Barcelona: Park Güell, Tibidabo

Thursday - Late Afternoon. Today had the best weather forecast all week - mostly sunny - so we decided we'd do Friday's plan today - seeing the Park Güell and the Tibidabo amusement park.

We took the Metro to the Plaza de Catalunya to get breakfast and then find a hop on-hop off tourist bus to take us to both destinations. We got a simple breakfast at the Café Zurich, then crossed the Plaza to find buses.

Unfortunately the line of tourists waiting for the buses was quite long. We estimated at least an hour wait, so we found a nearby taxi stand instead.

We arrived at the Park's central entrnace, about a 20 minute walk away from the Monument area I'd visited earlier. This is where most of the features are: the steps with the tiled lizard sculpture;


the columned walkway;


and the balcony above it, ringed with inward-facing tiled concrete seats that were actually quite comfortable. Gargoyles guarded us from outside.


The park was designed by Gaudí as a housing project, but it never became one.

Next we hailed a taxi and rode uphill on twisty roads to the top of a hill and the Tibidabo amusement park. Entrance to the park is free. But unfortunately, only a few rides on its topmost level were open as the high season hadn't started yet. We got enough tickets so that Sarah could ride the few open ones, and we could all ride the Ferris wheel.


There were few others in the park so we didn't have to wait for any rides. Most rides were idle until we arrived to ride them.

Next we went to the café for typical fairground food - burgers and chicken nuggets and the like.

We considered calling for a taxi ride back - there wasn't a taxi stand at the park - but decided to take the funicular ride downhill into town, so we did. The ride didn't take us far and we had some confusion as to how best to continue. We decided to follow the other tourists and take the local bus further into town.

Margo offered to pay this time so she went to get her wallet from my backpack. She didn't find it. We stepped back and searched thoroughly. It definitely was missing.

This was about my worst fear realised. Losing cash I can deal with, but losing one's cards can open a world of troubles via identity theft. I was well panicked.

We retreated to the funicular's lounge to get our thoughts together. We decided Margo would return alone to see if her wallet had been found. Sarah and I waited. I decided that, even if her wallet were found, it had been out of our control for some time, and card numbers could have been copied for future use already, so I called our bank and canceled Margo's cards for our shared account.

As I was on the phone, Margo texted me that her wallet had been found immediately and put in the café's safe. Apparently she'd merely left it at the counter while ordering our food. Though, I don't know why nobody informed us as we were sitting right in front of the counter for perhaps half an hour while eating.

Margo was quite cross at me for cancelling her cards, but later apologised. New cards should arrive days after our return, but this does inconvenience her for a short time.

We took the next bus further down, then the Metro to our Diagonal stop. Once back at the flat, I went out to get some more cash, mostly to confirm that my card was not blocked. But I was still quite shaken by the whole experience, and I think we were quite lucky that things turned out as well as they did.

Friday morning. Yesterday afternoon, while Margo and Sarah napped, I took some walks through nearby streets and alleyways.


We had dinner at Cervezerida Catalana again. The picture below was taken on the way to dinner; I had to be sneaky and run ahead to catch them in the sunny part.


The staff recognised us and we were seated at the same table. We also ordered much the same. The artichoke tapas that Margo wanted last time wasn't available, so we got fried mushrooms instead.



Back at the flat, I soon left with the camera. I wanted to walk southeast down Diagonal and find a building I was curious about - an office building resembling London's Gherkin, only taller. I'd asked a cab driver about it earlier; he said it was the building of the water company, and just about one year old.

Along the way I spied the towers of La Sagrada Familia, so I changed course to take it in.


Returning to Diagonal, I followed it to its end at the Placa de les Glories Catalanes, a large roundabout with a park in the middle. The building was just opposite, though oddly its surroundings looked quite shabby. I also spied a trolley that I'd not seen anywhere else in the city.



There's lots I've noticed and learned in the time we've been here.

• The street in front of our flat has a parking garage under it. I took this picture at the end of my evening walk; you can just see a glass elevator on the right to the parking below.
  

• Our street, Passeig de Gracia, is actually a posh address. One cab driver told us it was the most expensive street in Barcelona. I suppose it's like visiting Los Angeles for the first time and staying in Beverly Hills without knowing much about it.
• In our Eixample area, most intersections have the corners cut off. The space of the intersection - if viewed from above - is a square, but rotated 45°. This means, walking the sidewalks, you have to angle in, cross, and angle out at intersections. On special streets, like Diagonal and Rambla de Catalunya, this is helped because the boulevard area in the middle of the traffic lanes - rows of trees, grass and inward-facing benches, and paved lanes for pedestrians and bicycles in the centre - allows crosing the intersection directly. It's a bit confusing at first but is very aesthetic.
• Traffic is busy. Most streets have several lanes in each direction, and it seems they are usually full.
• The city is noisy. From our balconies we hear car horns often, and sirens are not unusual.
  
• The air is hazy. Even when we have clear skies, the sky near the horizon is barely blue - closer to light grey.
• We see lots of people on scooters. Bicycles too. There's a bike share programme named Bicing with dozens of locations around the city. I see them often.