Don’t take a nap….wait we both fell asleep and we really needed the rest!
Luckily is was still pretty early and we were hungry when we awoke. Where are we again? Oh yes, Barcelona.
Well, we could take the easy way out and eat in the hotel or we could go and explore. I thought I saw a restaurant right next to the hotel. So we decided, let’s try that – we have to start somewhere.
Piscolabis is a tapas restaurant at the end of the driveway and next to the Hilton Hotel Diagonal in Barcelona’s financial area. They must get a lot of tourists that do not speak Spanish or Catalan since the menu was all pictures with descriptions. We ordered several dishes and crossed our fingers that we would like our suggestions. We also ordered some local wine. It turned out to be the right amount of food and the wine was very nice. Overall not a bad start for our first night in Barcelona.
We planned to turn in early after the day of traveling as we had an “early” start at the Sagrada Familia and wanted to make sure we were there on time — all of the tickets had timed entry and we learned from Christian (our Barcelona guide) if you did not enter the venue within a certain amount of time as noted on your tickets, you would lose your chance to enter and have to purchase new tickets.
Our first day in Barcelona – up on time and downstairs for breakfast in the hotel that was included in our room rate – really nice spread!
Got all our gear (hats, maps, camera, sunscreen) and went to get a taxi. We made sure the taxi driver knew were we needed to go, hopped in and started another great tour of Barcelona. What an interesting city!
Luckily Christian had told us what entrance we needed to go to at the Sagrada Familia so when we were dropped off in the wrong place, we knew exactly how to get where we needed to be. Got in line and were ready for our timed entrance. What we didn’t know was the chaos related to getting the headphones and the audio device for the self guided tour. That took longer than expected since everyone was going everywhere and there are so many people visiting this splendid unfinished cathedral.
This space was unbelievable and the fact that is it still unfinished after 130+ years. They are expecting to have the building finished in 2026. Shall we move there and help?
Our surprise of the visit was the trip into one of the Towers. I thought it would be an experience to go up into one of the Towers and look over the city from that vantage point (and I am afraid of heights – but this was all enclosed) and also be inside this interesting but unfinished structure. We had no idea what this really meant. Now I understand why there were no long lines for this extra attraction.
Getting up into the Tower was easy. An elevator zipped you up to the top. As we entered the elevator, the elevator operator pointed out to the group going up that the elevator only went up and you had to walk down the staircase in the Tower. What the picture didn’t tell was that the staircase that you need to walk down was spiral, narrow… and you could not see how far the bottom was from the top of the Tower. We said OK, the elevator door closed and up we went.
Once the door opened at the top of the Tower we were confused. There was not much to see. When you looked one way you saw all of the construction going on at the top of the Church and the other way did bot provide much a of view. So how do we get down from here? Off to the staircase, which started off ok, a regular stair case, but wait, it now started to turn into a spiral staircase, with the handrail on the left side and very narrow. Room for only one person – small stair treads….hopefully everyone was going to be patient while I walked down these stairs one step at a time…holding on very tightly so as to not miss a step and fall…….all I could hear was my husband’s ring hitting the hand rail every time he took a step – that is how I know he was still walking down the stairs.
I willed myself down those stairs, one at a time and was never so happy to see the door that signaled the bottom of the staircase. All I could do once I went through the door was wait from my spouse and hope he did not collapse once he was outside those stairs.
I think I was shaking for another 2 hours after that. Time for lunch and a drink…..let’s go back to the hotel.