You can’t pass through Catalonia and not visit its capital city, Barcelona. This is a huge city, the second biggest in Spain after Madrid, and it would be impossible to fully do it justice in just one day, so we don’t even try! Kate and I have been here before anyway, so we decide instead to take it easy and just have a bit of a wander. 

One of Barcelona’s most famous exports is obviously its football team. Indeed when mentioning to people that we are spending a few days in the area, a common response involves asking if we were going to visit the stadium. Unfortunately for any footie fans currently reading this though, none of us are particularly interested in the beautiful game I’m afraid, and we give it a miss.

Barcelona is a coastal city, and we manage to find a campsite directly on the beach. This does normally comes with a few caveats when you’re talking about campsites though. In major cities, we have found that the campsites are, more often than not, near the airport and/or directly in the flight path. That was the case here! Living in a van for extended periods of time makes you better at compromising (among other things), and we have become quite used to dealing with various types of noises, aeroplane noises being one of them, so it seems a fair compromise for staying 10 yards away from the sand. We’re here for 3 nights, but we need to get a bit of school done too, so our first day here is simply a beach day punctuated by several stints of verb tenses and long division. The wind today is ridiculously strong despite the 26 degree heat, but that doesn’t put the kids off. The water here is 21 degrees, and they happily spend several hours bodyboarding in the surf while we turn our backs to the wind on the beach. Kate very quickly became tired of being sandblasted (literally) by the gale force winds and retired to the campervan. The kids are having too much fun to tear them away though, so I turn my chair to face away from the onslaught and wait patiently for the fun to finish! The restaurant here also served a rather excellent Paella at lunchtime, and amazingly Hunter volunteered, completely out of the blue, to try a mussel. And he liked it! So much so that he had 4 of my mussels and one of my king prawns. I was proud and hungry all at the same time!

The following day we wake up and get ready to make our way into town on the local bus. Annoyingly there is not even a breath of wind today and the sun is shining, it would be a perfect day for the beach. We should have done it the other way around, but you know what they say about hindsight. At least it’ll be a nice day in the city.

As our bus arrives in Plaça de Catalunya we head straight for the metro. We aren’t heading down La Rambla just yet, maybe later on. First of all we are going to visit Els Encants. I love a good flea market, there’s something about rooting around in what is essentially a load of old crap, looking for treasure that seems exciting (maybe that’s just me?). This one is a real gem. It is housed in a purpose built 3 storey structure, sprawling over an area of 30,000 square metres, and topped with its famously recognisable mirrored roof. It’s not just your usual rubbish modern market stuff here – there are rows of stalls selling knock off clothing and second rate tools if that’s what you’re after, but there are also plenty of traders here with stalls piled high with ‘desirable junk’, and many antique dealers too. Upon closer inspection, you could be forgiven for thinking the proprietors procure their stock during late night skip-diving sessions, but if you put the effort in there are treasures to be found! There are also a few bar restaurants on site, and a small food court on the top floor. We came across a stall selling freshly cooked seafood at pretty decent prices – lunch sorted. Hunter once again stretched his tastebuds today as well, and happily chomped on a deep fried octopus tentacle from our fishy combo plate.

Having trawled the market extensively we wandered towards what is probably Barcelonas most famous landmark, La Sagrada Familia. I find this place fascinating as it looks completely different from the last time I saw it around 15 years ago. That’s because this cathedral is the largest unfinished Catholic Church in the world, and is still a building site 140 years after work started. A year after the build started, the original architect resigned and Antoni Gaudi took the helm. The building progressed in his typically identifiable modernist style, evident all over Barcelona. What resulted is a bizarre mash-up of gothic and modernist styles creating a truly one-off church. Unfortunately the build was only about a quarter finished when Gaudi died, and he was interred here in its crypt. The project slowed down even more after that due to lack of funds and the onset of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. During this conflict the original plans were actually partially destroyed further hindering the build. It was apparently hoped that the project would be completed by the centenary of Gaudi’s death in 2026, but alas the more modern hindrance of the recent Coronavirus pandemic has now put paid to that deadline as well. However, the building does look very nearly finished to my eyes, from the outside at least. Gaudi would be proud. We hadn’t pre-booked any tickets, and didn’t fancy waiting 4 hours for the next available slot, so we cannot visit the inside on this occasion unfortunately. So we caught a tube back to our starting point of Plaça de Catalunya for a wander down one of the most emblematic shopping areas in Europe, La Rambla.

This tree-lined street stretches for well over a kilometre down towards the port and was once the centre of life in Barcelona, hosting various markets and events daily. Unfortunately it has in modern times become more of a souvenir shop lined magnet for hoards of inebriated tourists, especially after dark. However, if you wind your way away from this main drag and head down the small side streets of the gothic quarter you can become lost for hours among narrow alleyways filled with infinitely more interesting vendors and quality eateries than La Rambla. Our favourite shop here by far was Caganer.com. I almost walked straight past this shop dismissing it as another tourist tat shop, but the life size figure of a man with his trousers down by the doorway attracted the attention of the kids immediately. As I look closer it becomes apparent that the shop is full of tiny figures all with their trousers down and a steaming pile of poop behind them! Apparently, this is a traditional Christmas theme in Catalunya – these defecating effigies are inserted in a traditional nativity scene as a symbol of farmers fertilising their soil. Nowadays the traditional figure has been usurped by small pooping versions of famous figures instead. The shelves are lined with statues of everyone from Ziggy Stardust to Nelson Mandela. We eventually decide on a defecating Che Guevara to grace our Christmas tree and take our leave.

There is a really good foodhall halfway down La Rambla, with fantastic fruit displays and mountains of local produce. You can also buy ready made snacks and meals, which we did in the form of empanadillas for dinner. It’s not cheap here mind you, in fact it’s downright bloody expensive, but it’s quality stuff.

Satisfied we had seen enough of the city, it was time to catch the bus home before the light fades and the atmosphere changes. This part of town gets pretty rowdy at night, and I’ve heard some interesting tales about La Rambla after dark, but that’s a story for a different time…

The following day we are heading south to just outside of Tarragona to spend the day at another theme park, but on the way we stop to see another relic of the Roman age tucked away in the Catalonian countryside. The Ferrerres Aquaduct, commonly known as Devils Bridge is accessed by simply pulling into an unassuming layby off the AP-7 motorway. There is no fee, no ticket booths and no facilities. All you can find here is a footpath leading to a very well preserved Roman aquaduct dating back to around the year zero. Amazing to think this was being constructed around the same time as Jesus was born. It’s not quite as big as Pont du Gare in France, and not in quite as good condition, but it does have one thing that Pont du Gare doesn’t… you can actually walk all the way along the top of this one, through the actual channel (apparently called a Specus) where the water flowed down towards Tarragona. There are walking paths all around the valley below if you wish to explore, or you can simply stand back and admire it for the two millennia old marvel that it is. It was also another perfect opportunity to annoy the groups of walkers by launching the drone!

Then off to our campsite, just in time for an hour or two in the pool where Hunter and I work on our particularly impressive (idiotic) synchronized jumping. It seems the Spanish are fully in Halloween mode by now, and this campsite has really pushed the boat out. There are loads of kids here from all over Europe, and they are running all kinds of activities for them. We take advantage of the Mini Disco after swimming, and apparently there is a “Pasaje Del Terror” later on. The kids are well up for it as we find the starting point in the dark. As we wait to be admitted by the Vampiress and Joker characters however (who look suspiciously like the reception staff from earlier), Hunters anxiety levels begin to rise amidst the distant sound of screams and chainsaw engines. He thinks too much this boy, and begins to talk himself out of it before it even begins! The lady ensures us that if they are too scared at any time just let them know and we can leave the building. As the Joker leads us into the dimly lit, smoke-filled first room, we are greeted by a man (who again looks remarkably familiar, I’m sure he was leading the mini disco earlier) laying on a bed screaming while apparently having his arm sawn off by two maniacal zombie doctors. That’s it, Hunters anxiety reaches fever pitch and as he screams towards Mr Joker to help him, we beat a hasty retreat, stage left. Bam thinks she can go a bit further as we regain our composure outside, but the rapidly approaching chainsaw wielding man in the strait jacket puts paid to that as he runs towards Bam, engine wailing. I guess nobody told him we had already left! That’s it, they both run off screaming and our Pasaje Del Terror experience is over in under two minutes! Back to the Motorhome for a (hopefully) nightmare free nights sleep.

The next day is spent in a purely hedonistic fashion by visiting the huge Portaventura World. This resort, owned By Merlin who also own most of the British theme parks, is comprised of Portaventura theme park, Ferrari World theme park and Caribe Aquatic Park, as well as five hotels and a Motorhome park. It’s one of the biggest resorts in Europe, and the most visited in Spain. We are only visiting the main theme park as we only have one day, but you could quite easily spend three or four days in this complex with older kids who would enjoy using all the rides.

Not much more to say about this really I guess, apart from it’s definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area. The best tip I can pass on would be not to buy your tickets on the official website, you can easily save at least 50 euros for a family of four by buying through a ticket specialist such as GetYourGuide.com.

That’s it for Catalonia, tomorrow we carry on South…