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!