Barcelona

We had a 5 day weekend at the beginning of December, so we decided to go to Barcelona.

We took a train for the first time ever, which was much easier than flying (we arrived at luggage check just 15 minutes before boarding time), but a bit similar inside the train as far as seating and legroom. It took almost 3 hours to get there.

Barcelona was definitely the highlight of our time in Spain so far!

By far and away the main reason Barcelona was the highlight was because of our visit to the cathedral of Sagrada Familia. It is absolutely awe-inspiring! Descriptions and pictures simply don’t do it justice. Gaudí was 100% inspired in his vision for the cathedral and its purpose; he was all about worshipping God through his work, and you can feel it when you’re there. Even though he died long before the cathedral’s completion (which is scheduled for 2026, one hundred years after Gaudí’s death), and other architects have carried on his work, his vision still permeates the whole structure.

The cathedral has two towers that visitors can ascend with extra tickets, the Tower of the Nativity and the Tower of the Passion. We went up the Tower of the Passion, and got a great view of Barcelona and the Mediterranean Sea.

Also in Barcelona we went to Tibidabo, the aquarium, and the beach, and Jacob and I took an evening to go around and explore some of the city.

The aquarium was a bit underwhelming, as was the beach, but Tibidabo was fun.

I love a place with a view, and Tibidabo, a small mountain with an amusement park and cathedral at the top, is the perfect place for that. It wasn’t in our plans before we got there; in fact I’d never heard of it. But when we first arrived we were asking our taxi driver about things to do around town and he suggested Tibidabo, so we decided to go for it. Four of us went–Jacob, Hazel, Grace, and myself. We took a cable car up to the top, and since it was afternoon by the time we went, there wasn’t much time to do many of the rides. We all went on the ferris wheel, and Hazel and I went on this slow rotating height ride and a roller coaster. Jacob and Grace were in line for another ride when they said it was closing for the evening :/

I had wanted to go to the top of the cathedral as well, but it turns out it closes at the same time as the park. We still walked up the steps to the gate just in case, but it was locked. Fortunately, there were some tourists that were still inside, and the manager/gatekeeper person came to let them out of the gate as we were sitting there. I approached and was like, It’s too late for us to go up right?

But he kind of had a twinkle in his eye and was like, Naw come on up, I have to go and lock everything up anyway.

!!!

I was so excited and grateful!

This nice man gave us our own private tour of the cathedral and took us all the way to the top, where we got the most incredible view. I was overjoyed! I took a picture of us with the guy because I always want to remember how nice he was to give us an after-hours tour.

The next day, when Jacob and I were going around town one evening by ourselves, we had some fun experiences. The most memorable were the street performers. We came across a guy playing Spanish guitar–he was extraordinarily good! There was also a moment when we came to a square in front of a fancy building, maybe a palace, and there were some street performers at the front playing some music, but it also seemed like a class or something, I’m not sure, because they were explaining something to the audience, and then they started playing a song and the whole audience started dancing. Or maybe it’s one of those regional songs/dances that everybody knows, and everyone joins in when they hear it, like the YMCA song or the Macarena in the States. It didn’t occur to me in the moment to ask someone next to me, and I haven’t been able to find anything online.

Before we took the train back to Madrid, we managed to catch up with a friend from Virginia who was on a study abroad in Barcelona for the semester. So nice to see a familiar face!

And then we went home.

Home!

This was our first time leaving Madrid, and the being away and coming back really helped solidify Madrid and our apartment as home in the minds of our kids, which was really helpful for feeling settled and not displaced.