A few monts ago my airline decided to cancel my flight to Barcelona, which was meant to connect to Santiago de Chile. They offered a flight 2 days later, but I found a flight earlier that morning so that I could make it to Santiago as planned. So now I had some 10 hours to pass between flights in Barcelona.
After having been assured that my luggage would be sent straight through to Santiago by the grumpy airline staff, I decided to take the bus to the Montjuïc area. On the way to Barcelona I got talking to my neighbour in Spanish. He told me a bit about the area. I ended up just walking around from garden to garden.
I got off the bus at Plaça d’Espanya. From there I walked up the hill, seeing mirador after mirador and beautiful park after beautiful park. It was Sunday, and a warm one, so tourists and locals alike were out and about. There were a few stands with snacks and drinks. Music was playing and at one place they had a setup for a band. Instead of taking the gondola, I walked up to the Montjuïc castle and took the Camí del mar, a walk around the outside of the castle with great views of the harbour, where shipping containers were loaded onto ships.
I walked back down on the other side through the Olympic grounds. The stadium was now used by FC Barcelona. The sun was just disappearing behind the mountains. To top off the day I went to the viewing platform of the Arenas shopping mall. You can walk all the way around the round building or even go to a restaurant up top. It wasn’t quite Spanish dinner time yet, so I took bus 46 back to the airport, where I could go through security and eat without stress. Still many hours to go till Chile!
