This was a (mostly) leisurely day of exploration in Barcelona. But it wasn’t the day that we planned. Our main objective on this day was visiting the Sagrada Familia basilica which we had failed to get to on Day 15. So after a continental breakfast in our room, we walked to the Metro and traveled to the basilica. We were immediately struck by both the huge number of people who were there and the immense size of the building. We were then surprised to learn, from a sign on the fence surrounding the structure, that tickets could only be purchased online. After enduring a dreadfully slow download of the app, I tried to purchase 2 tickets, only to be shut out for anytime that day (Friday). And Saturday was sold out as well. But Marlene suggested that we try the “information” tent across the road and, surprisingly, they had a few tickets available for 1:45pm Saturday. We snagged them.
But that created a problem… we had very little time between when the tour started and when we had to be on a 5:40pm train to Madrid. Plus when I booked the train I did not see an option for taking large suitcases, which cost an extra 5 euros. We had two train-related problems that we needed to resolve. So we decided to go back to the Sants station to see if we could (1) switch to a later train and (2) add the bags to the ticket. Thus began our Ouigo nightmare.
We took our time walking to the station. We bought some bread and had a leisurely snack on the bread, feeding some to the pigeons. We took another break outside a school for theatrical arts where students had drawn chalk figures of leading ladies from the movies. Marlene found a thrift shop (no surprise there) and I enjoyed watching a window washer very artistically wash the shop’s windows while she shopped (I was amazed by how he could twirl his squeegee). We also got a closer view of Casa Mila and got someone to photograph us there.
We did make it to the train station, only to discover that the trip had been for naught.
“Ouigo” is the brand of train that I booked our travel to Madrid on. I thought it was the same as “Sanfe”, the train service that occupies most of the Sants station. We quickly found out from a disguntled Sanfe customer service agent that Ouigo was a different company and that they had no employees at Sants. Everything Ouigo did was online. We spent an hour at the McDonald’s in the station (which had free WiFi) researching Ouigo and trying to locate a number to call. We learned a lot but found no number.
Back at the hotel I managed to find a way to add the bags to the ticket and learned how to change the time of departure. But when I tried to change the time – something that the app said was possible until 30 minutes prior to departure, the app refused to do it. I spent over an hour trying different ways and none of them worked. The result was we were stuck with a 5:40pm departure and a 1:45pm tour of the basilica. VERY tight timing.
We decided that the best option was to take the large bags to the train station in the morning, go on the tour and then get back to the station by Metro. We figured we would have to leave the basilica by 3:15pm, so the tour would be just 90 minutes. Not much time considering that we spent about $30 each on the tickets. Feasible but very stress-inducing.
As a result of all the researching and frustrating failure to change the train time, we didn’t go out to dinner until 10pm. But people dine late in Spain. We wandered around a bit and discovered the Rambla de Poblenou, very near our hotel. This is a pedestrian street lined with cafes, all with al fresco dining. The area was so popular that we were unable to grab an outdoor table so we settled for an indoor one at a tapas cafe. This was my first tapas meal. We selected spicy potatoes, fried artichokes and cod fritters. They were all very good.
Before going to bed we had a bit of a run-in with hotel staff. We asked for a cup of ice – necessary because the room had no refrigerator and there was no ice machine. We had been given free cups of ice several times previously. But this time we were told that the cup of ice cost 1 euro. Over a dollar for no more than 6 ice cubes! Both Marlene and I were very miffed and refused to pay. I think making a customer angry over a cup of ice is very poor customer service.