Train and cycling to Santa Perpetua de Mogoda and a Mango Outlet

It is a 20 minutes journey with the train from Plaza Catalunya to Santa Perpetua de Mogoda, and costs 2,20 euros each way. When you come out of the train turn right and then follow the main road which also has a bike lane on it. Following the bike lane till the river you'll get to a bridge where you need to cross the river , and on the other side follow the bike lane which goes more or less by the river. It is a very strange place , one side is with parking trucks and industrial buildings , the other is green hilly natural golf field type of landscape with a small river, destroyed by huge electrical poles. It is a straight road for quite a long while , on one point you can already enter the fenced off park or you can continue on the bike lane on the sidewalk. I f you go on the sidewalk soon you'll see a sign for the Mango Outlet, so if you want to do little shopping in the industrial zone before the picnic in the park , just follow those signs. Otherwise just go a head till you see the main entrance of the park , and check out the circle shaped fenced off, depressing lake and enjoy yourself in this place which looks like an illustration from the seventies, pretty surreal. There are many other people doing the same , enjoying the green grass, pine trees, mini railway, small river, geometrical landscape having some sandwiches. I wouldn't say it is a very beautiful place but this mixed atmosphere of the industrial zone, the super tidy park and the downtown-like shopping possibility is pretty inspiring.

Circle shaped lake , near Santa Perpetua de Mogoda

Vic : tuesday market, official tourist walk, and a stop in Figaro on the way back

It takes 1h20' to get to Vic , and the return ticket costs 10,40 euros from Plaza Catalunya. The second part of the train route is really nice, goes between green hills , next to small rivers and wild flower fields, although the first half in the Valles area was not to friendly, it is quite industrial and overpacked with newly build blocks. Every tuesday and sturdy there is a market on Vic's Plaza Mayor. The square is really pretty, with a medieval atmosphere , especially that the square itself is not covered with tiles or stones or concrete, instead it is covered with gravel.The market is just like the typical general weekly markets around Barcelona: lot of chinese stuff, some second hand clothes for 1 euro each, cheap cosmetics, big variety of potted plants, good looking and delicious vegetables. Luckily the tourist information office was open so i could get a map of the city, and also many useful information and guides about walking paths around the city, one of those goes to the Monastery of Sant Pere de Casserres , and it looks really pretty on the photos, so i would really like to walk there soon, it is just a 19km walk back and forth.There is a nice little "touristic route" in Vic, which drives you around the old town , carefully , so you stay only on the very pretty old streets and got to see all the classical sights the town can offer. The river with the old bridge is pretty although the other side of the river and all the other bridges are newly build uninteresting grey things. There is a real roman church on the way as well which i found quite impressive, there was a local flower-painter's exhibition in the church, so from the inside it didn't look like a roman church at all. The whole walk can be done in an hour, and it drives you back to the Plaza Mayor, from there the train station is just 5 minutes walk.

On the way back we stop in Figaro. This village lies in the valley , just on the border of the Montseny Natural Park. I totally recommend the "platos combinados" in the first bar on the main street, it was cheap and delicious. Now just follow the river direction to Vic and you get to the beginning of a nice little path on the right of the street. This path is very romantic with blooming trees, small waterfalls on the cute river, friendly dogs, bees, green hills around, playing butterflies, just what i needed! Unfortunately the path is not too long,the walk to the old church at the end and back , can be done in an hour. From Figaro it takes about an hour to get back to Barcelona, there is no timetable or ticket office at the station so you can buy your ticket on the train. There are a couple of other tracks going out of Figaro which can be interesting, i hope i'll have the possibility to discover those as well, later on.

Montseny Natural Park

Beach and town of Ocata


You can take the train from Arc de Triomf direction to Blanes or Mataro, and in 20 minutes you'll be in Ocata. It has a spacious beach and a perfect view of Barcelona. The beach is cleaner and the sand is better than in Barcelona. The town itself is amazingly pretty, with a lot of small gardens and very pretty old houses. After the beach it definitely worth it to walk around, on it's cute little streets. The strange thing is that by the main road (the carretera national) the on sidewalk there are the same Gaudi tiles as on Passeig de Gracia, and there is a beautiful modernist building the Casino, which has a cute little patio with a restaurant in it and super delicious caffe, here the only problem is the noise of the cars , again just like in Les Planes in my previous post.

Tunnel from the beach to the town, very narrow and claustrophobic

You can see the even the Sagrada Familia's shape in the distance

The Merendero in Les Planes

It takes about 20 minutes to get to Les Planes from the Plaza Catalunya by FGC train and you can use your T10 or a single 1 zone ticket. When you arrive to Les Planes you just have to cross the two bridges you see , and then go direction to the big parking lot you see from further , probably with some trucks as well, it is just 5 minutes from the train station. It looks absolutely different from how i have imagined, i could say i was a bit shocked when i saw the whole place is located under a motorway bridge, behind a truck parking lot. There are industrial amounts of tables and small fire places next to each other. Whatever, we thought once we are here with are backpacks full of food, let's try to enjoy this place, see what others can enjoy about it that it is so popular. We were lucky cause it was Monday so it wasn't full, but still there were a good amount of people. The cost: one table 10 euros, wood or coal 6 euros, 5 euros for a grille and 10 euros as deposit, 1 euro for the material which makes it easy (or possible at all) to start the fire = 22euros for 4 people with only one pack of wood.It is forbidden to bring wood or coal from outside. It was a very pretty spring weather and the fresh little bright green leaves were just about to pop out on each tree, and when the garbage smell didn't cover everything else it was a nice smell of spring flowers, we also got used to the noise of the motorway so it was fine. There was a big group of catalan kids making Calçotada ( grilling some wild onions on fire , and eat it with romesco sauce) , and they did it very professional , so it was a good occasion to see how it goes in reality, you need a lot of wood and even more hay to keep the flames on continuously. Take a look at the pictures, and you can decide if you wish to try the experience, and pay attention for the numbers on the fireplace, the place what we have used was for 3 groups in reality, so if it would have been full i don't know how would we manage it.

1,2,3

Catalans with their calçots

Entrance of the place, with the motorway in the background
"don't start a fire on the ground!" says a sign, i almost wanted to , such a nice spot.....

Bicycle trip to the IKEA in Badalona

It might sound like a bad idea to go to the Ikea with bikes, but we just needed some small things so it was a good excuse to bike to Badalona on the coast , and discover a bit of the upper part of it, we took the red metro line from Fondo to come back. There is a bike lane all the way on the cost from Barceloneta till Badalona and further. It is a good occasion to check out the 3 huge chimney's of Besos form close, this area is vey good place for people who like to visit or take pictures of postindustrial things and places. You also cross the freshly built marina before get into the town. Badalona has a nice little promenade by the beach with restaurants and cafes, good place to try a menu del dia. To find the ikea we just asked locals on the way, basically it is just up, up and up, takes about 15 minutes with bicycle if you go quite slowly. It is a good solution if you are bored of even think about to go to Ikea but you need something, like this at least you connect it with a little sightseeing, some soft adventure and exercise. From Ikea to Fondo metro station it is 5 minutes , and very easy to find.


Besos river

Saturday market in Sant Boi de Llobregat

You can get to Sant Boi with any FGC trains from Plaza Espanya. It works with the T-10 ticket and takes about 20 minutes. We took our bikes with us on the train, but it was a bit uncomfortable on a saturday morning, cause the train goes to Montserrat as well so it was totally full. Sant Boi has a nice little medieval church , and some streets with old houses around the church, but this area was absolutely empty, although the newer part of the town , which is the typical 70's and 80's blocks was full of life, that is where the market is as well. The atmosphere was quite strange with these blocks on one side , and trees and hills on the other side. On the market you can find a couple of places where they sell second hand clothes for 1-2 euros, and there is one stand with all kinds of second hand stuff, good chance to find some treasures for a euro. The main profile of the market though is chinese stuff, textiles, kitchen stuff, new polyester clothes, cheap cosmetics.We tried to eat something after walking around take a close look on the market , but we didn't have the patience finally, waiters seemed even more relaxed then in Barcelona in the 2 restaurants where we tried to get served. I found that Sant Boi has a strange atmosphere with this green environment on one side and on the other it is this quite poor , a bit industrial feeling , but absolutely clean and relaxed at the same time. You can have a view of Barcelona from the square in front of the church in an unexpected angle, not the most attractive view of the city to be honest.This time i didn't have time to check out what's by the river Llobregat up here, but i'll come back to see cause i am quite curious.

Plane watching and beach at El Prat de Llobregat

You can get to El Prat de LLobregat with a train from Estacion Francia, which is really comfortable with a bicycle especially. A simple T-10 ticket is enough. From the station you have to go to the main street of the town and go along that for a while, until you reach the bicycle way which goes besides the airport. There is a nice little typical spanish bar before you exit the town if you feel like some tapas or cheap platos combinados. IT takes around 15 minutes with a bike to get to the beach, but of course more if you stop to take pictures of every low flying airplanes.There are also two plane watching spots on the way, one with these concrete chairs just like on the beach, and the other one is a watchtower, it is surprising how many people are there watching planes even on a weekday. I suppose the beach can be ok too in the summer, cause at least there are no buildings on the cost here only pine-trees (unfortunately surrounded by a fence), looks enough natural comparing to other beaches this close to Barcelona, although you can here the planes taking off all the time. It is a nice little trip with a bicycle, you can also visit the small natural park of the Llobregat river, there are visibly many kinds of different birds around.