Abby Fetter, Contributor
Even though the adventure-filled city is geographically spread out, it’s easy to navigate and get around. The cabs are clean, fairly inexpensive and lined up at stations around the city. Also low-cost is the Bus Tursitic. It’s veeeeery slow, which could be good (if you want to people watch and take in the candid action on the street) or not-so-good (if you have to be somewhere). We hopped on and off a few times to give our wobbly legs a break and catch some sights from the top deck. Here are three must-dos with children in the thriving Catalonian city...
Tibadabo:
The quaint funfair on the Tibadabo mountaintop (featured in Vicky Christina Barcelona) offers a host of kiddie rides (a kitschy wild-wild-west mini-train, spinning pots of slime, a Ferris wheel, and, the crowd-favorite, a carrousel). There are also stunning view of the city below, which Mom and Dad ate up. Perched on the edge, the merry-go-round gave the effect that your horse could fly out over the city if it magically came to life.
There are two ways to get to Tibadabo - by cab (our choice) or by a combination of funicular blue trams that’ve been operating since the 19th century. We took the funicular down and then walked down the steep incline along the tram tracks. (Note: We went on a weekday that was early in the season, so there were no crowds.)
Park Gÿell:
My six year old is gaga for Gaudi. It could be all the pre-trip info I put in front of her, including a wonderful Japanese film from the 1980's that shows Gaudi's influences and architectural sites set to music that kept even my two-year-old engrossed. It could also be that the architectural style is so whimsical it is almost Suess-ian. Or it could be that she loves mosaics thanks to the mosaic art kits that let her create a mosaic masterpiece on a numbered board with shiny, multicolored peel and stick squares. Whatever the reason, seeing some Gaudi buildings was high on her list of things to do in Barcelona.
The Park Gÿell is the most kid friendly of all the Gaudi sites in Barcelona. The sprawling outdoor space is perfect for exploring on a sunny day. The Gaudi museum (within the park) and the gorgeous Casa Batllo (in the Eixample) are both a little too crowded for maneuvering strollers. We also went to Palau Gÿell on La Rambla. They were restricting admittance there which made for a lighter crowd, but a long wait.
Most of the Gaudi sites in Barcelona incorporate the mosaic technique of re-assembling smashed ceramics into their decoration. The Catalans call it trencadis, and it is how Gaudi and his assistants were able to create ceramic curved forms. The entire Serpentine bench at the Park Gÿell is decorated this way, undulating around a dusty central courtyard where the girls ran around in circles. We bought 5 Euro trinkets from covert vendors - jeweled butterfly pendants on leather cords for the girls, a painted leather cuff for Mom.
Supposedly, the two gingerbread-like entrances to the Parc Gÿell symbolize the two houses in the story of Hansel and Gretel. The entrance with the magic mushroom on top is the lair of the evil witch; the one with the folksy blue and white tiles and the cross is their home from which they are lost.
Kids get mosaics, smashing plates and Hansel and Gretel. Gaudi speaks their language and the Park Gÿell is the best place for them to revel in it.
Museu Picasso:
The Picasso Museum is in the Born section of Barcelona just adjacent to the Barri Gòtic. Picasso spent his youth in Barcelona so the museum contains many of his earliest works and many later ones donated to the museum after his death. The museum doesn’t house the artist’s most iconic works, but it still draws massive crowds.
We added ourselves to the line winding through the cobblestone alleyway and prepared for the wait. But by some grace of the museum gods, a guard saw us with our two kids and two strollers and waved us inside (Yes, our six-yar-old still cruises stroller-style. This year we had to seek out one with a high maximum weight - a McClaren umbrella stroller that goes up to 55 lbs. and weighs less than my camera). Perhaps kids and museums are a good fit, after all!
Picasso is one of the most kid-friendly artists. The Museu Picasso houses the artist's variations of Las Meninas by Velazquez. My six-year-old stood transfixed by a digital projection that isolated each figure or group of figures in the Valazquez version and showed how Picasso reworked them into his own interpretation. These mutations elicited giggles every time, but they also revealed the Picasso's process and illuminated his singular vision⿿Mom and Dad’s food for thought...
We stopped in the airy café on the lower level for a mid-morning break before leaving the museum. It was a great place for a quick cappuccino and some gelato.
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