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Published: April 15th 2023
Family pic
CiutadellaI didn’t realize how much I had to research. I went to Barcelona every year between 2009 and 2011. Back then, I was giving suggestions and knew exactly where to go and what to do. Fast forward to 2023, and I had forgotten all the details 😳 Plus, there have been many changes. The biggest one is that Park Guell is no longer free. Also, the Magic Fountain was shut off due to drought, Tranvía Blau wasn’t running due to renovations, and some places closed during Covid. With new knowledge, here we go, Barcelona version 2.0, a family edition!
Fri: Bienvenido! The trip was so smooth we even discovered that we don’t have to take the monorail from Bart station if flying out of the international terminal, haha. The flight was quick sleeping for the most part except the last food service waited until 1hr before landing. Eating a lot followed by bad turbulence didn’t mix well for Y. The good thing was that I think small kids were prioritized at immigration. We were able to proceed to the Metro station without drama. And here was the critical part: I actually got T-usual! This is an all-you-can-ride monthly pass
that includes an airport train, tram, and everything! This beauty was available at an unprecedented price of 20 euros at least until June this year as part of the city’s subsidies. Just enough cost for me to be able to pay with the card. Welcome to Barcelona!
We arrived at our home for the next seven nights in Sants, a block away from Mercat de Sants! Easy peasy getting jamón y queso and some fruits for supper. We were all settled and finally hit the sac at 10 pm.
Sat: Getting oriented I thought we’d be sleeping in since the airplane sleep was subpar. I couldn’t have been more wrong! Y was up at 3 am and never fell back asleep. We held out on getting up until 4:45 when he had to use the bathroom. The jet lag was real. We got up, grabbed a quick bite, and hung out until 7:30 am when the sun was just about to rise. Since the plan was to hit Ciutadella today, I was thinking of churros in Barri Gotic which open at 9 am but I realized that there is one place on my list that opens at
Churreria Pau
Chocolate con churros y porras 6 am! Streets and the stations were still pretty quiet. We got to Churreria Pau at around 8 am. We got chocolate con churros and an extra order of porras. We had to wait a bit but everything came out piping hot and fresh. Even the chocolate was steaming throughout.
Next stop: Arc de Triomf and Ciutadella. I thought we’d take it easy with an easy stroll today. I guess this place became the transient mecca. After making a round, we headed to Marcat de Santa Caterina. It had only been a few hours since the churros but the boys were ready for tapas. Bar Joan was busy at 10 am and we barely snagged the last table. We got morchillas, anchoas fritas, tortilla de patata con cebolla, croquetas to die for, and vermut. Y loved all so much! To my question of which one his favorite was, he simply replied “Everything!”
Y had met his walking quota a long time ago but it was only 11 am. We took the metro to Passaig de Gracia to see Casa Batllo and La Pedrera in person. They were both buried in people waiting to get in and to simply
marvel at these truly one-of-a-kind buildings from the street. Y was running on fumes at this point and sitting down on the train floor 🙁 Back to the flat to run some errands, stroll around the neighborhood, have dinner, and hit the sac early but not too early at 7 pm.
Sun: Castellers! Come to think of it, Y sleeping at 7 pm is good but if I sleep at the same time, I’d be up at 2 am 😱 At least Y slept until 5:30 am. Already adjusted 🙂 After a bite, we hit the road at 7:30 am for a churro-hopping.
First stop: Churreria Laietana. This place is a tiny old cafe with just the counter seats along the wall. It can fit no more than 20 people and it was bustling this Sunday morning. From outside, you can catch the guy making churros or the rings of porras on the spot, mm mmm. That made the grumpy kid go inside 😁 We liked this one! Chocolate was flavorful and the churros were fresh 👍 From there, we walked to the churro mecca, Carrer de Petritxol via the cathedral. Y had met his walking quota
way back during the subway transfer but he liked going through Barrí Gotic’s cool ally ways and the big plaza in front of the cathedral. The plaza was pretty empty still with a few vendors setting up the tables for Palm Sunday. Carrer de Petritxol is super narrow and it’s cool just to visit even if we weren’t getting any churro. You can’t miss Dulcinea’s storefront with yummy sweets on display. Inside is a super cute Vienna coffee scene. The waiter gave me the Spanish menu and 2 English menus for the boys. We got chocolate with churros and melindros. Too bad the horchata was only from May to September 😣 Definitely no miss there with what we had, mmm.
Officially chocolate out, we made our way back via the cathedral as Y wanted to go again. The plaza was filled up with people already. It was 10:30 by the time we came back to Plaza de Sants. Shortly after we started the stroll on the garden walk (Jardins de la Rambla de Sants), Y wanted to use the restroom. It was perfect as our flat was just a short walk. When we came back out at 11:15, the
plaza was filled with people all with white pants. Good good, the castellar is on! I’ve never seen it in person and it’s been on my bucket list! We weren’t sure where the view spot was or when it was going to begin but the whole thing was so organic. Each organization sort of gathered and started huddling and boom boom boom, the little ones with helmets were up high! Sometime later, another huddle popped up and up they went again. We hung around until 12:30 pm. We still had to run some errands because we don’t want to leave the grocery shopping until the last minute. We had limited and overpriced choices on Sunday but we needed water for sure.
Carrer de Sants was closed off for cars and it was pleasant. After picking up a few things, we headed to Parallel station to hit La Tasqueria de Blai. After a long transfer, the wrong subway exit, and a short wait for the table, we finally made it. Here, the waiters went full-on English from the get-go, ha! I guess…it’s a fun fusion pintxo place. It’s like a pintxo buffet and you pay by the number of toothpicks.
Of course, Y loved it all!
Back in the neighborhood, Y had a blast playing in the neighborhood community garden. We also discovered the jamon y queso vending machine just around the corner. Nifty! You need them at all hours, right?? Actually, there were at least 5 jamon stores within a few-block radius here. The importance is real. Supper and bed at 7 again!
Mon: Park Guell Today was Park Guell day! We got the tickets to enter at the first possible time at 9:30 am. Boy, visiting Park Guell got infinitesimally more difficult than I remember. First of all, you need tickets with a 30min window to enter the coveted area. I got the reminder email at midnight too. Super organized. Inside, the flow of the crowd is defined to go from up to down. Except between the Greek Theater and the Dragon Stairway, you can only go down. On our way out, Y wanted to see the dragon one last time and went through the rope to go back up the stairs. I tried to follow him only to get “no no no no ma’am”. He was already in the middle section but we could
only yell out his name. Good thing he heard us. The exit is where I’ve walked right in many times and the tickets are scanned again there. Taking no chances. My bucket list of jogging through the park is long gone but we had a great time. Here is how it went down!
We got to Vallcarca station shortly before 9 am. I thought I overachieved it but we were definitely not alone. From there, the park is a steep direct slope up. This is the recommended and the best way IF the escalators are working on Baixada de la Glòria. When the middle of the slope was blocked off with power shovels hard at work and climbing the narrow stairs that were left, it IS work. Y made it all the way somehow! It wasn’t in the plan but an inviting staircase pops up right there leading into the park. We followed that to one of the many entrance points. There were already 3-4 groups in line. By 9:15, the line was getting long. Once we entered, we had to hike around to the north end of the Greek Theater to enter the busy area. I was pretty
sure the place would be swamped with people by the time we got there. To our surprise, we had the Hypostyle Room and the Dragon Stairway to ourselves!! It was only for a brief moment but it was such a treat!!! Y had a special affection for the dragon and it was an amazing moment for him to see it in person. He found pigeons taking refuge incognito inside the fountain 😄
We knocked off the busy area before 10:30 when we took a snack break on the famous bench 🙂 Looked like the cruise crews were flowing in. We learned that the back conforms to your curve, huh. We continued to the viaducts where we could still enjoy the decently thin crowd. We wanted to head over to more viaducts to the northeast of the Greek Theater but every single direct path to it was closed! The crowd was directed to go all the way down to the Guard House and climb back up on the other side. More big stairs for Y but he was poised to go to the top. The top is a walkway lined with cool sitting and viewing spots. We walked across the
park to the Three Crosses. The Crosses were roped off. There was a parrot-whispering guitar performer there selling his CD for 10 euros. We climbed down a little to find a bench to take the lunch break.
We made one last visit to the dragon. By this time around 12:30 pm, the place was impossible. The Greek Theater was filled up and people covered up the entire Dragon Stairway. Y took as long as he needed to say goodbye to the dragon. He was oh so sad to leave.
We stopped by Espana station to check out the tickets for tomorrow. I didn’t want to scramble early tomorrow morning in the non-major station. Yep, a nice attendant was there to help there and we were all set for tomorrow. It was 3 pm by the time we made it back to the flat. A major grocery run was in order. Also, Y had his both ankles hot, swollen, and itchy. We took him to a pharmacy where a lady was super sweet and got him a cream. Finally, a nice full meal for V and I was done at 7 pm!
Tue: Montserrat We were at
Av Carrilet station before 8 am to wait for the 8:27 train. Leave it to me for a major overachievement 😅 We got to the aeri station right on time at 9:15. We went straight to the ticket holder line at third party deep. Not bad 👍 At 9:30, the aeri took off chop-chop. V quickly put Y on the piggyback rider so he can see. Good call. Not much of a view from the gondola as the sun was right on The Valley side. We checked out the monastery area as the cruise ship crews were filling it up quickly.
I was so disoriented. I had no idea where to go from the monastery. We hit the information to figure out how to get to St Michaels Cross and Santa Cova. That’s where my plan of hiking down to Santa Cova funicular and taking the funicular back up was denied as we were told that the funicular was running only on weekends. Well, that’s strange. I specifically checked about this. I even knew that it had just started running after the scheduled maintenance. Y was upset and so were all of us, grrr. Welp, worst case, V will
bring Y back 💪
Before taking on that journey, we must power up with mato. This I surely remembered. It's sort of like cottage cheese...? Super yummy. We found many vendors that sold it. 6 euros for a midsize cup with honey. The lady flipped the cup, coated the empty cup with honey, put mato back in, dug a hole in the center, and put more honey there! Y loved it and he ate most of it 😅 We started hiking down Santa Cova at 10:40. The views were so so amazing! The path went down a steep zigzag. No crowd too. Shortly after, we saw the green thing move. Hey, that’s the funicular! By 11, we were at the funicular station and confirmed that it was running! Yay, we did big high-fives 🙌 Great, that means we can continue further. The path flattened out from there which was great since we’ll have come back to the station. We made it to the crucifix scene which was a crazy view of the valley with the mountain and the monastery up high. We went even further to the end of the road at Santa Cova Chapel. The chapel was closed
but looked amazing as it looked like it was stuck on the side of a rock wall. On the way back, we got to the resurrection scene right at lunchtime and there was a great lunch spot with a view. Oh, how can this day be any better!
Funicular zipped us up to the monastery area in no time. The best 8 euros spent 👍 Now at 1:30, we had plenty of time to visit St Michael’s Cross. Y had no legs left on the way up (V to the rescue 💪) but he made it all the way back down 💪 St Michaels Cross didn’t disappoint. It is sticking out into the valley up high, giving an open view of the monastery and the valley. I think it is directly above the earlier crucifixion. The view was so so incredible on this sunny afternoon.
After a potty stop in the monastery area, we said goodbye to the mountain. The cable car going down was pretty fun. And it couldn’t have been more perfectly timed. The infrequent train was coming in 10min at 3:45 pm. What’s more, we snugged much-needed seats for this 45-min journey after a long
Granja Dulcinea
Carrer de Petritxol walking day. It was a long 15,000+ steps day but it was oh-so fulfilling for all of us.
Wednesday: Montjuic Today’s agenda was a photo session at 9:30 am starting at the cathedral. Definitely sneak in a churro run, right? We got 6 pieces in a paper cone from Xurreria. They were so crunchy and toasty, mm mmm. A side of Nutella dip even ruined it, IMO. We saved some for the photo session and they absolutely saved us 😁 The photo session ended at around 11 am at Arc de Triomf. We took the metro to San Antoni for lunch at Can Vilaro. Y loved all the gamey dishes they had and devoured all of them. I think the owner was happy to see it 🙂 He ate more than me for sure and even V according to V himself.
Parallel Station is a short one-stop from San Antoni. We will ride Teleferic Montjuic today! But first, we must ride the funicular to the Montjuic station 😉 There were a lot of folks headed that way too. But we got to the very first spot where Y could see the cable. It’s definitely flat compared to
the one we took on Montserrat but the Montjuic station was still steps. The cable car station is right around the corner. The line was snaking around and out onto the ramp but it moved super-fast and we were in the gondola in no time. It was a nice view, especially past Mirador station. Going up is a straight shot to the castle. We strolled around the castle to find a few open views of the port.
The path down the park was inviting but we had round-trip tickets. Y had long met his waking quota during the photo session. Besides, one way was 10 euros and round trip 13. No brainer. Going down gives you the option to get off at Mirador station. Of course, get off right? Y was pretty tired we literally just went to the kiosk area for a view and back. Finding a gondola to get on was a bit of a challenge as many didn’t get off here, ha.
We took a detour on the way back via Carrer de Sants to look for a celebratory cake for Y’s birthday. We saw Easter egg cakes and cream-filled cakes but ended up with
a block of pretty-looking Coca de Magdalena 😊
Thu: Check off the eating list It donned on me that things will be closed tomorrow, Good Friday. Sure enough, all supermarkets are marked to be closed on Google Maps. Churreria Laietana was marked to be closed from Thursday through Monday 😱 Other businesses of interest didn’t seem to have the hours updated yet. Quickly, I drew up a plan for today and tomorrow. Today’s plans were to knock off the eating spots, get a feel for tomorrow’s closures, and get all the food to get through tomorrow.
First thing first, Xurreria…again 😅. It’s open an hour before others and it’ll allow for space in between churro-hopping. I asked if they’d be open tomorrow. To our surprise, they are! Wow! I told them how we, especially the kid, love this place. They asked a few questions like how I found this place all the way from the US. After a small talk, they gave Y a few churros and he was on cloud nine 😍 We walked around Barri Cotic getting lost where it was inviting. After giving our tummies a break, we hit La Pallaresa for the churro
attack part deux. This place seems to be always happening. They, too, will be open tomorrow, wow! We got the standard: chocolate and churros. But since horchata is available only in summer again 😔, we got crema catalana 😁 Y devoured it and the table next to us was impressed, lol.
In search of a restroom for Y, we found ourselves in the cathedral courtyard where giant white ducks roamed. Before more food adventures, we swing by Sagrada Familia. It was surrounded by people, people, and more people! Moving on. Torre Agbar changed its name to Torre Glories and it’s now pushing for visitors. We walked by Westfield (lol, must be new…?) in search of an ATM. We skipped them in Barri Gotic since the service fee was ridiculously high. Here in Glories, it was the same as Sants. Y was super excited to see the street car. Perfect, we can take that to Vila Olimpico which is close to our tapas destinations.
Can Paixano had a line at 1:40 pm and it grew fast. Finally, we were directed to the counter space near the entrance. Hay mesas? Nop (you crazy lady!)! 😱 Like Y wasn’t even half
the counter height. Geesh, V put Y on the piggyback rider that’s how it went down. The place was packed. No waiter, just deal with the guys behind the counter. I ordered anchoas and cava rosado casero, mm mmm. But a few strips of anchovies weren’t gonna do it for the boys. V noticed many around us getting hot sandwiches. The menu was only in Catalan but I could decipher between Spanish and French. We got sobrasada and cheese sandwich. It took a while to get cooked but when it arrived, we were all very happy.
La Plata was maybe a quarter-mile walk. It’s a tint tiny neighborhood joint but, phew, there were tables. With a little wait, a few parties were just about paying and leaving. Perfect. There were literally 6 tapas on the menu. Pescaditos and vermut casero were the sure winners. We had the seconds on pescaditos and left when they were starting to get ready to close for an afternoon break at 3 pm.
It was 4 pm already back at the flat. Time to get our groceries on. We will be able to get churros but no market or tapas on holidays. We
got all the necessities to get through Saturday morning. Yep, another 15,000+ steps done. Dinner and bed at 7 pm.
Fri: Barceloneta It was sad to leave our home for the past seven nights. We packed up everything, the grocery, and Y’s makeshift toys. He came to terms to part with some of his creations and putting them into the yellow bins himself, good job 👏 The next place was just a few stations over but we decided to take the longer route to avoid a long transfer walk. We arrived at 9:30 am and were able to check in and drop off our luggage.
Another day, another churro 😄 We got to Xurreria at around 10 am and there was a line today! There was also more on display and we got our regular 6 pieces plus another 6 coated in chocolate. The chocolate ones weren’t as heavy as they seemed. It was sort of soaked into the churro and wasn’t greasier or sweeter 👍
The last tourist thing remaining to do in Barcelona was Aeri del Port. We’re digging into the maybe list, good job! We went to Parallel and took the funicular up
to Montjuic. Today was definitely more crowded than Wednesday. We were way in the back to get on the funicular but Y still got to sneak into the very front spot 😏 From the funicular stop, the aeri station was a walk for Y but he made it. After running into the bathroom at the mirador restaurant, we got the tickets and went in. The gondola came shortly after and we got on as the second party. We had the front view, yay! The ride was high above the shore. It passed through one tower, then ended on the second tower. I was looking for the cables going down to the beach but it stopped there. We reached the street via the elevator on the tower. Of all the cable cars we took on this trip, I’d say Montserrat > Montjuic > Port.
The beach was crazy busy! It was a gorgeous holiday Friday after all. We tried to get away as much as we could but Barceloneta was too long. We were almost to the climbing playground though. Y couldn’t wait to dig into the sand. He ate lunch quickly and had a blast! The wave was so
First round!
La Tasqueta de Blai weak he had no problem dipping his feet in water 🙂 He built the dragon from Park Guell and ran around until past 3 pm. The biggest debacle with the busy beach was a long line at the ladies’ room. I gave up on 2 locations, forget it. We took a major detour so we can take the tram one last time. At Gloríes, Y wanted to see Torre Agbar up close one last time and made our way back to the hostel after 5 pm. Another 15,000+ step day done. Dinner and turn in by 8 pm.
Sat: The last call This is it. We’ll head over to the airport at midday. But first, churros!. Las Ramblas was still quiet at 8 am. Xurreria was a lonely store that was open. Pretty sure the guy knew us by now. He stuffed 2 cones with whatever was there…total 5 extra 😱 We enjoyed our last churros at Plaza del Pi as the setup was underway. Ahhh so good. But wait, we’re not done yet. We can get tapas in too! Yep, Bar Joan at Mercat de Santa Caterina was open! The cathedral was empty on the way to
the market but it was already filling up on our way out.
And that’s a wrap! Life has been good for Y: get up, get on a train, get churro, more train. Repeat. He was oh so sad to leave. L9 to the airport was cool, though. It’s unmanned and Y had the driver view all the way 🙂
Throughout the trip, I was surprised about how much I wasn’t expected to speak Spanish. Maybe I picked touristy places. Maybe it has become more overrun. Maybe Catalán is getting stronger. But I don’t remember ever being spoken to in English here and was more appreciative of my speaking Spanish. Still, it was useful at the stores and pharmacies. It was definitely well worth revisiting after so many years. More importantly, Y loved Park Guell, Montserrat, the cable cars, churros, and everything else! Barcelona para todos y para siempre 🙌
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