In Girona: running down the batteries in Barcelona

December 13, 2018

So what is the correct amount of time to allow for visiting an A-list city while on a bike tour? There’s no right answer to that question of course, but I doubt nine hours is correct. That’s what we allowed, and when we left the city we still had a sizable list of places on our can’t-miss list that didn’t make the final cut.

I forget for sure now why we didn’t actually end this tour in Barcelona, but mailed our suitcases forward to Girona instead. I’m sure a part of it though was based on prior experiences. We biked all the way in to Barcelona on our 1996 tour, and didn’t much care for the final fifty miles from Blanes - too narrow, too much traffic, no good alternatives to the main road. And, we loved Girona when we used it as our launch point for our first tour of the Pyrenees in 2014.

So, for whatever reason, we decided to visit Barcelona on a side trip by train from Girona. We considered making it an overnight stay but in the end decided to visit for a single day, catching the early morning fast train and staying for as long as our legs could tolerate it before catching a train home again. So, just one day to see the highlights of the city, on foot.

If you decide to do something similar, be aware that you have some options here. The fast train is nonstop, and fast - it takes just 38 minutes. We got a very early start, leaving the hotel at 6:15 and catching the 6:48 fast train. We arrived in Barcelona at 7:15, and very nearly found ourselves on the way to Madrid because no one else in our car was detraining in Girona so we thought we weren’t actually at the train station yet. We barely missed spending our day in Barcelona by just riding the train to Madrid and back.

I said you have some options. The other option is the local train, which takes about twice the time at half the cost. We took the slow train back at the end of the day, partly to save money and partly because we were both too exhausted to mind the idea of sitting in one place for the next hour and a half.

From the Sants station (the Barcelona depot for the fast train) we walked a few blocks until we found the first attractive coffee shop, where we stopped to fuel up before setting out on our blitz tour of the city.

So what’s the right number of photographs to post on a cycling blog of a city that billions of people come to visit and have already posted their own photos of? I don’t doubt that many of you have been to Barcelona yourselves, and have already seen everything we’ll show you here. There’s no right answer of course, but we picked 36 as a reasonable number - four for every hour of our visit. Sounds logical enough, I think you’d agree.

Those of you that excel at higher math will note that there are actually 37 photos in this post. Only the first 36 count though - the last one, of myself, is in here because Rachael insisted on including it. So we’re good.

It’s about a half mile from Sants station to the first site on our list. This first set is some general shots of the city on our way there, showing our first impressions.

This is the famous Ramblas, probably one of the best known features in Barcelona. This early in the day though, it’s just another street.

Exciting urban wildlife probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Barcelona.

Barcelona is quite bike/scooter/skateboard friendly - much more so than at our first visit here. This is an atypical pair of riders though - helmets are relatively rare here.

We got very excited by the architecture here, and at first stopped to take pictures of seemingly every other building we passed.

What do you call these corner dormers, or whatever (oh, wIt - Bay windows, I think)? I really like them. If we don’t buy that cave back near Roses, maybe we’ll get a flat in Barcelona.

Eventually we arrived at our first stop: the Block of Discord. This city block, just a block east of the Ramblas, is one of the top sites in the city because it contains three exceptional buildings designed by three different important architects of the Modenist movement. Even at this early hour (about 9 AM), the street is already busy with tourists snapping photos, gazing up in amazement, or waiting in line for admission. We didn’t have the time to visit the interiors of any of them, but I’m sure they’re each incredible if their exteriors are any sort of indicator.

Casa Battlo, redesigned by Gaudí in 1902–4.

Image not found :( — Casa Amattler, designed by Catafalch in 1898.

Casa Morera, redesigned by Montaner in 1902.

From here, we walked west and into the hills, up to Park Guell - an indescribable extravaganza that was Rachael’s top destination in the city. Along the way we stopped along the way to check out a few other exceptional buildings, to do a bit of shopping (I finally got a new belt, after over a month of holding my pants up while we walked), and climb many stairs. Once you leave the flats of the new city, Barcelona starts rising quite steeply into the hills.

Casa Vincens: the first house designed by Gaudí, and considered one of the earliest buildings of the Art Noveau movement.

I didn’t see a name on this industrial-looking sculpture that looks like a running waterfall but is really a recirculating fountain.

Approaching Park Guell, we’re softened up a bit by this 90 step stairway.

Park Guell, a planned small private city designed by Gaudí in the early 1900’s, has to be seen to believed. I’m really grateful that Rachael did the research to learn of this place and to insist that we go there early enough in the day to enjoy it. It is such an amazing spectacle - one visual delight after the other, a unique playground for the eyes and the imagination. It’s obvious from watching the crowds that everyone is in awe as they walk around. Rachael was a bit disappointed to have it showering during our visit, but I actually enjoyed it - what better way to spend a wet day, and what an added delight to see the added colors of all the umbrellas?

We may have been in Park Guell for about two hours. By the time we left we were both quite tired, and famished. We walked back toward the lower city watching for a promising place for lunch, which we planned as our main meal of the day. After passing any number of bars and small cafes we finally found someplace worthy of the occasion in a Brazilian restaurant and enjoyed a fine meal while resting our weary legs.

Afterwards, we walked a few short blocks to the famous Sagrada Familia, the renowned Gaudí-designed gothic/art noveau cathedral that is still under construction almost a century after his untimely death in 1926. Like Park Guell, it really has to be seen to be believed. This is our second visit - we saw it also in 1996 - and we were startled by how much farther along the project is now.

Sorry. I know this puts us over the cap. Blame Rachael.

We walked around the Sagrada Familia slowly, staring up at it from all sides in wonder until we’d had enough. By this time it was four. We still had several other sites on our list - the cathedral, and a few other highlights a few blocks from it. We more or less started off in that direction, but we’re stymied a bit by the fact that both of our cell phones were about dead and no longer served for navigation. We generally knew where we were going, but as we started working our way east toward where we assumed the cathedral would be we gradually slowed down to a halt and reconsidered. Without our phones, we weren’t sure how far away it was - but it would surely add at least two and possibly three or four miles to the day, assuming we didn’t get lost along the way. And, even if we found what we were looking for I wouldn’t be able to take photos because both of my cameras were also dead. We managed to drain all our electronic devices, save the GPS; and it was getting close also.

And, it wasn’t just both cameras and both phones that were run down. We admitted to ourselves that we were as well, and had tapped out on our stamina and enthusiasm. We decided we’d both be a lot happier if we just headed back to the train station, still at least another long mile and a half away. By the time we neared the station, we were counting down the blocks, willing each other to keep going. By the end of the day we logged sixteen miles, the most either of us has walked in ages.

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Jacquie GaudetI have to visit Barcelona again! I was in such a hurry to start my tour in 2016...
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5 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Jacquie GaudetWe’ll have to come back ourselves, and stay awhile next time. Amazing to be over here for so long and allow less than a day on the city. We should have biked down from Girona and ended the tour there instead.
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5 years ago