Tibidabo

On Saturday I took a day trip with one other student, Noe, to a part of Barcelona called Tibidabo. Tibidabo is a hill that forms the western border of the city, and is also where you can find some of the richest houses and estates. On top of the hill, there is a church and an amusement park, and of course a great view of the city to the east and of the interior of the country to the west.

Getting to Tibidabo was a similar journey as the trip to Montserrat, only much shorter. We took a train from close to the University up to the base of the hill, then walked to the "funnicular" (mountain train) station where we got a ride to the top.

The church is actually two churches, one built right on top of the other. As far as I understand, the first one was partially destroyed during the anarchist riots during the Spainish Civil War, and the church was restored, then another one built on top of it.

The amusement park--a pretty small one--had a lot of rides geared towards younger kids, but also had a ferris wheel that I'm sure would have had even better views of the city.

The name Tibidabo is probably my favorite part about the place. It comes from a Biblical passage, during the third temptation of Christ: Haec omnia tibi dabo si cadens adoraberis me (Latin). Or, "all of this I will give you if you bow down and worship me." So Tibidabo most literally means "what I offer to you" and seems to be Barcelona's snub way of saying "maybe Jerusalem was not enough to tempt you, but how about our beautiful city."

After spending most of the morning on Tibidabo, we came back down into town and walked around Las Ramblas some, doing a little shopping and exploring.

In the evening, FC Barcelona played against Atletico Madrid, so we went to a sports bar to watch that. AT Madrid is nowhere near the rivalry that Real Madrid would have been, but it was still an intense game, even if it wasn't close--Barca score two goals in the first 10 minutes of the game, and ended up winning 6-1.

Tonight (Sunday) at 10pm the Broncos game will actually be televised down here--one of only two Broncos games all season that I will be able to watch. The Cowboys game will be on at the same time, and there are a couple Cowboys fans on the trip, so I'm sure a group of us will get together again at the sports bar to watch those games and pretend we are back in America for a few hours.

Just a side note--sitting at this sports bar can be a little of an out-of-body experience, as it can be very easy to forget we aren't just sitting back at B-Dub's or somewhere like that in Denver. Last week when we were watching football, we were sitting at a table with all Americans, surrounded by other American tourists and businessmen, watching American football. The menus were in English, the waiters spoke fluent English, and the food even tasted American (and the music was all 90's classics). This is hardly the immersion experience I came to Barcelona for, and not something I plan to do often, but it's a good cure for by Broncos-withdrawal.

Click here to see my photos of Tibidabo:

Tibidabo Oct. 4