Getting Around in Barcelona

While we were in Barcelona, Steve and I got around town by foot, city bus, tourist bus, taxi and cable car. The double decker tourist bus covers the most ground in the least amount of time and is particularly enjoyable on a sunny day. The audio presentation, however, is hard to hear and often doesn't synchronize well with the path of the bus. We were stopped in one of Barcelona's numerous traffic jams while the recording was telling us about a site that didn't appear for a while. The ear plugs are uncomfortable so if you have a set that you particularly like, take them with you.

The views of the city from the the cable car that crosses Port Vell from San Sebastia Beach to Montjuic Mountain are incredible. You would think that the station would be relatively easy to find but as we followed the overhead wire to the Jaume I tower, we discovered after walking forever that this station was closed for repairs. So we decided to take a taxi to the station on the other side of harbor at San Sebastia Beach only to discover that it was closed from 2:00pm - 3:00pm for lunch. This gave us an excuse to have a sangria on the beach. In spite of the fact that we walked and waited nearly half a day to board this cable car, the view was well worth it.

Another tip about getting around in Barcelona --- forget about using your iPhone. Although I downloaded the Lonely Planet Barcelona City Guide and thought it would be cool for it to guide me around Barcelona, I found an old-fashioned paper map and my gumption to ask for directions to be far more useful. There are just too many beautiful sites to see in Barcelona to be fooling around with an iPhone as I was doing in this photo.

More photos of Barcelona from above