Barcelona Part 2

Sunday in Barcelona had a very interesting start that forced us to slow down a little on our plans. The day prior the tour bus guise told us there was going to be a running race on Sunday that would shut down part of the red route, that is one reason that we chose to do the red route on Saturday. Sunday we had it all planned out to do the blue route. We walked to the closest blue route stop and found it to be out of operation until noon, because of the race.

The main road that cuts through Barcelona at an angle is appropriately named Diagonal. This was the road for the Cursa de Bombers 2014 10K run. All we had to do was get across Diagonal to pick up the rest of the blue route..........

Um, we have a problem. There was a solid mass of runners for a good 45 minutes, maybe more. We waited patiently and watched all of the various characters go by. We saw many firemen in full equipment, including oxygen tanks, running the route. The intersection where we were trying to cross had a live band set up to entertain the runners. It was very loud but a great atmosphere. Our kids were complaining about how loud it was and were pretty well done with it after a few minutes. We had no option but to wait and make the best of it. This video will give you an idea of the massive group of runners one web site says was over 27,000.

After finally getting across the street we got to the bus stop. There was a really long line of people waiting to get on the blue route. The tourist bus thing was really disappointing today. They did nothing to expedite the lines, the buses were leaving half empty. The guides on the bus were useless when asked a question. They told us the top was full, then people go up after us and never come back down.

We did finally make it onto a bus and stayed on for a while to get to Tibidabo. It is a mountain overlooking Barcelona with a church and of all things an amusement park. They are literally in the same area. Another disappointment for the tour bus is that their maps indicate that they drop you off at Tibidabo, not true, not true at all. We were a 90 minute walk up a mountain, so really more like three day walk, from arriving without other public transportation.

We paid to ride the Tramvia Blau  street car up the mountain for part of the journey.

It took us a good ways up the hill, but we still were not even close. Now we had to take the funicular the rest of the way. At least in this line we were able to pay for the amusement park ticket and the tram at the same time. This time it was not a gondola, but a tram that took us straight up the rest of the way. We thought that we were going to be at the amusement park before it opened, turns out we were a little over an hour after it opened before we finally made it. This place is not easy or cheap to get to.

When we exited the funicular we got our first up close look at the church. 

Nearby was the first ride of the day.

Contrary to what I first imagined, this was more of a Ferris wheel ride that a spinning tower of terror. I love roller coasters, but heights I do not like. We did it anyway to get the money shot on the pictures.

This is looking in one direction, and below is the other side overlooking Barcelona and the Mediterranean Sea.

It has been pretty hazy while we have been here, but it was still a great view.

After that we stayed at the park for a while and rode a wide assortment of rides.

This was a collection of many slides that the kids played at for a while while we sat and enjoyed the weather. It was about 70 degrees and sunny.

Similar to her Mommy, you can always tell what Katherine is thinking by looking at her facial expression. Above, happy, below you can fill in your own caption. 

This was a multi-level amusement park since it was on the side of a mountain. Down one level there was some sort of team competition going on all day. Cindy got one photo of some of what they were doing.

Another panorama from this level of the park.

 Down a couple of more levels we found more rides.

David did so good with his sister. He had a great attitude riding stuff with her instead of asking to go do the bigger rides over and over. Eventually him and I rode the one big roller coaster together. It was actually a better ride than I thought it would be. Here is a very short example of the first part of the ride.

After spending most of the day getting there and riding we took the funicular down and started to get on to the blue street car. David asked if we could walk down. It turns out there was a technology museum about half way down. So we went for it.

I did not get many photos of the place but it was interesting and a good thing to do to break up the walk. We spend a good amount of time there, then headed back to our bus stop.

Walking down the Tibidabo Avenue there were some really large and interesting houses/businesses.

We made it back to the bus stop and enjoyed a relaxing ride around the city from the upper level. We saw a few sites on the way and eventually got off at Placa de Catalunya.

This is where the Placa de Catalunya meets La Rambla, there are a lot of people. Cindy was very excited to see the Mobile World Centre. We walked in and looked around a bit.

We walked down La Rambla to a restaurant that was suggested to us by a former resident of Barcelona now living in Germany.  Bilbao Berria is a self serve counter where you grab these various things on toothpicks. At the end of the meal you just pay based on how many toothpicks that you have collected. This meal was as good as the night before, we have done well on dinners so far. Below is a very small sample of the hundred plus options they had available.

Katherine had about four toothpicks worth of dessert and still wanted gelato after we left. It was a pretty good distance back to our apartment from here but it was a nice evening. We again broke up the walk by stopping at one of the many playgrounds along the way.  

Another great day in Barcelona. I have to say I was not super excited about this trip considering we have Venice on the schedule next week, but it has turned out to be really fun and a great destination.