Day trip Barcelona with a personal guide - and do you really have to see the Sagrada family?
- Severina
- Mar 25, 2023
- 6 min read
Updated: Oct 5, 2023
There's the problem again, we're enjoying a great 3-hour city tour and I can now summarize it without it looking like an essay. There is already enough information and content, so just a few good links to research for yourself. Here I will only give our personal impressions of a day stuffed with information in this colorful city.
As a child and later with my children, I met the city of Barcelona twice and, like probably you, just ran through it. Stefan has never been there. But this time we wanted to do it right and had already booked a German tour through GuruWalk for last Monday, which runs free of charge (or on a tip basis). Unfortunately, the tour was canceled on Sunday evening due to the lack of German guides for Monday.
After extensive googling for German tours, we finally got lucky with Arnd Krüger (link below) and easily booked by email for Thursday. We had given our minimum price per person in advance, which was confirmed to us and paid in cash at the end of the tour without any problems. Our meeting point was by the fountain in Plaça Reial, a convivial square in the Gothic Quarter. We arrived from Blanes with Regiobahn R1 (€6.20 per trip/ 1.45 travel time). Get off at Placa Cataluna, then about 700m down the famous La Rambla and then turn left through a passage, somewhat hidden, into Placa Reial. We have observed that it is a popular meeting place for guides and their customers there.
Arnd Krüger is actually a film director, has been living in Barcelona for 20 years and has a profound historical knowledge of Catalonia and the Spaniards and why they don't always agree. We all remember that the Catalans wanted to break away from Spain, that was only in October 2017. Madrid didn't play along, deposed the Catalan regional government and imprisoned some of them. Arnd made a nice comparison to our "König-Söder" and the original wish of many Bavarians to break away from Germany. Perhaps many want that, but not the majority. This is also the case here in Catalonia, around 40% of the population has this strong desire and still regularly takes to the streets to do so.
After Franco's dictatorship, however, many things became easier, also for the Catalans. Today, Catalan can once again be spoken in public and taught in schools. After my inquiry about how different the language is from Spanish. Our guide compared that with Dutch to German, you might be able to read it, but you often don't understand it. But since Spain itself is already experiencing its own strong population movement due to unemployment and the climate, the Catalan roots are unfortunately becoming thinner and thinner.
In order to get a bit of culture, many cultural events are celebrated. Two of them were explained to us in more detail, the giant parade and the castellers, the human towers, the latter of which I had already seen on television.
In the church of Santa Maria del Pi, the traditional giants are waiting to be deployed. They represent King James I and Queen Violant of Hungary. A reminder of the local monarchy in Catalonia in the Middle Ages and also that Spain was long Muslim too.
The Castellers train in clubs so that they can compete against each other in a kind of competition. A child aged 6-8 years can climb up to the top, often up to 15 meters high. This custom of strength and cohesion is more than 200 years old and is regularly performed at various major festivals. For our German security thinking unthinkable.
Our tour actually led the whole time through the old town streets of the Gothic and Jewish quarters. Past large squares that have only recently been freed for this purpose and have been prettied up for people to relax. We marveled at the patchwork of more than 2000 years of building history at the Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia. In hindsight we should have gone inside (only 9€). If you're going to visit a church, then a really old one. (more see Sagrada below). Arnd felt particularly sad that the brass floor tiles with the respective Zuft reference to the 100-year-old traditional shops, such as Starbucks & Co., are slowly having to give way. But there are still some, the fine little shops in the Gothic Quarter. Unfortunately, I could only quickly cast an eye left and right and would have loved to jump in.
Nicole from Freibeuter Reisen did that, very nice to read here: https://www.freibeuter-reisen.org/shopping-in-barcelona-mal-anders/
In general, after the long-awaited death of the dictator Franco in 1975, the city of Barcelona experienced a sigh of relief and a wave of refreshment through the city. Especially for the 1992 Olympics, finally turning back to the sea and its beauty.
The tour ended at the El Born Cultural and Memorial Center, a huge old Wilhelminian market hall. When the market hall was to be renovated, the well-preserved remains of the La Ribera district from the Middle Ages and fragments of the early modern metal construction were discovered in 2002. A cultural center for reinterpretation arose here after the War of Succession of 1714. Admission is free. Unfortunately, our 3-hour tour ended here and Arnd was in a hurry and had to continue.
It's a shame, I would have liked to have had a cappuccino with him and asked: What's it like to live here? Whether he accompanies film productions, etc. Where do you go to eat and celebrate?
But I can understand that you don't always want to tell everyone broadly. All in all, we really liked his knowledge and the art of tailoring the tour to it. We appreciate the exclusivity of this private tour and are therefore happy to recommend it to others:
via www.barcelona-stadtfuehrungen.de Mr. Arnd Krüger see pictures
We were then left alone in the market hall at 2 p.m. and still had 2 hours until the Sagrada Familia entrance time and therefore actually only 35 minutes walking time. So first sit down in the hall, have a mini-picnic in the park right next door and schwubb had been sitting away for an hour, so we then had to hurry to the Sagrada Familia.
„To do things right, first you need love, then technique” Antoni Gaudi
The Basilica Sagrada Familia (Catalan "Holy Family") is Antoni Gaudí's unfinished masterpiece and is probably the most famous church construction site in the world and one of the most important sights in the city of Barcelona. Construction began in 1882 and is now scheduled to be completed in 2026 on the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death. In the meantime, 9 architects have helped to design the church according to Gaudi's blueprint. The architect-artist was no longer able to complete his monument and the Spanish civil war also left its mark on the building and delayed it right from the start of construction. Important information can be extensively googled, such as here, for example, the 10 exciting facts about the Sagrada Familia.
Not a quiet place at all.
Now we are not believers in the sense of the church. For us, faith does not need an imposing dazzling building, but is either inside you or not. Personally, I see churches more as contemporary witnesses of various building eras and the craftsmanship of the time, and so I visit them with respect and decency. But I like to chill out in church, look at the art and maybe pray because I feel like it; to experience a place of stillness.
I can't feel any of that in the Sagrada Familia, it's not a quiet place at all. After a short wow when entering the building, the disillusionment quickly came, is that all? Far too much tam tam at the entrance and inside. Ein Video dazu findet Ihr auf Facebook >>
Now comes your question. Then why are you there? Good question, we can learn from that too. Not pursuing every highly advertised sight, preferring to make your own discoveries. We should actually know better, we lived in the shadow of Neuschwanstein Castle for over 20 years. I don't see much difference here.
A few more important information about the process on site:
First, there is no longer a box office and the guides also refer you to an online ticket.
It is best to book the tickets individually on your mobile phone, because it is easier with the audio guide app. Bring your own headphones, there aren't any!
Price currently already at €33.80 There are also a few free appointments, see link below. With a visit to the tower it cost €46.90, which was too expensive for us.
Take as little luggage as possible, since an extensive security check is carried out. I think entering is easier.
There are very few toilets, one at the beginning and one at the end of the museum, under the church; maybe go to the cafe first.
There is no cafe, only vending machines, across the street in the park is a large snack bar.
If logging in and downloading the ticket does not work, as it does with us, there is an emergency exit door on the right of the entrance. Here are 2 employees in the open door and from there they help you in a friendly way with the download, no German.
You will be admitted to the check-in every 15 minutes, security will show you through the lock.
There are rules of conduct see below.
Werden in der Sagrada Familia Gottesdienste / Messen abgehalten?
And finally, a legitimate question that everyone inevitably asks themselves when going around and in the church. There is actually a trade fair calendar
and there are also rules of conduct for visiting the church, but these are not rigorously followed with the masses of visitors. https://lasagradafamiliatickets.de/la-sagrada-familia-regeln-vorschriften/
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