last day in Barcelona: Tibidabo

Steph and I met in the Diagonal station at 2 and went together to Tibidabo, where Mikaela and I tried to go.
We got the cable car up the hill to the funicular from there up to the top of the mountain.

When we first came out, there was a HUGE church staring at us. Oh!!! This is THIS mountain!

First things first, we admired the view over the edge of the mountain. It was amazing to see SO much of the city and the water in the distance.


Then we decided we wanted to go on the rides. They looked like they might be meant for kids, but we HAD to get on them!!

First, we had to buy tickets. That was a little bit dramatic because didn't know what we wanted or where to buy it. Once we found the booth, we discovered that there were loads of options. We ended up with individual tickets.
First, we went on the merry-go-round. The man let us go TWICE. I think he could tell how excited we were.


Then we went on an airplane ride. It was much more exciting that it looked. It had a moving propellar and we actually felt like we were getting a better view from the airplane.

Then we went on a GIANT ride that just had 2 baskets. They rotated around a single radius so that one basket stretched WAY up into the sky. We did that one too. It was TERRIFYING. From the top, there was an AMAZING view of the church. And of course, the same amazing view of the city, just a little higher up.


Then we went on the ride that I'd been the most excited for: the FERRIS WHEEL!! I'd expected it to be huge with a great view from the top. However, it was tiny and it moved REALLY fast! We saw some kids coming off in a state of pure joy or glee. We were pumped too. It was a little scary, really! It took us a couple of times around to adjust but then it was fun!

Then we decided to have lunch. I had chicken nuggets and Steph had a hot dog. We were fairly unhappy with our food. It was awful. We hoped in the high season it was better. Can they really feed LOADS of people this awful stuff?!
Then we checked out the church.

Inside, the walls were covered in mosaic. It was really stunning because they had such tiny pieces and they were all shiny.

Then we got on an elevator to the roof. We walked around a bit and then found spiral staircases going up so we took them and then there were more stairs. We ended up at the TOP of the church right under the Jesus statue facing the whole of Barcelona. We thought we were high before, but now we KNEW we were. It was a little bit of a vertigo situation for me, especially looking down on the church towers.


We took the elevator down to the main part of the church and looked in. We weren't especially impressed. It was fairly plain inside, with a Gothic arched ceiling and a big old Jesus on a cross and a few stained glass windows.
Then we went back outside and looked out from the patio. There were some interesting bell towers out there.


Then we decided we were done. We took the funicular back down and then waited and waited and waited for the cable car. We had been the first people denied access to the one that was there when we arrived. LAME! We did have a nice view of a castle-y building though!

When the train finally came, we took the subway with several transfers to Barceloneta to try to go to the Champagneria. It was supposed to be a place that was always packed because it was so good. We couldn't find it for sure, although we could find its street. We asked a man in a hotel who told us, yes, it was there. Then we asked if it was open. Well, no, not today. That might have been crucial information from the start, sir!
We walked around El Born looking for a place for dinner but found that people go out for drinks and tapas there, not for a real meal. We headed back toward Barceloneta and found an Italian restaurant. We had a bottle of wine and Steph had a steak and I had gnocchetti with ham and olives. It was great.
Then we decided we wanted to play pool one last time so we went to Cafe Salambo. There were glasses and plates on a cover on the table. No!!!! We went into a bar across the street and decided it was too loud for us to be willing to sit at the bar. For a table, we would have dealt.
We wandered on and found a side street with a glowing lantern on it. Ooh! We went toward it and found out that it was a bar too! It was really cute inside-- Asian inspired with threads of curtains between areas on the booths to make private sections. It had a Buddha's head on the bar. We chose a spot on the booths and had daqueris. We talked about how glad we are about all of the things we've gotten to do together and how much we'll miss each other and how it's the end of an era. A fun one!

We took our last picture together and parted ways in front of Sant Joan, our neighborhood church. We both almost cried as we recapped all of our jokes of the month. We've both really enjoyed eachother's company and are sad not to have each other to play with any more.