Basking in Barcelona

After our visit to Venice, Lake Garda, and the Dolomites, we were off to our next destination: Barcelona. We arrived in the early afternoon and met our AirBnB host at the apartment we were staying at in Montjuïc. This was the perfect location for our plans in Spain: 1) exploring some of Barcelona’s major landmarks, and 2) participating in an international water polo tournament. Wait, what? Yes, you read that correctly. We decided in the middle of our 2-week European, family vacation to participate in a water polo tournament. But before we dive into that…

A note on our Airbnb stay: we absolutely loved this apartment. The location was perfect, and our host went above and beyond by giving us a full tour, sharing great local restaurant recommendations, and even offering helpful tips on avoiding pickpockets.

After we were squared away at the apartment, we met up with our teammate/friend and his family at Bar Tomate BCN. The girls were thrilled to meet up with their friends. We were thrilled that they had each other so we could have some down time and chat with adults.

Day 1

The next morning, we woke up early and took our very sleepy children over to La Sagrada Familia where we had a Goforajourney tour scheduled through Tiqets thanks to our very last-minute decision to book the tour. The tour ended up being great and we all learned so much.

Unfortunately, between the heat and sheer exhaustion, our youngest really struggled during the tour, so we immediately started searching for a restaurant to cool off, rehydrate, and regroup. We ended up stopping at Pannus. We thought the food was decent, but TripAdvisor reviews will tell you otherwise…

By the way, if you start reading the reviews, some are a little funny. For example, “Both were cold and extremely chewy. When I asked them to heat it up, they pointed to a microwave and told me to do it myself…” Ouch.

Since we hadn’t pushed our luck enough with youngest (completely joking), we decided to continue on with the sightseeing in Barcelona. We took a train over to Casa Batlló, Gaudi’s last original residence. After about a 10-minute walk, we arrived at the home with now one very tired oldest daughter in tow. Below you’ll see a few pictures of the home, including the sole picture we took of our oldest before she sat on the ground and refused to move.

If that didn’t already push our luck, we managed to get her on the train and then chose to make one last stop at the Catedral de Barcelona. Fortunately for all parties, she was able to shake off the exhaustion for the 10 minutes we spent exploring the area around the church. She may have also shook off the exhaustion due to the promise of gelato…

After gelato, we went back to the apartment to relax before the water polo games we had later that evening at Piscina Municipal de Montjuïc. I (Kristen) had emailed the tournament director ahead of time, and he connected me with a Catalan‑based team, while Austen played with an East Coast 30+ team and a mostly Houston‑based 40+ team. The pools were incredible and the views were indescribable, so I’ll just leave this photo here.

Days 2 and 3

The next two days were packed with water polo games. Before the games each day, we went to Billy Brunch and Lounge for breakfast. If you find yourself in the Montjuïc area, we highly recommend Billy Brunch for breakfast. All food, including the smoothies, were delicious.

After breakfast, we would walk uphill, up the stairs, and over to the pool. Just given the uphill climb and hundreds of stairs you have to climb to get to the pool from our apartment, we decided to just hang out at the pool all day.

In between games, we would either order food/drinks at the Salts Terrassa Bar they set up on the pool deck, played games, or took naps.

The tournament was so much fun. When it was all said and done, Austen’s 40+ team got 3rd place overall and his 30+ team got 1st place overall! Not only was it fun playing internationally, but playing in such an incredible pool overlooking the city made the tournament unforgettable.

To make sure we saw one last landmark in Barcelona before the end of our time there, we walked 5-minutes over to the Montjuïc cable car which took us up to Montjüic Castle after the games on the last day.

After visiting the castle, we retrieved our suitcases from a day storage location and went to Levadura Madre for baked goods before heading to the airport to catch our flight to France.

Overall opinion of Barcelona

The only sour moment of our trip came when we were stepping off a train. We had barely started to exit when a woman pushed past us to board and shoved our 7‑year‑old aside. It was a brief interaction, but it left us really unsettled.

This was our second time visiting Barcelona. When Austen and I first came in 2017, I left convinced it was one of the best cities I’d ever experienced. Although we didn’t get to explore as much this time around, we still loved being back. And adding an international water polo tournament with those incredible views? That was the cherry on top.