For Easter Holiday last year we visited Barcelona (5 days), the beautiful Spanish city, oops, the Catalan capital!
The disappointment with the work in progress almost everywhere in town has been widely overcome by the marvellous colours of the city: the kaleidoscopic water choreography of Font Màgica at the foot of Montjuïc, which have enchanted both children and adult; the evocative rainbow effect created by the light through the stained glass in the Sagrada Familia; the nuances of Gaudí’s houses and his fabulous Parc Güell, that have left us speechless.
Unforgettable for me were the blues: the mesmerizing, enchanting violet-blue paint of the interior walls of the Caretaker’s House in the Park Güell (foto), the precious sapphire of the ceramic tiles, crushed and recomposed to decorate the curved surfaces of Gaudí’s absolutely unique projects (foto), and the warm and intense azure of the sea that remained such even with big waves (foto).
Unforgettable…
Before leaving
Thinking to our little girl, we were confident that she would be enthusiastic about everything, from the travel to the accommodation, about new food and things to do and see, always taking into account her needs as a 3 y-o child. Similarly, we were pretty sure that our 10 y-o boy would get bored to walk and visit the city after one day. So, some days before leaving, I literally studied a travel guide on Barcelona to create routes suitable to the needs of our family and avoid unpleasant surprises (museums closed on Monday, long queues avoided by buying in advance some tickets…). I also planned alternatives in case of bad weather. For our pre-teenager we find a very special travel guide, called Mission Barcelona, that presents the city landmarks like a spy-theme scavenger hunt.
My travel plan
DAY 1
- morning – La Sagrada Família (online ticket in advance);
- afternoon – Montjuïc (Castell de Montjuïc, Poble Espanyol);
- evening – Font Màgica and Av. De la Reina Maria Cristina.
DAY 2
- morning – Park Güell (online ticket in advance);
- afternoon – walking to the sea (while the little one is napping in her stroller) via Gràcia, Passeig de Gràcia, La Rambla, Port Vell, Rambla de Mar.
DAY 3
- morning – Aquàrium;
- afternoon – Barri Gòtic.
DAY 4
- morning – El Born, Basílica Santa Maria del Mar, Museu de la Xocolata;
- afternoon -Science Museum CosmoCaixa at the foot of Mount Tibidabo.
DAY 5
- morning at the beach!
- afternoon – seafront walk from the Forum to the Parc de la Ciutadella.
It went very well, I have to say! Barcelona Metro is buggy-friendly, and this helped a lot. We ate super-well – we played it safe with Tripadvisor reviews 😊. My young explorers really surprised us: the little one walked much more than expected, and my boy asked us to see more things than those planned!!!
Personally, I have only two regrets: not having been able to visit Picasso’s Museum because of the long queue on Sunday (we didn’t buy online tickets in advance – oy oy Marzia!) and not having eaten an authentic paella de marisc!
Useful resources
I highly recommend the travel guide for kids Mission Barcelona: a scavenger hunt adventure
I found also very useful the mini travel guide with pull-out map Pocket Barcelona Lonely Planet
Gaudí-inspired collage-colouring activity
Once back home, energized by the colours of Barcelona, I proposed an activity to my children, inspired by the wonderful Gaudí’s mosaics. I showed the children some pictures taken at Park Güell, they chose their favourite, I sketched drawings out of them, that I photocopied and gave to them. They cut recycled paper and card into small pieces, that they glued to my sketches to compose multi-coloured collages.
Here my young artists at work and their creations. I would like to share with you free printables of my sketches that you can download, print (print sizing: ACTUAL SIZE) and use as a collage base or a colouring activity. Here is the printable: Park Guell – Dragon sketch
Would you like more drawings? I can prepare them for you!
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