Enter the password to view the trip.
Rough estimate discussed: $1,000–$1,400/yr of value from the card, offsetting the annual fee.
Ranked list of how to scratch the Barça itch without a live match. Now fully scheduled: Day 4 (Sep 30) is a dedicated pilgrimage day, 9 AM to 4 PM — museum + stadium, Barça Café lunch, the store, La Masia, and a Palau Blaugrana check, back to back. See the Itinerary tab.
Suggested flow if doing the full "pilgrimage": museum + stadium + La Masia in the morning, lunch at Barça Café, official store in the afternoon, then roll into the existing El Born plans.
Design brief settled on: relaxed, more tropical feel than the rest of the trip, romantic, walkable, good food, some history/culture without museum overload.
Because of the international break, no European club had a home match during the trip dates — so football was removed as a deciding factor between cities. Considered and ranked: Madrid, Lisbon, Seville, Nice, Milan, Amsterdam, Valencia, Split, Malta. Lisbon and Nice were the strongest alternatives on atmosphere; Barcelona was kept because it already balances beach, architecture, food, and a relaxed pace better than any single alternative, and months of planning were already built around it.
Status: locked in. Barcelona is confirmed as leg 1 — no longer under consideration for a swap.
All 5 walking-map entries from Notion are slotted onto their days now (Day 2, Day 4, Day 7, Day 8, Day 14) — see the notes on each item for the exact time/duration discrepancies between the main board and the Walking Maps table. 4 of 5 now have real Google Maps links with an "Open walking map" button right on the itinerary item (Day 2, 7, 8, 14). Day 4's Montjuïc Exploration never had a link attached in Notion at all — nothing to recover there.
Decided: golf is officially cancelled and Port Aventura World is the confirmed Day 5 plan — see the itinerary tab for the updated schedule.
Full day. ~1–1.5 hrs each way by train to Salou, includes Ferrari Land (fastest coaster in Europe). Tickets aren't purchased yet — worth doing before it's closer to the date.
Still on the table for a lighter day if you want them: Flyboard at Port Olímpic (~1–2 hrs, the marina near Barceloneta) and Tibidabo (~4–5 hrs, the mountain amusement park) — both got cut from Day 5 since Port Aventura already fills it, but either could slot into a free evening or replace something lighter elsewhere in the Barcelona leg.
Decided: Galleria Borghese got dropped (one art museum was enough) and Cinecittà World never made the cut either — Day 9's afternoon/evening is now Vatican Museums → pasta-making lunch → optional Castel Sant'Angelo/wander → the confirmed food & wine tour (3:30 PM) → an optional Vivaldi/Bach concert to cap the night. See the Itinerary tab.
~4–5 hrs total — climb a harnessed walkway over the O2 arena's roof for skyline views, then a short aerial cable ride across the Thames right next door.
Day 12 (Oct 8), after lunch in Richmond. Ted Lasso tour ends ~12:30 PM, lunch runs to about 1:30. The O2 is across town in North Greenwich — budget 45–60 min to get there, so realistically you're starting around 2:15–2:30 PM and wrapping by 6:30–7:30 PM. Dinner near the O2, or head back into central London after.