Barcelona Day Three: Gaudi, More Gaudi, Picasso, Bathroom Woes and Bird Poop

There are a handful of attractions in Barcelona that require advanced tickets and, no surprise, Sagrada Familia is one of them. When we picked our visit time, first thing in the morning seemed ideal.

It seemed less ideal day-of. It was tough to get up and shower at 7 am, but we did it and the early morning walk to Sagrada Familia was lovely. Despite our early ticket time, the lines were long. As the largest unfinished Catholic Church in the world it is…quite something.

Construction began in the late 1800’s and Antoni Gaudi dedicated most of his life to working on the basilica (he’s buried in the crypt at the church). A sad – yet morbidly interesting – tidbit I learned from the audio guide tour included with our ticket: Gaudi was killed by a public tram. In inauspicious end for such a prolific figure.

There are two sides to the church – The Nativity and Resurrection Facades. We started on the “Nativity” side of the church. The walls are covered with sculptures depicting important scenes from the life of Christ (prior to his crucifixion). My favourite feature – the Portal of Charity doors.

These doors (made of bronze; the green comes from corrosion) are designed to represent all of creation celebrating the birth of Jesus. There are leaves and flowers and all sorts of bugs – beetles, bees, grasshoppers, ants, spiders, dragonflies.

Construction was set to wrap in 2026 but inevitable delays (can I get an understanding Amen from anyone who has ever done a home renovation), followed by a global pandemic made that deadline seem impossible; this week they announced they’re back on track for 2026, though complete work isn’t set to wrap until 2034ish. While the outside is huge and imposing, the inside is hard to describe. It feels like something out of The Lord of the Rings; it’s as if you’re walking through a magical Elven forest and Galadriel or Elrond could stroll through the nave at any moment. The stained glass is ethereal; the columns are majestic and yet so natural it feels like the cathedral built itself – sprouting up from the ground.

There is oodles of religious symbolism at play in all the details – and there are thousands of details – of the church. A great audioguide was included with our general admission tickets, but I’ll admit this was a bit of a rough stop for me as one child (who shall remain nameless) was not a big fan of all the standing and admiring. I foolishly neglected to remember I had downloaded a few simple games on my iPhone which would have done wonders for a certain someone’s attention span. Oh well. It was beautiful and I’m so glad we visited, but I did feel a bit distracted with near-constant cajoling.

The Resurrection side was equally impressive. Starting with the doors!

The next adventures were more universally enjoyed – a stop for our first taste of Spanish Fanta (delicious; less fizzy and more “orangey” than North American Fanta), a pastel de nata for John (his favourite Portuguese pastry), and our FAVOURITE CHURRO EXPERIENCE IN BARCELONA. Xurreria Trebol was amazing. Highly recommend their filled dulce de leche churro – it was out of this world!

Another gastronomic experience awaited; as we were meandering through side streets, A caught a glimpse of a bubble tea shop – something she had always wanted to try. Try she did – a delicious Oreo + strawberry concoction that cost a small fortune but was absolutely delicious (it was also MY first time drinking bubble tea – she gave me a few sips – and the bursting strawberry “bubbles” were delightful; whimsical and delicious).

We took a quick swing by several Gaudi houses, all located close to each other: Casa Milà, Casa Batlló, and Casa Amatller. We didn’t opt to do tours of any of the houses since we didn’t think it would be very entertaining for the kids, but they are popular tourist spots and the kids enjoyed seeing the exteriors. (There were some emergency bathroom stops at this point – in addition to Starbucks, I can also recommend McDonald’s; clean bathrooms and no one bats an eye if you use them without buying something.)

At lunchtime we walked through Mercat de Sant Caterina. I found it underwhelming and we had a less-than-ideal interaction. We had clearly purchased food from the market but when we went to take a child to the bathroom to use it, we were denied entry because you had to have a receipt to use the bathroom. We were EATING FOOD purchased from a stall right beside the bathroom but we had handed over cash and never thought of asking for a receipt for our purchase. In the end, the woman guarding the door relented (John speaks Spanish conversationally so was communicating with her) but she was rude and demeaning to the child that needed the bathroom, and it was all rather infuriating since we had a child that NEEDED TO GO. (It reminded me of that one museum stop in Italy; maybe a negative customer service interaction has to happen once per trip?)

At least we got another view of the majestic Barcelona Cathedral and saw more fun architecture.

Next up was the Arc de Triompf (not to be confused with the more impressive monument in Paris) built for the World Fair in 1888.

It was built to mark the entrance to Ciutadella Park. The main draw for us in the park was the fountain – Cascada Monumental – designed by Gaudi when he was an unknown university student. Unfortunately – though wisely! – due to ongoing drought all the fountains and water features in Barcelona are not functioning to conserve water. It was still impressive, with or without running water. At this point we had planned to explore more of the park (it includes a man-made lake where you can rent boats and row them, a zoo, and Barcelona’s Parliament)…BUT a child needed to use the bathroom desperately (a need that came on urgently and without warning). *Yes, I realize this was the third time a child needed to use the bathroom suddenly in the span of about an hour. I don’t know what happens to my children’s bladders in cities.* We scurried out of the park looking for a bathroom and a place to eat – people were also getting hangry – and one person in our family managed to PUT THEIR HAND DOWN ON A BENCH INTO A PILE OF FRESH, WET BIRD POOP. Like a giant pile. So. gross. Now we needed to find a bathroom and industrial-strength disinfectant. Sigh.

We found a bathroom and a place to eat (AND SCOUR OFF BIRD POOP) – a quiet little smoothie shop with nice sandwiches and coffee. It was also in the “Picasso” part of the Gothic Quarter so there were all sorts of Picasso prints on the wall.

Next we stopped by El Quatre Gats, a haunt of Picasso and other artists that is still an active restaurant, before heading to the Picasso Museum.

Entrance is free on Thursday’s after 4 pm (you do have to book those free tickets online, though). This was a bit of a miss for me. The same child who was not overly enthusiastic about the church was even less enthused about an art museum. I was feeling pretty tired at this point, too.

I’m glad we went, but somewhere along the way we took a wrong turn in the museum and ended up at the exit. I suspect we only saw a small fraction of Picasso’s works, but that was okay (to be honest I’m very Meh about Cubism). We were ready for a break and we got it – arriving back at the hotel by 6 pm. Supper was a bit of a fail, too. Everyone was tired, the burrito place we went to had glowing reviews but no one was overly hungry and I didn’t enjoy my meal, and one child had a painful growing pain that flared up.

Time for a reset. Thankfully, day four was just that; spoiler alert, it was – without question – my favourite day of our trip to Barcelona! Stay tuned.

• Distance Walked: 14.69 km | 20,233 steps

And that’s a wrap on Day Three. Any horrible animal poop stories to share? I know someone that had a bird poop on their head TWICE (this also happened to my mother in Germany a few years ago). What’s your favourite style of painting – I’m partial to Impressionists/post-impressionists.