Lesson #1: Never go to an amusement park on an April Monday.
We thought a delightful way to spend our last day in Barcelona would be to go to Tibidabo, a fun place to say, and according to the press, enormously fun to do, with a roller coaster that weaves in and out on this hilltop park, thrill rides, fun rides, historic rides, family rides…you get the picture. Somehow we missed the caveat that only four rides are open on Monday and the coolest of those lame ones would be broken.
So we did the carousel.
The 5th amusement was a collection of turn-of-the-century automatons that were mostly creepy and/or racist.
The oddest thing? It shared the grounds with a beautiful cathedral.
Lesson #2: Always peek inside a European church/cathedral/basilica, especially if it is free and not inconvenient.
We’ve been chased by mosaics and frescos since Jordan, but there was something special about these. They were very Barcelona-on-the-sea focused and so colorful and hyperrealistic.
Lesson #3: Take Kyla and Piper (and Denise and Dwayne!) to art museums once in a while.
Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya is housed in the most amazing building, and even if most of its collection was everything but Renaissance, which is generally my preference over too much medieval religious same-same, it was tranquil and interesting. Piper and I went through the collections together, and I enjoyed her companionship immensely. Kyla loved delving into it herself, and we all met up for lunch in the great hall afterward.
Lesson #4: Take a cable car/gondola whenever you can.
The views from the top will be worth it. Keep the peace and purchase a return ticket as well. In exchange, your kids may happily walk another 30 minutes to get to the singular chocolate shop that they found on your phone. With enough chocolate in them, all sorts of other good things may happen. (Piper and I had a blast buying her more cute clothes in darling alley boutiques and walking back to the hotel, and Dwayne and Kyla explored the square a little more and taxied it back.)
Lesson #5: Stop what you were doing, even chasing down a singular chocolate shop, to watch street performers.
Kyla got chosen to be a volunteer for this. Dwayne did the same thing back in NYC six years ago.
Lesson #6: Stay at the Sensation Sagrada Familia.
It was the first place we stayed that did EVERYTHING right. Plenty of space, EVOO in the kitchen, soap/detergent aplenty, showers that kept the water in the shower*, the most helpful staff we’ve ever had in a hotel. We scratched our heads to come up with a way it could have been improved and came up with nada. We want to take this place and put it everywhere we go. Wes spent many happy hours when it was just better for everyone when he wasn’t up for adventuring.
Lesson #7: Write about Barcelona a few weeks after the fact so you don’t remember the quarrels, the blahs, the plans that just didn’t work out, or the terrible seafood paella. My memories are only good ones (except the paella) now!
*Egypt, Jordan, the EU, almost every place we’ve stayed does full showers that are half-enclosed. Some like leaving gaps between the too-few panels or where the panels meet the tub. We cannot fathom the reasoning, especially after wringing out so many towels after a short shower where I consciously try to keep water from splashing out.
Needopedia 