Cactus

 

Cactus Garden at Montjuic

This is probably a good time to discuss the Barcelona public transport system. The city is well connected with metro and buses. The metro comes every 5 minutes or so and is easy to use. If you're a biggish group like us, you are able to purchase a "Group" ticket. You get 70 trips loaded on the card which you can use for everyone in the group. Just tap for each person to go through the gates to enter the metro. You can exit the gates without tapping off. Buying this card saved us a lot of time having to buy individual tickets. There are other types of tickets available, you just have to do the math to work out which would be the most economical option for your travelling party, length of stay, and intended usage.

After a family discussion, we decided to visit Montjuic today. The children didn't particularly want to do any historical "sights" and so we didn't want to pay for entry for something they weren't interested in...To get to Montjuic, by metro you'd go to Paral-lel station where the Montjuic funicular is. You DON'T go through the exit gates, which was a mistake we made. Instead look for the signs towards the funicular. The staff at the metro were kind enough to open the gate to let us all back in. Happy Days!

Montjuic Funicular

Once at the top there is a cable car which would take you right to the top where Montjuic Castle is. This is an additional cost and is not covered by the usual public transport ticket. Luckily for us, our destination was the cactus garden so no need for an expensive cable car ride. The cactus garden was rated as one of the top 10 gardens by the New York Times. Expectations were high but in the end, it was a little underwhelming. Perhaps it was the wrong time of year, or that we were already tired after a long meander through Montjuic Park with multiple stops at various play areas. 

We headed back towards our station as we had important business to attend to, namely the restocking of clean socks and underwear. We were all around 1-2 pairs short each to make it home without being smelly...and the thrifty husband has worked out that it was cheaper to buy what we needed than to pay for laundry. We also worked out that we could shop faster than we could organise for paid washing. We were also too lazy to DIY wash so we got to play Jack Reacher for a few days.

Sadly we had come to the end of our time in Barcelona. We farewelled Oma and Opa as we had an early morning flight to Germany tomorrow and as they head back towards Australia via Singapore. What better way to say goodbye then with a good Chinese meal! Thank you Oma and Opa for travelling with us and providing entertainment, treating us to yummy snacks and meals, and giving the best backseat advice on everything one can possible think of! It has been fun and hopefully there will be many more trips together in the future!

I'm not sure how this is fun when you are nearly tall enough for your feet to touch the bottom...

Sound amplified to be heard clearly at the other end

This was determined to be the best technique to achieve the best sound with minimal voice effort

At the other end

Let's stop again

They actually ran for the swings

There were interesting cacti and it was a serene place

Our very important purchase

The food was good and passed the Opa authenticity test

Churros!

Glorious Churros!!!

My first mission today was to have myself some churros and hot chocolate. Thankfully the children woke up at a decent time today! We set out to the little cafe which we knew opened early. The churros and hot chocolate certainly didn't disappoint. I was in heaven! The whole plate was demolished in minutes and before long we were on our way down to Port Vell at the Harbour front.

The children waiting for permission to start eating while I was taking photos

Port Vell

The walk to the Telefericos de Barcelona was a little longer than expected...but we soon found the San Sebastia station of the cable car which would take us across the Harbour and up to Montjuic Park. And as I hoped, we saw the Magic docked down below!

The Magic! Hazy day and dirty glass is not a good combo...

Upon arrival at Montjuic, we decided to go to Poble Espanol as we didn't make it there yesterday. It turned out to be a fantastic decisions. There was something for everyone there and we had a fantastic time! The highlight had to be the "treasure hunt" they had for children/families. We were loaned a kit complete with tools and a book with clues. Using that we had to find landmarks to keep moving around the complex. It fun, and not too easy or too hard. Most importantly, it had a cheat sheet so parents can help! Elliot was in his element. My parents really enjoyed their shopping time in the various craft shops. The setting was beautiful. We also got to see real life glass blowing in action which was a treat. Before we knew it, we had spent 3.5 there!

Poble Espanol

Elliot checking out treasure hunt kit...

following the clues...



and finding one of the landmarks!

We decided to head home for some rest and enjoy the sights of all the book and roses aplenty for Saint Jordi Day. The jetlag and 3 big days in a row must have caught up with me because I fell asleep after putting the kids to bed and slept past the Magic Fountain meet! I am writing now at 230am in the morning too excited to go back to sleep at the thought of boarding the Magic later on today. I just realised that in the chaos leading up to our trip, I never did complete my FE, nor have I finished printing my door magnets or putting together the FE gifts. Will just have to cobble something together tomorrow.