Slowly but surely I'm catching up on our blog ☺
Two weeks after we got home from Italy the kids had the first week of May off from school. Knowing that it was our last chance to go somewhere before we moved back to the States, we started planning. ☺ However, we had spent a lot of time planning (and being in) Italy that we didn't have it in us to do another BIG trip. Plus Jimmy wanted to save some vacation days for later in the year when we were back in the States.
Spain had always been on our list. Several of our expat friends had been to Barcelona and loved it. Jack became a soccer fan while we were in Ireland and Barcelona was (is) his favorite team. Although the kids had the whole week off, we found out that Barcelona was playing the second weekend at home so we headed to Barcelona for 4 days and the kids missed their first two days back after the break. (The game had originally been scheduled for Sunday afternoon and at the last minute was changed to Saturday night.)
Friday afternoon
Although we didn't mind Ireland's overcast days and the frequency of rain, we were ready for a few days of warmth and sunshine.
We arrived in Barcelona that evening. We took a bus into City Center, took a subway to our hotel and ate a late dinner before calling it a night.
Saturday
We had no set plans that morning except to walk around and explore. A store full of flamenco dresses caught Kate's eye immediately!
We spent most of Saturday on or near La Rambla, a tree-lined pedestrian mall in central Barcelona.
One of the places our friends had told us we needed to see was the La Boqueria, a large public market.
There were so many fruit smoothie combinations to choose from!
They sure were good!
This family never passes up a chance to eat chocolate covered strawberries!
After we drank our smoothies, we spent some time walking around the market. We saw a lot of "interesting" things......
cow stomach I believe......
After the market, we found a place to eat lunch.
Hmm.....should we play a trick on Jack?.......
When we told Jack we were going to Barcelona we hadn't decided what weekend we'd be going. We found out that tours were given of Camp Nou, FC Barcelona's stadium. So we told Jack that if nothing else, we'd definitely take a tour of Camp Nou while we were there. He was very excited about that! Well, long story short, we decided that we should go the weekend Barcelona was playing at home and take him to the game. However, we never told Jack that FC Barcelona was actually playing at home the weekend we were going and we never told him that we had bought him and Jimmy a ticket to the game (tickets were too expensive for 2 other small members of our family to be bored 15 minutes after the game started....) Jimmy couldn't stand not telling Jack any longer, so we decided to have a little fun! ☺☺☺☺☺
I pulled out my phone and pretended to be looking up something but was actually turning it to silent so I could snap away!
"Jack, we have some bad news......no, seriously we do." (face starts to fall) ☺ "We won't be able to take a tour of Camp Nou after lunch today. They are not giving them.......Do you know why? (How he didn't notice all the "game day" posters and ticket sellers on the street we'll never know.) Because there is actually a game tonight......."
"AND YOU'RE GOING!!!!!!!!!!!"
I'm not sure we've ever seen a smile this big on him before.
Here are the tickets!
two VERY excited boys!
Alright, I've had my fun, let's see what these sangrias are all about.
After lunch we continued walking on down La Rambla and through the surrounding neighborhoods.
Barcelona Cathedral
It was time for the boys to head to the game. Jack's birthday was back in March and we had told him we'd buy him a real FC Barcelona jersey. However when we were in Florence he had found a Leo Messi (his favorite player) knock off jersey and had to have it. But before we left for Barcelona, one of Jimmy's co-workers was telling him he needed to get Jack a real jersey because he never forgot the very first sports jersey he got. So that morning we bought Jack a real Leo Messi jersey (of course not telling him it was also for him to wear later that afternoon ☺). So before they headed for Camp Nou, off went the knock-off jersey and he happily wore his new one!
I don't think Jack ever stopped smiling that day!
While Jack & Jimmy headed to the game, I took Kate & Luke to the Barcelona Aquarium.
inside Camp Nou!
Barca (team nickname) warming up!
LEO MESSI!!!!!! Jimmy was afraid Barca's top players wouldn't be playing due to UEFA Champions League play-offs being right around the corner. No need to worry, they all started and played most of the game if not all of it!!
"This is the best aquarium we've ever been too!"
so many Nemos!
Barca beat Real Sociedad 2-0. These guys had a blast! In fact that night after they met us back at the hotel, there was still a permanent smile on Jack's face. ☺
These two had so much fun at the aquarium and begged to go back again before we left for Ireland. Mom and Dad did good that day ☺
Sunday
Most places are closed on Sunday in Barcelona, so we planned to spend the day outside of Barcelona. First we took the subway/train back down to the airport where we had a rental car waiting for us.
The mountain (1200 meters tall) Montserrat with the Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria de Montserrat lies about 45 km northwest of Barcelona.
The mountain Montserrat has been of religious significance since pre-Christian time. Before Christ a temple to worship Venus was built by the Romans. In the first written mention of 888 the adoption of the construction by the first monastery of 880 AD was reported. They were hermit monks, who built various hermitages on the Montserrat. The monastery was founded by expanding the hermitage of Santa Maria 1025.
There was a festival of some sort going on in the courtyard. There were several dancers in custom dresses performing.
The Black Madonna was believed to have been carved in Jerusalem at the beginning of the religion. It is a wooden sculpture. It is one of the most famous Black Madonna statues in the world and in 1844 Pope Leo XIII declared the Virgin of Montserrat the patroness of Catalonia.
There was a long line outside to see the Black Madonna. We decided our view was good enough.
After we left Montserrat, we headed toward the mountains. Turns out 80°F was a bit toasty for these monkeys!
On our way to the mountains, Sunday afternoon nap hit someone pretty hard! ☺
La Vall de Núria (The Valley of Núria) is a south-opening valley coming down from the crest of the Pyrenees.
The floor of the valley lies about 2,000 meters (6,600 ft) above sea level and is accessible from the south via a rack railway, or by foot, and from France to the north by footpaths. There are no roads to access the valley.
We rode the gondola up to the ski lodge.
Off we go!
We had a couple of hours before the last train, so we decided to do a little hiking.
It was a beautiful day and the views were amazing!
There were some patches of snow on the mountain! And it didn't matter to the kids that they practically had to walk sideways to get to it. ☺
They had a blast seeing how far they could get their rock to roll down the snow patch.
Can you see the chamois Jimmy spotted on the side of the mountain across from us?
Back towards the gondola we go!
We enjoyed watching the marmots running around the field.
The kids loved riding the gondola but were a little nervous getting into one because they never stopped moving. ☺
I guess the hiking wore them out!
We got back to Barcelona that evening and by the time we got back to our hotel it was late and we hadn't eaten supper yet. So although it was 10p and the evening was beautiful, we decided to eat at the tapas restaurant we had eaten at the night before because we liked it that much! We loved it!!!
Monday
I think this was the 20th (ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit ☺) FC Barcelona store we had been in. Jack needed to go into all of them. ☺ It was a good thing he had saved his birthday money!
We spent the morning walking around the Gothic area of old Barcelona.
And of course we had to eat here for lunch!
We enjoyed the market so much on Saturday that we decided to walk through it again.
But a lot of the seafood stands weren't operating that day.
But we were still able to get a fruit smoothie and some more chocolate covered strawberries!
After the market we headed over toward the Montjuic area for the afternoon. Poor kid, Ireland weather had spoiled him!
Montjuic is a scenic wooded hill in southwestern Barcelona, rising 567 feet above sea level.
Montjuïc Castle is an old military fortress, with roots dating back from 1640, amd was built on top of Montjuic hill.
Also in the Montjuic area is the 1992 Olympic Stadium. (Jimmy's having the kids shoot their bow and arrow as if they were lighting the Olympic cauldron.....that is it above their heads!)
We were able to walk just inside the stadium.
Kate had really been wanting to go to a "flamingo" (flamenco) show. We were able to find a cheap 30 minute show we could watch on Monday night. So we made our back towards La Rambla to buy tickets.
This picture made me laugh (he's standing in line to buy our "flamingo" tickets....beer in hand)! I'm always trying to get Jimmy to wear something besides polo shirts all the time... ☺
She can hardly wait!
There was a lot of singing, but the dancers were AMAZING!
hmmmm...........
Tuesday
That morning we headed to La Sagrada Familia, a large Roman Catholic church designed by Antoni Gaudi.
Gaudi designed the columns to mirror trees and branches.
Construction on La Sagrada Familia commenced in 1882 and is expected to be completed in 2026.
After La Sagrada Familia we made our way towards Park Guell. Gaudi planned and directed the construction of the park from 1900 to 1914 for Eusebi Guell for a residential park intended for sixty single- family residences.
Casa Mila also designed by Gaudi.
After our afternoon of seeing some of Gaudi's creations, it was time to get ready to leave Barcelona.
Jimmy and I were originally afraid we wouldn't enjoy our trip because of the stress of the upcoming "it's time to start preparing for your move back to the States." But that wasn't the case at all. We had a blast! We were relaxed, the kids were very well behaved and we ate a lot of tapas! However in just those short 4 days we realized how spoiled we had become with Ireland's weather and we were ready to leave the heat and head back to cooler temperatures! ☺
