Just Another Day in Paradise!: Day 7

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Day 7 - Barcelona & Madrid

Tuesday February 27, 2024

Tuesday morning we had tickets for Sagrada Familia at 10 AM. Adam and I walked to the bakery and grabbed pastries and donuts and croissants, and took them back to the apartment and then, when everybody was ready, we walked to the metro, ate our breakfast on the way and rode 10 minutes to Sagrada Familia. As we exited the metro, the Basilica came into site and it was huge. This was one of the things that we were most excited about. We had waited the whole trip to see it, and it was worth it. This was another of Gaudi’s masterpieces. It was begun in 1882. The proposed completion date is 2026. We spent a few hours here exploring the inside and the outside. We did an audio guide and listened to the information about the cathedral as we toured and took pictures. There are no words or pictures that can adequately describe this place. It was amazing. The stained-glass windows, the light, the detail, the statues, the sculptures, the symbolism were awesome. There was a reason behind everything, and it was so fascinating. I just kept walking to every nook and cranny and every inch of that church to see everything. The outside is covered in statues that depicts Christ’s life. One side is the Nativity side and the other side is the Passion side. It is mine boggling that it is still being built 150 years later. After touring the cathedral, we walked through the museum, and then the gift shop, bought a few souvenirs and then we walked across the street to a strip of restaurants where everybody just chose what they wanted to eat, and we found a table right by the Sagrada Familia and ate lunch with the most perfect view, ending with gelato.

After lunch, we boarded the metro again, went back to our apartment, got our luggage and made our way to the train station. It was always so comical taking the metro with all of our luggage, going up and downstairs and having to carry it. The metro station was inside the train station, so we just made our way from one area to the other. We went through security and got checked in and boarded the train at 3 o’clock. It was so nice and comfortable. Adam said he would much rather travel by bullet train than by plane. The seats were bigger, they reclined and had much more feet room. We had a three-hour train ride from Barcelona to Madrid. Adam slept and I loved watching the scenery. Calli, Levi and I also went walking around and found a little cafeteria. At 6:30 pm we got off the train in Madrid and took the metro to our hotel. As we stepped off the metro and looked up, there stood our massive hotel, Riu Plaza Hotel, literally steps from the metro. It was huge and amazing. We kind of felt like a couple of rednecks walking into this hotel. It was so nice. They had doorman and greeters, and everything was marble and glass. The elevators were the coolest things. There were 8 lettered (A-H.) elevators. We’d scan our room key and tell it which floor and it would tell you which elevator to get on. We got checked in, took our luggage to our rooms on the 7th floor and immediately ran up to the roof top bar to see the sunset. We walked across the glass bridge and walked all around the 360° rooftop. It was a party. It’s a very popular restaurant and bar and there was music and DJs and it was such a fun little scene.

We then walked about 10 minutes to look at the Templo de DeBod, which was an Egyptian Temple built in 400 BC. It was gifted to Spain, dismantled, shipped and rebuilt in Madrid. While there we got the whistle blown at us for stepping where we shouldn’t have. We kinda felt bad until we heard a dozen other people get the whistle blown at them as well. After the temple, we walked through a cute little park and the kids found a slide to try out. Haha! We then walked around Gran Via Avenue. It is a very wealthy, pristine strip with lots of restaurants and stores. Calli, took us to one of her favorite stores called the Fighting Tiger and it was so adorable. We need one here. Then we found a restaurant that was so delicious. We had yummy pizza and pasta and then walked back to the hotel. Our first impression of Madrid was how green it was. There are parks everywhere. It was very clean and very classy.