It sometimes feels like the alarm clock going off at 6:00 is actually worse than it going off at 3.00… Fortunately, after a hefty dose of coffee, I was able to get on my way, and we got to the station on time to do some reorganising of luggage. The situation with the trains was chaotic due to some projected works on the tracks. They announced that the train would be 12 minutes late, but it actually arrived and left a minute early. The train ride was uneventful, despite a large crowd of loud teenagers from a rugby team who had no idea where the were going, and really dirty toilets in the cars. The train reached Barcelona ten minutes before schedule. However, it did not go into the station until 15 minutes later for some reason – I really don’t understand what was going on with the whole railway system, or how construction in Madrid affected the time to enter Barcelona, but at least we were there.

The first step was dropping off the suitcase. Fortunately, Barcelona Sants has a luggage storage. I decided that for 10 € I could ditch my backpack and not haul it through the underground. Barcelona Sants station was under construction in 2021 and it’s still under renovation, so it took a bit to get to the correct place with the suitcase. Once we could drop the luggage off, we headed off to the underground.

There, we had to queue up to get our transportation cards from a machine – which apparently could not be used in any language except Catalonian. I had a code to input, and with that code the machine spat the tickets. They were convenient to use, and they worked on the underground and the buses without problem. The online discount made them better value for money: a single ticket is 2.65 €, and the 72-hour card Hola Barcelona is 26.30 €, which is reduced to 23.67 € if you order online (a 10% discount which is almost the price of one trip).

I had waited to book activities till the very same week because I wanted a relatively good prediction on the weather. It was not as nice as I had hoped due to the wind that morning, but oh well. Unfortunately though, the eclipse caught us in the underground. I had hoped we would be outside already, but we were over half an hour behind schedule due to the train and the construction in Sants.

I had bought tickets for the amusement park Parc d’Atraccions Tibidabo. A long time ago, from Park Güell, I was trying the zoom of my then-new camera and I was intrigued by its silhouette. I was curious and honestly, I thought it was an interesting place to see. Tibidabo is considered the oldest – or at least longest-running – amusement park in Spain. The first rides opened in 1905 under private initiative, though the park is now owned by the Barcelona city council.

I found a ticket which allowed to see the panoramic area and ride the “classical attractions”. It included the shuttle bus and the funicular Cuca de Llum, opened in 2021, which is not the original from the turn of the 20th century, but a recently renovated one. There’s no way I am getting on a funicular which older than 100 years old. To get there, we took the underground, and walked to the so-called Tibidabo Store, where we exchanged our tickets for bracelets so we could ride the bus to the funicular. The place is a bit out of town indeed.

We reached Parc d’Atraccions Tibidabo around 12:45, a good couple of hours after leaving Sants. Upon entering, it was colder than I had imagined, because it was windy, especially at the top of the mountain. There was no ticket control except for the attractions, so we were able to come and go as we pleased, and i found that was a regular mini-bus that went there. I felt a bit cheated, but I guess the funicular itself was an experience! Good thing that I am not too keen on rides and I decided to only get the basic ticket. It did not feel cheap either (21.50 €). The ticket Pase atracciones emblemáticas allowed us to wander around and ride the ‘emblematic’ rides – i.e. the classic one – and see the museum.

We first had a look at the city of Barcelona underneath. The view was not particularly different from the one in Parc Güell, except I’m more familiar with the layout by now. We then turned to snoop around the Temple of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Temple Expiatori del Sagrat Cor, a Christian church designed by Enric Sagnier i Vilavecchia (1858-1931) in a mix of Neo-styles, halfway between a Disney Castle and a classic cathedral. Construction was carried in two phases: 1903 – 1911, and 1915 – 1951. The upper towers were built later on, and work continued until 1961. The outer lower area is Neo-Romanesque, and the upper one Neo-Gothic; the inside is Neo-Byzantine, with mosaic walls. It has stairs a the sides to move from one level to another, and a lift inside. All in all, the whole building is… weird.

We ambled around for a while, and finally decided to have an early lunch, so we could avoid the family rush. My sibling wanted a proper sit-down, and we found the only option offering actual tables. The service was terrible – we never got glasses nor cutlery. We had to ask for napkins twice I think. Thrice for the bill after ordering two bottles of water and two burgers Hamburguesa de mejilla ibérica con pepinillo (Pulled pork and pickles burger). The service was so bad that the waiter decided to give us a complementary 15% discount on their own volition.

After lunch, we queued to ride the carousel and the Ferris wheel, and we saw the Automatons Museum, which was really interesting. The oldest piece dates back from 1880, and the newest from 2005. There used to be automatons sprinkled through the park for almost a century, but they were housed in their current home in 1982 to protect them from the weather.

Around 15:00, we came down from Tibidabo. We had to share one ticket to get into the funicular, and the doors closed on me. I had to go to customer service to wait for someone to give me a replacement one. We undid all the way back to Sants to pick up our luggage, then we went back to the underground to meet with my friends E**** and P***o near their house to celebrate an important event in their family. We stayed with them for a few hours, then dropped by the supermarket to buy dinner for the next day, and took a bus towards our hotel.

We checked in, dropped our stuff in the room, cranked up the heating, and went to have dinner. We ended up at a Japanese franchise because the website said they had okonomiyaki, which they didn’t. At least they had dorayaki to compensate.

When we came back the room was at 19 ºC, and the air conditioning was blowing out cold air. I turned the thing off and went down to reception, where they told me they would call with a solution – either maintenance or a change of room. An hour later, without having heard from them, I went down again and a different receptionist told me the only thing that could be done was giving us extra blankets. I asked for three blankets and only got two. But I was too tired to fight – there was an extra towel I could use for added warmth. I defrosted in the shower and went to bed.