Tarragona and Port Aventura

After sleeping in on Sunday morning, we took the subway to the Barcelona-Sants station and caught a south-bound train. The train was slightly delayed and the queuing/boarding process was quite confusing, but eventually we were on our way. It was a smooth and fast ride, and we arrived in Tarragona in about an hour. It was a short (but uphill) walk from the station to our hotel, H10 Imperial Tarraco. This was a fantastic hotel, probably one of the nicest we've ever stayed in. Our room had a huge balcony with sweeping views of the old city, the coast, and Roman ruins.

Tarragona is a relatively small city (about 130,000 people), but is worth visiting for its impressive Roman ruins, which are a UNESCO world heritage site. We had to plan our time here carefully, as our three days involved both a Sunday and Monday, when many things are closed, and a national holiday (Constitution Day). After settling in to our hotel, we caught a bus to the Roman aqueduct just north of town, the Pont del Diable. The bus only took cash if you didn't already have a card, and we were a bit worried since we only had a 20 Euro bill (and all of the stores were closed since it was Sunday so there was no place to make change), but the bus driver was nice and made change for us. It was only about a 10 minute ride up to the aqueduct. The entrance is right on the highway, but the aqueduct is set back in a wooded area. This is a well preserved and impressive aqueduct that towers over a forested ravine. It's also unique because you can walk across the top of it. 

After spending some time walking around and viewing the aqueduct, we went to catch the bus back. However, since the northbound bus stop was on the side of the divided highway, there wasn't a corresponding southbound bus stop. We walked about 15 minutes north to the next bus stop, technically in the small town of Sant Salvador. Turns out we didn't need to do this since the bus makes a loop, but it was a nice little adventure.

Back in town, we walked down the main street, rambla nova. There was a small Christmas market and crafts market, but it was relatively quiet since it was a Sunday. Even though it was chilly we got some ice cream at Hi Cream before heading back to the hotel.

Staying safe on the train.

Spectacular views from our hotel balcony.

Our room was amazing.

A sign for "authentic" looking "tacos."

The impressive aqueduct.

Paul on top of the aqueduct.

A little pond in a big traffic circle in Tarragona.

A statue of the "castell" human towers Tarragona is famous for.

The statues had creepy proportions with disturbing looking hands.

The Christmas market.

Hi Cream - there wasn't tons of ice cream this trip, but we found a little spot in Tarragona that was very popular!

After dark we ventured back out and had dinner at Baires Bar. According to reviews it is known for its artichokes and milanesa (thin fried chicken), so we got one of each. David defied the winter temperatures and got an aperol spritz. Oddly the end of the meal came with cough drops on the bill instead of mints. Well I guess technically they were mint cough drops! We walked around a bit and got some churros with chocolate, and ended the day back in the hotel watching the England vs Senegal world cup game.

Throughout the day we definitely noticed there is much less English in Tarragona. On top of that, just like Barcelona the residents of Tarragona speak Catalan, not Castilian Spanish. It's still easy to get around, and we had no problem using a combination of English and simple Spanish when ordering food and taking the bus.

Plaça de la Font. We spent a lot of time in this square that is lined with restaurants.

Artichokes, and classic milanesa with fries.

Churros with dipping chocolate!

The next day was our roller coaster day. Since almost every tourist site in Tarragona is closed on Mondays (including all of the museums and the roman ruins), the timing was right to head to Port Aventura. This park is known as one of the better parks in Europe. It opened back in 1995, and has been on Paul's bucket list. After breakfast at the hotel we took a taxi to the park. There is a train, but it only runs a few times a day so a taxi was quicker and more convenient for the 9 mile trip from the hotel. The park was relatively crowded, with some rides having lines of over an hour throughout the day, but we had express passes that allowed one ride on each of the major coasters without waiting. Definitely worth the cost for your first visit since the park is quite large, and we also needed time to visit the neighboring Ferrari Land. Overall the park is very nice, similar to the Busch Gardens parks in the US. Shambhala stood out as the best ride, and we also enjoyed the indoor Sesame Street ride where you shoot cookies. Unfortunately park operations left much to be desired - several of the rides broke down throughout the day, loading was very slow, and one major ride (Stampida) never opened. 

For lunch, we were adventurous and tried the "Marco Polo" Chinese buffet. It was... interesting. There was almost nothing Americans would recognize as Chinese food, 2/3 of the buffet was Spanish foods and 1/3 was Chinese-Spanish adaptations of dishes. 

Ferrari Land area was essentially a giant commercial for the car company. Not unexpected, but a little off-putting. Still, the Port Aventura / Ferrari Land combo should be on every coaster enthusiast's itinerary. It's also interesting enough for non-enthusiasts, thanks to the well-done theming and big variety of rides. David barely grumbled about spending the day here. 😏

Morning views from our hotel balcony.

The hotel had a killer breakfast buffet! We usually don't eat hotel food, but made an exception this time!

Paul celebrating Navidad '22 at Port Aventura.

Woody Woodpecker and Red Force. One is a fictional bird and one is the tallest roller coaster outside of the USA.

The coaster skyline of Port Aventura towering over the great wall of China.

David enjoying the USA section!

Snowmen in the park disturbingly had feet. It's almost like they'd never actually seen one!

Lots of photogenic coasters in the park.

Ferrari Land is right next door, and is almost like another section of the park...that they charge you to enter.

That's "pad thai" on the left, and paella at the end. At the Chinese buffet. Uh...

David still looks happy with our "Chinese food..." Spoiler alert, he was not.

We left the park in the late afternoon. The train schedule didn't line up with when we were leaving, so rather than waiting a couple of hours we took a taxi back to our hotel. We caught some of the Japan vs Croatia World Cup game, then set out to walk around the old city at night. Tarragona has a small but lovely historic center. We had a drink at Twins Brewery before going to Sentits restaurant for dinner. Both were great.

Our hotel and the Roman walls at night.

The Tarragona cathedral.

The beers at Twins were quite good! A sour on the left, IPA on the right.

A BBQ chicken, avocado, and pickled onion toast at Sentits.

Yay, dessert!

With that, we wrapped up our roller coaster day. The next day we'd have a full day in Tarragona to explore the main tourist attractions.

Tibidabo and Wrapping up Barcelona

For our last full day in Barcelona, we started the day by taking a taxi to the funicular at the base of Tibidabo mountain. It's possible to make this journey by bus/train and an uphill walk, but we wanted to maximize our time and it was easy to order a taxi using a phone app. The funicular is easy to use. We bought our tickets to the amusement park online, which included a round-trip ride on the funicular, and just scanned our phones to be let into the station. Europe has really caught up/surpassed America in the use of smart phones to do daily tasks like enter museums, buy tickets for transit, etc.

Tibidabo is an amusement park, church, and minor basilica on top of a mountain overlooking Barcelona. Well, not exactly a mountain - it's more like a very large hill, standing 1,680 feet above the Mediterranean coast below. The name comes from the Latin for "I give to you," a biblical reference. The views from the top are fantastic, and we lucked out with a bright sunny day. The amusement park is small but has a surprisingly large family roller coaster that clings to the hillside, as well as a number of historic rides. After spending about an hour on the rides, we went up to the churches that stand above the park. The lower level is a church/crypt with interesting mosaics, and the upper level is the minor basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Temple Expiatori del Sagrat Cor). Both were built in the early 1900s. This was apparently a very transformative time for Barcelona, with these churches, the Sagrada Familia, Lluís Domènech i Montaner's modernist buildings, and Gaudi's grandest buildings all under construction. We took the funicular back down, and had lunch at Mirablau, which has great views. The food was good too!

Paul at Tibidabo

David having fun on the funicular.

City view and roller coaster tracks.

The coaster weaves among the trees on the hillside.

Sweeping views of the city and coast.

A vintage airplane ride.

One church sits atop the other.

Impressive mosaics in the lower church/crypt.

Overview of the upper part of the amusement park.

Inside the basilica. It's plain, but impressively tall.

Lunch time, with views!

A delicious carrot soup.

To head back into the city, we took a short walk downhill then caught a bus. Buses are frequent and super easy to use, and many of the routes have bus-only lanes to help avoid traffic. We got off near the Bullman Pub, as it was almost time for the USA vs Netherlands world cup game. Paul made a quick trip to the AirBnB to get his patriotic Atlanta United scarf while David secured a table. The USA played better than the Netherlands, but wasn't able to finish enough of their chances. We still had a fun time watching the game with a pro-US crowd (and one Dutch guy sitting behind us).

From there we looked for a cocktail bar. This was a pretty common occurrence on our trip. Since dinner is so late, it's standard to get a drink first. We found a nearby bar, Two Schmucks, with great ratings that was just about to open, so we headed that way. Even though they had just opened we got one of the last tables, shared with some other people. Turns out this place was rated the #7 cocktail bar on earth, which explains its popularity. We had a nice conversation with a brother and sister from the US who sat at our table after the first group left. They were on a mission to try the top cocktail bars in Barcelona, which was how we heard this one was so highly rated. Our cocktails were inventive and good, but maybe a bit too inventive for David. Fish sauce might not belong in cocktails!

We got some empanadas to go from Rekons, and went back to the AirBnB to watch the Argentina vs Australia world cup game and relax and pack up since we'd be catching a train in the morning. Empanadas are quite popular in Barcelona. We saw them everywhere. Not complaining!

Our cocktails included ingredients like clarified goats milk and curry leaves.

A tray of empanadas!

This wrapped up our short time in Barcelona. Next stop, Tarragona!

December Trip to Spain - Barcelona

Last year we took a trip to Italy for David's birthday, and we decided to replicate that this year and take another early December trip. Based on weather and costs we decided on Southern Europe again, settling on Spain after throwing around a few options. We decided to start in Barcelona and travel south, ending in Valencia.

Unfortunately, right now there aren't direct flights to Barcelona from Atlanta, so we connected through JFK. The trip started out interestingly when David found a big wad of cash on the floor in front on him. The guy in front of us had dropped $1,700. Oops. We returned it to him and he seemed pretty happy about it. No questions were asked. ;)

After a rather lengthy layover at a rainy JFK, then a redeye cross-Atlantic flight, we arrived in Barcelona on a Thursday morning. We took the Aerobus into town, since it's the most convenient and quickest method. Our lodging was kind of a hybrid between a hotel and and AirBnB called En Ville Apartments, in the Sant Antoni neighborhood. It was a good location, with easy metro access, lots of nearby restaurants and amenities, and a short walk from Plaça de Catalunya as well at the gothic quarter. Really anywhere in central Barcelona is a good place to stay, as it's really easy to walk or take a bus/train. We were a little early and our room was still being cleaned, but they let us drop our bags off and we started our day. We began with a great starting point for anyone visiting Barcelona - Antoni Gaudí. David had previously visited Casa Milà - La Pedrera in 2019, and Paul visited Palau Güell way back in 2003, so we decided on Casa Batlló, a 1904 house. We enjoyed the unique ocean-inspired organic design throughout the house, and the trippy "cube" multimedia display at the end of the tour.

Rooftop chimneys on Casa Batlló.

The front façade of Casa Batlló.

A cool wavy ceiling.

The house has a central shaft adorned with blue tiles.

These walls are made of chains, and were somewhat common around Spain. They look cool at least!

The cube was a weird but cool end to the Casa Batlló tour.

Next we had a quick lunch at Ciutat Comtal. It's a simple but very popular tapas restaurant. We weren't sure if we'd get in since we didn't have reservations, but luckily there were two seats at the bar. We had a couple of traditional tapas including croquettes and pan con tomate. After eating we walked around a bit, exploring La Rambla, and quickly popping in to Betlem Church and Mercado de La Boqueria before wandering around the gothic quarter and the Christmas market in front of the cathedral.

We were pretty jetlagged and exhausted at this point, so we stopped at supermarket and then went back to our AirBnB for a siesta. We finished off the night watching the Spain vs. Japan World Cup game at the Bullman Pub, a nearby Irish pub. It got pretty crowded since it's a small pub, and we shared our table with a couple of Germans who were living in Barcelona and anxiously watching the Germany vs Costa Rica match at the same time. We also saw a woman bring in a Papa Johns pizza, of all things. Quite the international experience. :)

Walking on La Rambla. Barcelona is a pleasant walking city.

The entrance to the busy La Boqueria market.

Beer and the World Cup.

Motley crew assembling for the game!

The next day, Friday, we took the subway to the Sagrada Familia area for our pre-booked entrance time. Barcelona's subway is convenient, efficient, and easy to use. Highly recommended when traveling across town  - otherwise we mostly just walked everywhere. We started off with a quick coffee and pastry at Blackbird Coffee Corner. One thing we've notice is that American style "to go" coffee shops are becoming much more common in Europe. There are still all of the European style cafes, but its nice to have options when time is limited.

We've both been to Sagrada Familia before - Paul in his post-study-abroad visit in January 2003, and David in his break between jobs in 2019. We were both excited to return. It's one of the most iconic buildings in Europe, and for good reason. It was way ahead of its time when construction started in the late 1800s, and even today it's a unique and impressive architectural and artistic work. Our booking also included a trip up one of the towers - we chose the nativity tower. This involves taking the elevator up, being able to walk around a small section at the top including an outdoor portion, and taking a very long spiral staircase back down. It's a good way to get different views of the structure and to see that it is still very much a construction site.

Blackbird coffee.

The tree-like columns and soaring interior.

Rainbow light through the windows.

The main reason to visit is the lighting through the stained glass!

The view of Barcelona from the Nativity tower.

Decorations on the tower.

Five Guys and a statue on his cell phone.

David with the cool staircase.

The Passion façade.

Overall, the outside is kinda meh compared to what's inside.

Leaving Sagrada Familia, we walked north to Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau. A UNESCO world heritage site, this is a former hospital campus that was built in the art nouveau style in the early 1900s. Its kind of on the edge of central Barcelona and seems to get fewer tourists than a lot of the other sites, but it's worth a visit for its distinctive architecture, and is a pleasant place to walk around. The main building has a really impressive interior.

The entrance to the old hospital.

Inside the main building.

Staircases don't come much more impressive than this!

Overview of the campus.

One of the sunny hallways in the main building.

It was early afternoon by now, so we set off for lunch. We planned on trying to eat at Mont Bar, since David had eaten there in 2019 and really enjoyed it. But apparently it's become much more popular since then and earned a Michelin star, so we were out of luck without a reservation. Instead we ate at nearby Micu Maku, which had a pretty delicious selection of typical tapas.

After lunch we walked back toward our AirBnB, after a quick stop at the nearby Sant Antoni market. Once night arrived, we took a stroll through the gothic quarter to the Christmas market in front of the cathedral, and stopped for some cocktails at Pax 49. This is a tiny but good cocktail bar. Finally, we went to dinner at Sesamo, a vegetarian restaurant. We had the multi-course tasting menu, which was affordable and yummy.

Barcelona's subway system is excellent.

All the hits for lunch!

Not the last sangria/wine of the trip!

Sant Antoni market is an impressive building.

The streets of Barcelona are very lively, especially in the pedestrian-focused gothic quarter.

The Christmas market was bustling.

A delightful mezcal cocktail at Pax 49.

Miso eggplant. The glaze was delicous.

Roasted cauliflower.

We packed a lot into our first day and a half in Spain! We still had another full day in Barcelona before continuing south to Tarragona and Valencia.