It was 5:08 pm and we boarded our train to Barcelona. We had just completed the France leg of our trip and got on the train from Nimes – a lesser known town in the south of France. The train sped along the coast as we passed the cities of Montpellier and Perpignon and we reached Barcelona at 8:45 pm. It was a trip unlike any we had done before.

Navigating a maze

There was a direct connection between the train station and the metro. However, it felt like an underground maze as we went up and down different floors, crossing platforms and getting into confusing lifts which had doors on multiple sides (you may enter through one door but exit through another one on the side). I had never seen such lifts before and it was very disorienting.

We got into the metro station of Sants Estacio and evaluated getting regular tickets vs passes. Among all the options, the T-10 ticket seemed best for us as we were only here for two days – we could use the same ticket for multiple people.

Our stay for 2 nights

Finally, we were on our way to our Airbnb which was on a street named Carrer del Camp – the closest station was called El Putxet. We checked into our apartment – an old Argentine lady owned it. She lived on one side of it while she had let out the other side – the entire place smelled of cigarettes. We quickly left our stuff and took the metro back to Catalunya.

La Rambla tapas hunt

Our plan for the evening was to explore what is often considered the most popular street of Barcelona – La Rambla. Just a year ago around that same time, there had been a terrorist attack on the same street – so we were a bit wary as we arrived there. Within minutes though, we were consumed by the vibe of the street and completely forgot about it. 

There were plenty of cafes and restaurants. We picked one called Tapas 125 and ordered croquettes, sausages and seafood paella with sangria. The glass of sangria was HUGE! And it tasted great! The seafood paella was also the best we have had till date!

With happy tummies, we walked around a bit and took a bus back to our Airbnb. The best thing about these European cities is the public transport. There are maps everywhere and it is really easy to figure out your way even if you don’t have a SIM card.

The day of No Entry begins with Park Guell

Next morning, we stepped out early looking for a breakfast place. The bar right below our apartment was open and serving breakfast – tortillas, sandwiches and coffee. Since they hadn’t fully opened the place yet, we sat at the bar counter and ate! Our first stop for the day was Park Guell – we took bus H6 to get there. We had heard that there was a road with escalators so that we didn’t have to climb all the way up – yes, there is an uphill walk to get here. Thankfully, we found it and got to the entrance.

At the ticket counter, we found out that the tickets were sold out for the day. Apparently, we had to do an advance booking online. So, we walked around the areas which had free entry – this was good too. The park had a nice view of the city and we got to experience the Gaudi architecture style.

We then made our way out and walked back down. There were a bunch of souvenir shops on the way (with Indian sellers in them). We got our souvenirs and took a bus to Camp Nou.

Camp “No“

It was super crowded there. The lines to go inside were insanely long and this also needed an advance booking online. We didn’t have one, of course. This was one of those legs of the trip where I had not put on my “planner cap”. I am often chided for over-planning things so I decided to let the Spain leg of our trip be flexible so that we could “go-with-the-flow”. Sadly, it wasn’t working out well.

Mercat de la Claustrophobia

Next stop – Mercat de la Boqueria, an iconic market in the city on the La Rambla street. It was really crowded here as well. The market was pretty cool – there were shops selling fresh meat, fruits and veggies and in between them were juice shops, tapas and wine bars.

We didn’t want to sit there in that congested space, so we walked out to a restaurant nearby called Taller de Tapas. The concept of small plates of food was perfect for tourists – you could try out so many different things without having to stuff yourself. We had mushrooms, prawns, chillies, calamari, omelettes and washed it down with Cava (Spanish version of champagne).

Rain at the beach

Now it was time for a walking tour. We walked along the Gothic quarters, saw the cathedral and many plazas along the way. About 2 kms away was Barceloneta beach which is where we were walking to. There was a huge statue of Christopher Columbus pointing towards America.

We kept walking till we hit the beach. As if on cue, it started raining. Our day of “no entry” was continuing to be so.

Success at Sagrada Familia?

We walked back and took the metro from Barceloneta to Verdaguer. The rain had reduced to a slight drizzle by now and we comfortably walked to Sagrada Familia. And guess what? The entry tickets were sold out weeks ago! So, we had to appreciate the beauty of the structure from outside.

Sagrada Familia is the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world. It was designed by Antoni Gaudi. Work started in the year 1882 and Gaudi died when it was only a quarter of its way to completion in the year 1926. He still rests in the church’s crypt. Work is still ongoing and we could clearly see the older sections – with their eclectic style and the new sections – too precise for a structure with Gaudi’s name on it. It would have been nice to see it from the inside too – well, next time maybe!

We walked along the road called Diagonal (there is another called Parallel in Barcelona too!) to see Casa Mila – the last private residence designed by Gaudi. We didn’t even attempt to go inside here as the trend was clear by now. 

An imperfect day comes to a close

It had been a long day full of long walks and no entries. It was pretty frustrating at that moment but now that I look back – it was a day full of lessons and a reminder that travel cannot always be perfect.

Thankfully, we had a nice end to the day – we picked up some really tasty thin crust pizza near our apartment for dinner!
Next morning, our host Tati walked us down to the cab stop and helped us get one to the Sants station where we had our train to Seville. You can read all about that in this blog.