Day 3 – The adventures continue

Top tip: Don’t travel to Barcelona in February. Today we were going to have an active day and go to Portaventura Adventure Park and Ferrari land not too far away from the city, but it was closed for the winter season. Our back up plan was to take the funicular train hope to Tibidabo, the tallest mountain in Serra de Collserola. It has a large temple and even an amusement park. Again, it doesn’t open until March…

Nevertheless, we had our homemade breakfast, made our baguettes for lunch and headed off to the north of the city. It was the first time that we had taken the metro and surprisingly, it was so fast and straightforward.

As usual, Louis had planned what stops and what directions we would have to go to find Park Guell, and despite hiking up winding roads, it proved to be the right choice as we were able to walk down through the park when other tourists were panting and sweating walking up it.

Oblivious to us, you had to book online to get in to see the mosaics by Gaudi and the next slot was in 3hrs so we couldn’t get in – more bad planning from Louis. We did our best to take photos from outside the fences and probably could have snuck in when the security were fixing the signs, but we weren’t on the ball enough…this time.

Replenished by our baguettes, we took the metro to Camp Nou and bought tickets online as they were cheaper and we could bypass any queue. Our time slot was 4pm and we were still waiting for our tickets to arrive by email. Then things went downhill. ‘Apparently’ the tickets were sold out and we couldn’t get them anymore. As I emailed looking for a refund, Anna got some official Barcelona tickets and we entered the home of Messi.

It wasn’t a great start as Louis ended up in a catfight with a Barcelona photographer who wasn’t letting anyone past her until they got a picture with a green screen. The rest of the tour was brilliant though – through the stands, bench, media rooms, changing rooms, press rooms and the museum with all the cups, trophies and Messi’s Ballon d’Or’s. We also found out that Anna is indeed taller than Messi and Iniesta!

Barca tour complete, we took the metro back home to get a quick dinner before heading into the gothic quarter once more to a jazz bar. In an edgy underground cellar, a grand piano and saxophone sat on stage in front of only 10 rows of seats. It all looked promising.

Then the music started. Our ears were nearly bleeding as we endured the worst jazz music we have ever heard. From what we gathered, the sax was resembling two horses or something and the piano player looked like he was high on drugs or had transported his mind to another country. As a musician, I felt obliged to stay and support the awful music. Nonetheless, 9 people did leave, leaving 10 of us left, 5 of which were family and friends. Not a great night for them. If you want to check it out, tread carefully here – for an example or below for a live performance! Enjoy!!

Grabbing our coats as soon as it was over, we headed to the metro, dodged all the street sellers now selling cans of beer, weed and flashing elastic bands and tried to grab a nice tapas bar on the way home. Most were closing down and so we left with only one option – pesto pasta at home.