Wayfaring Day 260

March 17, 2026 Tuesday

This morning we had breakfast at the hotel and then around 10:00 we started our walk to the meeting point for our Sagrada Família tour at 11:00. It was only about an 8 minute walk. The Sagrada Família Bascilica rises up out of the city like a giant otherworldly spaceship. Its sheer size makes every view seem as amazing as the next.

We met up with our Crown Tours ($160) guide and we were through security and inside in only a few minutes. The inside is as beautiful and impressive as the outside is monstrous and ornate. The light streams through this pristine cavern unlike anything we have seen before. This is truly an amazing work of art mostly from the mind of Gaudí. It is easy to see how this is one of the most visited sites in Europe. Learning about the engineering, geometry and art based on nature was such an interesting and awe inspiring experience. Our tour guide brought out so many things that we could not imagine a visit here without a tour guide. There is no possible way to say all that could be said about this incredible UNESCO World Heritage site.

After a couple of hours at Sagrada Família we found a restaurant that was on the way to our bus stop. We had tacos at a small restaurant which was nice. After lunch we walked a couple of more blocks to the bus station where we could take the V19 bus to Park Guell.

We used the TMBapp to find a bus that would take us right to where we would meet for our tour. Buses here are easy. Like in the UK, you can just tap your credit card to pay. No ticket is needed. The cost for two of us was €3.80. The bus dropped us off a short distance from the park entrance where we were taking our tour with Golden Tours ($70). Just as at Sagrada Família our guide met us and passed out the little radio devices and headphones for the tour. The tour guide gave us the pre entry summary and led us to the entrance.

The experience here helped us better understand the strained relationship between the people of Barcelona and tourists. As was the case at Sagrada Família, there were many groups meeting and preparing to go inside with of course many more already in the park. The tourist impact is more clear here because the park was only about 13 years ago free and open 24 hours a day. Locals can still enter for free but the park is somewhat overrun with tourists. Now there is a lot of security and tickets sell out early. The park is a beautiful place with many Gaudi contributions. The tile work and the viaducts make for a sublime contrast and surprises await around every corner, behind every wall and under many trafficked paths and squares. Yes, we were tourists taking up space and disrupting the lives of the local Catalans. Hopefully our added funds to the economy will add value to their city. When you come from a very non-touristy place as we do you really have no concept of how an influx of non natives disrupt your life or livelihood.

After walking around the park for about an hour after the tour was over we caught the V19 bus back to the street our hotel is on. It was about a five block walk and we found a little kebab type place where we had rice with chicken and rice with lamb. Both were quite good. We then walked back to the hotel and relaxed for most of the rest of the evening reading emails, watching a French news channel and making calls and texts to people back in the states. There were also pictures and a video of our grandson to watch from all the things he did today with his dad. All in all a very good day.