Barcelona, Part 2

By day 3, our advance ticket game seemed to have improved. We ordered online tickets for later in the day at La Pedrera (Casa Milá). Then we went to the Arc de Triomf

and Parc de la Ciutadella, where I spotted a Canary Islands Palm.

We didn't check out the zoo there, but instead were looking for a playground. We found a small one on the north side of the park. Maybe there were other ones, but we didn't have the energy to find them. We did find the big fountain, though.

After lunch and a nap, we headed to La Pedrera.

The roof was really cool, but it was a little unnerving for me in some places where the ledge wasn't very high.

La Pedrera also had a nice exhibit explaining some of the inspiration that Gaudi found in nature.

After La Pedrera, we took a short walk to La Manzana de la Discordia, where there are 3 adjacent houses in different styles, one of which has a Gaudi facade. We took some pictures and headed home for dinner.

We wanted something more kid-oriented for our last full day in Barcelona, so we checked out Tibidabo, a mountain that has an amusement park on top. Getting there took some planning: we took the Metro to a regional train, and from there took a bus and funicular. The girls liked the funicular, and DH and I liked checking out the fancy houses along the bus route.

The amusement park has a few options for admission. You can buy general admission to the whole park or to just a portion of it, the panoramic zone. You can also enter the panoramic zone for free and purchase tickets a la carte for the rides within it. We went for the third option. The girls could ride everything within the panoramic zone, although DD2 needed an adult to accompany her on everything but the carousel (Later I discovered that we missed some kid rides that were farther back in the panoramic zone. Oops!). I joined the girls for the Ferris wheel and the airplane ride. You can see the wing in the pic I took while on the ride.

The panoramic zone is aptly named. You can see all of Barcelona and beyond.

Our post-nap adventure was to walk along the beach at Barceloneta. We didn't have suits, but that didn't stop us from wading in the water, searching for rocks, and digging in the sand.

As we walked back to the Metro, we felt like fish swimming upstream because people were coming to the beach to celebrate the festival of Sant Joan. The festivities carried on in our own neighborhood, with plenty of DIY fireworks being set off late into the night. We may be missing July 4th in the US this year, but Barcelona made sure we had that part covered!

(Photo credit to DD1 on the Arc de Triomf and Manzana de la Discordia. I took the beach, airplane, and palm pics. DH took the rest. DD2 has a child camera, but the resolution on it isn't very good, and she took many pictures of her shoes.)