Best seats in Barcelona

Old-fashioned rides at a Catalonian amusement park bring out Shaney Hudson's inner child.

I'M IN an 89-year-old contraption that looks like a half-dismantled, one-armed Ferris wheel. My compartment is the shape of a tin of Spam and the safety railing comes up just over my waist. There's no roof, no straps and, just to make me feel even more insecure, my metal box groans and tilts each time I move. I am not comfortable, I don't feel safe. I'm not happy, Juan.

However, as the Talaia tower at Tibidabo amusement park starts to lift me to a distance of about 455 metres above sea level my fear is quietly replaced with wonder.

The 360-degree view of Barcelona is unrivalled, wrapping around the forests of the Collserola mountain range and across the sprawling metropolis to the sea. Below, fun-fair rides cascade down the mountain side, spinning, reeling and looping in bright colours. Behind me, the Temple of the Sacred Heart, a soaring cathedral built on the mountain, is a calm contrast.

Barcelona's Tibidabo, on the slopes of Tibidabo mountain, is a favourite with locals, accessible by a rickety, 100-year old funicular. It has become the darling of international travellers since they saw a glimpse of it in the 2008 Woody Allen film Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

For €11 ($16) you can buy a Sky Walk ticket, which gives unlimited entry to the park's old-fashioned amusements. It's this section of the park that most people come to experience — the Ferris wheel and Talaia, a two-tiered carousel and the Avio, a red airplane that rotates around the mountain. The Avio is the park's iconic ride, modelled on the first plane to fly between Barcelona and Madrid. Opened in 1928, the plane's ornate interior is all panelled wood and leather. The plane rotates, powered only by its noisy propeller. It's a quaint ride that capitalises on the views, not one that's high on thrills. But the simplicity of it is charming.

Complementing the old-fashioned rides are traditional sweets available from the candy bar. I watch as baseball-size apples are dipped and rolled in a bubbling pot of toffee before being left to sit on a thick bed of sugar. I bite in and the toffee shatters like broken glass.

We explore the Sky Walk area: it includes kids' rides, a playground, parkland, picnic spots and a damp, cold cinema showing a 10-minute documentary about the park's history. However, we quickly learn that the Sky Walk's real treasure is its museum of automatons - a snapshot of a world long gone.

The collection is considered one of Barcelona's best and consists of 40 automated amusements in pristine working order. Underneath the Avio in a former ballroom, all are rigged to perform small movements at the push of a button.