Last Updated on 13 March 2023 by gerry

Two trips to Barcelona on the bounce! This was an evening excursion to check out a music session at the Michael Collins Irish bar near the Sagrada Familia. We had been tipped off that a friend of a friend is a regular at a slow and easy tunes session every Thursday night there starting at 6.30pm. We’ll use this wee trip as a tester to see how practical it is to jump on a train to Barcelona just for the evening, bearing in mind our last train home is at 10.30pm.

While we were waiting for our train it, we considered what might be our best ticket option for transport in Barcelona, as the metro looked a handier option to get us to the pub rather than the 20+ minute walk from the train station.  A single ticket on the metro would cost €2.40, so that would amount to nearly €10 for the two of us on this one evening. A T-grup ticket offers 70 trips across the integrated forms of transport in Barcelona and one ticket can be used by more than one person, but the price was nearly €80, great value if you use all the trips, but in the end it was clear that the T-usual ticket, now reduced to €20 per person for 30 days across the integrated forms of transport in Barcelona (Zone 1), would be best for us, almost lasting us till the end of our trip.

Our R1 train into the city got stuck just north of Barcelona for about 10mins and then eventually limped onwards to El Clot Aragó, where we disembarked to switch to a short trip on the Metro that would take us to the Sagrada Familia square where the Michael Collins Irish pub is to be found.

We are familiar with the El Clot Aragó station now after our first night’s adventures, so we entered the Metro system with comfortable confidence. That was quickly shaken when we got totally confused by the signage on the platforms and ended up on completely the wrong line. First-timers error – sometimes you have to walk the length of one platform to find the route to the next platform. The arrows after the line signage is rather important.

With one thing and another then, we were a good hour late at the Michael Collins Irish pub, but the session was in full swing down the back and we were warmly welcomed. The music continued till about 9pm, when football on the big screen took priority and it was time to head home.

Although so much better acquainted with the Metro platforms now and the R1 train home, we had to conclude it was a pretty exhausting round trip, just for a short evening’s entertainment. Full day trips to Barcelona will be a much better plan in future.