All credit needs to go to my wife for this one, as she was the driving force behind our three-day whirlwind through Barcelona! She refused to bypass this part of Spain on our way to Valencia. We mixed things up for this “weekend getaway” by staying in a hostel in the suburbs. The kids were excited as that meant bunk beds. We were excited as it meant spending as little time in the room as possible. It was our first time in Spain and we had food to eat, sites to visit and tours to take.
I won’t go into detail about the difficulties of getting to the city, but train travel outside Italy has been a gong show for us. After a painful day of travel, we were excited to check in to the hostel and start with a clean slate. The hostel was a tiny, family-run affair located in the neighbourhood of Sant Andreu, about 15 minutes outside the city centre. We had a small room with bunk beds and 10 square feet of floor space. We didn’t fret; there was a common room with a couch and dining table where the kids could stretch out and do school. The kitchen was clean and well-stocked, meaning we could easily prepare some basic meals. I also took advantage of the “free food shelf” where other guests had left food behind. Nothing beats scavenging half a bag of truffle potato chips and the ends of a couple pepperoni sticks! Paige and the kids were not impressed and did not share in the treasures.
Being the long weekend, Barcelona was busy. There were as many Spanish tourists as foreigners as it seemed everyone just wanted to enjoy the long weekend. That meant getting a table in a restaurant was painful, but we found getting a table anytime in Spain a challenge. We also struggled with the late dining hours throughout Spain. Even arriving at doors open, our food was rarely served before 9:30pm. That didn’t work with our early morning lifestyle. Luckily, Paigey found a tapas/vermouth bar nearby that was delicious and opened much earlier. We would show up early, get a table and then watch the place fill up. We laughed that the menus were all in Catalan, completely negating Paige’s Spanish. We ran into that situation more than once and ended up getting some completely random dishes! Being our first visit to Spain, we did our best to eat all the dishes we had read about over the years. We feasted on patatas bravas, churros and chocolate, croquettes, bikinis de ganache, jamon, tortilla, vermouth, and Estrella beer.
During our three days, we definitely were on the typical tourist route. We signed up for a standard “works of Gaudi” tour encompassing some of the more famous sites within the downtown core. Unfortunately, after five minutes at Casa Batllo, the kids gave up. I spent the next 90 minutes distracting them while Paigey took the remainder of the tour for the both of us. The only tidbit that interested the kids was Gaudi’s death by tram. It opened up many tangential conversations about tram safety that had nothing to do with Barcelona. The unfortunate downside of the tour was that we were introduced to some famous sites that we had no chance of seeing up close. Being the long weekend, all entrance tickets were fully booked ahead of time. That could have been the theme for our time in Barcelona, but it was expected since we didn’t plan. If we ever return to Barcelona and book a ticket, the Sagrada Familia might be complete!
Since the tours and historic sites weren’t big winners with the kids we had to find something to keep them going. Fortunately, the science museum was compact and tailor-made for kids our age. It got the kids asking a bazillion questions about the weather and the solar system. Any time the kids are willing to learn about meteorology and planetary physics is a good day in my book (I’m a science geek). After the museum we rode the underrated cable car to the waterfront. It wasn’t cheap but the panoramas of the city were excellent and the kids enjoyed tormenting me about my fear of heights. Then we opted to kill some hours walking around the downtown. The centre was a maze of pedestrian-only streets that the kids ran recklessly through. Rounding corners, you might stumble upon a chocolate store, street performer, hidden plaza, or playground. Isabella loved the playgrounds and we would get ourselves a drink while the kids played. Isabella actually fell off a climbing section and we had to put her arm in a sling for a couple days. The sling was her sweatshirt tied around her shoulder! Julie and I played a game where we counted all the street performers we saw. Our goal was to get to a hundred. More to come on this front in later posts.
Despite all the activities and food, the most memorable moment in Barcelona was when I noticed the street outside our hostel was lined with orange trees. The kids and I thought this was the coolest thing ever and wanted to eat one. I lifted Isabella on my shoulders but they were just out of reach. No worries as we saw one fall and then ran to pick it up and eat it. It was the ultimate fail as the fruit was extremely bitter and the three of us spit it out in unison! Apparently, no one eats the fruit and they are just ornamental. Now the kids are hesitant to eat oranges. The Barcelona street oranges have scarred them for life!
Up next is super slow living with 2 weeks in Valencia on the coast. As an added bonus, Paige’s mom will be joining us.
Where we stayed:
- Coroleu House Barcelona: Quaint, solid kitchen, friendly owners
By the numbers:
- Number of visits to our tapas bar: 3 – yep, you read that right and we were only in the city for 3 nights
- Patates Bravas consumed: 5 – that’s more than one per day
- Times we visited the cosmetics dept store: 2 – our skin just missed tropical humidity and we need to buy some product
- Street Performers we tipped: 8 (and our favourite was the golden statue)
Ciao for now
Mike
Family Travel Countdown 