September Mediterranean Magic Trip Report updated 10/25/2017 - Page 5 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Nice photos of Barcelona and especially the cathedral. A nice breakfast with a great spread and especially the croissants and smoked salmon!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
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I have not forgotten about you guys! I just hit a rush in life hosting Friendsgiving, have another Disney cruise, going home for Christmas and then having some medical issues this week. I do still fully intend on finishing this up!
Day 2 - What time were we supposed to meet?
So the Hotel Colon is located in the oldest part of the city and doesn’t really have a modern street nearby, so they actually don’t allow vans/busses in the area. In order for our “hotel pickup” we actually had about a 10 minute walk to a nearby hotel with a very lively pickup scene. It was a beautiful morning for some outdoor walking so it wasn’t bad to have to head to a meeting point.
We found our way pretty easily with directions from the front desk and were there a few minutes early. There was no sign of others or our tour so we just kind of kept looking around as time ticked away. It was a busy area as the city was waking up, pretty fun to soak it all in!
Well what happened was they had actually changed the meeting time to about 20 minutes later and we never got the message We eventually found a couple going on the same tour who filled us in. The little van with our guide, Helena did show up a bit after the new time but one couple was still MIA and we waited for them. Unfortunately this did give us a bit of a later start to the day.
The first part of the tour was via the van around town for a tour and brief history of Barcelona and the architecture. Helena was great about filling us in and you could tell she had great pride for her city as she spoke. She pointed out the various Gaudi buildings and explained how he always wanted his style to be with nature and used natural elements, that’s why so many curves and colors of nature.
Once we were in an ideal location, we were able to hop out for photos and to get a closer look!
Next up we loaded back on the van for a trip to the hills with sweeping views of the city.
Sorry the tour got off to a late start and you didn't know about the change in time. You're bringing back more great memories - I was fascinated by all the Gaudi buildings in Barcelona. I can't wait to see your photos of Park Guell. We loved that place.
Who did you book that tour through? Looks like a good one so far. I also loved all the Gaudi buildings when I was there, and definitely want to show them to my DH when we're there in September.
Hope you're doing OK!
Looks like a great start to the tour and love your photos!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
I am so enjoying your TR so far!!! I cannot wait for my first trip to Europe when we head over to Barcelona for our DCL cruise next september!!! Hoping to learn a lot while reading about your trip. Since our kids are kind of spread out across the US we have a meeting point in Chicago O'hara airport for our connecting flight to BCN.
Sorry the tour got off to a late start and you didn't know about the change in time. You're bringing back more great memories - I was fascinated by all the Gaudi buildings in Barcelona. I can't wait to see your photos of Park Guell. We loved that place.
We loved it too!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tara O'Hara
Awesome photos!! I adore Gaudi and it sounds like a fun tour so far!!!
So many interesting buildings by Gaudi
Quote:
Originally Posted by cubfancolleen
Who did you book that tour through? Looks like a good one so far. I also loved all the Gaudi buildings when I was there, and definitely want to show them to my DH when we're there in September.
Hope you're doing OK!
We booked through Viatour but I can look up the exact company - we LOVED our tour guide!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperDave
Looks like a great start to the tour and love your photos!
Thanks! Mostly have my mom to thank for those
Quote:
Originally Posted by cheermom2four
I am so enjoying your TR so far!!! I cannot wait for my first trip to Europe when we head over to Barcelona for our DCL cruise next september!!! Hoping to learn a lot while reading about your trip. Since our kids are kind of spread out across the US we have a meeting point in Chicago O'hara airport for our connecting flight to BCN.
Ohhh so exciting! Happy to answer any questions I can
In no time at all we were arriving at our next stop of the day, Park Guell.
Park Guell is a park on the outskirts of the city designed by Gaudi. It has elements of nature woven into the architecture and is buzzing with the hum of tourists coming to take it all in. This area was originally designed to be houses for the rich and famous of Barcelona, but after its inception, those with enough money to invest in a house here decided they'd rather be in the hubub of the city and close to the action, so the full plans for the park never saw completion.
It does require a ticket to get in and our guide got that all sorted out and we were able to skip the line. Outside the ticketed area there’s a ton of street vendors with all kinds of stuff but once inside it’s nice and peaceful. The sun was definitely starting to get hot today as we walked around. I’ll let the pictures do the talking from here! (And there are quite a few!)
These buildings are fairy-tale esque, can you guess which was the inspiration?
And I think I’m going to break this up into two posts as there are just sooooo many photos we took here! There was so much of interest every time you turned your head
I deleted some of the repetitive photos after going through this post - so if there are any not showing you aren't missing anything I promise
Thanks for the tour info. I do like Viator. We used them in England and already have some tours picked out for Iceland. I'll have to take a look at the Barcelona options.
The park looks great - I didn't get there on my last trip to Barcelona so need to remedy that this time.
You're bringing back some wonderful memories of Park Guell - isn't it an amazing place? I am so with you, we were the same - we found there was a photo op everywhere we looked too.
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And I always eat so much more for breakfast when we're on vacation too. 
We eventually found a couple going on the same tour who filled us in. The little van with our guide, Helena did show up a bit after the new time but one couple was still MIA and we waited for them. Unfortunately this did give us a bit of a later start to the day.
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