Barcelona, Spain (April 29 - May 12)

Barcelona seen through a window from Gaudis Sangrada Familia

Barcelona
Lianna

Venice to Barcelona. Only 1 ½ hours away by plane, we took Ryan Air which I strongly suggest not taking (lots of hidden costs raising your very low priced ticket to a very high priced ticket), we are suddenly in a completely different city and country.

Our arrival into Barcelona was at midnight, another Ryan Air bonus, so we had pre-booked a hotel through the Ryan Air website, need I say more. The taxi driver dropped us at the bottom of an empty alley indicating that the hotel was at the other end. What choice did we have? The hotel was small, the rooms very small, the kids did not even have a space to put their bags as the two single beds took up all the space, however we were tired so we crashed and decided to deal with it in the morning.

The next morning after leaving the hotel and exploring for a bit we realized that we were in a fantastic area. All the shops, restaurants, nightlife, main attractions were nearby. The hotel was located about 10 minutes walk to La Ramba and Plaza Catalunya, main city and tourist locations. Mark and I had a fun night the next evening exploring through the narrow streets of restaurants and bars in the Gothic area of town where people are out until all hours and there are so many places open, just opening in the wee hours, you can barely decide where to land. We ended up trying out two different spots, both buzzing with nighlife.

Statue Man sitting on the famous La Rambla in Barcelona

Statue Man in the Old Gothic part of town

Gorgeous artwork you find all over Barcelona

We had tracked down an apartment between the two nights in the tiny hotel and on that Monday morning we moved, a little father away from the main city area, Plaza Espanya but in a great place near the Olympic Park where there are all sorts of facilities and running tracks spread out on a large green space overlooking the city.

We settled into this lovely apartment of 3 bedrooms for the next 11 days.

Apartment Elevator

Ow Mark hurt his foot again

A city under oppression of the leadershop of Franko for many years, Barcelona has re-surfaced over the past 20 years. It is a growing and exciting metropolis with an edgy raw feeling. For us Barcelona was the discovery of Gaudi and the Modernistas of the time. Our first tour around the city on the hop on hop off double decker tour bus (we did this on a very hot sunny day and actually we didn’t get off until we had spent at least 3 hours touring around the entire city area gave us a very good layout of the distinct sections of the city.

Sitting on the Hop on Hop off tour bus

During our stay we did the Familia Grada tour (Gaudis Church masterpiece still under construction) a Modernista tour, a Picasso tour, went on an extensive bike ride along the gorgeous coast and all over the city and we walked walked walked from one Gaudi exhibit to another.

Gaudis Sagrada Familia front entrance

Shot from the stairway of the Sagrada Familia

Spires being built at the Sagrada Familia

Gaudi Park

Bike riding along the boulevard to the Arch

Yes Barcelona has an Arch de Triumph as well

Biking on the beachside

Caleb bought a soccer ball, encouraged by all the soccer going on during the finals in Spain, which we took up to the Olympic site a number of times to kick around. Both kids were starting to get weary of sight seeing and often wanted to just hang out at a park or stay in and chill out.

We were also in a delimma of where to go next, what to do for our final month of travels. Mark and I had discussed going to southern Spain, to Portugal, maybe to Morroco. But the idea of touring around more cities was even exhausting to me. So before heading to Paris to meet up with my parents we rented a car and decided to slowly explore around Northern Spain starting with an introduction to Dali. As for where we would go for our last month in June, something would come to us eventually.

Lianna