Barcelona Schedule

Hi Lisa,

Although you might not grasp basic Catalan, don't worry, we won't have you on a potato bread diet for three days, LOL! There are plenty of vegetarian restaurants around and many (most!) regular restaurants have vegetarian(ish) dishes on their menus as well.

AUG 30th,

Pick one, either Casa Batlló or La Pedrera, if you visit Sagrada Família at 3:45pm you won't have time to visit the other two... nor to stroll much around if you want to see one.

SEP 1st

IMPORTANT! A 9am entrance to the museum in Figueres is.... a bold challenge, LOL! This means you'll have to wake up reeeeeally early, take a taxi to Sants station and grab one of the FAST TRAINS to Figueres -it takes an hour to get there. DO PREBOOK online the train or else you risk not having availability for the train you need: http://www.renfe.com Note the station you want is FIGUERES-VILAFANT, which is where the fast trains arrive to. This one is about a mile and a half from the centre of Figueres, where the museum is located. Just take a taxi at the station, it'll be the best course of action. I've checked the schedule and the first train departs at 7:20 arriving in Figueres at 8:15 (train # AVANT 31735).... you absolutely NEED to be on this train to make your ticket schedule for the museum. Note the commuter trains are of no use to you as you wouldn't make it on time. You can, however, if you wish, take a return train on one of the commuter trains. The schedules can be checked here: www.rodalies.tk The station they depart from is near the museum, in the centre of Figueres and you don't need to pre-book any ticket, just walk in and buy on the spot. Drawback?... the journey takes between 2h and 2h30' depending on the train you take as, being a commuter line, it stops in a number of stations in between. Yep, your "impulse" was indeed a bit insane :)
If you choose to return on a fast train -which I would do, noting they depart from the station outside the centre- you could well be back at around 1ish. Still, I would focus on one activity and not try to cover too much ground as you won't get to see much anyway. So, if I were you I'd stick visiting the Gothic Quarter, there's enough there to spend days on end.

Pokemon... well, I know there were, albeit (thankfully) the fewer has diminished now. I have to say though that's been "mostly" a teenagers thing over here. Anyhow, tell your hubby to check these: https://www.facebook.com/groups/PokemonGoBcn/ and
http://www.barcelonacheckin.com/en/r/barcelona_tourism_guide/articles/pokemon-go-barcelona and most importantly this: https://pkmngotrading.com/wiki/Barcelona In any case, you don't really have the time to go "hunting about", do you?

Enjoy!

As a vegetarian, you'll appreciate the fun fact that "salad" in Catalan is amanida - a completely different word from other Romance languages (such as, French = salade, Spanish = ensalada, Italian = insalata).

Right on the spot, Harold... another funny fact is that some Catalans use the word "amanida" (ah-mah-nee-dah, =salad) to refer as well to "enciam" (an-see-am, =lettuce) -wrongly, of course. I suspect these are people that don't really eat much of it :) The word amanida derives from the verb amanir which in Catalan means "to dress a dish" -normally with olive oil, the quintessential dress in these shores, and salt, and optionally black pepper and/or vinegar, depending on the dish.

@sambycat... forgot before to add some ideas for no-frills vegetarian restaurants: https://www.timeout.com/barcelona/restaurants/vegetarian-delights

Thanks so much to both of you! Yes, I had "planned" on that whole first train thing, but I hadn't considered pre-buying the ticket! So I will look at that tomorrow when I feel more fresh (so I don't buy another whackado ticket!). This is gonna be a weird adventure, but hey - we shall give it a shot!

Since we are staying near some of the Gaudi buildings, I am hoping that we can just take some of that in as we walk around our hotel. And I will look over those veggie suggestions!

It is funny, I speak a very tiny amount of spanish gleaned from my profession (nurse anesthetist), and growing up in california, i can muddle through things somewhat or at least read some signs and get something from them? I refreshed my high school french before our trip last year and the semester of Italian I took in college, so between those two things, I pretty much can no longer pronounce anything! Italian and French pronounce things so differently despite them looking somewhat similar when written! Then toss in the Catalan and I am just laughing at myself! I searched for a Catalan language lesson (for free because i am evil i guess!), but I didn't find much. I've watched several videos and have some phrases in my travel books so I expect a lot of "si us plau" and smiling!

yeah, the trick of traveling anywhere was a vegetarian is being able to list what you don't eat. Lots of Parisian restaurants suggesting fish, lamb and soup made from meat stock. It should be interesting!!!!

Thank you both!!!

Ham shows up a lot, so always, always ask.

That's easy @sambycat....

http://www.parla.cat (free.... LOL!)
http://wikitravel.org/en/Catalan_phrasebook
http://www.intercat.cat/en/aprenc-catala.jsp
http://www.llull.cat/english/aprendre_catala/aprendre_catala.cfm
http://llengua.gencat.cat/en/serveis/aprendre_catala/index.html

... and, if really interested, in California you can learn Catalan at UCLA (http://www.spanport.ucla.edu/academics/undergraduate/catalan-language-program/) and at Standford (https://dlcl.stanford.edu/languages/catalan)

When there is a will, there is a way... see?

Yet, of course, for spending just a few days, you can go by with your bits of Spanish, English, and French (and Italian). Having said that, a few words or sentences (thank you, good morning and the like) in Catalan, the local language, are a powerful way to crack smiles in many Catalan native speakers, and we do appreciate it.

Like the Finns, or the Swedes, or the Hungarians... we're also a small community so we're used to visitors not knowing our language, and still, we get to communicate anyway. Lots of people speak English (or at least mumble it), and given French and Italian are also Romance languages, we can 'communicate' (or rather "pick up words here and there") with each other. Also note that Spanish is co-official and despite is not the mother tongue of many of us, we do study it at school and are fluent in it too. So don't fret too much... :)))

Eating vegetarian is sooo easy in Spain and delicious. Lots of tasty vegetables cooked in various ways. Some dishes have bits of ham added, but it's easy enough to ask them not to. Tapas, tapas, tapas . . . Wonderful cheeses too.

Does your ship allow you to bring wine on board? Check with your cruise line. My experience is that if you bring alcohol on board, they take it away and keep it safe, returning it to you at the end of the cruise.

I KNOW THIS IS A CRAZY ADD ON BUT IT LOOKS INSANE AND WE MUST GO!!

There is a lot of 'insane' looking stuff in Barcelona itself. Travelling often becomes a matter of priorities, and getting the best out of your limited time. The Dali Museum in Figueres is indeed a cool sight to visit, but with logistics getting to and from, I'd be weighing up whether choosing sights within the city might be a better choice, given your time constrictions.

Sambycat, we will be in Barcelona for almost the same period of time and leaving out of terminal C on Saturday as well. Are you on the Magic?