magic Fountain

On Saturday we got up and got going (by bikes again) to see the famous Sagrada Familia basilica. This is the famous incomplete work by Gaudi, still under construction and predicted to be completed by 2026, 100 years after his death! The basilica is very unusual and impressive, very different than some of the famous cathedrals we had seen in Germany and France. Gaudi has a unique style and it is quite artistic. Unfortunately due to ongoing construction, there were several huge cranes standing around and big sections of the outside are covered in scaffolding and netting, ruining the picture-perfect views. They recommended we buy tickets online for the following day, which was a bit disappointing. 

 We tried to walk in for the inside tour shortly after noon, but were told it was sold out for the rest of the day! We did enjoy seeing the outside, walked around it and visited a few souvenir shops.

We decided to ride back home and get ready for the beach instead. Again, we took the bikes. By this time we were starting to do a little better, though we still wasted a lot of time consulting maps and or GPS. Fortunately, everywhere we stopped seemed to be a scenic place!
Since she had already been to the beach yesterday, Charlotte knew a little better where she was going and we found our way more easily than she had on her way home yesterday!

 Barceloneta beach is exactly the kind of beach I hate... crowded, noisy, and dirty, but it did have sand, sun, and water! Considering they created this beach with sand imported from Egypt when the 1992 Olympics were in Barcelona, it was actually quite nice, with public restrooms, and a long boardwalk with bars and restaurants.

My pretty pedicure held up so well!

 Since it was already late afternoon, we were not too concerned about sunburn and just enjoyed chilling for a couple of hours. Despite the occasional whiff of marijuana, lots of people drinking beer, and overhearing some unpleasant language and embellished stories of drug use, it was fun watching people. There were a lot of topless women, which is different than we would usually see in the USA!

After we had had enough of the beach, we decided to ride back home to the apartment and discovered that there was a Pride Parade going on right there on our way home! Two in the same week! We caught a few glimpses of it, but actually tried to avoid the crowds and rode back a slightly different way to avoid getting caught in all the traffic.
After cleaning up and changing (we sweat a lot in Barcelona!), we decided to leave the bikes locked up and take the metro to the famous Magic Fountain of Montjuïc. We did not realize until the last day of our trip that our apartment was actually within walking distance of the fountain!
The Magic Fountain offers a free light and music show nightly from 21:00 until 22:30. We arrived there at about 21:30. When we walked up from the metro station, the first thing we saw was a glass elevator outside of the big shopping mall, which used to be a bull fighting ring.

It only cost 1 Euro per person, so we took it to the top, which provided nice views of the fountain and the city. The whole top level consisted of various different restaurants. We wanted to stay and eat dinner, but did not want to miss out on the fountain show, so we decided to walk to the fountain first and eat later. We were impressed with the extent of the grounds around it. Many smaller fountains along the way to it, and more fountains and waterfalls beyond it up to a higher vantage point. 

We enjoyed the changing colors and water patterns in the fountain and the spray of it while walking by was refreshing on a hot July night! 

See Alex in the front wearing his white Canada shirt

Daryl, Ben, and Charlotte stayed on the main fountain level, but Alex and I decided to climb all the way to the top. Part of it was on escalators, but there were also a lot of stairs to climb. It was worth it! The views down to the fountain were spectacular!

After the light show ended, we walked back to the bullfighting ring mall and found the free escalators inside to get back up to the top level, where all the restaurants were. By the time we got there it was around 11 pm. We chose a restaurant and checked in and had to wait 10 minutes for a table! 

We found this to be typical in Barcelona, dinner happens very late. Between 11 pm and midnight seemed like prime time for Spanish dinners. We often saw families, even with young children out really late at night. The location was wonderful, but the food was okay, nothing spectacular.

We rode the crowded metro back "home" well after midnight! As you can see, the kids were still in good spirits. 

Before going to bed, I did get online and book tickets for the Sagrada Familia tomorrow. It turned out there was a special deal for half price tickets for the three of us "under 30" on a Sunday evening after 17:45 pm, so I booked that. In the "morning", we planned to go to Park Guell, which I also booked online, in case it sold out, for a 13:30 entry time. I think it was after 2 am when I finally got to bed!

Friday, July 8: Bikes, Camp Nou and Barcelona city

When we woke up on our first day in Barcelona, we had a big agenda for the day. First order of business was to pick up our rental bikes that Daryl had reserved for 3 days! We took a metro to the nearest stop and promptly walked the wrong way after we got up to the street. This would become a common theme throughout the next couple of days. We spent a lot of time consulting maps and GPS. Barcelona is a very difficult and confusing city to navigate!

We found the place, and picked up the bikes. They were nice city bikes, with a choice of a basket on the front. I was the only one who chose this option and I am so glad I did. It held my purse or backpack, water bottle, and occasionally even groceries! It also gave me easy access to my camera, so I was able to take some bike photos!

After picking up the bikes, we planned to go take a tour of Camp Nou, the FC Barcelona soccer stadium. Charlotte had said before we bought the tickets that she has no interest in that and would spend the morning at the beach instead. So, since we were all so new at navigating the bikes and the city, we decided to accompany her down to the beach. It was not far, and was a fun ride,

After we left Charlotte at the beach, we had to find a tourist office, where we had to pick up our pre-booked vouchers for Camp Nou. We wound up going through some major pedestrian areas on streets without bake paths. It was so crowded we were better off pushing the bikes. We wondered why Barcelona had a reputation of being so bike friendly when it was so difficult to get around.

After a while we figured out that we had to pick to right roads, because many did have really awesome bike paths, often wide bike lanes. We did have to stop at many red lights through the city, so it was often really slow traveling! We were thankful to see all of the beautiful architecture and to be able to take photos along the way. So much more scenic than an underground metro ride!! Daryl also took a lot of photos on his phone! We eventually picked up the tickets and made it to the stadium. Along the way, we stopped for lunch.

Camp Nou was Ben's dream come true! He loved seeing the trophies, photos and other memorabilia in the museum.

  He was awestruck to be in the incredibly huge stadium, which seats almost 100,000 fans!

The self guided tour allowed us to walk all over the stadium, including down on the sidelines of the pitch where the subs sit. We got to walk into the tunnel where the players come out of before the game. We got to see the chapel, the press room, the visiting teams locker room, the box seats, and every angle of the stadium seats.

 There is even a restaurant where we could have eaten with a view of the pitch and a snack shop with Barca chips!

After the whole grand tour, then you leave through the gift shop, which is 3 stories high! Ben spent an hour looking for the perfect souvenirs there. Fortunately he did not want to buy the jerseys that cost 150 Euros or the 1 inch square piece of grass off the pitch in a tiny plastic cube for 20 Euro. He bought a really cool snap-back cap and a scarf to hang on his wall to add to the FC Barcelona themed decor of his room.
We had made out to message with Charlotte at 3, which worked out perfectly. She was on her way home from the beach and we agreed to meet back at the apartment to spend the evening together.

After cleaning up and eating supper, we ventured back out on the bikes (yes, in dresses and Charlotte in her wedge heels!) to check out the night life along the famous street La Rambla, full of souvenir shops, vendors, and restaurants.

Ben holding one of the heavy duty bike locks

 We parked the bikes and had fun walking up and down the beautiful alley. The old Gothic section of Barcelona is so beautiful. All the narrow little cobblestone streets with beautiful iron balconies.

We walked into the Placa Real, which was really festive at night with all the palm trees, lights, and beautiful arched columns. Then we decided to stop for a break of Sangria and Fanta for the kids, which in Spain comes in orange or lemon flavor.