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

Family Photos & Seafood Dinner

Our starting point, Barcelona Cathedral

We thought we'd take the opportunity for some casual family photos as we'd seen all the main sights. We found a reasonably priced photo taking walk on viator. Note that this is a group tour with a maximum number of 10. As our original travelling group was one of 9, we were happy to take a single stray tag-along. As it turned out, we were lucky enough to be a private tour as no one else booked it today. It is worth noting that they were very flexible and understanding when we had to cancel Mal's parents, and then to reschedule when we had to pivot and change cruises. 

Our photographer was Lola from Argentina! Young and friendly, she made the session fun. We walked around the Gothic quarter, El Born area and finished up at the Ciutadella Park. We had time along the way to buy and eat cinnamon rolls as well as for my mother to do some shopping...

Pont del Bisbe, a favourite for instagrammers. Strut your stuff Oma!

Umm...how can you not stop when you see this?!

One of each thanks!

I wonder why I'm never hungry

Pistachio latter

Very happy children

Our last stop - Gaudi's fountain at Parc Ciutadella

Empanadas for dinner. They had so many flavours! One of each please!

We had to be careful not to eat too much as dinner was at Botafumeiro, a high end seafood restaurant. This was another of the Amex fine dining promotions. The children put on their newly purchased "nice" clothes, which also had the honour of double duties for photos earlier in the day. The restaurant was in a beautiful building and the interior was a warm oldy worldly setting. The waiters were surprising super friendly and spoke English very well! The food was tasty and the servings generous. I would say the meal was more "hearty" then "refined" but didn't really matter as it was delicious especially the sauces which were all cleaned up by the end of the evening.

Tackling Barcelona's buses today

The beautiful Christmas street lights during sunset

Botafumeiro. How dare the car park there and ruin my photo!

It truly felt like studying. There were too many options!!

The sangria didn't last long. We had to order 2 pitchers

Spicy calamari. Amazing sauce

Clams fisherman style. Again great sauce!

White shrimp with garlic

Free dessert on the house!

Barcelona

 

Gaudi's Casa Batlló - I guess we're in Barcelona!

Everyone was relieved to be rid of the cramped quarters of the ship. The disembarkation process at Barcelona was super quick and we were in our private transfer heading towards our hotel, Alexandra Barcelona Hotel, Curio Collection by Hilton, in a jiffy. The hotel was new and in an excellent location just off Passeig de Gracia in the Eixample area. We were filled with glee looking at all the extra space we suddenly have! Not to mention an extra bathroom! Most of our day was spent shopping and strolling the grand avenue before returning for an afternoon nap. I did have to veto Malcolm wanting to rent bicycles...

I did love looking out at the ocean, but I was to get off the ship!

Our minivan dropping us off

May not look like much but all that space is premium! Somewhere to sit even!!

View from our room

Umm no. Just no Malcolm

I'm surprised it took us this long...but we finally ventured into McDonald's. Biscoff donuts were calling us and besides, how could one turn down a McExtreme cheesy risketos?! Mal always loves the fact that European Mcdonald's offers beer as a beverage. We're not quite sure about gazpacho as a side but it was worth a try! Interestingly, one of the coffee options here was a flat white. Yup you read that right! It was pretty close to those you got back home in Australia except it seemed like the default was to include a pump of syrup. It was better than ship coffee so we drank it with gusto.

Entering the golden arches

This was calling us...

Yes please

Gazpacho, beer and a flat white (yes they called it that!)

biscoff mini mcflurry

biscoff donut

Up next for us was a Catalonian paella cooking experience with Travel Brilliant in the La Rambla area booked through Viator. Our chef was a young Venezuelan named Laury, and our group of 8 was rounded off by a lovely Colombian girl. It was a fun afternoon with a resulting excellent paella, one of the best I've tasted. We started by visiting the famous  La Boqueria market to get fresh seafood. The key ingredient was cuttlefish because of its high fat content.

Once at the kitchen, Laury set about preparing the important sangria, a sangria so good Elliot had 4 glasses and my mother 2! Or maybe more. We certainly left happy. This was paired with tapas while we prepared the ingredients for our paella. Laury explained the history, cooking methods and choice of ingredients for a good paella. She had a fun and exuberant personality, but sometimes she spoke so passionately we couldn't understand her! The whole family had so much fun and it was a great thing to do if you've been to Barcelona and have seen the main sights!

First up market

Carmen the fishmonger preparing our seafood

Both cuttlefish and squid was used, as was prawns and mussels

We had about 10 minutes to buy some goodies as we waited

The most gigantic strawberries we've ever seen...and they were supersweet!

More gigantic fruit. Cherries. Again super sweet

The kitchen

Laury sharing the secrets of a good sangria

Looks so simple but everything was so good. That cheese was ADDICTIVE!

The stirring man. Was told off for not being more energetic

Onion woman

Capsicum boy

prawn girl

chopping boys

The tradition of blessing the paella

Nearly there, pouring all the broth in unlike a risotto

The children loved the cooking classes and have voiced a desire to do more in the future when we travel. 

The final product. Amazing taste

Such a great family experience