We departed Porto and flew with Vueling Airlines to arrive in Barcelona. Porto airport was small, new looking and convenient! Soren decided he was quite tired by the trip while walking around the Barcelona airport and decided to take a quick rest…as Meera looked on incredulously.
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Around 1pm, we settled into our AirBnB, a 3 bedroom apartment we shared with Roby, Ashley and Tony. We then found a quick take-out spot that made both doner kebabs and chicken curry (for Soren), so we placed our orders and…waited…and waited. We got our first taste of Spanish time sensibilities. Finally our food was done and we returned to our apartment to relax, eat, and plan out our evening. We walked over to Placa Catalunya and started our tour of Las Ramblas, a long pedestrian street walk/fair. In the middle of it is La Boqueria, a large market where people sell, well, everything and anything you could want! Food! Juices! Street Food! Restaurant quality food! Groceries! Spices! Nuts! Souvenirs! We walked around a bit and I picked up some nuts to have handy around the house. Here are Clark and Meera checking out the Mercat:
I then found a pretty cool restaurant for us to relax in and enjoy one of many delicious meals in Barcelona. This is the Fabrica Moritz Barcelona:
By the end we were pretty tired and sweaty from the hot Spanish day, and we retired to our home and settled in for the night. Spain runs on a slightly different schedule than, well, the rest of the world, and we all wanted to adjust accordingly. Essentially, everyone wakes up late, eats breakfast at home, and may go out for lunch around 1 or 2. Most restaurants and places of business simply shut down in the mid-afternoon for siesta time. Yes, for nap time. Wait until 4:30PM for businesses to re-open. This is my kind of country!! Everyone knows I LOVE a good nap. Tapas and snacks are enjoyed in the early evening hours. Dinner can be anytime from 9-11pm (later if you are young and cool) and if it is the weekend, many places stay open well into the morning hours. It is not unusual to find playgrounds full of children and their parents at around 8-9pm. We often lose track of time here and find ourselves wandering home close to midnight.
July 12
We explored the beautiful Gothic Quarter of Barcelona and saw several beautiful cathedrals and buildings.
There were also plenty of interesting stores for the children to explore, like an entire store dedicated to toy ducks. Yes, the kind you take into your bath with you. Exciting stuff!
Everyone enjoyed our extremely long stroll through the Gothic Quarter and into the Revel area:
We topped off the trip with a visit to a hip coffee shop, and this is the last picture I took with my Iphone 7+
As most readers of this blog already know, my phone was then stolen. We took a bus back home and Meera started crying (unusual for her) and the bus was kind of crowded and I was distracted from my belongings for about 2 minutes. I won’t go into the gory details, but lesson learned. Always secure belongings first then attend to crying baby. The extra 10 seconds does not change anything!!
We then relaxed at home for a bit and went out to a restaurant to eat Paella and continue to enjoy our night despite the unfortunate events from earlier in the evening. I was grateful that we were all healthy, happy, and had our passports and wallets intact. Barcelona is too awesome to be bummed for long!
July 13
Meera turns 6 months old!! She is really an awesome baby to travel with and we are so happy she is part of our family.
Clark found this awesome Alice-In-Wonderland type French Cafe in Barcelona. Weird huh? It was beautiful. Soren got to celebrate with chocolate cake. Meera decided to nap.
In the evening we had tickets for La Sagrada Familia, the most quirky and beautiful Cathedral I have ever visited and the #1 tourist attraction in possibly all of Spain. It has been under construction for about a century and will be done in the next decade, apparently, but who knows? The original architect is Gaudi, who has also created many of the other landmark attractions around Barcelona. It is just amazing. How does a toddler visit this place?
By finding a nearby playground and plopping down in the sand, followed by a full on sand bath, really for no apparent reason, 5 minutes prior to our appointment for entering said historical and cultural/religious landmark. You can see the cathedral in the background. Roby and Ashley graciously took some good pictures of all of us. Clark pointed out that La Sagrada Familia does kind of look like a bizarre giant sand castle…
By the way, ALL of the playgrounds in Barcelona have a sandy ground, so if you are bringing young children to this glorious city, please also bring sand toys. Needless to say we bought some here and Tony the toddler already had some from his escapades in Cascais, Portugal a week earlier.
Having exhausted ourselves, we ate a light dinner at a cafe and headed home.