Hey everyone, so if you’ve ever read or seen anything about Barcelona, chances are that you already know everything I’m going to share today. I guess some of the personal insight may be new, but everything else comes from a classic trip to Barcelona.
As mentioned in an earlier post, I was staying in a residential area not frequented by tourists. Nevertheless, Roquetes (where I was staying) is well connected via two different subway lines, so it was only about 30 minutes maximum to get to any main tourist areas in Barcelona. The extra 15 minutes of travel time was more than compensated by the significant savings in money. Like I’ve said before, if you are planning on visiting Barcelona, plan to spend a lot on lodging, but you can significantly cut costs by staying a bit further away. As long as where you are staying is connected to the subway, you will be fine.
As I had been advised to do, several days earlier I had bought a 9:30 AM entry ticket to the church, also opting for the self-guided (audio guide) option. The 9:30 AM option is supposed to be the least crowded according to recommendations from many people. Separately, the human guided tours have too many people for it to be a plus, and you end up having to use special hearing aids to understand the guide, so you may as well just get the pre-recorded option. I suppose it’s possible to pay a huge sum of money and get a truly personalized guide for a group of maximum 4, but that’s not what I saw happening in and around the church. My “self-guided” option had a cost of 45 USD and included access to the passion tower. The cheapest you can get is 33 USD. Again, if you are doing standard tourist stuff, Barcelona is NOT a cheap place to visit. Also, I almost forgot to mention, if you don’t buy your ticket ahead of time, most likely you won’t get in; this place is popular.
So, is it worth it? Well, that’s a hard one to answer. If you’ve already specifically made a trip to Barcelona, this is pretty much an obligatory place to visit, so if that’s the case, yes, it’s worth it. Also, especially the inside of the cathedral DOES look different from other Catholic churches you probably have visited before. It’s extremely modern looking, almost like an upper class shopping mall in Asia. Yes, there are all sorts of special details such as the way the pillars are arranged, and the meaning of absolutely every single object in the whole place. However, would you notice the huge majority of these things if you weren’t directly told? No, you wouldn’t. I didn’t take that many pictures since this is probably the most photographically documented cathedral in the whole world. Still, there were a few things I found interesting.
I tried to drag it out, but the whole visit took about 90 minutes. While natives of the city will probably take issue, I found the whole thing to be a bit overrated. The outside of the church is far more remarkable than the inside, so if money is tight, you will do just fine walking by and admiring it from the outside. To be certain, you could probably spend a few hours carefully examining all of the external features, but you might need a good pair of binoculars since a sort of wall keeps the unpaid casual visitor from getting too close to some of the details. Still, if you have the money, you may as well go inside, since everyone will ask you about it later on.
My other big plan for the day was Parque Güell, but I had read that it’s best to visit in the late afternoon. So, I needed to still fill up the rest of the day. With my trusty 72 hour metro pass (worth every penny!) I was ready to go. I first explored a bit around the general area of the church, just looking at the normal sites/life of the city.
After wandering around for a bit, I decided to visit the aquarium. At this point, I don’t remember if I had to use the metro again or not, (it really is that simple to use that you quickly don’t even notice) I decided that a visit to the aquarium would be a good idea.
There was a bit of walking involved to get to the entry, but I found the temperature to be fine, and all around there were interesting things to see. Entrance to the aquarium itself is 24 euros for those who are 11 or older, 17 euros for children ages 5-10, and finally 10 euros for those ages 3-4. I assume entrance for infants and toddlers is free. If you want to skip the line, it’s easy to buy tickets online. I thought that this was a bit expensive, especially for those with families, but maybe they have special deals for locals.
So while the aquarium was nice enough, I really can’t recommend it unless you either are trying to kill time or of course if you have plenty of money and younger children who would really be into the experience. Even really dragging things out, you would be hard pressed to spend two hours here. It’s fine, but not amazing.
If you are looking for an amazing aquarium in Spain, you would do much better to visit Oceanographic in Valencia. That one costs 32 euros for an adult and DEFINITELY is worth it. In fact, you might even be able to justify an entire two day trip to Valencia solely on visiting the aquarium there. Still, the aquarium in Barcelona was pleasant enough, but just a bit too expensive. In particular, I wish they had better deals for kids and younger teenagers, as they are the ones who are more likely to appreciate a place like this. For instance I was thinking of my brother’s family; the kids would love the aquarium in Barcelona, but paying entry for six kids and at least two adults would quickly become prohibitive. Again though, if you have extra money and don’t mind a quick aquarium trip, go ahead and head out to the Barcelona aquarium.
Since things had gone so quickly at the aquarium, I realized that I would still have time to get to Parque Güell for a late afternoon visit, even though it was already 5:15 PM. The ticket aggregators showed that there were no longer spaces available today, but by going directly to the Parque Güell website, I was still able to get a ticket for 7:00 PM. The cost was 10 euros. As is probably obvious, this is another place that you need to buy advance tickets online; otherwise, you are probably going to be turned away when you get to the entrance. Using my metro pass, there was still plenty of time to arrive, so I made a leisurely voyage in that direction.
Using my electronic ticket, it was easy to gain entry. Even though I arrived about thirty minutes ahead of time, they let me in without any problem. I wasn’t sure what I had expected , but it wasn’t this. I guess I thought it was actually more of a plaza with different sculptures, but it’s actually a very well designed, proper nature park. There were plenty of moments of pure tranquility with an abundance of birdsong in the background, as well as the more famous sections you’ve seen in pictures.
So of the three “iconic” Barcelona sites I visited today, I would have to say that my favorite was the park. However, as it clearly was meant to be a regularly functioning park for the people of the city, I was once again a bit sad for the locals. I mean how annoying is it that you would have to pay 11 USD per person to visit your nice neighborhood park? Again though, maybe there is some special unpublished deal for local people which makes it more affordable to visit on a regular basis, just getting some nice relaxation time while they sit on a thoughtfully placed bench and chat with neighbours or read a book.
By now it was 9:00 PM, so I had to decide if I would head back to the apartment in Roquetes or do something more. I asked one of the locals if they could suggest anything, and they mentioned a free concert in Plaza España which would be going for most of the night, starting at around 10:00 PM. Evidently it’s fairly common for things like this to happen. Armed with my invaluable 72 hour metro pass, I headed that way.
The concert went well into the night, but I was rather tired, so I left a bit after midnight. Even though I had eaten a sandwich at the concert venue, that was actually all I had eaten the whole day. Given that the Spanish tend to dine very late, I was hoping that there would be something open close to the apartment. Regardless, I understood that the trains would stop at 2 AM, and I wanted to get back safely before then. Worst case scenario, I figured I just wouldn’t eat anything else.
These two men at the bar and the owner were very friendly. Some other guy even included me in a round of drinks before heading off for the night. So I had four beers, a plate of chicken and patacones, and great conversation for only 6 euros! I did however leave a 2 euro tip in recognition of the food which she wouldn’t sell.
Finally at 2:30 AM I was back in my room and already falling asleep on my feet. With no particular plans for the next day, I figured I would just pull the blackout shades and sleep until I awakened on my own, no matter what the time would be. It was a great first full day in Barcelona, and whenever I get up tomorrow, I’m sure I’ll still discover plenty of interesting things to do and see. Thanks for continuing to follow along with me, and I will write again soon.
Travels with Jay 