Day 2:

This is one busy day! On the agenda are two items: 1) ride the Montjuïc cable car to the top of the hill of Montjuic, and 2) the Cube experience at Casa Batllo

Between those two activities will be shopping and eating.

However we woke up during the night to thunder and lightning and it’s still raining this morning. So we went shopping…

We took the subway to the cable car but had a half mile walk before reaching the top. And… drumroll… there were so many steps to climb it was ridiculous! One young man who passed us going the opposite direction stopped us to say “many steps” with a look of concern. He was correct. Fortunately or unfortunately we did not have a clear view of our path and every time we turned a corner there were more stairs. Our watches said we climbed 23 flights of stairs so you know it was really more than that.

Made it to the cable car and got right through. Apparently the cars have been upgraded since the last time we were here in 2016. Up and away we go.

At the top is a castle which we did not tour as we were limited on time. However the views strong the outside walls were amazing. The port of Barcelona was filled with cruise ships and freight containers among other smaller things.

We wandered around a good section of the castle which had several canons from WW2 and even earlier. It was an excellent lookout.

After we had our fill of a walk and view of Barcelona we headed back to the cable cars for the ride down. You could get off at the mid-point but we chose not to. The city spread out below us – magnificent!

Once off the cable car, we were looking for a different way to go down the hill instead of going the stairs. We suddenly saw the sign for the funicular. What?! How did we miss that?

Anyway we were so happy to have found this and it connected easily to the subway using one ticket. We have to say we can have whatever we want for dinner tonight as we pre-burned energy with those stairs!

Time for dinner. Even though we walked and climbed today we were both in the mood for a salad. We found a restaurant that offered a chicken salad with fruit and balsamic dressing that sounded good. And it was.

We did happen to walk past a gelato store on the way back to the hotel and decided to check it out. Super creamy and delicious is what we discovered. Dulce de leche and a Nutella scoop for me. Tracie had a cherry chocolate and something else vanilla with crunchy bits. Both were very satisfying!

The evening is not done yet as we have the Cube Experience at Gaudi’s Casa Batlli. Ok that was an experience!

This was one interesting attraction Tracie and I went to this evening. I thought we would tour the Gaudi Casa Batllo with music in the background and night time lighting. Not so… here’s what we got:
1) drink choices as we walked in . I chose champagne and Tracie water

2) we then were shown the stairs to the basement and sat and waited for a room to be opened
3) the doors opened and a large group of people walked out and back upstairs and I’m thinking “ok so this must be like a Disney ride where they put everyone in an elevator and the walls close in” or something like that.
4) while we wait we are shown a screen warning us that if we have epilepsy, dizziness, dim eyesight, vertigo and maybe more, we should not go in. Ok this is not sounding promising. It was a light and music show and that was it. Tracie and I went disco dancing in Gaudi’s basement!

So when the show was over we looked at each other, laughed and couldn’t believe that’s what we paid for. It was interesting and short and it was time for bed.

One more day remains and we have plans!

#BarcelonaSpain2024