Peter wasn’t interested in seeing any more Gaudí things so he stayed home while we caught the #19 bus to Parc Güell. Thank goodness for nicks Gps on his phone as he noticed we were not going anywhere near the Parc but were heading in the off in another direction. After showing the non English speaking driver where we wanted to go, and receiving a shake of the head with a lot of incomprehensibleSpanish, we quickly hopped off the bus.
Our pre booked tickets had to be redeemed within half an hour of the booked time or we lost our money. So it was a race against time - referring to nicks gps regularly to see how far to go and how long. It was all up hill so the power walk was not very enjoyable. The Garmin watch stepper got a good workout and identified over 23 flights of stairs. We made it in time and got to beat most of the crowds.
It was a lovely place to walk around and looked a lot like gingerbread houses on the outside. Very hard to get a photo without other tourists, but still easier than it would be in the summer.
We also had a bit of a walk around the actual park that Addison could take some macro photography of the plants in the park. We saw a man doing big bubbles again - different to last time but just as pretty. We stopped at some local tourist shops and bought some souvenirs to take back-home.
The walk back was much easier although it still took 40 minutes - all down hill. The bought some groceries for lunch and when we got back to our apartment cooked past with sauce, and had Caesar salad. Jordyn wasn’t feeling well so she stayed home and we went to hire bikes to ride around.
Tonight in Spain is the coming of the three kings, this is where they celebrate when the three kings come to give Jesus his gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. The Spanish children get to watch the parade and then the next day they open their presents. It is a more popular day in Spain than Christmas day. We watch amazed as families walked toward the streets where the parade would go - with step ladders over their shoulders. We found out this is so that children can see the parade over the heads of all the adults. One of the special treats is when one of the parade floats throws out lollies into the crowd for the children.
We hired our bikes from one of the shops near the Arc de triumph. Addison and I had electronic bikes, Nick had an electronic scooter and Peter had a normal pedal bike. We found riding around that many of the roads had been closed for the parade, so nick located a churro place away from the gothic quarter and we went there.
It was a trailer parked on the corner, not near any tourist destinations. But the churros were cheap and delicious. They came sprinkled with sugar and with the hot chocolate. You bought them by weight - €1.5 per 100grams. We bought some to take home to Jordyn so she didn’t miss out.
We headed Bach to the old section of Barcelona and found ourselves caught up among so many people heading to the parade. It didn’t matter where we went we couldn’t avoid the crowds. At one point we were stuck behind the crows and had to push our way through with our bikes (behind a man who was already trying). Not well received by the locals who were in position for the parade.
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