Movement order · Baku → Spain → Baku

Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona in seven nights

Two times in this whole trip cannot move. Everything else is built backwards from them. Each day below carries its own train, hotel, tickets, food and clock — nothing to cross-reference.

Tue 20 NO-FAILLand Barcelona El Prat, T1 10:35

Tue 20 OUIGO 06540 Barcelona Sants → Madrid Atocha · 3h02 · booked 77K6U7 dep 13:50

Thu 22 OUIGO 06582 Madrid Chamartín → València Joaquín Sorolla · 1h54 · booked PLS4HP dep 18:15

Sat 24 Euromed València Estació del Nord → Barcelona Sants · 3h14 · on sale, not yet bought dep 09:06

Tue 27 NO-FAILWheels up, Barcelona → Baku 10:45

01Standing rules

Memorise these four. They decide every departure time in this document, so you never have to recalculate on the road.

Rule 1 — Trains: be on the platform 30 minutes before departure

Spanish long-distance stations run a luggage X-ray and a boarding-pass check before the platform. Gates shut roughly two minutes before departure and the train leaves without you. Thirty minutes is the standing figure for Sants, Atocha and Joaquín Sorolla.

Rule 2 — Leave the hotel 60 minutes before the train

30 minutes of station buffer plus 30 minutes of city transfer. If the hotel is a five-minute walk from the station, 45 minutes is enough — but only if you are already packed.

Rule 3 — The flight home: be inside Terminal 1 by 08:15

This is a non-Schengen departure, so you clear an exit border check with biometric registration on top of normal security. 08:15 for a 10:45 flight gives you 2h30. Do not shave it.

Rule 4 — Leg 1 is booked on a non-changeable fare: protect it with the buffer, not the fare

The 20 October train is bought (OUIGO Essential, €35 each — half the Renfe price, and a 13:50 departure that adds 20 minutes to the border buffer). That fare cannot be changed, so an upstream delay (the aircraft, the border queue) costs a new ticket, not a free swap. The arithmetic still works: the next OUIGO or iryo from Sants is €35–60 a head and runs every 30–60 minutes, which is cheaper than the flexible fare would have been. Use the cheap fare on legs 2 and 3 as well.

Border control on arrival. The EU Entry/Exit System has been fully operational at every Schengen crossing point since 10 April 2026, and first-time biometric enrolment — face and fingerprints — is the main cause of queues at Spanish airports. If anyone in the group has not entered the Schengen area since April, assume 60–90 minutes at passport control. If you have all been enrolled already, 20–30 minutes is realistic. The 13:30 train is sized for the bad case.

Where to click — official sellers only

Spain has an unusually aggressive resale industry around its landmarks, and the copycat sites rank above the real ones in search results. The rule: if the words tickets or entradas appear in the domain name itself, it is a reseller. Official Catalan sites end in .barcelona, .cat or .es. Every ticket below links to the real seller.

If the Spanish sites refuse your card. Renfe's payment page rejects some non-EU cards at random; PayPal often works where a card does not. Fall back to thetrainline.com or omio.com — both resell the same Renfe, Ouigo and iryo seats with a small booking fee and much friendlier payment handling. The ticket you receive is the same QR code.

02Day by day

Everything for each day in one block: the move, the hotel, what to see and the ticket for it, where to eat, then the clock. Red times are hard. The three tickets with the red edge (the Euromed, the Sagrada Família slot and the changeable Sants → Madrid fare) sell out or break the plan — buy those first; everything else can be bought the week before. Tick as you go — the list remembers itself on this device.

0 of 14 booked

Day 1Tue 20 OctoberLand Barcelona → sleep Madrid

Move Barcelona airport → Sants → Madrid

Leg 1 — Barcelona Sants → Madrid Puerta de Atocha — BOOKED. OUIGO train 06540, 13:50 → 16:52, direct, 3h02. Coach 5, upper (Sky) deck, seats 31A and 31B, booking 77K6U7, €70 for two. Boarding opens 13:20 for ticket and baggage control and closes at 13:45 — the train leaves without you after that.

✔ Booked — OUIGO 06540, Tue 20 Oct 13:50 Sants → 16:52 Atocha, seats 31A/31B, ref 77K6U7 ouigo.com — keep the ticket PDF on both phones; the QR is scanned at the gate, and tickets are nominative (passports match the names) Luggage: one cabin case (55×35×25 cm) plus one bag per person is included. A bigger suitcase must be added online (€7) up to 30 minutes before departure — at the gate it is €25. Decide when you pack.

Airport → Sants. Taxi is the plan — arriving with luggage and a booked train. These are the fallbacks.

Option	Time	Cost	Catch
Taxi, T1 → Sants	25–30 min	~€35	None. This is the plan.
R2 Nord train to Sants	20–25 min	~€3 single	Runs from Terminal 2 only — free shuttle bus from T1 first. Ordinary integrated tickets are valid, which makes it the cheapest route into town.
Metro L9 Sud	40–50 min	€5.90	Change at Collblanc for L5 to Sants, and a special airport ticket — T-casual cards are not valid at the L9 airport stations. Poor with luggage.

Hotel Madrid, nights 1–2 (20–22 Oct) — BOOKED: Hotel Mexico

Hotel Mexico, Calle del Gobernador 24, 28014 Madrid — Barrio de las Letras, booked on Booking.com. Atocha is a 10-minute walk (flat, up Calle de Atocha), the Prado and Reina Sofía about 250 m, Puerta del Sol 12 minutes, the Royal Palace 25. Metro Antón Martín or Estación del Arte (L1) on the corner. Every item on Day 2 and the Day 3 morning starts on foot from here.

Hotel: +34 914 29 25 00 · hotelmexico.es. Booking: view, change or cancel at your.booking.com; Booking.com 24-hour line +44 20 3320 2609. Confirmation e-mail is in the iCloud inbox — keep the PDF on the phone for check-in.
From Atocha on Tuesday: out of the main hall, up Calle de Atocha, right into Calle del Gobernador — no taxi. Ask for an interior room if offered; Calle de Atocha is noisy at the front.
Fallbacks if anything goes wrong with the booking (same quarter, same walking distances): Hostal Persal (Plaza del Ángel), Hostal Gonzalo, Hotel Mediodía (opposite Atocha).

See the first-night walk, and one check

No museums, no tickets, no plan tonight: Puerta del Sol → Plaza Mayor → Mercado de San Miguel → Gran Vía after dark. One thing to check before the trip:

Check Teatro Real (Madrid, Tue 20 / Wed 21) and Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona, Sat 24 / Sun 25) programmes for your dates teatroreal.es · liceubarcelona.cat If either has a performance on a night you are in town, that is the best evening of the trip and tickets are far easier to get than Vienna.

Eat

Sants, 12:50 — something quick inside the station once you have found the boarding gate. You have 30 minutes before the gate opens.
Evening — Mercado de San Miguel on the walk (stand-up bar food, pricey but it is the first night), then anything on Gran Vía after dark. Save Cava Baja for tomorrow.

Clock

10:35Wheels down, Terminal 1.Walk straight to passport control — do not stop for coffee, the queue only grows.
11:00Border control.Biometric enrolment if this is your first Schengen entry since April 2026. Budget up to 90 minutes.
12:15Bags, then to Sants.No-taxi route: free shuttle bus T1 → T2, then the R2 Nord train to Sants — 20–25 min, about €3, ordinary tickets valid. Add 25 minutes for the shuttle and leave the border area by 11:45. Taxi from outside T1 arrivals is the fallback if the border runs late: 25–30 min, about €35.
12:50Barcelona Sants.Find the OUIGO boarding gate on the board (train 06540), then eat something. You have 30 minutes.
13:20Boarding gate — ticket and baggage control.Gate closes 13:45. Coach 5, Sky deck, seats 31A/31B.
13:50OUIGO 06540 departs for Madrid.
16:52Madrid Atocha.Walk to Hotel Mexico — 10 minutes, no taxi. Check in, drop bags, out again within the hour.
18:30Puerta del Sol → Plaza Mayor → Mercado de San Miguel → Gran Vía after dark.No museums, no tickets, no plan. First night is for walking.

Order for the day: leave the aircraft fast, take the taxi not the train, be at Sants by 13:00. If the border eats your buffer and you will miss the 13:45 gate close, do not queue at the OUIGO gate — the Essential fare cannot be changed. Buy the next departure on the spot (OUIGO or iryo from the machines or ouigo.com on the phone, €35–60 a head; trains to Madrid run every 30–60 minutes), so the cost is an evening, not a day. If you land on a later train, drop the Gran Vía walk and go straight to dinner.

If someone's luggage does not arrive in Barcelona: file the claim at the airport before leaving — you cannot do it later. Give the Madrid hotel address as the delivery address, not the Barcelona one, and keep the reference number.

Day 2Wed 21 OctoberMadrid — the museum mile

Move none — everything on foot

Prado 8 minutes from the hotel, Retiro next to it, Reina Sofía and Thyssen a short walk from the Prado, La Latina 15 minutes back across Sol.

Hotel Madrid, night 2 of 2 — Hotel Mexico

No move. Nothing to pack tonight, but Thursday's València train leaves from Chamartín, not Atocha — metro L1 from Antón Martín, 25 minutes (see Day 3).

Museums & tickets

Museo del Prado, Wed 21 Oct, 10:00 entry museodelprado.es Three hours. Velázquez first — Las Meninas — then Goya's Black Paintings, then Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights. Anything after that is a bonus.
Reina Sofía or Thyssen-Bornemisza, Wed 21 Oct afternoon museoreinasofia.es · museothyssen.org Reina Sofía for Guernica and nothing else that matters as much; Thyssen if you would rather see eight centuries in two hours.

Between the two: Retiro Park — walk to the Palacio de Cristal and the lake. No ticket. This is the rest block — take it.

Eat

Lunch, 13:15 — near the museum, then Retiro. Keep it short; the afternoon museum is timed.
Dinner, 19:30 — tapas on Cava Baja, La Latina. Order standing at the bar, move on after two plates, repeat down the street. That is the local method.

Clock

09:15Leave the hotel.
10:00Museo del Prado.Three hours. Velázquez first — Las Meninas — then Goya's Black Paintings, then Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights. Anything after that is a bonus.
13:15Lunch near the museum, then Retiro Park.Walk to the Palacio de Cristal and the lake. This is the rest block — take it.
16:00Reina Sofía or Thyssen-Bornemisza.Both are a short walk from the Prado. Two hours, no more.
19:30Tapas on Cava Baja, La Latina.Order standing at the bar, move on after two plates, repeat down the street. That is the local method.

Order for the day: one great museum done properly beats three done badly. If the group is flagging after the Prado, cancel the second museum and sit in Retiro instead.

Day 3Thu 22 OctoberMadrid → València

Move Madrid Chamartín → València Joaquín Sorolla

Leg 2 — BOOKED. OUIGO train 06582, 18:15 Madrid-Chamartín-Clara Campoamor → 20:09 València-Joaquín Sorolla, direct, 1h54. Coach 5, lower (Earth) deck, seats 2A and 2B, booking PLS4HP, €44 for two, Essential fare. Boarding gate opens 17:45 for ticket and baggage control and closes at 18:10.

✔ Booked — OUIGO 06582, Thu 22 Oct 18:15 Chamartín → 20:09 València Joaquín Sorolla, seats 2A/2B, ref PLS4HP ouigo.com — ticket PDF on both phones; tickets are nominative It leaves from Chamartín, the station on the north side of the city, not Atocha. Same luggage rule as leg 1: one cabin case plus one bag each; a bigger suitcase is €7 online up to 30 minutes before, €25 at the gate.

Getting to Chamartín from Hotel Mexico: metro line 1 from Antón Martín (two minutes from the hotel door), direction Pinar de Chamartín, straight through to Chamartín — about 25 minutes, no change, no taxi. Buy two single tickets at the machine or use the card from Tuesday. Leave the hotel at 17:00 for the 18:15 train; Chamartín is a big station, so follow the OUIGO signs to the boarding gate on arrival.

València has two central stations, ten minutes apart, and you use both. Thursday's OUIGO arrives at Joaquín Sorolla; Saturday's Euromed leaves from Estació del Nord (the Saturday Euromeds are still diverted there — searching from Joaquín Sorolla shows nothing). The hotel sits between the two, five minutes from Nord.

Hotel València, nights 3–4 (22–24 Oct) — BOOKED: Casual del Cine

Casual del Cine Valencia (Casual Hoteles), Calle Convento San Francisco 7, Ciutat Vella — off Plaza del Ayuntamiento, booked on Booking.com, breakfast rated very good. Estació del Nord 5 minutes on foot (Saturday's train), Joaquín Sorolla 12 (Thursday's arrival), Mercado Central 8, cathedral 10, Turia gardens 12. Ruzafa's restaurants are 10 minutes south.

Thursday arrival: out of Joaquín Sorolla, straight up Calle de Xàtiva past Nord and the bullring into Plaza del Ayuntamiento — 12 minutes, no taxi.
Booking: view, change or cancel at your.booking.com; confirmation e-mail in the iCloud inbox — keep the PDF on the phone for check-in.
Ask for a cama de matrimonio and an interior room at check-in if the confirmation does not say so.

Museums & tickets the last morning in Madrid

Palacio Real de Madrid, Thu 22 Oct, 09:30 entry tickets.patrimonionacional.es — the state body's own shop, despite the word in the address Timed entry, and your last morning in Madrid. Book the earliest slot you can. Two hours: Caravaggio, Velázquez and Goya hang inside, and the Royal Armoury is the best in Europe.

Then, no ticket: Almudena Cathedral and Plaza de Oriente, the Sabatini Gardens, and the Templo de Debod for the view west. The 18:15 train gives you the whole afternoon in Madrid — use it for the museum you skipped on Wednesday, or Retiro. The Carmen walk in València moves to Friday morning.

Eat

Lunch, 13:30 — near Ópera or Plaza de Oriente, unhurried; nothing is fixed until 17:00.
Dinner, 21:00 — in València's old town, a normal Spanish dinner hour. Save paella for tomorrow's lunch; it is a lunch dish here.

Clock

08:00Check out, leave bags with the hotel.Before breakfast, not after.
09:30Palacio Real.Two hours. Caravaggio, Velázquez and Goya hang inside, and the Royal Armoury is the best in Europe.
11:45Almudena Cathedral and Plaza de Oriente, then down to the Templo de Debod or the Sabatini Gardens if there is time.
13:30Lunch near Ópera.
15:00Free afternoon.Templo de Debod, or the museum you skipped on Wednesday, or Retiro. Be back at the hotel by 16:45.
16:45Collect bags at Hotel Mexico.
17:00Metro L1 from Antón Martín to Chamartín.Direction Pinar de Chamartín, about 25 minutes, no change.
17:30Madrid Chamartín.Find the OUIGO boarding gate (train 06582).
17:45Boarding gate — ticket and baggage control.Closes 18:10. Coach 5, Earth deck, seats 2A/2B.
18:15OUIGO 06582 departs for València.
20:09València Joaquín Sorolla.Walk or taxi to the hotel, drop bags.
21:00Dinner in the old town.

Order for the day: two fixed times — the Palace at 09:30 and leaving the hotel at 17:00. Everything between them is loose. The fare is not changeable: if 17:00 slips, take a taxi to Chamartín (20–25 minutes, ~€15) rather than the next train.

Day 4Fri 23 OctoberValència, all of it

Move none — old town on foot, the Turia by foot or bike

Everything in the morning is inside the old town. The Turia gardens run nine kilometres in a drained riverbed from the old town to the City of Arts — walk the last stretch or hire bikes. Metro or taxi back after dark.

Hotel València, night 4 of 4 — Casual del Cine

Pack tonight, all of it. Tomorrow's 09:06 Euromed leaves from Nord, five minutes from the door; alarm at 07:15, breakfast at the hotel at 07:30.

Museums & tickets

Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, Fri 23 Oct afternoon cac.es · entradas.oceanografic.org — Hemisfèric and Oceanogràfic need tickets; the architecture itself is free to walk

La Lonja de la Seda, the Silk Exchange — UNESCO listed, €2 at the door, free on Sundays, no booking. Forty minutes, the finest civil Gothic hall in Europe.
València Cathedral and the Miguelete tower — €8 with audio guide, €2 more for the tower, at the door or via visitvalencia.com, the city tourist board's own shop. 207 steps, and the view sets up the afternoon.
Museu de Belles Arts — free, holds the second-best classical collection in Spain. Slot it before lunch if the group has the appetite.
Calatrava's complex at golden hour, then the reflecting pools after dark — that is when it earns its reputation.

Eat

Breakfast, 09:00 — Mercado Central. Open Monday to Saturday, so Friday is your day for it.
Lunch, 14:00 — paella, properly. El Palmar in the Albufera lagoon or El Cabanyal by the port, not the terraces around the cathedral. Paella is a lunch dish here.
Dinner — light, near the hotel. Early night; tomorrow has one hard time.

Clock

09:00Mercado Central.Open Monday to Saturday — Friday is your day for it. Breakfast here.
10:30La Lonja de la Seda, the Silk Exchange, across the square. UNESCO listed, €2, forty minutes, the finest civil Gothic hall in Europe.
11:30València Cathedral and the Miguelete tower.€8 with audio guide, €2 more for the tower. 207 steps, and the view sets up the afternoon.
14:00Paella lunch — properly.El Palmar in the Albufera lagoon or El Cabanyal by the port, not the terraces around the cathedral. Paella is a lunch dish here.
16:30Turia gardens to the Ciudad de las Artes y les Ciències.Nine kilometres of park in a drained riverbed. Walk the last stretch or hire bikes.
18:30Calatrava's complex at golden hour, then the reflecting pools after dark — that is when it earns its reputation.

Order for the day: old town in the morning, water and architecture in the afternoon. Pack tonight.

Day 5Sat 24 OctoberValència → Barcelona

Move Euromed, València Estació del Nord → Barcelona Sants

Leg 3 — on sale, not yet bought. Renfe Euromed only, four departures on Saturday 24 October, all from Estació del Nord: 06:30 → 09:39 (from €40.05), 09:06 → 12:20 (from €51.50) — this one, 11:25 → 14:50 (from €45.75), 18:42 → 22:04 (from €34.30). Prices per person, Básico fare is fine on this leg. Search València-Estació del Nord → Barcelona-Sants; from Joaquín Sorolla Renfe shows nothing.

València Nord → Barcelona Sants Euromed, Sat 24 Oct, 09:06 → 12:20 renfe.com — Renfe only, no competitor runs this route; thetrainline.com if the card is refused Four Euromeds a day. Sit on the right-hand side leaving València — the line runs along the Mediterranean.

Sants → hotel: metro L3, four stops to Catalunya, about ten minutes.

Hotel Barcelona, nights 5–7 (24–27 Oct) — right Eixample, between Plaça Catalunya and Plaça Universitat

This one is chosen by the flight home, not by the sights. The Aerobús to the airport leaves from Plaça Catalunya, Plaça Universitat, Gran Via–Urgell and Plaça Espanya. Sleep within five minutes of one of those stops and your 07:15 departure on Tuesday needs no taxi and no booking. The same patch puts the Gothic Quarter five minutes south, Passeig de Gràcia five minutes north, and Sagrada Família a twenty-minute walk or two metro stops away. Double, per night: €75–130 — roughly double València.

First choice — Hostal Central Barcelona, Carrer Diputació, Eixample. 8 min to the Plaça Catalunya Aerobús stop.
Second — Praktik Rambla or Praktik Bakery, Modernista buildings, Eixample, a step up in comfort and price.
€70–95 — Hostal Central Barcelona and the cluster of hostales on Carrer de Pelai and Ronda Universitat.
€95–140 — the Praktik group (Praktik Rambla, Praktik Èssens, Praktik Bakery), Hotel Catalunya, Dorma Plaza Catalunya, Hotel Reding Croma near Urgell.
Avoid lower Raval, south of Carrer de l'Hospital, after dark — and avoid Gràcia or Poblenou, however pleasant, because they add a commute to every movement.

Barcelona charges a tourist tax that is not in the online price. Since 1 April 2026 the city adds a flat municipal surcharge of €5 per person per night on every type of accommodation, stacked on top of the regional Catalan levy, which varies by hotel category. It is collected at check-in. For two people over three nights, budget €36–45 on top of the room rate. Guests under 16 are exempt. Madrid and València charge nothing comparable.

Museums & tickets

Museu Picasso, Sat 24 Oct, late afternoon museupicasso.bcn.cat Closed Mondays, so Saturday is your window. Timed entry and it fills at weekends.

No ticket: Santa Maria del Mar — the purest Catalan Gothic interior anywhere — then the Gothic Quarter: Barcelona Cathedral, Plaça del Rei, Plaça Sant Felip Neri. If the Liceu has a performance tonight (checked on Day 1), that is the evening.

Eat

Lunch, 13:45 — El Born. Out of the hotel by 13:30 and straight there.
Dinner, 20:30 — El Born or Barceloneta. Barceloneta for seafood by the water; El Born for the bars around Santa Maria del Mar.

Clock

07:30Breakfast at the hotel, bags already packed.
08:15Check out, walk to Estació del Nord.Five minutes. The Euromed leaves from Nord, not Joaquín Sorolla.
08:35Luggage scan and platform.Four Euromeds a day. Missing this one costs you the Barcelona afternoon.
09:06Euromed departs.Sit on the right-hand side leaving València. The line runs along the Mediterranean.
12:20Barcelona Sants.Metro L3, four stops to Catalunya. Hotel, drop bags, out by 13:30.
14:15Lunch in El Born.
15:45Santa Maria del Mar — the purest Catalan Gothic interior anywhere — then the Gothic Quarter: Barcelona Cathedral, Plaça del Rei, Plaça Sant Felip Neri.
17:30Museu Picasso.Closed on Mondays, so this afternoon is your only window. Booked slot.
20:30Dinner in El Born or Barceloneta.

Order for the day: one hard time, 09:06 from Nord. Everything after it is yours. Bags packed Friday night, alarm at 07:15. If you miss it: the next Euromed is 11:25 (arrives 14:50, loses the lunch and Santa Maria del Mar but keeps the Picasso slot); after that, València → Madrid → Barcelona on two high-frequency legs. Decide at the ticket desk, not on the platform.

Day 6Sun 25 OctoberBarcelona — pick one

Move depends on the option

Option A — R5 train from Plaça Espanya around 08:30, an hour out, combined with the rack railway or the cable car up to Montserrat; back by late afternoon. Cash for the rack railway. Option B — metro or the funicular from Paral·lel up to Montjuïc; cable car down to the port. No train logistics.

Hotel Barcelona, night 6 of 7 — same hotel

No move. Check the Sagrada Família ticket once more tonight — tomorrow starts at 08:15.

Museums & sights no advance tickets needed

Option A — Montserrat. The mountain monastery an hour outside the city. The Escolania, Europe's oldest boys' choir, sings in the basilica around midday — check the schedule before you go, as it does not sing every day. This is the better day if the Vienna trip is the benchmark.
Option B — Montjuïc. MNAC for the Romanesque frescoes, which are unique in the world and open on Sundays; then the Joan Miró Foundation, the castle and the cable car down to the port. Half the walking, none of the train logistics.
Either way, come back through the Eixample. Casa Batlló and La Pedrera are lit at night and cost nothing to look at from the pavement.

Eat

Lunch — Option A: the monastery cafeteria or a packed lunch from the hotel's neighbourhood; the Boqueria market is shut on Sundays, so buy it Saturday. Option B: Poble Sec, at the foot of Montjuïc — Carrer de Blai for pintxos.
Dinner — Gràcia or the Eixample. Gràcia's squares (Plaça del Sol, Plaça de la Vila) for the neighbourhood feel; the Eixample for something more polished.

Clock

08:30Option A: R5 from Plaça Espanya.Option B: a slow start — MNAC opens at 10:00.
12:00Option A: the Escolania in the basilica, if it sings today.Option B: Miró Foundation after MNAC, then the castle.
EveningEither way, come back through the Eixample.Casa Batlló and La Pedrera are lit at night and cost nothing to look at from the pavement. Dinner in Gràcia or the Eixample.

Order for the day: this is the day the three-night Barcelona plan bought you. Do not spend it shopping on Passeig de Gràcia.

Day 7Mon 26 OctoberBarcelona — Gaudí day

Move metro, three short hops

Sagrada Família is a twenty-minute walk or two metro stops from the hotel. Park Güell: metro to Lesseps or Vallcarca, then the outdoor escalators — it is a genuine hill. Palau de la Música is five minutes from Plaça Catalunya.

Hotel Barcelona, night 7 of 7 — same hotel

Last night. Pack tonight — all of it — and buy the Aerobús ticket at the stop machine on the way back. Check the first Aerobús of the morning.

Museums & tickets one official site per ticket

Sagrada Família, Mon 26 Oct, first slot of the morning sagradafamilia.org/en/tickets — the only real seller, no ticket office at the gate; several convincing imitations exist General entry commonly sells out 7–14 days ahead and tower tickets go first; 2026 is the centenary year with record demand. Take the tower add-on — Passion tower for the panorama, Nativity for the stonework.
Casa Batlló or La Pedrera, Mon 26 Oct — pick one, not both casabatllo.es · lapedrera.com — note two l's in Batlló
Park Güell monumental zone, Mon 26 Oct, 14:30 entry parkguell.barcelona Timed and capped. If your Sagrada Família slot moves, move this with it.
Palau de la Música Catalana guided tour, Mon 26 Oct, late afternoon palaumusica.cat Or skip the tour and buy a ticket to whatever concert is on that evening — better use of the same building.

Sagrada Família sold out before you booked? Check the official site again at around 08:00 Spanish time — returned and cancelled slots are released back. Failing that, take any slot on Saturday afternoon or Sunday and rearrange around it; with three nights in Barcelona you have the room. Do not buy from a street reseller.

Eat

Lunch, 12:30 — around Passeig de Gràcia, between the Sagrada Família and the Batlló/Pedrera visit.
Last dinner, 20:30 — the one to book if you book any: somewhere in the Eixample or Gràcia, close to the hotel, because you pack afterwards.

Clock

08:15Leave the hotel.
09:00Sagrada Família, first slot.The eastern stained glass at 09:00–10:00 is the reason to be there early — the nave fills with blue and green light. Give it two hours plus the tower.
11:30The crypt, last.Gaudí's tomb is a plain stone slab below the nave he never saw finished. Most visitors walk past the stairs.
12:30Lunch, then Passeig de Gràcia.Casa Batlló or La Pedrera — one, not both.
14:30Park Güell, booked slot.Metro to Lesseps or Vallcarca, then the outdoor escalators. It is a genuine hill.
17:30Palau de la Música Catalana — tour or concert. Modernisme indoors, and the counterweight to a day of Gaudí.
20:30Last dinner. Then pack tonight — all of it.

Order for the day: Monday closes the Picasso Museum and MNAC, which is why they sat on Saturday and Sunday. Every Gaudí site is open today. Pack tonight and check the first Aerobús of the morning.

Day 8Tue 27 OctoberBarcelona → Baku

Move hotel → Terminal 1

Aerobús A1 from Plaça Catalunya or Plaça Universitat — every 5 minutes from before 05:00, 35 minutes to T1, €7.45. If the hotel is where Day 5 says it should be, this is a 5-minute walk and you never touch a taxi. Buy the ticket the day before at the stop machine. The taxi is the fallback, and it needs arranging on Monday night:

Airport taxi or transfer for Tue 27 Oct, 07:15 pickup Book through the hotel the evening before, or a fixed-price transfer online A 07:15 taxi on a Tuesday is not guaranteed on the street. Arrange it on Monday night.

Option	Time	Cost	Catch
Aerobús A1, Plaça Catalunya → T1	35 min	~€7.45	None if the hotel is by the stop. This is the plan.
Taxi, centre → T1	25–30 min	~€35	Only if booked the night before.
R2 Nord train from Sants	20–25 min	~€3 single	Arrives at Terminal 2 — free shuttle bus to T1 after. Adds 25 minutes.
Metro L9 Sud	40–50 min	€5.90	Special airport ticket needed. Poor with luggage.

Hotel none — checked out at 06:45

Settle the tourist tax and the bill on Monday night so the morning is a key on the desk.

Eat

Breakfast — airside in T1, after security. Nothing before it; the border is the priority.

Clock

06:30Up. Bags already packed.
07:15Aerobús A1 to Terminal 1 from Plaça Catalunya or Plaça Universitat.Every 5 minutes from before 05:00, 35 minutes to T1, €7.45.
08:15Inside T1.Bag drop, then exit border control with biometric registration, then security.
09:45At the gate.
10:45Departure.

Order for the day: if the taxi has not arrived by 07:25, stop waiting and take the Aerobús from Plaça Catalunya or Plaça Espanya — it runs from before 05:00 and reaches the airport in 35 minutes.

03Before you leave Baku

Book the Barcelona hotel — Madrid and València are done

Madrid: booked (Hotel Mexico, 20–22 Oct, see Day 1). València: booked (Casual del Cine, 22–24 Oct, see Day 3). Barcelona is still open — and it is the tight one. One rule decides all three: you must be able to walk to the station you leave from, carrying your bags, in under twenty minutes. Named properties in each day are starting points, not endorsements — check current reviews before you book. Seven nights for two, at the lower end of each band: roughly €520–700 for the whole trip (four of the seven nights now fixed), plus about €40 of Barcelona tourist tax. Bands are indicative for late October — confirm against live rates.

Book the free-cancellation rate, even at a few euros more. Late October is shoulder season and prices often drift down — you can rebook.
Search on the map, not the list. Drop a pin on Atocha, Joaquín Sorolla and Plaça Catalunya and only look at what falls inside a 15-minute walk. Ignore the words "city centre" in listings entirely.
Find it on the aggregator, then check the hotel's own site. Search the exact names on booking.com, filter to free cancellation, switch to map view — then search the name plus "official site". Small Spanish hostales and the Praktik group often match or beat the price direct and give you a better room for booking with them.
Specify the bed. Spanish booking pages default to dos camas — two singles. Ask for a cama de matrimonio in the special-requests box or you will get twins, especially in the hostales.
Barcelona first. The nights of 24, 25 and 26 October are the tightest of the three — the Saturday night especially, and the Gaudí centenary year has kept the city full all season.

Pack

Passports valid at least three months beyond 27 October, with the Schengen visa dates covering 20–27 October.
Pack for OUIGO: one cabin case per person (55×35×25 cm) plus one bag rides free on the 20 October train; anything larger is €7 online in advance or €25 at the gate.
Every train ticket, museum ticket and hotel confirmation downloaded as a PDF or screenshot — station and museum entrances scan the QR code, and phone signal inside Atocha and Sants is poor.
Travel insurance certificate and the EU-standard emergency number: 112, which works from any phone anywhere in Spain.
Spain uses Type F plugs, the same as Azerbaijan — no adapter needed. Bring a multi-port charger instead.
Comfortable shoes that are already worn in. This itinerary is roughly 12–15 km of walking a day, much of it on cobbles.
A light rain layer. Late October in Barcelona and València sits in the low twenties and is the wettest month on that coast; Madrid is cooler, drier and colder after dark.
Cards work everywhere, but carry €100–150 in cash for market stalls, small bars and the Montserrat rack railway.