DAY 78: La Sagrada Familia, Tibidabo, and a Barcelona Night Out

We rolled out of bed fairly early so we would beat the line at La Sagrada Familia! Here's a few fun facts for y'all.

FUN FACT #45: The construction of La Sagrada Familia began in 1882 and continues to this day. Antoni Gaudi was the architect until 1926 when he was hit by a tram. Ouch.

FUN FACT #46: Gaudi believed that no man-made structure should be taller than any God-made structure. So La Sagrada Familia's tallest tower is 984 feet above sea level, the same height as the tallest mountain in Barcelona, Montjuic.

FUN FACT #47: La Sagrada Familia design was inspired by nature. Gaudi designed each of the columns as trees whose branches fanned out to become the ceiling of the Cathedral.

I have to say, I was rather blown away by La Sagrada Familia. It is like nothing I have ever seen before. The front entrance really does look like its melting from far away, but as you get closer, you can see all of the really intricate work done on the facades. It's really quite stunning.


We were being kind of cheap, so we only bought one audio guide and had one person listen and repeat to the other two. (Yeah, we're THAT cheap.) There were a decent amount of people there, but not so much as we were unable to appreciate this cathedral's wonder. The ceilings are ridiculously high and actually do look a bit like trees with branches. The stained glass was my favorite part- it was arranged as a

beautiful rainbow with abstract patterns.

We walked around the Cathedral for quite some time before we decided we had seen enough. We then set off on what turned out to be quite the hike to a place called Tibidabo.

FUN FACT #48: Tibidabo is a mountain overlooking Barcelona. It is 1,680 feet tall and has a church and amusement park located at the top.

FUN FACT #49: Tibidabo Amusement Park is the oldest amusement park in Spain! The cathedral located also on the top of this mountain is called Sagrat Cor Church, which began construction in 1902 and was finished in 1961.

Photo by me!

Photo from Wikipedia

The walk took us about 2 hours from La Sagrada Familia to Tibidabo Mountain, which once we GoogleMapped it discovered to be about 9.9km or 6.15mi.  On our way, we grabbed sandwich supplies and ate lunch on a smaller mountain near by. We played lots of 20 questions Gilmore Girls and F.R.I.E.N.D.S versions which helped pass the time. When we reached the top, it was unfortunately a bit cloudy, but we could still see the view of the entire city below us. It was slightly strange to be standing on the steps of this monstrous church with kind of a tacky amusement park slightly blocking the view of the city below. But it was a very beautiful church inside and we enjoyed walking around the balcony. Our feet were sore, so we managed to take a bus back to our hostel and took a quick nap.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia. It was far too cloudy the day I went to take a picture that captured how gorgeous it was. 

Once we had rejuvenated from our long day (and Kief's jet lag) we decided to check out the night life in Barcelona, which can be said to be rather infamous. We hit a bar devoted entirely to shots- and what I mean by that was there were no other drink options. The place was packed with people and we tried to pick out a shot title from the chalk board on the wall. This board showed easily close to 100 different kinds of shots, but did not tell you what was in them. So we took our chances and ordered the ones with some great names, like The Willy Wonka, The Cabbage Patch Kid, and The Tellytubby. At one point, we ordered all the same kind which they ended up lighting on fire! Lizzy got this really cool picture of it. We didn't stay too long as it was slightly claustrophobic.

Afterwards, we continued onto a place by the beach. There were a multitude of bar/club options, but we ended up choosing the one with the cheapest cover charge (for that very reason). We had a great time dancing the night away and running knee deep in the ocean afterwards. Kief, of course, showed of her Spanish speaking skills with the cab driver on the ride home and then we were safely in bed. It was a great day.