Tibidabo

"I was just outside Barcelona hiking in the foothills of Mount Tibidabo. I was at the end of this path and I came to a clearing and there was a lake, very secluded. And there were tall trees all around. It was dead silent. Gorgeous. And across the lake I saw…a beautiful woman…bathing herself…but she was crying…"

The above story is from the series Friends. When we saw the scene we did not expect Tibidabo to be a real place. After all, the name of the mountain sounds funny and the story could as well be all made up.

However, while being cultured and visiting the Gaudi house casa mila, we saw a hill with a church at its top through the window. In fact, this hill was the highest one we could see from the city of Barcelona. Our innate instincts kicked in and our urge for adventure and exploration made us want to hike to the top of it.

We had no knowledge of how to get there or what the place was called so we decided to pursue our goal on another day.

The following morning, while tiredly walking towards the breakfast room to order a tasty cappuccino and crunchy croissant, we started wondering how we were going to reach the hill, and therefore started doing some research and found out that the hill was indeed called Tibidabo, making the Friends story a reality to some extent.

To get there we had to use multiple means of transportation: a train, a funicular, and a bus. We decided to go in the afternoon, but since we wanted to try a different approach while also saving a quick buck, we chose not to take the funicular but instead catch two buses.

The afternoon came by and we were ready to go, the weather was on our side as the sky was clear with a refreshing cold breeze. Everything was going according to plan, until we took the wrong bus, that before bringing us to our desired destination, circled around for over 20 minutes.

Catching the second bus was even a tougher challenge, due to the fact that we mistakenly took the wrong road, and to get back on the right track we had to walk uphill, therefore some members of our group were getting tired.

At the end of the steep part, we looked and noticed we had to go, despite our best efforts, we failed to get up to the peak. Mistakes were made and we had to head back down. We were sure, however, to try another day again.

Right the next day we decided to try again and head to the top. This time we decided not to be unique and used the funicular going up the hill.

The funicular took us to a small town called Vallvidrera. There we waited for a minibus to take us to the top Luck was not on our side on this day either The weather was horrible. Nevertheless, the bus picked us up and we were finally heading towards the peak of Tibidabo.

On top of Tibidabo, we found the church, the Temple of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It was magnificent. If it would have been a sunny day the views from the top would have been great. The hill was visible from all over the city so the whole city should be visible from the top of the hill. However, sometimes the weather is not on our side and this was one of those times. Nevertheless, we stood on the terrace and tried to use our imagination to paint a view for us of what the city could look like. All of us thought then that we have to go to the top of Tibidabo again on a clear day.

Our journey back down into the city had almost as many misfortunes as the first day when we tried to walk up the hills of Tibidabo. Naturally, the Google Maps bus schedule was wrong so we ended up going to the bus stop right after the bus had passed.

It was still raining cats and dogs so we decided to head back inside the church and wait until the next bus. The next bus of course was early. We heard it stopping outside and decided to run for it. Luckily the bus driver was friendly and waited for everyone to get inside the bus. Now we were on our way back down to the funicular.

We went inside the funicular station to catch the next ride down. We waited for five minutes and then five minutes more. No funicular came. Finally, a station attendant started shouting something in Spanish. We only understood one word, “taxi”. That was our cue, we walked out of the station and tried to hail a taxi. All the other people waiting for the funicular had the same plan. It was absolute chaos outside the funicular station. Only a couple of taxis came for the tens of passengers stranded on the hills of Tibidabo. However our luck turned and suddenly 20 or more taxis came up the road to the station to give us a ride down. We selfishly skipped the queue and took the first car. After all, we were in a hurry to make our entrance time to a music hall in the city.

IThe taxi ride down was not as fast as the funicular would have been but it was still quick. When we got to the train station on the foothills of Tibidabo we ran out of the taxi to catch the next train. Now we were safely on our way back to the city.

Tibidabo is not as popular tourist destination as one would think. It is not easy to get to the top and back down. However, the top still is mostly an attraction for tourists. Tibidabo used to be more of a place of worship for the locals. This change from an important spot for the locals to a tourist destination is visible throughout the city of Barcelona. The tourists bring in a part of their own culture, thus making Tibidabo, an intercultural hotspot in the city.