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!