You Say Tidibaldo, I say Tibidabo

I would be right. Its Tibidabo.

This is a panoramic from the initial viewing point before going up the church.

This is from the top of the church.

After three and a half days in Barcelona, Travers was finally able to pronounce Tibidabo correctly.  This is the mountain top that overlooks Barcelona, and it had beautiful amazing views of the entire city, the beaches and surrounding areas as far as the eyes can see.  Travers and I took the metro from our hotel then boarded a bus to climb up part of the hill. We then got on a funicular which took us straight up Tibidabo Mountain.  My first funicular ride was in Hong Kong where we took it up to Victoria Peak to look out at all of Hong Kong. It was magnificent. But I will say that the Tibidabo funicular was even steeper and climbed higher than the Hong Kong one.  The Peak is 554 meters above sea level. While close, its not quite as high as the top of the church at Tibidabo which is 575 meters.  Although not much of a difference, the top of Tibidalbo just felt higher up. I think it was how drastic the drop off was from Tibidabo down to Barcelona. Either way, we were high up there.  When we got off the funicular, we walked out in the viewing area and took it all in. We then decided to check out the Tibidabo Church. We stood outside the church and looked up. And far far up there at the top of the church we saw some hands waving at us. I could barely see them, but realized that we could go up there too. So we walked inside, found the elevator, and we took the elevator up the church. The elevator only went up about half way. We then had to climb some winding stairs, then about 5 more sets of stairs up and up and up to the very top of the church, where we stepped out to a tiny circular platform.  It was breath-taking. I wish my pictures did it justice, but it was just amazing.  After climbing back down on shaky legs, we took the funicular back down and grabbed a drink at another outlook spot just as the sun was setting.

Earlier that day, Travers and I rented bikes and did a self-guided tour through Barcelona.  Now I'm not very talented on a bike. I can ride it of course, but when it comes to navigating through people (who don't see or hear you coming) and on cobblestones walkways, and in street traffic with cars and motorcycles, I can get a bit nervous and wobbly.  But, thank goodness, I did not crash or fall of the bike once during this trip. I am very proud of myself.  And I should be because we rode those things for four hours and saw tons of things. Mostly we stayed in the Old Town area, but we also went out to the beach and marina, through a park. We saw a lot of the major monuments and lots of really pretty churches and buildings. We took a break out by the beach and while people watching, we happened to witness the aftermath of a beach blanket robbery! Apparently, two women (stupidly) left their things on their beach towel which was pretty far from the water, and went to cool off in the waves. Next thing they know, a nearby couple is shouting at them to come back because they just saw a man grab their stuff and run off.  The women come running out of the water (not as urgently as I would have) and asked the couple for information. They then saw another man at the top of the walkway overlooking the beach, yelling that the robber went that way. We hope the women were able to get their things back, but I highly doubt it. They didn't seem to be hurrying enough. If that was Travers' or my stuff, we would be sprinting down that beach and tackling the robber with all we had!  But that's just us.  It was nice to see so many people trying to help out though.

Standing on La Rambla

The next day, Rosemary and Mike arrived! Yay!  We met them at the hotel, and as jetlagged as they were, they were in great spirits and ready to go touring for the day.  We headed to Placa de Catalunya, about 10 minutes from our hotel, to buy tickets for the Barcelona Bus Turistic, a popular hop on and hop off bus tour.  What we quickly discovered is that Placa de Catalunya is the most popular spot to hop on the bus and the lines were extremely long. So Travers went to get the tickets, and we decided to walk down La Rambla to another nearby stop in hopes that it would be a shorter line. At this point, however,  Mike was getting blisters on his heels. We had told him we wouldn't be walking a lot so he had worn brand new shoes and no socks!  So after some brainstorming and wandering, we found a pharmacie and a grocery store, where we bought him some bandaids and socks that had the "W" emblem on them for Wilson, which just so happens to be Mike's last name. It was perfect!  He felt much better after that and we headed on our way to the next stop to board the bus. 

 Once on the bus, we had a great time seeing more of Barcelona! It took us all throughout the city, more places than Travers and I could have seen on our bikes the previous day. We got top deck front row seats and had the best views the entire time. The bus had an audio guide that you could listen to so we got to hear all about the places we were driving past.  After awhile, we decided that it was time to get off and get something to eat. At one of the stops before we got off, we were high enough up on the top of the bus that we could see the roof of the bus stop. And it had a lot of the blue headphones that they give you when you get on board so you can hear the audio guide. So Mike decided he didn't need his headphones anymore and threw his headphones towards the bus stop roof.  Unfortunately, for a woman standing below, Mike's aim was not very good, and he missed the roof and the headphones went flying down to the ground, grazing the face of a woman standing below waiting to get on the bus!  As much as we felt bad for the woman below, we just couldn't help cracking up laughing :-)

After we stopped laughing, we got off the bus, we found a cafe for tapas and beers. Travers and Mike got large beers and Rosemary and I stayed got small ones.  Boy were the guys surprised when those large beers came out! They were a liter each and in the biggest mugs you have ever seen.  They had to hold the mug with both hands just to drink it!! 

We then let Rosemary and Mike take a much needed nap, and Travers and I got some much needed pool time. And a few hours later, the four of us headed to dinner at Salamanca, a restaurant in Barceloneta that I had been referred to for some of the best paella in town.  While I'm not a paella expert, this was definitely some tasty paella. We got two orders for the table, one seafood and one chicken. And a pitcher of sangria to wash it all down with. This restaurant was right on the beach and gave us some tasty dessert and a digestif liqueur at the end of our meal for free!  It was a great end to a great day. We loved spending the day with Rosemary and Mike, catching up with all that is going on in Sarasota. 

We said goodbye to them the next morning, as they hopped on another bus which took them to their cruise ship for their 14 day excursion. We were very jealous and sad to see them go, but we look forward to seeing them again in September and to hear all about their trip.

After they left, Travers and I just walked around town, wandering down streets we hadn't been down yet, and looking in shops we hadn't passed yet. We had lunch at a cute boulangerie (or whatever the spanish word for bakery is), and then walked down Rambla De Catalunya (not to be confused with the famous La Rambla) and found a Zara store!!  We found new clothes for both Travers and me and walked out extremely happy that the costs were so low (it is double the cost at the Zara in Geneva). 

We headed back to the hotel and layed by the pool again for our few remaining hours in Barcelona. Both Travers and I are tan now (yes, he is actually tan too!) And we came back very relaxed!

Like I said, yo amo Barcelona!