NOTE -> This trip occurred pre-COVID-19 and feels like 100 years ago

We arrived tired, hungry and excited to be there. Local time was about 7:00am by the time we had made it through passport control and collected our bags. That was equivalent to 1am back in Boston. We found a cafe to grab some breakfast. Tomatico got a jamon and cheese sandwich and loved his first taste of Spain.

We made our way to the taxi stand and found there was no line. We immediately got into the taxis and were on our way to the hotel. We had indicated we would be there for an early arrival and were hoping our room would be ready at such an early hour.

It was about 30 minutes and 35 Euros to get to the hotel from the airport which is pretty reasonable. There’s a minimum charge for airport rides so it seemed like taxis were pretty cheap compared to the US.

I had exchanged emails with the hotel before we arrived so they knew we had two rooms. I had upgraded my wife’s room to one that would allow us to have connected rooms for only 11 Euros more per night. While we didn’t have a suite, with connected rooms it would be the next best thing and well worth the upgrade charge to guarantee it. We may have been able to get that upgrade for free with our status but it was such a minimal cost I didn’t want to take that chance.

The checkin agent was extremely nice and helpful. She started talking to my wife in Spanish but soon realized I didn’t speak it and quickly switched to English. Unfortunately our rooms were not yet ready but they would be able to store our luggage for us.

Breakfast!

Since it was 9:00 and they were still serving breakfast, I asked if we could get our free breakfast benefit starting today since I knew we had an early train on the day we were checking out and wouldn’t be able to get breakfast that day. Usually you don’t get it on your day of arrival and the agent wasn’t sure. She asked her co-worked whole said it was definitely not a problem. While we had eaten a snack at the airport, we weren’t against getting a second breakfast to fill us up and help us power through the morning.

The buffet was pretty impressive. There were a ton of fruit options as well as a half dozen bread and pastry options. They had fresh fruit juices and the standard hot items as well. They even had cold cuts, including some traditional jamon. I found the selection to be quite filling. There were even chocolate chip cookies (!?!)

Sagrada Familia

After breakfast we headed out towards Sagrada Familia, which is a famous cathedral that everyone said we should visit. I had booked a guided tour (in English) at 12:30 which was a few hours away.

We were going to try to get there using public transport but needed to get to a subway station in order to claim the tickets I had purchased online just before we left. The online purchase got me a voucher number I could type in at one of the ticket machines at a subway station.

We asked for directions at the front desk and found it was a 10 minute walk to get to the nearest station. Once we found the station it was trivial to redeem the voucher to get the tickets. Getting from the station to the cathedral didn’t seem quite as trivial with the number of transfers we’d need.

Given how tired everyone was we decided to hail a taxi instead. We eventually found an empty one and it was a short 5-minute ride to the cathedral and it only cost about 5 euros, which was cheap. Both taxis we had take also accepted credit cards which was unexpected based on what I read. Most sites said taxis didn’t commonly accept cards so maybe this was a new thing. The machines they used to process the cards also supported Apple Pay which made my life much easier!

We had to walk a block down the street to actually get to Sagrada Familia. On the way Tomatico saw a gift shop selling FC Barcelona items and insisted on “checking it out”. We ended up getting a hat and a scarf for him and his brother.

When we finally arrived at the cathedral it was about 10:30. It looked impressive from the outside, though we still had 2 hours to wait before our tour would begin so we ended up wandering the streets in the area. We eventually found a park overlooking the cathedral. There were some benches and we sat on them staring into space for a bit as we were all extremely tired.

During this time I emailed to tour company as I hadn’t gotten the expected confirmation on where to meet. Fortunately they responded within a few minutes and I had the information I needed. They said they had mailed it before, but when I checked I had the original and the resent new in my inbox within a few minutes of each other. At least I got it in the end.

The boys noticed a playground nearby within the park and, while being much too big for it, they decided to play in it to pass the time. My wife, Tomatico and I sat on the bench in the playground area while our youngest played in the playground. The three of us were in varying stages of napping for about an hour when it was finally time to go meet the tour.

We easily found the tour guide along with the rest of the group. There were about 15 people total in the group from various parts of Europe. The guide herself was very enthusiastic about the cathedral and the details in its artistry. We were mostly cold and tired so a lot of it was lost on us.

The history of the cathedral is quite interesting. It was started over 100 years ago and is still under construction. It is expected to be completed by 2026, which is the 100th anniversary of the architect’s death. Construction has accelerated in recent years since the interior was finished, allowing them to charge entry for tours. Apparently having a steady income makes it easier to plan construction projects!

Once inside you got to see the stained glass windows and how the light reflected off the walls and ceiling and changed colors every few minutes as the sun moved. The church was filled with religious symbolic details that the guide enthusiastically explained.

Overall the tour was good, but I’m not sure I’d book the full tour again, especially on the first day. We were honestly too tired and cranky to really enjoy it as much as we should have. The tour guide knew her stuff, but I’m not sure we shared her love of the subject. We may have been better off doing the audio tour instead. If we were fresh and rested we definitely would have gotten more out of the tour, though.

Need Food

After the tour we went looking for a place to get a snack and then realized it was 2pm so we went looking for lunch instead. Tomatico and my wife loved their pasta dishes they got at the cafe and everyone loved the churros for dessert. They hit the spot and gave us a much needed boost.

During lunch I got an email from the hotel that our rooms were finally ready. Once we finished eating we headed outside to find a taxi. There was a taxi stand nearby and the ride home was quick and quite cheap. It was only about 6 euros.

Our Room

Back at the hotel we checked into our rooms. We had upgraded to a corner room which was connected to a regular room. The corner room had a fantastic view with floor to ceiling windows and a king bed. The connected room had two twin beds (perfect for the boys). Each room had a bathroom as well, making for much less stress and conflict. Our room looked newly refurbished and was modern and we really enjoyed the view. The boys had a smaller more dated room, but it was in excellent shape and perfect for them. Both bathrooms featured a rain shower head and pretty much identical bathrooms. The rooms were quite comfortable and I was quite happy with the selection.

After we unpacked my wife insisted on taking a proper nap and my youngest was on board with that. Tomatico wanted to go to the gym so I went with him instead.

The gym has an amazing views of the city, but only had 4 machines and one of them was broken. We couldn’t really determine how to get the other machines to work. It’s likely because we were just so tired that the machines were outsmarting us. After about 15 minutes of struggling we decided to call it quits and head back down to the room. It’s took ad the gym was a really well designed space.

Everyone was fast asleep so we each took a shower and Tomatico layed down. I spent some time in Google Maps getting a better idea of where everything was. I was tired so it was a slow process but I was determined not to take a nap as I knew it would mess up my jet lag. That said I did notice my screen went to sleep a few times when I was doing my research…. I was definitely tired.

Around 6:30 I got everyone up so we could get something to eat. I knew if I let them sleep they’d be hungry at 2:00am with no way of getting food. It was a struggle to get the boys up because they were determined to sleep.

Tonight the mission was to find comfort food, and quickly so they could get back to sleep. After walking around for a little while we found a pizza place that sold slices. Perfect! We each got a slice and found a table. My youngest didn’t like his but everyone else really liked theirs. We later stopped at a bakery to get him a crossaint to hold him over until breakfast.

Back at the hotel I was ready to call it a day. My wife got the kids set while I passed out. I did manage to set my alarm so we’d get up in time for breakfast but found out the next morning they were all up for some time after I fell asleep.