Today we are going to view Barcelona from up high! When we visited last month and May with the cruise ship we saw a cable car that went from the dock area to somewhere and we wanted to take it – it looked like fun! So today was the day! We took the Metro which was easy as it was the same line near our hotel to as close to the terminal as possible and walked the rest of the way. It was a nice but hot walk – luckily for me there were lots of market stalls along the way (which did not impress Andrew) however he did like the tall misting pipes sticking out of the ground – except they kept turning off right before he got to them! That was funny to see – babies start crying when they see him and spray poles turn off – interesting combination! Anyway, we got to the cable car and found out that on the other end (where I had made plans to take the funicular down the hill to the Gaudi House museum) there are over 40 stairs to get out of the terminal! Ah, that will not work so we took a round trip instead which they let us stay on the car – which is normally not allowed. So that was cool – we stood on the northwest side of the car going up and the east side of the car going back down! The south side of the car just shows the docks – so not the view I wanted… Here are the pictures that were taken –
Luckily, once we got off the cable car, we figured out that the bus that stops out front could take us to the Gaudi House museum – a 45 minute ride but it would be shorter than taking 3 different metro lines and perhaps getting lost! I was really happy that at the AC Forum Hotel where we stayed that I asked the front desk clerk more about the Metro system as we found that paying $2.40 Euros each for a single ride a bit steep – there were no transfers that we could figure out. This also was on a bus. The front desk clerk helped me out immensely! She suggested that we purchase a family card which allows more than one scan at a time and has 8 scans on it for $10 Euros. So a bit cheaper than $2.40 euros each! She also told me to try not to take busses as they are one scan each, however if you were in the subway system or had to go up and then down to a subway if you were within 70 minutes it was considered 1 ride. So with that knowledge that helped us a lot with how to take transit. So far we had used 4 scans! We arrived near the Gaudi House in one piece – those busses are aggressive drivers in Barcelona! I had to lift my walker onto the bus at the cable car stop but used the accessible bus stop button and the bus driver actually put the ramp down for me to get off! I was impressed – my first ramp service 🙂 It was funny though when we walked to the Gaudi House we actually passed it – sometimes Google Maps is a bit slow updating and Andrew actually made the comment “that is a pretty cook house with it’s decorations”. I then put two and two together of what street we were on and we had just passed it. Thanks Google for letting us know! The Gaudi house, which I expected Andrew would only be able to visit due to how small it looked actually had an elevator that went from the basement to the roof! So we were able to tour the whole thing AND it had wifi so that we could download a narration in English to learn about the house. Very cool place – Gaudi was a very creative person – that about summarizes it! Here are the pictures that I took of a few places in the house –
Then we hopped back on the subway and took 2 lines (first one in wrong direction – again, do not leave direction finding to Andrew – I should know better!) back to the hotel where we went for dinner at the 17th floor Suite Bar again due to it’s view! Got there early in Spanish standards (no one else was there) however as it opens early due to the pool and therefore we did not have to wait to 8pm to dine. Had a great salad (Andrew had a burger) and very relaxing time – tomorrow our last hotel – Le Meridien Ra Beach Resort which is about 45 minutes south of Barcelona.
