Shades of Grey

Tibidabo is a high mountain overlooking Barcelona. The name is derived from latin meaning I will give to you according to Wikipedia. The main attraction up there (apart from the stunning view) depends on your point of view- for the pious there is the Temple de Sagrat Cor,

whilst for the hedonistic there is Tibidabo Amusement Park.

Unsurprisingly, we chose the latter. To get there is an epic in itself- the end of the Metro line, then a bus (or tram) then a funicular.

The main park is only open weekends this time of year, but has a skeleton operation on what it calls the sky deck. It has a handful of rides there, including a carousel, a revolving tower affair with a steel basket at each end, a big wheel and an automata museum.

The park is relatively standard stuff apart from the spectacular setting, spread down several levels of the mountain. It does have a selection of vintage rides though (it opened in 1889), the most curious of which dates back to 1928 and is described as the first popular flight simulator. It is a reconstruction of a plane that used to fly from Madrid to Barcelona and it is cantilevered onto a tower assembly. You board up a staircase and enter the tiny panelled interior where you find six narrow leather padded seats each side of the aisle. Once the door has closed and the stairs have swung out of the way, the propeller starts, sounding surprisingly similar to a real prop aeroplane. (That is because the propeller provides the actual motive force for the ride). You make one revolution by prop power, another coasting and the third with the prop in reverse to provide a braking action. Each revolution, you fly apparently into thin air, overhanging a viewing gallery below.

Here is a snippet of our sedate but noisy flight…

I have to say that if the engines stopped like that on a real flight, I’d be worried!