#265: Tibidabo (Not in book, but should be!!)

 June 26, 2019

Tibidabo is not easy to get to.  We took a train (metro), then a bus and then a funicular to get there.

But it's all worth it!  Because you are rewarded with going to an amusement park..... on top of the world with views like this!!!

If you ask my kids what their highlight of spending a week in Spain was, they will tell you..... Tibidabo!

And if you ask me, I'd say the same thing!

Where else in the world can you ride a roller coaster with this as your view??

And while the mountain top views of Barcelona are your view on one side, this incredibly beautiful Cathedral -on-a-vista is your view on the other.  It's INCREDIBLE.

Our view from one of the rides.

Also our view from one of the rides.

And also our view from one of the rides.

A selfie of my husband and daughter from one of the rides with the cathedral on one side....

And Barcelona on the other!

Best selfies ever!

 I am in that red car with three of my kids.  My husband took this pic.  

Log ride!

We all loved the brand new Virtual Reality ride!

My only complaint about Tibidabo is that it closes too early!  It closes at 9pm in the summer when the sun doesn't even set until 9:30!  They need to push that closing time back to 10pm in the summer!

But alas, 9:00 came and we wore out our welcome....

But we stayed to watch the sunset on the stopes of the cathedral.  And that was pretty freaking awesome.

Verdict:  If Parc De Montjuic has a place in the book, then this most certainly should too!  In my opinion, I'd replace Par de Montjuic with Tibidabo.  There's just no other place in the world like it and all 6 of us LOVED it!  But word to the wise..... it takes longer than you think to get there and 3.5 hours is not enough.  We were hoping to get there by 3 or 4 pm, but when all was said and done, we didn't walk into the park until 5:30 and it closed at 9:00.  We all wished we had another 1-2 hours.  So, I would recommend a minimum of 4-5 hours for this experience. 

#264: Cadaques and Figueres (pg 268; Listed as Costa Brava in 2nd Edition, pg 263)

June 28, 2019

We took a high speed train from Barcelona to Figueres.  It took about an hour.  There are also slower trains that make more stops that take 2 hours, but are less expensive. 

Salvador Dali's Teatre-Museu Dali.

All the tickets have timed entry, so here we are waiting our turn.

There are 22 rooms inside the museum.  This big foyer-type room is at the front of the museum.  This painting was one of my favorites!  I can't even remember what this painting looked like with the naked eye (I think it was a woman, maybe?) but when you held your camera up to it, it distorted the picture to look like a huge portrait of Lincoln. It was so cool!

Dali painting himself, painting his wife looking into a mirror.  I love how all his works are playing around with and manipulating perspective.

This was cool too.  You didn't realize until after you walked through the doorway was a piece of art and that you became a part of that art as you walked through. 

This room was cool too.  We walked in and saw a red couch and a nose-shaped fireplace.  But then we waited in line......

And walked up some stairs that led to a big camel.  We looked through the legs of the camel....

And saw this!

All about perspective....

Salvadore Dali was born in Figures in 1904 and he died here in 1989.  He is buried here in the museum, the site of his first exhibition in 1919.

Walking around Figueres. Great downtown area!

And then made our way to the bus stop where we bought R/T tickets to Cadaques.

Oh man.... that bus ride is not for the faint of heart!  Our bus was packed and the only way to get to Cadaques is by taking a narrow, steep switch-back road for an hour and 20 minutes.  All three of my girls got sick and my 6yo started puking her guts out.  There are no bathrooms or bags on the buses.  It was a bit of a nightmare!

But alas we arrived!  And decided to have lunch here at the Maritim.

We chose this place because of these incredible views.

However, I wouldn't recommend it.  We sat there for a good 10-15 minutes without anyone even handing us a menu or take a drink order or anything despite the fact that it wasn't busy.  We were so thirsty and we figured if it was taking that long to even get a menu, this place wasn't for us, especially with four hungry kids who wanted to get in the water!

So we headed across the street to this place.  I can't remember the name, but it was much better!

And we bopped into the Bar Meliton where Dali used to play chess.

And then we hit the beach!

Verdict:  I talked to my husband and son about whether or not they felt this place deserved a spot in the top 1000 places to see before they died.  They both said no.  I'll admit, we had a bunch of rough spots in this day.  The museum was super crowded and we ended up losing my son for a good 20-30 minutes.  The bus ride, as I mentioned, was full of sick tummies and puke and totally packed on the way to and from.  It arrived back in Figures 20 minutes late and then we couldn't find any cabs to take us to the train station, so we missed our train and had to pay $150 to re-purchase more train tickets.  There was a lot of stress and anxiety and unforeseen expenses built into this day.  Even so, I'm going to give this a YES.  I loved the museum - it's the most interesting art museum I've ever seen.  I thought the downtown area of Figueres was great.  And while the beaches are terrible in Cadaques (there is no sand, just a bunch of ugly rocks not making it very pleasant to walk or lay on), the scenery felt so Spanish/resort/exotic/greek/whitewashed.  I loved it.  I remember sitting there soaking it all in and thinking "I don't think I know another soul who has been here.  I will probably never see this place again."  The whole Salvadore Dali tie-in was cool.  The combo of seeing these two towns together in the same day was cool.  It was just a totally exotically unique day, that I think earned it's place in the book.

#263: Parc De Montjuic (2nd Edition, pg 262)

June 26, 2019

Talk about a castle with a view!

Once inside the castle, we used my son's scavenger hunt book to find some hidden clues in places like the guard towers.

And we checked out all the view-points. 

And the prison cells.

I can't imagine the irony of staying inside a dungeon for weeks/months/years on end when all of this beauty is literally just on the other side of your wall.

We made wishes.

And then we found this awesome slide on the way back down!

Montjuic for the win!

Helpful info:  Cost: 5 Euro for adults in season, 3 Euro off-season.  Kids are always free.  Also, everyone is free the first Sunday of every month and every Sunday after 3pm.  Also, you can pay to take a funicular up and down OR you can walk up to and down from the castle for free! (Which is what we did)

Verdict:  I feel like I'm getting jaded.  Maybe 15 years ago, I would have said Yes to this.  Maybe even 10 years ago.  But my criteria now in doing this is that it has to be unique. And the thing is, I feel like I've seen so many castles with pretty views, that while we loved spending our morning here, there was nothing about it that separated it from any other other castles spread throughout the continent with impressive views.  So, I don't necessarily think that this particular one is a "must do" before you die.  But obviously there are people that disagree with me, because this was not listed in the original edition, but was added to the 2nd edition.