Another day, another place in Barcelona - Sagrada Familia

This is not a travel blog, I know, but this blog is my place where I share all great moments that I have with my toddler. All inside activities and outside activities that we do together. Traveling is our hobby and one of my life goals is to see all the world together with my toddler, and in this way to show to my toddler the life outside the place he was born, because every place is unique in its way.

Barcelona is a city that I fall in love from my first day when we came here to live. This is a very beautiful city not just for tourists but for its citizens as well. That's why I want to continue with my project Discover Barcelona, and this time I would like to present to you dear mothers and families, Sagrada Familia (The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família). If you come for the first time to Barcelona, I would advice to write this place under "must see place", but if it is not your first time in Barcelona and you travel with children, then this place it is too crowdy to take a walk here.

The church project began long time ago the construction, official date of comencing 1882, and then in 1883 in this project was involved the famous architect Gaudi, taking control over the project and transforming this architecture into an unique project combining Gothic and curvilinear Art Nouveau forms to this. When Gaudí died in 1926, the basilica was between 15 and 25 percent complete. After his death, the project continued the activity, but very slowly. (source Wikipedia) Even though, the architects who continued with this project, tried to maintain the idea of Gaudi regarding this project. The project is supposed to be finished in 2026, that's why nowadays you can see a lot of changes during your visits to Barcelona.

Interior of  this church is very shy, there are a lot of mosaic colors that play with each other, and on a sunny day, the church is very beatiful inside. Not only the colors make this church beautiful, but as well its architecture.

My impressions are, I wouldn't take a walk there outside of Sagrada Familia, as it is very crowdy and you have to stay on fourth with your baby. Because Damian like running and playing outside, so this is not the safest place to do this. But, inside the church, it is amazing, and there is a lot of space to go, that's why my toddler didn't get bored.

I advice you to take a tour inside this amazing unique church.

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Festa Major at Sagrada Familia an event that brings joy inside us

Yesterday we went for a really great event called Festa Major that took place at Sagrada Familia. Festa Major is an yearly celebration that is dedicated to a saint, and depending on each city can last from 1 to 9 days and can have a lot of activities in different parts of the city. We enjoyed watching human towers or Castells, how it is called in Catalan. It is very traditional Catalan event that I wanted to see from my first day here in Barcelona. The idea was that people of different ages form a tower of people and in this way they show the importance of a team and how they lean on each other. It is very important that people who participate in creating of these towers are well prepared to afford the weight of the persons who stay on theirs shoulders.

More about the history and the rules of creating these towers you can find here:
http://www.castellersdebarcelona.cat/international/what-exactly-are-castells-or-human-towers/

But meanwhile I will share with you, my own experience. So, it was amazing to watch all the preparations of the people, to see how much they care of theirs health and make this show not just beautiful, but safe too. Then I saw how children get prepared for the tower, even though at theirs age they understand the importance of team building and the importance to be prepared for this show. I had time to analize the preparations, while the show I had not time to watch as our toddler was running there and forth and I took some pictures very quickly. As I went mainly for my son there, I thought that if he is happy while he is running and not watching the show, I have to be happy as well. This event for sure brings joy in hearts of everybody as you can't stay and watch this beatifulness with indiference.

Enjoy some amazing pictures:

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Living in Barcelona you understand that beach is not the place where you go only in summer.

Here are 9 beaches in Barcelona, all of these were mostly created or renewed in 1992, for the Olympic Games and now are one of most touristy places in Barcelona in summer. Today I will talk about just 2 beaches, where we use to go with our little toddler, it is Mar Bella Beach and Bogatell Beach. These are situates on the coastline on north of the Olympic Port. Before 1992, here was an industrial zone and more than dirty sand you wouldn´t see anything. Now, it is a really clean sand, if compared with Barceloneta´s beach (which is most touristy beach in Barcelona) and the views are really spectacular. As well on the coastline of all beaches you will find a lot of people practicing sport, that´s why on every beach there is special place for most sportive people.

In summer all 9 beaches are full, and if you come little bit later you can see that it is really difficult to find a place in the front line of the sea. In winter there are fewer people who stay at sun to tan theirs skin, most of them are locals, you won´t find a foreigner to tan in February for example, but locals enjoy sunshine even in these months. But to be true, here in Barcelona are very few days without sunshine and really bad weather. We (me, my husband and our toddler) use to enjoy breakfast on Sundays here at the Mar Bella Beach, by the way really good outside activity, as well it is our Family moment when we can enjoy our stay together, play with our kid, and smell the sea breath.

As well here I would like to mention that on these 2 beaches there is plenty of hotels with sea view, if you want to enjoy your stay in Barcelona in a room with sea view, one of this will be a good choise. As well in summer, every beach opens bars right on the beach, called 'chiringuito'.

Below some images, taken in different weeks,and on different beaches.

Bogatell Beach

Mar Bella Beach

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Do you like ships or yachts? Port Vell is a good choice to watch all this during your stay in Barcelona

Today I will SHARE with you a place that I really love in Barcelona, it is the old port of Barcelona, called Port Vell. Actually I love all ports in Barcelona, mainly for the great number of ships and yachts, one more beautiful than other. 

Looking into wikipedia I found out, that this place was mainly prepared for the olympics in 1992, and from that year hosts almost 16 millions tourists each year. As before 1992, there were factories and nothing that will atract tourists. Nowadays there is a big comercial center Maremagnum, Aquarium (one of the largest in Europe) and other tourists atractions.
Being a mum I almost like or dislike places by space without cars, or places to play with kid. Even if there is a plenty of tourists everyday, any month of the year, you can enjoy the stay or walk there with your kid.

Here you can find various touristy places like:

– Mirador de Colom (Columbus Monument) – Columbust stays at the top of a column, with lions below, all the tourists make pictures here.

-Maritim Museum

-Las Golondrinas – a cruise around the harbour, we didn´t take it by the time, we think that Damian has to grow up for this outside activity. It´s about 40 minutes ride, where you can enjoy sighseeings of the harbour.

-Feed fishes – at the same place where you can take the cruise, there is a corner where a lot of people feed fishes, it is amazing how many fishes you will see there. After feeding the fishes take a walk through Rambla de Mar – it is a bridge that connect the waterfront with Maremagnum mall, as well this bridge swivels and rotates to let the yachts pass by, it is amazing how in such touristy place all this job is very organized.

-Maremagnum – a big commercial center with a lot of shops and really great restaurants, there are great views from the restaurant, just pick up a great sit.

-L´Aquarium – one of the largest aquarium in Europe, hosts more than 500 pieces of fish, sharks, dolphins, an small fishes. I am more than sure that you will enjoy the stay here and your kid even more.

I am sure that your toddler will like this place as much as you will do. Below some of amazing pictures that we took.

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