Sagrada Família with a tower ticket, and tapas where the locals actually eat.
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Barcelona can be handled in four days if you accept that you will not see everything. We decided to skip Camp Nou and the aquarium and give Gaudí proper room instead.
The Sagrada Família has been under construction since 1882 and is still not finished. We go in at 9:00, while it is quiet inside and the morning light comes through the eastern windows, which are blue and green. By the afternoon the light is red and orange. That is a design decision, not an accident. We also have tower tickets: a lift up and 400 steps down. If you are claustrophobic, sit that one out; the staircase is a spiral one metre wide.
Park Güell is booked for 11:00, which is the last hour it remains bearable. The Gothic quarter takes two hours to cross and getting lost in it is part of the plan. Our guide Silvia has lived in Barcelona since 2019 and takes the group for tapas in Gràcia, twenty minutes by metro from the centre and half the price. A bomba, a tortilla and pimientos de Padrón with a glass of vermouth come to twelve euros. In the centre the same order costs twenty five. The last day is free, the sea is five metro stops away and in September it is 24 degrees. We stay in Eixample, the district of right angled streets with chamfered corners that looks like a chessboard from the air. The Gothic quarter is fifteen minutes on foot, the Sagrada ten. The hotel is not luxurious, but it is clean, quiet and central, which in Barcelona at this price is rare. The metro card covers all three days.
Take off from Vienna at 10:20, landing at 12:55. We take the metro into town to a hotel in Eixample. The afternoon is the Gothic quarter: the cathedral, the Jewish quarter and Plaça Reial. First tapas in the early evening, then free time. Get some sleep; tomorrow is the big day.
Sagrada Família at 9:00, including the climb of the Nativity tower. The visit takes two hours. Then the metro to Park Güell for an 11:00 entry and ninety minutes inside. In the afternoon, Passeig de Gràcia with Casa Batlló and Casa Milà. Tapas in Gràcia in the evening.
La Boqueria market at eight, while chefs are still buying and tourists are not. In the afternoon we take the cable car up Montjuïc for the view over the port and a walk in the botanical garden. In the early evening, Barceloneta beach and dinner by the water; a paella for two costs about 30 EUR.
Breakfast, check out, bags at reception. You are free until one: the Picasso Museum, shopping on Passeig de Gràcia or an hour on Barceloneta beach. Silvia stays available if anyone wants one more stop. We leave for the airport at 14:00, take off at 16:35 and land in Bratislava at 19:00.
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