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Travel Party of 5 | Points & Miles for Family Travel
Let us pull back the curtain and show you how you can maximize money you're already spending to earn enough credit card points and miles to travel with your family for nearly free.
We've used credit card points and miles to take our family of 5 on trips to places like Costa Rica, San Diego, Disneyland, Oceanside, NYC, Washington DC, Hawaii, and next year we have already booked Paris, Spain and Japan!
Using credit card points and miles (often called travel hacking) doesn't have to be overwhelming or take a ton of time, and we can show you how.
Can you earn a lot of points and miles without opening up multiple credit cards? Only if you have a really high amount of spend each month. For people with larger families, opening new cards is the easiest and fastest way to earn enough points and miles to take a couple of really low cost (but not low budget) family vacations every year!
If you want to learn ways to help you and your family travel more affordably using credit card points, this show is for you.
Travel Party of 5 | Points & Miles for Family Travel
Barcelona with Kids, Using Points and Miles!
The tour we did (churros and chocolate) and the tour we almost did (dragon tour!): vi.me/bWWul
Barcelona captivated us with its stunning architecture, vibrant culture, and delicious cuisine while we strategically used Hyatt points and upgrade awards to minimize travel costs. We navigated rainy weather by pivoting our plans, discovering indoor treasures and developing a daily rhythm that balanced sightseeing with leisurely meals at the hotel's exceptional club lounge.
• Used points for Grand Hyatt Barcelona, strategically applying suite upgrade and club access awards
• Experienced an enormous junior suite with a bathroom "as big as our entire Paris hotel room"
• Enjoyed the hotel's exceptional breakfast buffet featuring churros, chocolate, and Nutella on tap
• Visited Barcelona Aquarium and Time Out Market food hall during unexpected rainy weather
• Explored Mercado de la Boqueria for an impromptu family food tour sampling local specialties
• Took a family-friendly walking tour through the Gothic Quarter with churros and chocolate
• Marveled at Park Güell's whimsical "gingerbread houses" while kids chased pigeons
• Toured the breathtaking Sagrada Familia with its stunning colored stained glass windows
• Savored daily churros con chocolate, seafood paella, and exceptional pastries
• Missed beach visits and Tibidabo amusement park due to weather but already planning our return
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If you've been considering Barcelona for a family trip and want to use points and miles, we're going to tell you exactly how we managed it as a family of five, plus all the activities we did in today's episode. Listen in. Hi, I'm Raya.
Speaker 2:And I'm Dwayne.
Speaker 1:And we are your hosts of the Travel Party of Five podcast, where we share how we travel as a family of five around the world.
Speaker 2:We will also share how we use points and miles to travel as affordably as possible and sometimes even completely free.
Speaker 1:So if you're wanting to travel more with your family but you're not sure how, we'd love for you to listen in.
Speaker 2:So welcome to our podcast, where we hope you learn a thing or two to get you closer to your next trip. Welcome back, hi friends, thanks for tuning in.
Speaker 1:We are excited to share all about our Barcelona trip today. We've been back home for about a week now and I feel like are finally adjusted back to the time zone and all the routine things.
Speaker 2:Reality.
Speaker 1:Yes, reality, school sports, you know, you name it. And so Work, yeah, work. We're missing Europe a little bit. I think it was just so relaxing and nice. But we're going to share all the details of our Barcelona trip with you today, and let's get into it.
Speaker 2:Let's do it.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's start with how we got there. We flew from Paris. If you listen to our Paris episode, we started in Paris and then flew from Paris to Barcelona. We paid cash for those flights. We did book on Air France. If you book early enough, you can get them on points for like five thousand dollar. No, five thousand points a flight. But we did not book early enough. In fact, I think I booked these flights maybe two or three months before we left.
Speaker 2:Why did you wait so long?
Speaker 1:I think it's just like. Inter-european flights are generally pretty cheap and easy to find and I just wasn't concerned about not being able to find something Like. Ryanair, for example, is like one of the budget European airlines. They usually have fairly cheap flights, the Air France ones. The timing just happened to work out the best and I think it was maybe around six or $700 total for all five of us to fly, which is pretty cheap, pretty good. So I don't think like even if they had had 5,000 point flights, I don't think it would have been worth it because that would have been 25,000 points. The cents per point just doesn't really make a lot of sense for that. So, anyways, we flew. Our flight was actually delayed.
Speaker 2:Um, we boarded it was delayed, but it wasn't like it wasn't on purpose.
Speaker 1:Like, yeah, we boarded on time and then we sat on the plane for almost two hours before we took off. We taxied to the, we headed towards the runway, then we headed back to the gate. There was some kind of error with the cargo door saying it was open, even though the airline was like it's not open, but we have to get this like light saying it's open off, and so we had to go back to a gate. They fixed it it and then we were finally able to take off. So we ended up landing about two hours later than planned. So all in all, we were on the plane for about four hours on a two-hour flight. Yeah, thankfully, our kids I don't even know that they really noticed because they were playing on their ipads.
Speaker 2:Yeah, once they have their face on the iPad, they're set.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they were fine. So they did ask me once we landed like, oh, why did that take so long? But it was not a big deal and they handed out sandwiches that were quite good.
Speaker 2:Pretty good. I'm upset that I didn't ask for another one.
Speaker 1:It was ham and butter sandwiches is what they were, and it's very French, but they were good. I'm upset that I didn't ask for another one. It was ham and butter sandwiches is what they were, and it's very French, but they were good, soft, delicious, yeah.
Speaker 2:I would have said it had cheese in it, but you told me it didn't. It didn't, it was ham and butter. Matter of fact, the guy in front of me asked for another one and the stewardess was like no, we're done serving.
Speaker 1:So okay, so we land in barcelona and we take a taxi to the hotel. That was what we did every place we went.
Speaker 1:It's just, you can take the metro, but with the kids and the luggage, you know, and the transferring, it's the stairs totally worth it the taxis are just the way to go, and we I don't know if we talked about this last episode, but we have a ride safer vest for our daughter, who is five, and that is what we used for her so that we could take taxis, my boys instead of hauling around a car seat or a booster.
Speaker 1:She's yeah and and like she's too little for even a booster. So essentially it's a five-point harness, like, and it's a vest that she wears, and then you use the regular seat belt and the seat belt fits into the vest, so it just hooks up to the vest. It adjusts the seat belt to her size, basically and to fit in the right spots on her body, pretty nifty little contraption.
Speaker 1:It was really nice to be able to take taxis when we needed to, because that would have held us back otherwise. She's too little for a booster. That's not even an option for her. She barely weighs 35 pounds. So, yeah, it was raining. We took a taxi to the hotel. She barely weighs 35 pounds. Yeah, it was raining. We took a taxi to the hotel. One of our kids was like okay, so what language do they speak here? I'm like here it's Spanish. Now it's daddy's turn to talk, because Duane can speak a little bit of Spanish. Poquito, yeah.
Speaker 2:Hotel.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's talk about the hotel.
Speaker 2:We stayed at the Grand Hyatt Barcelona, which was formerly the Sofia Yep. Very nice hotel, yes. What are your thoughts on it?
Speaker 1:I loved it. It's a little like the decor is a little like kitschy, it's like I don't know how to describe it. It's a little like the decor is a little like kitschy, it's like I don't know how to describe it. It's unique. It's not something I would ever choose for. Like my house A lot of mirrors and like a lot of green it was a lot of gold, a lot of gold, yeah, but service was incredible. Like hotel is beautiful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, front desk staff was great, the concierge every. Yeah, front desk staff was great. The concierge every day we were there was great, very helpful yep, we spoke english.
Speaker 1:Yep, we um needed them a few times because we had to pivot because of the weather. So I this like might have been my favorite of the three hotels we stayed in on this trip, um, so let me quickly tell you how we booked it and how I coordinated. So again, first of all, I have a whole episode on how I booked this entire trip so you can go back and listen to that. But I'll just quickly recap this piece because I think it's important. We used points for the rooms, one in my name, one in Dwayne's name. I booked originally one king room and one twin bedroom and I had previously called to confirm occupancy of five and was verbally told yes. But when I emailed to confirm, they told me no, no, no, the rooms you have booked are only, like, you can only fit four people.
Speaker 1:So I emailed back and forth a few times and they basically were like well, if you upgrade to this suite, you can fit five. And I thought one and like, they meant a paid upgrade and I thought, well, I'm not gonna pay to upgrade, but I'll use a suite upgrade award if that's what it takes. So I confirmed that that would work and they said it would, and so I applied a suite upgrade award to my the reservation in my name and then they were able to upgrade us to a junior suite and then they connected us to a premium twin room. I don't think this was in the other episode. I did because I didn't know at the time. They told me that that suite so the junior suite is the only suite they have that can be connected to any of their rooms. So I think if you're a family of five, this is what you're going to get. There's no other option. It was phenomenal.
Speaker 2:I mean put it like this Our suite, without the adjoining room, was just as big as both rooms in Paris.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Because the bathroom in this suite was as big as the room In.
Speaker 1:Paris, yeah.
Speaker 1:Very very nice room. We saw the kids' room first and we were like, okay, yeah, two twin beds, that's great. And then we went into our room, which was the next door in the hallway, and like my jaw dropped when I saw the bathroom. Like I was like holy moly and every single one of the kids too. Like when they came in, they were like, whoa, I actually have, I have, um, I have an Instagram highlight of our whole Barcelona trip. So if you want to take a look at that, you can find us on Instagram at TravelPartyof5. Follow, say hello, but look at the Barcelona highlight, because you'll be able to see the room, you'll be able to see the bathroom and I think I have the kids' reactions on there too. I wish I had had my face on video when I saw it. It was amazing.
Speaker 2:One of the nicest suites we've stayed in.
Speaker 1:Yeah amazing, one of the nicest suites we've stayed in. Yeah, what else did you think about the hotel? Oh so, let me sorry, let me finish. So, in addition to the suite upgrade award to my room, I learned that this hotel has a club, and so I also applied a club access award to Dwayne's reservation. So I gifted it to him, basically, and then applied it from there, and I think I did that through the Hyatt chat, so it was pretty easy and the so that gave us all access to the club and the breakfast. The breakfast is actually not in the club. Well, it is, but the breakfast is. It's not a club breakfast, like it's the same breakfast that you would get if you were paying for it, basically, which means it's good.
Speaker 2:Buffet. Huge buffet, huge Fruits, all types of drinks, pastries, pastries, meats, churros and chocolate on tap. They had Nutella on tap.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was the kids' favorite part. They had like made to order eggs and omelets and Eggs Benedict and all that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, bacon, potatoes, waffles, pancakes were alternating days. Yeah everything was delicious, it was great.
Speaker 1:Way better than the club in Paris. I'd say Well, but this breakfast wasn't technically a club, it was their hotel breakfast that we got access to as part of having club access. But yes, it was better, it was better, yeah.
Speaker 2:I lost weight in Paris and then gained weight in Barcelona.
Speaker 1:So okay. So we also use the club quite a bit in the evening. So kind of the routine that we got in while we were there was having a leisurely breakfast around maybe nine ish, so not waking up super early, not rushing, spending maybe an hour or so at breakfast and then kind of venturing out to do whatever we were going to do that day and then we would have a later lunch out, like maybe two or three o'clock, and then come back to the hotel and do like a light dinner at the club most nights and the club. So the club again, the breakfast is very extravagant. The club at night it's in the same area as the breakfast, kind of.
Speaker 2:But less options.
Speaker 1:Yes, there's less options, but they always have a few hot food options like little appetizer bites. Almost they have all the jamon and the cured meats and the cheese, wine, beer Dwayne didn't discover the beer until the last day.
Speaker 2:I didn't know they had beer on tap for free until the last day. I was pretty upset about that. I was sad about that.
Speaker 1:They had little desserts and I mean the quality was definitely not as good as the breakfast, you know, and you know they had a salad every night and fruit, and so we would just get little things and for the most part that was plenty.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was, it was okay.
Speaker 1:There was one night where the kids were hungry, and it was actually when Dwayne was doing laundry, so I told them we could order a room service. And so we did room service and so we did, and it was like, I think on the menu one of the items was noodle soup, so my daughter wanted that, and then there was basically like chicken fingers, and so we got two orders of chicken fingers and an order of noodle soup and it took about an hour, like I had actually sent my oldest down to the lobby to ask where it was because our phone was not working. And as soon as he like got in the elevator, someone knocked on the door bringing it, but it was on a fancy cart like old school room service with linen on it yes, a linen on it, like you know, the know the salt and the pepper and the bread and the butter, and again for chicken fingers and French fries and noodle soup.
Speaker 1:And the kids were in seventh heaven. It had the little tiny ketchup bottles and you know all like it was fancy. It was a big contrast to the Hyatt Regency Paris where they delivered the room service to me in a paper bag.
Speaker 2:Literally paper bag.
Speaker 1:Yes, literally. So we did end up doing that one night for dinner and the kids thought that was really fun and so that made it fun for me. So and Dwayne came back from doing laundry and was like what is happening? It was like pm everyone's up and eating.
Speaker 2:he's like what is happening speaking of I didn't touch this on the paris episode, but I did do laundry there as well. Yes, and the laundry mats are nothing like the laundry mats in the united states. They're clean, all the machines work, you know, um, yes, so it was very convenient to be able to do that and, with that being said, we overpacked like a mofo yes, and we were in carry-on only.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we still overpacked.
Speaker 2:Well, my, my carry-on was about to break.
Speaker 1:I had so much stuff in it well, how many pairs of jordans did you bring?
Speaker 2:well, I had a separate bag for that how many pairs did you bring? Jordans or shoes all together, I brought four right four, was it four?
Speaker 1:yes, it was four for contrast, I brought two pairs of shoes.
Speaker 2:One was sneakers and one was boots. I bought a bag especially for shoes he did, which was pretty, pretty helpful actually, and it's a huge bag it is huge, like it looks like he's carrying a whole suitcase on his back we were at baggage claim one day and the one guy was like that's the biggest book bag or bag I've ever seen on someone's back really I don't think you told me that it's got my shoes in it.
Speaker 1:I mean, the fact that you can fit four pairs of shoes in that bag is pretty impressive, because what?
Speaker 2:well, I had three and I was wearing one, oh okay, but I mean if, if you have like a size eight or maybe a size nine, you can fit four easily, but I have a size 11, it was I mean duane's shoes are huge, like when I look at them I'm like like one shoe is like the size of two of my shoes. It's crazy that's why I needed another bag and, just in case, I bought a pair in europe.
Speaker 1:Oh, god, I didn't. He made us go into like four shoe stores. Okay, so wasn't there one that had, like you thought it had the soap in it already?
Speaker 2:Oh yes. So the laundry man pair. She had to provide your own soap, but the ones that were in Spain came like was like built into the washer, so like you just put your clothes in and the soap was already in there.
Speaker 2:Yes, and it was very convenient Instructions on the wall in English. In Paris it had it in English, I can't remember the one in Spain. I just knew what to do, I think. Oh no, no, I take it back. It was. There's like a screen. You got to choose your washer, choose your dryer, and it asks you what language you want.
Speaker 1:But super simple, super convenient, both locations or all three locations were right next to the hotel. Yeah, because he did laundry in every city that we were in one night, so I would just stay with the kids and he would go and do it. Part of the reason we overpack packed was because of the weather, like we originally there was going to be some warmer days and that ended up changing and so we had some like shorts and stuff that really no one could wear. So but I want to do an episode about like lessons learned after two weeks in Europe with kids, probably after the Madrid episode, and so because I have more to say about that, about the back, end.
Speaker 2:Stay tuned for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have more to say about the carry-on only and all that, okay. The other thing we did at the hotel was we did eat at one of the restaurants for dinner on our last night. It was called Maymanta, maymanta, maymanta. It was Peruvian-Japanese fusion, basically is how it was described to us, and we weren't super hungry so we didn't order a ton of food, but most of what we ordered was very good. Yes, our oldest got some steak. I also got some steak with some chimichurri. That was delicious. Duane doesn't like chimichurri, so yeah, I'm not a fan.
Speaker 2:What did I get?
Speaker 1:I forget um, you didn't like yours, you got the pork belly something. Yeah, you didn't like it as much. And then for the kids they had like a I don't know some kind kind of noodle like. Yeah, it had steak in it and it was like sesame noodles.
Speaker 2:That was really good.
Speaker 1:Theirs was very good too. They also have in the hotel a little coffee shop in the lobby that's kind of off to the side. It's super cute. It has books like all along the walls and it is totally like there's an entrance from the outside so you don't have to go through the hotel to get to it. And I did have a nice little decaf cappuccino in there one day after we had been out and about and I got a good 15 minutes of quiet in which was nice, yep, but it's super cute.
Speaker 2:They also have a steakhouse that we did not go to because the guy at the front desk or the lady at the front desk said it was pretty fancy and that we would need a reservation.
Speaker 1:So we didn't want to get dressed up.
Speaker 2:No, and take the kids.
Speaker 1:So yeah, all in all, would absolutely recommend this hotel. I think the biggest con that people talk about with this hotel is they say that it's far from the touristy stuff and that's not entirely true. Yeah, I mean it's not wrong. It's definitely not close, it's not entirely true. Yeah, I mean it's not wrong, it's definitely not close.
Speaker 2:It's not close.
Speaker 1:But we took the metro pretty much everywhere and the metro is maybe like the entrance is maybe a five or six minute walk from the hotel. It's an easy walk and we I mean we've had zero problems getting anywhere. We also there was like I'm going to call it a tram, I don't know Like a train. So instead of the metro, which is underground, they also have these like trains or trams that are above ground, and we took that back one day because it was, you know, the closest, fastest option and that was like literally, maybe 90 seconds walk.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the stop was right there yeah, so like we didn't feel like we were missing anything by staying where we stayed right no, not at all, not at all, and so I think if that's a concern, like if you want to be able to walk out the door and be in the middle of like la rambla, like that's not gonna Like, if you want to be able to walk out the door and be in the middle of like La Rambla, like that's not going to happen, but if you don't mind taking the Metro maybe five or 10 minutes, then I would highly recommend this hotel.
Speaker 2:For sure and I mean just like we stated earlier staff was great, hotel was great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the service was phenomenal. They even the second day. So the first day we got there, someone called the room and the phone wasn't working, Like you couldn't hear the person. It was really staticky. And then the next day we got there, we got back to the room. They had left us like, um, like a chocolates and a note.
Speaker 2:And we were apologizing for the inconvenience and we didn't know what they were talking about.
Speaker 1:So we had to go down to the front desk and be like we got this, but we don't know what it's for, and they were like oh, it's because your phone doesn't work. We were like, oh, we're like, oh, it's fine, yeah, so, all in all, would absolutely recommend this hotel Again. Go check my Instagram highlight if you want to see our room and all that fun stuff. Let's talk about things we did in Barcelona.
Speaker 1:Because it rained, we had to pivot a couple of times and there was one thing that we didn't get to do, which was disappointing. So the first day we were supposed to do our first full day, we were supposed to do a tour and the tour guide had texted me previously. So I had her number and I texted her to say, hey, like this is the morning of. I said hey, like how is the weather going to affect our tour today? Because it was scheduled to rain all day and it was kind of a whole dramatic thing that I and basically that led into a little bit of a saga about how she could maybe postpone the tour to the next day, but she would have to find someone else to do it because she was also going to be like trying to do an interview for this like weekend job interview for this like weekend job.
Speaker 2:So the weekend that we were there it was the cannabis, like yeah, cup or whatever, and they were calling it spanibus, I think. So yeah, so our tour guy was trying to work that event because I'm assuming she would have made more money, which is understandable.
Speaker 1:But she said, in order to do it, she had to be able to work all three days.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so she couldn't. She was going to hand off our tour to one of her colleagues, but that fell through, so we waited to the next day to do it. Was it the next?
Speaker 1:day yeah, it was the next day, and then she ended up being our tour guide, anyways yes, so apparently they had like tried to scam her or something.
Speaker 2:She like showed up to a job interview and no one was there. Yeah, Whatever?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know. We yes, we probably know way too many details about this situation.
Speaker 2:She was very friendly and very open about her situation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but she was really nice.
Speaker 2:Super, super nice.
Speaker 1:Like she gave our daughter a piggyback at one point during the ride. She, or during the ride she, or during the ride, during the tour, she, um, like, had like a printout of, like some pictures and we talked about the, the spanish words for you know all these things, and that was kind of fun for the kids and I mean. So the tour it was supposed to be called, I think, churros, chocolate and cheese or something. Part of the tour is supposed to walk you through the market, and we had actually done that the day before, when it was raining, because we were aiming for indoor things, and so we told her like we could probably skip the market because we already did that, but I think that's where the cheese was, so we didn't get the cheese.
Speaker 1:She walked us through like the gothic quarter of Barcelona. We talked a little bit about the history, we learned a little bit more about Gaudi you didn't know anything about Gaudi before this trip, right? Nada. She told us how he died, which was a little bit tragic, but it was also. The tour was meant to be geared towards kids, and I think the kids did get something out of it, and so did we.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was great. I think it was worth it. She was a great tour guide. She was yeah, she was very into it.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Spoke great English. She spoke like five different languages actually.
Speaker 1:Yes, and the churros and chocolate that we got were very good, like some of the best ones that we had.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I mean we had a lot of good churros, we did chocolate I can put a link to the tour that we did in the show notes because I I think I would recommend it with kids. There was another one that we were deciding between and it was like a dragon tour and like I would probably do that one next time the dragon tour I can link that one too. Um, just know that we didn't do that tour, so I can't. I don't have firsthand experience, but it had good reviews, so we were deciding between those two. Um, so we did that. Our second day in Barcelona. The first day in Barcelona, we this was one of the times we used the concierge because we said what can we do with the kids when it's raining? Because it literally rained the entire day and he made a few recommendations, one of which was the Barcelona Aquarium. I would say we're not big aquarium people Like generally we would not go to a city and visit an aquarium, true.
Speaker 2:True.
Speaker 1:But we were like what else are we going to do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we weren't going to sit around and waste the day, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we went to the aquarium. It was good, it was cool. I think the best part was they have a little play area and our kids played there for like a solid 30 minutes, if not more, at the end, yeah, after we had went through the aquarium, which, you know, aquariums are all the same to me.
Speaker 2:I mean me too. Yeah, I mean it was good for what.
Speaker 1:The kids liked it.
Speaker 2:It was nice for them to be able to have an indoor space where they could play and be loud and we got to just sit at a table and, like you know, have quiet time, yeah, so again, the concierge recommended that. He also said that there was this food like market not market, but food court it's a food court to us. I don't think he called it that, but it is like in a mall right next to the aquarium and it was called time out after a like really popular magazine there, like a food magazine.
Speaker 1:I think I could be wrong about that, but it was a magazine and yeah, all these pretty good restaurants were in this little food court area and it was pretty busy too yeah, he said like imagine, like the best restaurants in barcelona all got together and made like mini restaurants, like in this kind of area, so it is set up like a food court. But like we're not talking about Sbarro's pizza, right, we're talking about like like there are some Michelin star restaurants there and I think if you go on certain days you can like line up to to eat at some of those restaurants. They have like a fixed price tasting menu or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there was like that day, but at least 12 different spots you can go to and like good food, so like we ended up getting a burger a burger, a pizza a couple of pizzas, yeah, and some calamari and croquettes.
Speaker 1:Croquettes, yeah, because you know when in spain, yes, the the burger came with fries that had this like truffle sauce on them. That was very good.
Speaker 2:Muy bueno.
Speaker 1:The pizza was very good, everything was very good, and so definitely not your typical American food court food. So we did that again as kind of like a later lunch, early dinner, after the aquarium it's right next next door and then we took the metro home to back to the hotel. Um, let's see, what else did we do? Um, oh, our first day. We also forgot we went to the market. Uh, do you remember the name of the market? Mercado de okay, it was the. How do you say that?
Speaker 2:Mercat de la Boqueria.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what it was. And so, first of all, this place is huge. Second of all, we kind of just did our own little food tour with the kids. So we went in, we walked all the way around and then we got a bunch of different things. So we tried some of the jamon and the cheese we tried. They had a bunch of different things, so we tried some of the the jamon and the cheese we tried. They had a bunch of fresh fruit everywhere we went. Tell about the fruit.
Speaker 2:I mean. First of all, I don't think I mentioned this in the paris episode, but the fruit in europe looks way better than the fruit here, like the color. It's just, yes, very colorful, very vibrant, looks fresh, but it is expensive. But I mean, every time we passed a fruit stand I was like, oh my God, look at this fruit. I was taking pictures of strawberries at one point and raspberries.
Speaker 1:That's when you've reached peak adulthood.
Speaker 2:Even when we went on the tour in Paris, the tour guide. I was like the fruit here looks so good, and that's when she was like it's pretty expensive though. So, yes, we got a few things from this market Fresh juice, which was muy, muy bueno.
Speaker 1:What else? Oh, they had pistachio croissants, which I haven't been able to find since I was in italy last year, and so I got one of those and you got to try it. It was pretty good. Huh, it's pretty good, yeah, super yummy, um. And so, yeah, we just kind of did our own little mini market food tour and let the kids try all the things and we got a sandwich, ham sandwich.
Speaker 2:Um, oh yeah, it was good.
Speaker 1:It just was missing condiments, you know, for us americans, our kids didn't love the ham sandwiches there. I would say, um, because yeah it's, it's pretty plain, it's literally ham and bread and cheese with a little mustard and mayonnaise.
Speaker 2:it probably would have been some chips or maybe some butter.
Speaker 1:From France. The French butter is elite. Okay, let me get back to my list to make sure we don't miss anything, because we did something else. Oh yeah, let's go back to the tour that we did with the one we booked the churros cheese and chocolate. The one we booked the churros cheese and chocolate.
Speaker 1:In addition to everything we mentioned you also, we also got to see some roman ruins, which was a big surprise to me. I don't remember seeing that the last time I was in barcelona and, like, literally just walked into this building and she was saying that they discovered these ruins when they were building something and so then, instead of building whatever they were building now it's like a, it's part of, like the museum but you literally, just we just walked through a door and it was there below us and then we just kept walking out out another door and we continued our way on to the park so I think she said that this place that was built on top of these ruins was a market, and then they realized that there was, like this, ancient civilization buried underneath it and I thought, how could they not find this when they would like dug for the foundation of this building?
Speaker 2:But apparently I don't know what happened. But I mean, you can go in there now and there's no floor and you can look down to see this, whatever, yeah, it's crazy, it's really crazy.
Speaker 1:It kind of reminds me of like Pompeii, like if you've been to Pompeii in Italy, like it has that vibe, but it's in Spain, so that's just so crazy to me. We also got to see on that tour a piece of the column from the original wall that surrounded the city of barcelona way, way, way, way back, and so that was cool too.
Speaker 2:Yeah and the drawbridge that was there, which is no longer used as a drawbridge, but yeah, yeah, um, and then on our last day we went to Park Guell in Sagrada Familia.
Speaker 1:So Park Guell is the park that Gaudi designed, and I don't really know how to describe it.
Speaker 2:I don't either. It's very fancy. A lot of columns, yes, it's very fancy.
Speaker 1:A lot of columns, yes, and like there's a part towards the bottom where it just looks like you're in a Disney movie, like I have a few pictures of the kids where behind them it just doesn't even look like it's reality, it's yeah, yeah, it's these two houses that Gowdy built yeah.
Speaker 2:The kids were calling it gingerbread houses.
Speaker 1:Yes, it did look like gingerbread houses. Our kids also called this park. I'm going to quote that place. We ran around and chased pigeons.
Speaker 2:Because they chased pigeons for a good half an hour, while we sat on a bench Weaving through probably thousands of people that were there as well just flapping their arms, squawking like birds running around.
Speaker 1:It was pretty funny. But again it's been rainy right and they need to get their energy out. So by all means, go ahead, go crazy, and from the park you can see sagradaia kind of like off in the distance, and so we left. So here's what I would recommend, because I think this is a good like. These are two good things to do in the same day. So we did park well in the morning. It's best to take a taxi here and not do the metro, because the metro drops you off at the bottom of a hill and the taxi can drive you much closer to the top. So I would this. We did take a taxi One of the only times we took a taxi outside of the airports, so I would do that. I would do Park Guell in the morning you can buy tickets directly on the Park Guell website and then plan on having lunch around midday. We walked to a place called Gwelly Sandwich Park and Dwayne said it was a long walk. It was like 12 minutes, so I didn't feel like it was long.
Speaker 2:It was one of the longer walks we had and it was like upstairs up some hills an escalator, which was pretty crazy. We found this escalator in the middle of this hilly city and these escalators it was one escalator that could go either up or down. You just had to push a button. Yeah, you could change the direction of it.
Speaker 1:So that was cool. So we had lunch there. Again, we just got sandwiches. Again, our kids we got ham sandwiches. They didn't really enjoy them very much, um, but then they had ice cream, so we let them get ice cream. And they had churros. So of course I got churros, because I'm on a mission to eat churros every single day that we're in spain and shout out to the owner of that place.
Speaker 2:He was super friendly I mean I'm assuming he's the owner, but I think he was the owner too. Yeah, he's super friendly guy. Um funny as well.
Speaker 1:We chatted with him a bunch cause we sat right outside and ate and it was. He was really nice. So would definitely recommend that there was also a way that you could walk up from where his restaurant was. You could walk up and get into the park, so you could also start there and then go into the park if you wanted to do to do that and so then to leave. We took the metro and again we went down like maybe six escalators from the top of this hill to the bottom to get to the metro, wouldn't you say it was?
Speaker 2:like four.
Speaker 1:It was pretty steep, and we took the Metro over to Sagrada Familia and so we had bought tickets online for Sagrada Familia. There are a ton of tours listed on Viator and they call them skip the line tickets. Right, like, get your skip the line tickets here. You can just buy the tickets yourself directly on the Sagrada Familia website. If you Google it, like, you'll know which one is legitimate. I think it ends in like org or something like that, and so I purchased tickets for the five of us along with the guided tour, and so the plan was to do Parkwell, grab lunch, then head over to the church. We ended up being a little bit early, so we did grab another snack at a little cafe right outside the church. Like, like, literally, we sat on the sidewalk and looked at sagrada familia. I'm sure it was a touristy cafe, but it wasn't. We had like an hour to kill, so it wasn't bad it was. Yeah, it was fine.
Speaker 1:We had some chicken wings that our son thought were delicious, so, um, and then, yeah, we went. We went to get in the line. We didn't really wait at all, and so you know the the tickets are for a certain time frame. We went in a little bit before our tour started and then the tour was around 45 minutes. I would say, yeah, not geared towards kids, our kids. You know they give you the headsets and the little microphone or not microphones earbuds, yeah, and you put them on and I think the kids were listening for around 15, maybe 20 minutes before they started. You know, losing To phase out, yeah, but we learned about the history of the church. That was the first time I've ever been inside of it. I only looked at it from the outside. What did you think about it?
Speaker 2:I thought it was stunning. Yeah, just the architecture, the, the sculpting. If you, if you are in barcelona, it's, it's a must do, oh, yeah, for sure, and like it's like, first of all, they started building this thing in like 1867 or something and it's still not done yeah which is crazy to me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, at one point our tour guide was like do you see this like column over here, and a few people were like yeah, and she's like, well, that's weird because it's not built yet. So, but like, inside there's all this stained glass, and the stained glass is different colors depending on which direction the church faces. So like, the more the the side of the church that gets like the morning sunrise is more yellow and orange and red, and then the side of the church that gets the sunset is a little bit more like blue and green and purple, you know to symbolize like night, and I mean it's beautiful when you go inside. Yeah, I mean it's stunning. So we definitely recommend.
Speaker 1:And, yeah, our kids, yeah, we were in there for a little over an hour total and I think the kids were definitely losing steam by the end. But you know, we always tell, always tell them like this vacation is for all of us and sometimes we have to do things that we don't want to do because someone else does. So I think that's a good, um, like that's a good thing to do all in one day. The park, well, and the sagrada familia, yeah, and I think last was we just wanted to chat about a few of the food dishes that we had After the tour the churros, chocolate and cheese tour where we didn't get cheese. We ended up going to a restaurant Right by Parque de la Citadella. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly, but we got seafood paella and it was quite good actually.
Speaker 2:It was pretty good.
Speaker 1:The last time I had paella it was super fishy and like I don't like that. Like it's seafood paella and I get that there's seafood in it, but I don't want the rice to taste like shrimp, you know. And this rice was super flavorful but did not taste fishy. I just don't remember the name of the restaurant, but it was right on the corner and it was in a hotel yeah, it was in a hotel.
Speaker 2:It's like the bottom floor of a hotel but we sat outside.
Speaker 1:That was the only option and it was freezing, freezing like at one point our daughter was sitting inside duane's jacket on his lap because it was so cold. So it was sunny but freezing.
Speaker 2:Because it was super windy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so again, the weather, we made the best of it. And then I mean churros and chocolate we had literally every single day, sometimes multiple times a day. And at the hotel they have this pastry.
Speaker 1:I put it on instagram it is like a croissant covered in granulated sugar, but it also has like cream inside, like custard, yeah, like super good like the cream that you would get inside, like a boston cream donut, like that kind of cream, and I am still thinking about those pastries and wish that I could eat another one. Yeah, they were really good. Okay, all in all, thoughts on Barcelona Cause. Well, first of all, I'll add I'll the first time I visited Barcelona was in 2012 and I came from Italy was when I was backpacking Europe by myself and I almost missed my train, almost skipped Barcelona entirely, but ended up going, and then, once I was there, I extended my stay because I loved it so much. It was just really, I really, really enjoyed it. So that was my first time and I was excited for you to experience it. So now you share your thoughts.
Speaker 2:I loved it, definitely one of my favorite places I've ever been. Would definitely go back. People there are nice, food was great, atmosphere great. But one thing we didn't do was go to the beach, which is pretty disappointing because of the weather, obviously, but hopefully next time we can do that yeah, I think it's.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in the summer the beach is great, um, and the other thing we didn't get to do on that note was we wanted to go to tibidabo, which is the amusement park. You take, like the funicular up and it's like we saw it from the city and there's like a cat, it looks like a castle, basically, but it's an amusement park that you can go to. The opening day was actually like while we were there, but it was raining and freezing, and so we opted to skip it. Unfortunately, I just thought like I don't think anyone's going to have fun if everyone's freezing and wet, you know. So we skipped it this time, but it has great views of Barcelona. If you're going in the summer, I would absolutely recommend it and we'll definitely be sure to put it on the list next time. The other thing we wanted to do was a football game.
Speaker 2:Yes, definitely on my list to do, but first of all, camp Nou is closed.
Speaker 1:Right now. They're playing in Madrid. But also there was no game and there was a game while we were there, but we were in Barcelona and the game was in Madrid. But also there was no game and there was a game while we were there, but we were in Barcelona and the game was in Madrid yes, yeah and it was like the day before we were supposed to go to Madrid and it was really, it was Barcelona versus Real Madrid, which would have been the game to go to yeah, so unfortunately, we missed it.
Speaker 1:However, the Grand High of Barcelona is very close to Camp Nou, so something to keep in mind if that's why you're going. Yeah, okay, well, our next episode will be all about Madrid. We took a train. Spoiler alert we'll talk more about that on the next episode because we are taking up a lot of time today. Um, but again, follow, check us out on instagram if you want to see any of the stuff that we talked about. I have a barcelona highlight that shows all of it. Come say hello if this podcast is helpful to you. A review would mean so, so, so, so, so much, because that is how apple or spotify determines what podcast they're going to show to people when they search. The ones that have more reviews get shown more, so any review is greatly welcome. Maybe we'll do a giveaway soon.
Speaker 2:Even if it's constructive criticism.
Speaker 1:Yes, we take constructive criticism. We appreciate it very much and we appreciate you all and we will catch you on the next episode.
Speaker 2:Yes, thanks for tuning in. Have a good one Bye. Will catch you on the next episode. Yes, thanks for tuning in. Have a good one, bye.