Barcelona travel blog part ten -- Park Guell

I hemmed and hawed about whether or not to go to Park Guell. The place sounded fascinating but the entrance rules were a bit daunting. The online tickets are timed. And they are strict about the thirty minute window. When I looked online the night before there were plenty of openings, so I figured our best bet was to simply show up and buy the tickets when we arrive.

To get to Park Guell you take the metro's green line (#3) to the Lessop stop. Fortunately for us, our Airbnb was on the green line, so there would be no complicated transfers. Then, according to the guidebooks, there is a 20-30 minute walk to the park. What the guidebooks failed to mention is the walk is uphill. You know the area is hilly when some of the staircases have been converted into escalators.

By the time we found the park (thanks Google Maps!) we also found a rather long line leading to a vending machine to purchase tickets. We decided for a divide and conquer approach. Don stayed in line and I walked to the front of the line. I could see a park employee trying to help the couple in the front of the line purchase a ticket. This was not going well. I could not discern if the issue was with the machine or with the users or with their method of payment. All I knew was it was 11:30 am and we had a firm 4:45 reservation to tour Sagrada Familia -- the only ticket we could procure two weeks earlier from my laptop.

Along with others in line, we decided to purchase tickets from our phone. They were only 10 euros each (plus a 5 euro convenience fee). The problem was, the timed ticket was for 1:30, and by the time we hit pay, it was for 2 pm. 

There was no way I was walking back down those hills to find lunch, so we walked around the perimeter of the park figuring there had to be a restaurant nearby (we did see a couple of places advertising last food before the park and encouraging us to buy picnics).

We found a second entrance -- quieter than the first with people waiting for noon when they would enter the park.

We kept walking. I was still surprised there were no cafes or tacky souvenir shops, but we did find a third entrance. This looked like a real entrance -- with two machines for buying tickets, a window to ask someone questions, an extremely helpful guard, and a ticket taker. We headed up to the window to ask if we could swap our ticket, or (worst case scenario) buy one for right then. The helpful guard said as long as we had a ticket for that day we could enter. I was dubious, but proceeded to the ticket taker who let us in without question -- nearly two hours earlier than our official start time.

According to Google, there are three entrances. I saw at least four. We tried the Av. del Sntuari de Sant Josep de la Muntanya first, then found one not on the list. We entered at Carretera del Carmel and exited through Carrer de Larrard (the official entrance). I saw a different exit in the back of the park.

We entered near the laundry room porticos. Having learned a little bit about Gaudi the day before, we knew he found inspiration in nature. That was obvious in this section that resembled tree roots, until we found the washerwoman at the end.

Me hugging a column for perspective

Seeing the washerwoman at the end felt like a reward for leaving the tourists behind and walking to the end. It was a pleasant surprise.

Once again, we had not done much research so we simply wandered and looked around, reading signs and mentally telling myself to book a tour if I ever come back.

I had learned that Park Guell was designed by Gaudi to be a utopian society for the weather. Sixty exclusive homes were to be built on this mountain. No one was allowed to block anyone else's view of the sea. The project was started in 1900 and continued until 1914 with only two homes built. No one wanted to live there because it was hard to get to, so it was turned into a park. Nearly a hundred years later (in 2013) they started to charge tourists admission to the park in order to have a fund to pay for repairs, and to limit how many people enter each day. Locals are allowed to visit when they want.

The esplanade called the Greek Theater is my favorite part. There is something magical about taking broken pieces of glass and pottery and having the vision to turn it into something beautiful. Individually the pieces are meaningless, but together they are art.

This was on top of the Hypostle Room -- 86 striated columns. Some online reading said this could have been the marketplace had the community been built. What I saw was (if cordoned off) an amazing place for a school group to play hide and seek. The columns were wide enough to hide a body (or two or three) then you could dash from one to the other to find the safe zone. Unlike the guidebooks with the ability to kick everyone out to take pictures, I could not capture that sense with the crowds.

This led us to the staircase with what was Don's favorite part of the grounds: the chameleon.

He is a favorite of many people, making it hard to take a picture of the chameleon alone. It was fun watching the guards gently move the tourists who insisted on climbing on him.

At the bottom of the stairs is the official entrance to Park Guell -- and the one we would leave from after we finished exploring the park.

From here we walked around some more studying the aqueducts, and searching for the three crosses. The biggest entertainment for us was seeing the people selling their wares quickly pick them up and scurry into the woods as the police drove through on the footpaths, only to set up again as they went around the bend. You could hear the chaotic clanging of picking up their white sheet with souvenirs on them, and them watch them rhythmically line up their wares again. It had a game like feel to it as no one was stopped or hassled in the process.

 

The outside of the park was just as stunning as the inside.

We took a different path back to the metro and rode it to the Sagrada Familia stop. By entering the park two hours ahead of our timed tickets, we had time for a late lunch before our 4:45 tour. After the frustrating start to enter the park, the day turned out wonderfully.