Spain Part II: Barcelona

Day 1: It was exciting traveling to Barcelona, because we took a high-speed train that zipped through the Spanish countryside at almost 200 MPH! We had beautiful views of picturesque villages, massive wind turbines, and -- as we got closer to Barcelona -- Montserrat, an impressive set of jagged mountains that reminded us of last year's visit to the Grand Tetons.

We arrived at Barcelona's train station late that afternoon, and took a taxi to our hotel, which shocked us by being much nicer than we'd expected. We had a full apartment, including a large kitchen, and the hotel was located on an extremely upscale boulevard called Passeig de Gràcia. A nice start to our stay! We decided to just relax for the evening. Little Man opted to stay in the room playing with his Legos, but the girls and I checked out the rooftop deck and pool.

It offered gorgeous views of the city! And I immediately recognized the Sagrada Familia (Holy Family), the famous unfinished basilica. I was shocked at how it dominated the skyline around it. I can't imagine how impressive it will be when the tallest part, the Jesus Christ tower, is complete.

The pool was very cold; the girls only barely made it up to their midsections before shrieking and running back for their towels. But we enjoyed some nice pre-dinner drinks and views before picking Little Man up for dinner.

Day 2: Our first full day in Barcelona! We started off by heading to a chocolate museum. I mean, who doesn't want to go to a chocolate museum? Hint: my kids, apparently. They were in foul moods and wouldn't stop sniping at each other. So in frustration, I stopped in front of the impressive Arc de Triomf, which was built for the 1888 Worlds Fair. I told the kids I wasn't moving another step until they turned their attitudes around. After about half an hour of wandering around and climbing on some pedestals, their behavior improved and we set off again.

The chocolate museum was small, but fun. Our tickets were bars of chocolate that we had to scan to enter! The museum explained the history of chocolate and the chocolate-making process, then displayed incredible sculptures made of chocolate, including many Disney and Star Wars characters. At the end, there was a technical problem with the doors, and we weren't able to exit for about 10 more minutes. Hey, there are worse things than being locked inside a chocolate factory!

We purchased a few treats in the gift shop: CC picked a chocolate croissant; Little Man and I both bought surprisingly delicious brownies, and Sweet Pea picked a chocolate bunny, because it had a yellow ribbon. We also bought a massive bar of chocolate with the Barcelona skyline on it, to give to MJ when we returned home.

Then we took the Metro to Parc del Laberint d'Horta, which is the oldest garden in the city. It was originally designed by a Marquis back in the 1700s, and features beautiful landscaping, terraced gardens, and -- best of all -- a large hedge maze. I let the kids run free there, and they spent almost an hour winding their way in and out. At the center of the maze is a statue to Eros, the god of love, so according to tradition, if you find your way to the statue, you will find love. But if you find your way to an exit from the maze, love will elude you. Fortunately the kids had no problem (eventually) finding Eros.

Our walking tour in Madrid had been so wonderful that I used the same company to book a tour of the historic area of Barcelona. On our way there, we dallied in Plaça de Catalunya (Catalonian Plaza), which was full of thousands of pigeons. The kids had a blast trying to catch them, which turned into chasing them, which turned into feeding them. Some other children there had birdseed, which they generously shared with my three.

We met our tour guide, Maria, on La Rambla, which is Barcelona's famous (touristy) pedestrian boulevard, leading down to the water. Maria wasn't nearly as animated as Julio had been, but she was very knowledgeable, and -- best of all -- she brought her little dog, Rumba, along with her. 

"Rumba is a kind of music here in Spain," she explained.

"It's a vacuum in America!" I said.

"Well, that's also accurate," she said, and we all laughed.

When we told her how we'd fed the pigeons earlier, she said that it's a tradition for grandparents to take their grandchildren to that plaza to feed the birds. She and generations of other Barcelonians have pictures of themselves feeding the pigeons with their grandparents in that same spot.

Maria told us a lot about the history of Barcelona, and how it started (in 15 BC!!) as a place for Roman soldiers to rest, so it has always been a vacation destination. We stood on the round stone that was placed in the ground to signify where the city started, on the top of what was once the highest spot in the area, Mount Taber. 

She showed us all the Catalonian separatist flags flying from balconies all over the city, and explained the movement for Catalonia to become its own country.

Just as Madrid's symbol is a bear, Barcelona's symbol is a dragon. This comes from the story of St George and the Dragon, where Sant Jordi defeated a dragon that had been terrorizing the area, just before it devoured the princess. On the spot where the dragon's blood was spilled, a rose bush grew. And because St George's feast day is on April 23, which is also International World Book Day, the tradition in Catalonia is to give books and roses to friends and lovers on that day. Since April 23 is coming soon, we saw banners and roses being prepared everywhere we went. It's their equivalent of Valentine's Day. 

And there are hundreds of dragons hidden in the city! Maria took us to see several of them, some large and some small. Can you see the tiny one peeking out between CC and Little Man?

When we walked past the Barcelona Cathedral, we were appalled to see a massive Samsung advertisement covering up the entire base of the steeple. Maria said everyone in the city hates it, but Samsung is paying for the restoration work that is being done at the cathedral, so apparently this is a condition of the funding. It's too bad -- the cathedral is so beautiful, dating from the 1300s, and I wish we could have see its façade undefiled by a gigantic advertisement (you can see a bit of the ad at the very top of this picture, because I tried to crop it out).

As we walked around the Gotic and Raval quarters, Maria showed us some fascinating historical artifacts, like how in the walls of the cathedral, you can still see Hebrew inscriptions on some of the stones ... because the workers stole headstones from the nearby Jewish cemetery to use when they were constructing the cathedral. She also explained how there were several walls built around the city over the centuries, and showed us remnants that still exist.

Maria explained a bizarre tradition in Catalonia that dates back to the 1600s: every Nativity scene at Christmastime has to include a Caganer, a figurine with its pants around its ankles, defecating. (I am not making this up.) Apparently it was a symbol of good fertilization of the crops, for a bountiful harvest the following year. Catalonians take this tradition very seriously, and in modern times, Caganers of famous people (actors, musicians, athletes, politicians, etc) have become very popular. There are entire stores that only sell Caganers, thousands of them! Naturally, we had to visit one. And naturally, Little Man picked one as his souvenir: The Mandalorian.

After seeing the Mercado de La Boqueria (food market) and city hall square, we bid farewell to Maria and Rumba and headed back to the hotel, stopping for dinner at a Catalonian restaurant Maria had recommended. 

Day 3: Our Gaudi day. Antoni Gaudi is an architect from Barcelona who designed many of the city's most famous landmarks. It seemed like the entire city was all about Gaudi! And luckily, our hotel was just one block from one of his most popular creations: Casa Batllo. So on Thursday morning, we took a tour of Casa Batllo, which was amazing. Locals call it "Casa dels ossos" (House of Bones) because of the balconies on the front, which resemble skulls, and the pillars, which look like bones.

There are practically no straight lines in the entire house! Gaudi had an absolutely wild imagination, and was strongly influenced by nature in all his projects. The entire design of Casa Batllo has a nautical theme, with blue and green mosaics covering the facade, and in two large "lightwells" (narrow atriums) that are tiled in blue ceramic. At the top of the building, where the sunlight is strongest, the tiles are dark blue, and they fade to pale blue at the bottom, where the sunlight is weakest. This helped regulate the light inside the home.  

The girls and I listened to an audiotour while we walked around Casa Batllo, but Little Man wasn't interested. So he was a bit restless and bored. But I was fascinated just walking around the house. Whose mind comes up with things like this? Those irregular oval windows of the main room are actually on weights and ropes, so they can be entirely opened up, to turn that room into an outdoor terrace.

The kids found the roof most interesting: the curved roofline and tiles resemble the back of a dragon, and the cross resembles the hilt of a sword. Legend has it that Gaudi designed this roof to illustrate the story of St George and the dragon.

Later, reflecting on Casa Batllo, Little Man said: "I know I didn't have the best attitude about it, but that house was pretty cool."

After Casa Batllo, Sweet Pea bought her souvenir at the gift shop: a water bottle with a Gaudi-inspired mosaic lizard. We headed back to the Gothic District and La Rambla to explore a few places Maria had mentioned the day before. We went inside the cathedral, where a lot of construction was being done, but you could still appreciate its beauty.

As her souvenir, CC had her caricature drawn on La Rambla, where artisans and performers of all kinds had tables set up. We had fun watching the process, which only took about 5 minutes!

That evening, we went to Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's masterpiece: a basilica that has been under construction for over 140 years. It is set to finally be completed in the next few years, on the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death. It was stunning. All we'd heard about how much Gaudi was inspired by nature was evident here in spades. The columns look like trees, branching out to the ceiling. The staircases look like seashells. The stained glass windows, catching the evening sun, spread a rainbow across the nave. It was unlike any other church I've seen.

"When in Spain, always look up!"

After we exited the basilica, we saw that there was a playground right across the street. We spent quite a bit of time there, and I marveled that the kids were quite literally playing in the shadow of the Sagrada Familia.

Day 4: Our last day in Spain. We chose to spend it doing something Maria had recommended: walking along the beach, then taking cars up to Montjuic (the Mountain of the Jews) to visit a castle and see the city from above.

It was chilly, but it was nice to have unstructured time and wander along the shore. The sand was more like gravel, and it sloped steeply towards the water, so before long we wandered too close and got our feet wet. Yes, having wet shoes wasn't ideal, but hey -- at least we can say we've dipped our toes in the Mediterranean! 

The kids spent quite a while clambering on rocks and climbing on a playground structure. Then we took a series of cable cars up the mountain. 

On the way, we walked by a large pool facility that had huge stands and an incredible view of the city. I realized it was where swimming and diving events were held at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics! What a beautiful venue.

There's a military castle on the mountain, Castell de Montjuïc, dating back to the 1600s. And although it's so old, it was used during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, so Little Man enjoyed seeing the more modern artillery pieces. The castle had 360-degree views in every direction, and I loved walking around to get different views of the area: the Mediterranean, the city, the ports.

You won't see any pictures of CC at the fort -- she was in an awful mood because her shoes were still damp. There was lots of eye-rolling, and I don't see why we need to be here, and deep sighs, and this is so dumb. It was really pleasant, let me tell you.

Then we headed out for our final big event: Park Guell. It was designed by Gaudi (of course) and it is always #2 (after Sagrada Familia) on every "must see" list in Barcelona. It has beautiful views of the city, colorful curved walls and buildings, whimsical mosaic-covered statues of animals, and is generally considered a masterpiece. I'd purchased tickets online a week before, and I was excited that it'd be the last thing we did in Spain.

After the Metro ride, and an extremely long, steep walk to the park entrance (so steep that instead of sidewalks, there were stairs), we were informed that our tickets were fraudulent. The lady at the gate was very apologetic, and said they were currently in a lawsuit against the company because that website represents itself as the "official" website and ticket seller for Park Guell. She said there had been several families in our same position just that day. And the park was sold out for the day. "You could come back tomorrow!" she suggested. But we were leaving early in the morning.

I was devastated. I still can't believe we were in Barcelona and didn't get to see Park Guell. But I was standing there with three exhausted, hungry, confused kids. "We climbed all those stairs for nothing?!"

So I tried to make the best of it. We found a restaurant for dinner (and several glasses of cava for me), and discussed a new plan. What should we do for our final evening in Spain?

The kids suggested going to the rooftop terrace at the hotel to get dessert and watch the sun set. It sounded good to me, so we headed back to the hotel and grabbed our books and music players. By some miracle, when we arrived at the rooftop, a corner table had just opened up. We ordered the largest ice cream sandwich I'd ever seen, and over the course of two hours, we watched the sun set and all the lights of Barcelona come on.

"This is an awesome way to spend our last night!" the kids raved. I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. Yes, it ended up being really nice.

Early the next morning, we caught a taxi to the airport, and many hours (and delays) later, we were home with MJ and Amber. It was so nice to see them and be back home again! But I hope the kids always remember our adventures in Spain. It was a fabulous trip.

P.S. Amber ate the entire bar of chocolate that we bought for MJ.

P.P.S. She's fine.