Friday, May 1 - Barcelona Day #2

May 1 is the equivalent of Labor Day in the US.  Scott had it off, so we chose to make the 3 day weekend a long weekend in Barcelona.

Here's a view of the corner where our apartment where we were staying was situated.  It was a great location in the Les Corts neighborhood.  It was on a quiet street, yet surrounded by so many conveniences.

At the far corner was the Suamu restaurant.  We decided to try it for breakfast.

Here's a view of it from the outside.

And a view of us at our table on the inside.

We rarely eat breakfast out while in Spain, primarily because we can't find American breakfasts.  We appreciate being in Spain, but when we want our American breakfast fix, we just make it at home.  But, we got lucky this day and Scott found scrambled eggs and bacon and french fries for breakfast.  He was sooooo excited!  I had a vegetable Spanish tortilla.  The kids ate a lot of Scott's food as well as toast and croissants.  We liked this place so much for its food, atmosphere, and location, that we ate breakfast there the other 2 mornings in Barcelona.

Everyone is given headphones and an audioguide is offered in 11 languages.  The kids loved playing with the headphones.  They may have even learned a thing or two.  At first Rosa and Cody sat together.

Here's a happy Devon with water and notebook in hand.  The kids have taken to bringing their notebooks around so that they can draw things they see or amuse themselves when sitting around.  

We've never taken a hop on/hop off bus, but we decided to give it a try to acquaint ourselves with the city.  We're so glad we did.  There are two busses to choose from in Barcelona.  They both sounded the same, and so we randomly chose this one.  It turns out that it was the right one to choose (Barcelona Bus Turistic), because just that week a stop was added to the route just 2 short blocks from the apartment.

Devon sat with me.

Scott had a seat to himself.  

Here's another playground we found in the park.

There are loads of pictures of things we enjoyed seeing along the way.  It may get overwhelming.  But we (I) want it in the blog for future reviews and to remember the experience.

We started the day on the blue route.  

I'm infatuated with Gaudi's architecture.  Here's a picture of Casa Batllo.  If I were to go back to Barcelona without the kids, I'd definitely want to check out the inside.  The outside is crazy and interesting and mesmerizing.  And the lines are enormous.

Pretty lamp post

And here's the Sagrada Familia.  There are so many beautiful churches in Europe.  I certainly don't appreciate them fully.  And they all start blending into one another from my point of view.  La Sagrada Familia breaks the mold.  It's stunning and memorable and I'd be happy to see it again and again.  

My first time seeing this church/cathedral/basilica was in April 1990 when I did a 3-week exchange program in Barcelona.  This unfinished church may actually be completed within the next 20 years.  There's certainly 25 years more work that's been done.  

EVERYTHING has been thought of.  Gaudi knew he would never finish it.  But he put tons of thought and time and design into what was completed in his lifetime and then guidelines for completing it.  

Here are just some photos.  Our tour took place the following day.

We hopped off the bus and climbed the steep hill to Parc Guell.  I remember being here in both 1990 and then in 1999.  It's such a fascinating and beautiful park full of nature and Gaudi's designs, and tourists.

Here's Devon smiling away in one of the walls.

Beautiful curves that almost look like nature.  Gaudi was incredibly inspired by nature.

We walked and walked and walked.

Here's a view of the beautiful city of Barcelona and the Mediterrean Sea from the park.

We stopped to play at a playground, and Rosa loved climging in this tree while the boys played in the sand.

Later it was time to empty sand and dirt out of shoes.

We chose not to buy tickets to enter this part of the park.  It didn't seem worth the long wait in line.

But we did enjoy admiring the architecture from afar.

We ate lunch in the Parc Guell neighborhood and then continued on our hop on / hop off tour.

Here's a statue we saw along the way.  Perhaps it's outside the Miro museum.

This could be Barcelona's Plaza de Espana.

Museum of National Art of Catalunya

Sitting on the top in the front row.  Devon had the best seat in the house, Scott's lap.  They enjoyed looking at the map together.

Cody in the front row as we go by the waterfront.

Arena where the Futbol Club of Barcelona plays home games.  They rival Real Madrid for being the #1 soccer team in Spain.

Cablecar on Montjuic

Cool sculpture

One of the University of Barcelona's buildings

For 3 weeks in the fall of my senior year of high school, we hosted an exchange student from Barcelona, Silvia.  She was visiting with ~15 other students and a teacher.  That spring, I spent 3 weeks in Barcelona with her and her family.  It was an amazing experience.  We lost touch, but when I visited Barcelona in September 1999, I found her and her parents again and we reconnected.  Again, afterwards, we lost touch.  But, thanks to Facebook, we reconnected yet again and Friday night we had the chance to meet up yet again.

We met at her parents bakery, Forn del Noddy.  Silvia and her mom had prepared a typical Spanish dinner for all of us.  It included her mom's amazing Spanish Tortilla, pizza, squid, and toast with tomato.  It was wonderful.  The kids loved being treated to Fanta and the yummy bakery desserts.

Here's a picture of Silvia's dad.  

I did a terrible job of taking pictures that night so I don't have any to share of the whole gang.  After 15 years, everyone looked the same.  And we had the chance to meet Silvia's lovely boyfriend, Lluis.

After dinner, Silvia loaded us into her car and drove us back to our apartment where everyone fell asleep quite easily.

Thursday, April 30 - Barcelona Night #1

After the boys' mini olympics, it was time to go and catch our train at the Santa Justa train station.  We walked from the location of the mini olympics back to the school hoping to find a taxi along the way.  No luck, so we crossed the main street and easily found 10 taxis waiting for passengers.

The 3 kids loved sitting in the back row together.  Rosa is next to Cody, but she's hiding from view.

We arrived at the train station just moments after Scott had arrived there.  His mode of travel had been driving home from work and then catching a taxi from our apartment.  The kids ate a late lunch at McDonald's (that was part of the highlight).  Then Scott had to run a phone meeting.

The kids and I headed over to the train tracks to look for our train.

Our train left from track 3.

I like the big clock in the train station.

At last it was time to head down to the train and board.  We liked checking out the aerodynamic train.

Here's the 4 of us ready to board.

Rosa in her seat.

Devon in his seat.  He loved having headphones with which to play.

We were in car 11.

The scenery was amazing.  Here's just one picture to remind us of how much we enjoyed looking out the window.

Eventually Devon took a nap.  Such a sweetie pie.

Rosa had such a blast doing math with Scott for most of the train ride.

Rosa, Scott, and Cody

This picture was trying to capture the fact that the train was going 301 km/h (187 mph).

After Devon had to pay to use a bathroom at the train station in Barcelona, we were able to find a taxi that fit the 5 of us (something that's not doable in Sevilla) and we headed over to the apartment we'd found on airbnb.  The hosts were wonderful.  After we settled in, we walked down to the plaza we could see from the windows.  Both restaurants there were full, so we walked another block and came upon this restaurant, Brases & Copes.

Devon and I went back on Sunday to take a picture.  It was closed at the time (obviously).

This is one of the top 3 restaurants we've eaten at since we've been in Spain.  The atmosphere inside was lovely.  And the food was fantastic!  I think Scott was also so excited to have steak from a cow, not just a pig.  Since Rosa and Cody hadn't napped on the way, and it was probably at least 10 before we even went to dinner, we had both of them falling asleep on us in the restaurant.  Luckily, they were able to wake up a little bit to walk home.

Thursday, April 30

Day #2 of 2 of the boys' mini olympics.

Check out their class as they go around a corner and start down a narrow street.  The parents are trying to guide them and photograph.

At the beginning of the morning the boys were ready to play soccer.  

They're still playing the red team and the blue and yellow team are in the foreground.

But as time went on, they no longer wanted to play.  They were perfectly happy just sitting down and chatting.  It was so much fun that one of their classmates chose to join them.

Sometimes they got bored with sitting and they'd go to the soccer "field" and hang on each other in the middle of the game.  

Eventually all 3 games were over and it was time to join the rest of the class for breakfast.  The other students had played basketball or handball or floor hockey.

One of the highlights for the boys at the mini olympics was the dance party.  

The music started playing, the kids ran out into the center of the court, and the dancing began.

Here's a short video of the dance party.

A number of the kids started dancing in a cricle.

And the circle gets bigger.

This second day, I picked Rosa up from school early and brought her over to watch.  She liked this idea more in theory than in practice.

First all of the boys, and then all of the girls, had the chance to run 2x around the court in a running race.  

Here the boys are all lined up and ready to go.

Here's Devon with Cody pushing him on.

And they're running around.

Now they're on the far side of the court.

Lap #1 is complete for Devon and lap #2 for many others.  He decides to be done.

Cody continues to complete 2 laps.

Later all of the students were congregated in the middle and all the parents and grandparents and teachers were invited to run 2 laps.  I did this with Rosa's mini olympics.  But I chose not to with the boys since we had a 5.5 hour train ride right after, and there was no need to be smelly on it.

And now the students are ready for the medal ceremony.

Each event has a first, second, and third place winner.  And, all of the team sports get a medal.  Thus, every students earns at least one medal.

They boys are waiting and waiting and waiting.

The boys were so proud to earn medals.

Rosa joined in on the photo fun.