Boundless Horizons

Day 9 – May 28 – Barcelona, Spain

Our final day had arrived, though our flight wasn’t until late afternoon so we still had a little bit of time to enjoy Barcelona. We got up around 9am and got ready to check out. I was a bit worried as our luggage scales said my case was pretty close to the limit! Breakfast was included in our room rate so we headed down just before 10am to drop off our bags.

I must have been tired because I don’t seem to have any photos of breakfast! The selection was great, a mix of cooked items and continental. There was also a nice selection of cakes. It was tasty and set us up well for the day.

We had booked La Sagrada Familia for 11:30am, and originally planned to grab a taxi. For the first (and only) time on the trip, Free Now was a bust! We both tried to book, but there were no cars available. Not wanting to risk missing our entry time, we set off for the Metro. It was a short walk to the station at Passeig de Gràcia, and then just 3 stops to La Sagrada Familia.

The amount of detail covering the building is incredible, photos really don’t do it justice. We arrived around 11:25am and headed to the entrance where there was an airport-style security check. The ticket check is right after security, the line wasn’t too bad so we were through security in about 5 minutes.

The Sagrada Familia app has a really useful audio guide, but we’d both managed to forget to bring headphones. I took a lot of photos as we went around and then listened to the audio guide on the flight home. I’ll include a few photos here, but it’s so hard to convey the size and scale of the building.

These stained glass windows were absolutely amazing, I was a bit obsessed with how the light painted the surrounding areas. They’re designed so that the interior of the building changes colour as the sun moves across the sky.

When booking tickets, you can include admission to either the Nativity or the Passion towers, which offer different views. We opted for the Nativity towers because they have the bridge across, and views of the city. If we go back to Barcelona, I’d definitely go back and see the Passion towers. Our tower entry was 12:15pm. I was glad I only had a small crossbody bag because larger bags had to go into a locker – the locker required €1 coin and I had no coins on me!

You take a lift to the top of the towers, then walk down. It’s literally hundreds of stairs – 340 in the Nativity towers, I believe it’s 426 in the Passion towers. The view is stunning! The up-close views of the building are really great, there is so much detail that’s hard to see from ground level. The spiral stairs, however, are a bit vertigo-inducing!

We took our time going down, though I have to say my legs were aching the following day. We had one last look around the interior, and headed out to see the Passion facade. We headed through the gift shop and then took the Metro back to the hotel to pick up our bags. We left around 1:30pm, so our visit was around two hours. We probably could have spent another half an hour or so in the museum, and I hadn’t realised we could have seen the crypt during certain times. Definitely worth a repeat visit some day!

In contrast to the morning, we were able to order a taxi quickly from the hotel to the airport using Free Now. The taxi picked us up just after 2pm and we got to the airport at 2:30pm. We checked our luggage, then remembered to scan the VAT forms. The sign was a bit unclear, we went to the Global Blue desk only for them to direct us to the self-scan machines a little further along. All of the forms scanned properly, but one was rejected so we had to go for a manual passport check. Technically we were supposed to present the goods, but we’d already checked the cases so we didn’t have everything on us. Fortunately the customs official just checked through the passport, stamped the form, and waved us on our way. I’d signed up to the Global Blue app so I was able to track the refund status – it came through to my card about two weeks after the trip.

Everything went smoothly through security, and we found a place to grab lunch before clearing passport control. Barcelona airport is very nice, fairly big but it didn’t feel too busy, even for a Sunday evening. Our flight was due to depart at 4:50pm, though we had a 40 minute delay departing. We made up time and landed only 15 minutes late, just before 6:30pm. I was glad I’d allowed extra time for our layover at Heathrow so we didn’t have to worry.

Despite not having to re-clear security on the way out, for some reason we had to do security all over again after passport control on the way back. Fortunately we hadn’t bought any liquids at Duty Free. We had a bit of time as our flight back to Glasgow was at 9pm, so we grabbed dinner at Giraffe. We’ve eaten there before when connecting through Heathrow and the menu has a good selection.

We headed along to the gate for our flight home and took a seat. There was a short delay, originally 25 minutes but ended up being closer to 40. I fly to London for work quite often (at one point it was weekly, now it’s much less frequent!) so Rhys and I weren’t particularly surprised – London air traffic is pretty notorious.

The flight itself went smoothly, though just like our flight on the way out, British Airways has really reduced the leg room it offers. Rhys and I find ourselves using Easyjet a lot because they offer more direct options for us (including to Disneyland Paris), and it’s an indication of how far BA have fallen that we have more room with a “budget” airline than the national flag carrier.

And with that we were home. It was a magical 9 night trip and now we just need to decide when we’ll use that placeholder!

Thanks for reading!