Day One
We had taken an early morning flight from Manchester to Barcelona. Our hotel check-in was scheduled at 3 pm in the afternoon so once we reached the airport, we took the metro from there to our first destination Camp Nou.
Destination One: Camp Nou: The Barcelona Football stadium.
For the football fans, Barcelona is almost synonymous with football and Messi, so what else could be a better place to flag off our discovery of this beautiful city than the Football stadium and the tour of the same. The tour tickets cost us 13 Euros (per ticket).
Travel Checks: We bought vouchers (per person) for the Camp Nou stadium basic tour through Groupon, Spain. If you purchase this voucher for 1.95 Euros, the main ticket price for the basic tour gets slashed by half its original price. Find the link here.
Camp Nou has been the home stadium of FC Barcelona ever since its completion in 1957. It boasts of a seating capacity of 99,354, making it the largest stadium in Spain and Europe, and the fourth largest football stadium in the world in terms of capacity. The tour takes you through a gallery where all the cups, jerseys, and a plethora of Barca-related artifacts and photographs are put on display. You can also see here the famous golden boot, a large life-sized photo of Messy adorns one of the walls of the gallery.
The museum has been split into three separate sections. The first section includes a collection of photos, documents, and trophies detailing the club's history on an interactive glass wall, allowing visitors to touch the screens and see the information wall. The second section is a private art collection on permanent display at the museum which exhibits works by local artists. The third section, the Futbolart Collection displays football memorabilia from the club including a trophy-room with every trophy, or a replica thereof, that the club has won.
Travel Checks: In case you are also planning to go to Camp Nou directly from the airport do not worry about your luggage as there is a cloakroom inside the stadium wherein you can keep your luggage and then take the tour.
There are some wonderful videos on display here. It is a place of awe and amusement for a person who loves football. The tour also takes you through the conference room, the locker room for the players, the stadium, the pavilion seats, and then finally the ground. If you have enough time on hand then you can also opt to watch a 3-d show sitting in the stadium to get a real feel of how the place feels when a match is being played there. You can take stairs to climb up to the highest part of the stadium from where you can get a panoramic view of the entire stadium. You can also sit in the room there from where the media and commentators experience the live matches. It is amazing sitting in that room and looking down below at the lush green field. You can take photos against green screens with the trophy that is put on display there. Buying the photos is optional. There is also a merchandise shop located inside from where you can buy not only various souvenirs and sports-related items but also grass from the Camp Nou to keep as a memory from the trip to this place.
Travel Checks: Try to avoid visiting Camp Nou on the last tour slot on a Sunday as it can get a bit too rushed. We had visited on a Sunday in the 1pm in the afternoon, we faced certain scenarios wherein we had to rush our tour as some of the attractions of the tour were being closed for the day.
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The famous Golden boot
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Travel Checks: There is a robotic goalkeeper at the entrance of the stadium campus, so if you have kids with you or you yourself are looking for some football fun this is a great place to stop over! Try a shot at scoring a goal by beating him, and trust us he is good! You don`t believe us check out his video below.
We then made our way to our hotel for check-in formalities. We took the metro to the hotel. Our hotel (to read in detail about the hotel please visit our blogpost FAQs when traveling to Barcelona) was located on the red line of the metro very close to La Rambla street.
Once we finished with our check-in formalities and had freshened up we grabbed some quick lunch ( read sandwiches from a shop nearby) we headed out for our second destination for the day.
We chanced upon the famous event that is organized by the Unlimited Racing Bikes in Barcelona, Spain, the URB`s annual Papanoelada Barcelona. This event marks thousands of riders dressed up as Santa rolling through Barcelona on a pre-arranged parade route. The riders usually all bring toys to sick children. The Santas were showering chocolates upon the kids who were standing in the crowd with us! All types of motorcycles are welcome at this event every year, as long as everything is properly licensed and registered. Scooters, choppers, trikes, sportbikes—all one needs is a Santa suit, some toys, fuel for the ride, and plenty of good cheer. For us, it was a great show. Click here to witness the Santas roaring away on their two-wheelers spreading joy!
Destination Two: Casa Mila and Casa Batla
For people who have a keen interest in architecture, the city of Barcelona resonates with the name of the famous architect Antoni Gaudi. The city showcases some of his most beautiful masterpieces, amongst many of them the Casa Mila holds a special place and is one of the top must-visit places of Barcelona.Casa in Spanish means House. The Casa Mila is a building that was designed by architect Antoni Gaudi commissioned by Pere Milà and Roser Segimon, being a new home for the Mila family it was named as ‘Casa Milà’.The couple lived on the main floor while the other apartments were rented out.
Casa Mila built between 1906-1912, is one most iconic works of Antoni Gaudi. It is celebrated both for its constructional and functional innovations, along with its ornamental and decorative solutions which makes it a total work of art. The Casa Mila is also referred to as La Pedrera which means stone quarry as it resembles an open quarry, the features of the building drew inspiration from nature. This was Gaudi’s last work of civic architecture. You can enter the building and explore it from within, there are tickets available for purchase from their official website. We did not take the tour. It is said that a visit to the terrace of the building is the high point of the tour. From here we went to see the other architectural marvel from Gaudi, the Casa Batllo.
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| The interior of Casa Mila as seen from outside |
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Another view of the Casa Mila
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Travel Checks: We felt that maybe visiting the Casa Mila & Casa Batllo in the evening was a mistake on our part, as the night view of the buildings does not let you truly admire the architectural wonder that it is. So we would suggest you visit these places while there is still daylight.
Destination 3: Casa Batllo
Currently, the Casa Batlló is a UNESCO World Heritage Site a must-visit when in Barcelona. It is also one of the best valued cultural and tourist attractions, welcoming 1 million visitors a year. This building was built in 1877 by Emilio Sala Cortés who was one of Gaudí's professors of architecture. Later, in 1903 it was acquired by D. Josep Batlló y Casanovas, a textile industrialist, and businessman. The building has been owned by the Bernat family, since the 1990s, they have completely restored the house. In 1995 the family opened the house to society allowing the world to witness the beauty of this place. We did not go inside the house but admired from the outside. You can take a tour of the building. The tickets are available from their official website.
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Casa Batllo
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Destination 4: La Rambla street and the Christmas market
After we finished gushing about how wonderful the Casa Batllo looked we made our way to spend the rest of the late evening exploring the famous streets of La Rambla. Here we also paid a visit to the Christmas market. The Christmas market although not very big it had something to offer to everyone! If miniature statues capture your imagination then you will find a variety of them here. There were also a lot of food stalls there. After exploring the market and then the adjacent streets of the Gothic quarters to get a feel of the nightlife there we made our way back to the hotel and called it a night early, as we had a busy schedule planned for the next day.
Great read. Very elaborate. I’m not so much into football but I liked where you mentioned that we could opt for the 3-D effect football feel. I would like to feel the same thrill as an audience to a live match. It would be fantastic.
ReplyDeleteReally appreciate your kind words...this works as an encouragement for us to bring such more travel stories to our readers.
DeleteThe tour has a different ambiance and we can only but begin to imagine how the virtual reality of a football match sitting in that place will make one feel. We wish we had more time and experienced it ourselves.
Wow what a read
ReplyDeleteThank you for the appreciation and encouragement. We hope to come up with many new posts in the coming days
ReplyDeleteWow ...Nice article .. well done
ReplyDeleteThank you for the appreciation and encouragement.
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