We started our second day by meeting up with Rob’s family! They were on a cruise and happened to be stopping at Barcelona for the day. We met them down by the harbour and his Grandma was so surprised! We decided the best way for them to see the city was to take the bus tour. This worked really well because we were able to hop on and off whenever we wanted and could spend as long as we wanted at each attraction. They were also able to get a really good feel for the city in a short amount of time. At the same time it gave us a better idea of where we would like to spend our time over the next couple of days.
Our first stop was back at the food market because it was such a great experience. On the way to La Rambla from the bus stop we walked past a beautiful cathedral and then went on to see la Sagrada Familia.
We decided not to go in La Sagrada Familia as by mid morning the queue was quite long and we wanted them to have a chance to see some other monuments. We did walk around the outside and take a few photos. The building is absolutely huge so it wasn’t possible to take a photo of it from where we were dropped off but there are lots of different places around the outskirts of the city that enabled us to get a great view of it all. Unfortunately although Gaudi planned it all out, he couldn’t finish the architecture in his lifetime and big sections are still under construction, with visitor entrance fees aiding the cost of completion. The parts that were finished were so impressive, I loved the intricate details included in the architecture. I would love to go back and visit when it is completed and take a look inside the magnificent church.
We hopped back on the bus at soon realised it was actually going to takes ages to do the tour of the whole city (Rob’s family got a bit twitchy about missing their boat) so we stayed on the bus for the rest of the tour. It was quite a sunny day but freezing on the open top bus! We passed some great places and once the others had safely embarked on their cruise, we popped back to the hotel to grab some warmer clothes and did the last part of the route again; visiting the MNAC (Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya) and Olympic stadium.
We didn’t realise that there was a great view of the city from the MNAC and it was a perfect place to watch the sun go down! We noted the magic fountain and looked forward to returning for the light and music show towards the end of the week (only runs on Friday/Saturday in October).
After spending quite some time admiring the view from the MNAC we walked down the the Olympic stadium, we were too late for the tour but could still see the running track from the entrance.
Food tip:
In the evening we went back to Caramba for dinner, it was very quaint inside and had quite a student-y feel to it (although there no students to be seen!) We has delicious homemade humus, ham croquettes, a big pan of paella to share and cheese cake for dessert; all was fantastic! Definite recommendation for anyone staying in Barcelona, although it is quite tricky to find and was shut the first evening we tried to go there, so just research properly first!!