Friday, June 10, 2022

{EUROPE} Day Two - Barcelona Day 2

 After a great night's sleep, we got up fairly early and walked over to La Boqueria...

for breakfast first thing...


It was interesting to see the market "waking up" as the merchants were getting set up for the day...


After breakfast, we dropped Grandma back off at the hotel and did a little bit of exploring on the side streets nearby...


before heading back to rest for a short bit...

Mid morning, the kids and I met up with a guide for a (4+ hour) walking tour of much of the old city of Barcelona, including some of the city's most interesting sights...

We covered sooo much ground that I was having some serious flashbacks from L's and my (3.5 hour) walking tour of Brooklyn (via the Brooklyn Bridge) back in March...NOT kidding...

Some of the highlights included...

a glimpse of Palau Guell...


and another quick stroll through a much busier La Boqueria to see the most expensive thing in there...


That would be three hundred and ninety euros!

Evidently, these Japanese cows listen to classical music and are massaged daily. Really?!?!? 

Shocking, I know, but I was not tempted and remain a vegetarian, still... Ha!

From there, we strolled around the Gothic Quarter and visited some more interesting sights...

an orange tree growing across the square from the Church of Santa Maria del Pi...


and an ancient palm tree and historic fountain situated in the middle of Casa de I'Ardiaca...


Casa de I'Ardiaca has been home to Barcelona's Municipal Archive for over 100 years.

From there, we saw the remains of the Roman wall and aqueducts on our way to another part of town...


While in the Gothic Quarter, we stopped only to grab some juice at 4 Cats, a bar favorited by Pablo Picasso back in the day...


I actually asked why it wasn't called "Cuatro Gatos" before realizing that "Cats" doesn't refer to the animals, but a shortened version of "Catalans" and, along with "4", means "only a few people"... Ooops! I was all proud of my Spanish translation skills, too... Ha!


The juices were just okay, but the old windows were beautiful!


From there, we trucked it, literally (remember, it was a 4+ hour WALKING TOUR), over to another part of town called the Ensanche.

Here, we found Casa Batllo...


and Casa Mila...


both designed by Antoni Gaudi.

We grabbed lunch at a tapas restaurant before catching a taxi (thank goodness!) out to Park Guell...


where we found a home where Gaudi once lived...


several pretty flowers...


and other sights...


including a beautiful view of the port and the Mediterranean Sea in the distance...


the longest bench in the world...


and a cool lizard fountain...


From there, we took another taxi (little did I know that this experience would come in quite helpful a little later in the day - foreshadowing, maybe???) over to La Sagrada Familia...


All I can say is, "WOW"...

because...

1) Touring the inside of this church has been something I've wanted to do ever since my last visit to Barcelona 20+ years ago,

2) I had absolutely NO idea the amount of symbolism and intent that Gaudi used in his architecture.

and

3) Our guide left us here (like, that's it, he's outta here) to tour by ourselves...

I mean, we've been eating with this guy, walking (a lot) with this guy, taxiing with this guy...


Okay, so 3) turned out not to be a huge deal except that I thought he'd be taking us back to where we met him originally (quite close to our hotel)...

Not the case...

So, I asked him how exactly I should go to get back to where we needed to be. We technically could walk the 45ish minute, or so, route (but seriously, who has any energy left for that at this point???), but he, instead, mentioned something about the subway...

Bless it... I was confident we could figure it out, but was just a little rattled as I wasn't expecting him to leave us in this big ole Spanish city by ourselves... Ha!

So, we went in and toured...


I mean... That light streaming in through the windows and reflecting off of the ceiling... Just, wow!


So, so beautiful...

We (read that as "I") decided to take a taxi back to La Rambla, as I did not feel like trying to figure out the Barcelona subway system today, AND I was feeling pretty confident about my taxi skills after taking a couple during the day (along with our guide)!

We made it safely back to the hotel and my waiting mother, rested for just a bit (4+ hour walking tour, remember???), and headed out for dinner at a restaurant just around the corner from our hotel...


What a day!

More excitement on tap for tomorrow!

More {EUROPE} 2022 Fun
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Thursday, June 9, 2022

{EUROPE} Day One - Barcelona Day 1

 After connecting to Philadelphia...

and then flying through the night, we safely arrived in Barcelona first thing this morning (but technically the middle of the night for us!)...

We made it safely to our hotel, but things did get a little bit interesting between landing in Barcelona and arriving at our hotel off La Rambla...

Let's see...

1) - Due to all of the walking between gates, my mother has started requesting wheelchair assistance when flying, and it is great (for her) EXCEPT for this one time in Barcelona when they took the wheelchair passengers out a completely different entrance of the plane and only had room to take HER and one person to accompany her...  So, since I was alone with all of my children, I couldn't leave them alone to go with her. In retrospect, I probably should've sent B with her, but we were all tired from the long plane ride through the night, and weren't processing everything completely, and were being a bit rushed to make a decision, and were trying to keep everyone together to go through customs, and yada, yada, yada...

So, in a snap decision, I left my mother being whisked off with the airline wheelchair folks (she wasn't the only one) and went the other direction with my children. They told me we'd reunite with her in the baggage claim area. Of course, I knew she needed to go through customs, too, so we tried to wait there for her. After what felt like forever, and when the line from our plane was completely gone (and after some language barriers as I tried to ask (in my broken Spanish) if they'd seen her come through already - yes, I tried to call her on her phone, but it was still powered off from the plane ride!), we decided to go on through customs and ask the agents (instead of the line control people) if she'd been through already. 

Thankfully, I got a really nice customs agent. He was a delight and so kind and helpful. He actually started radioing people to help me find her. Turns out that she really hadn't made it there yet, and arrived right after we'd gone through. What a relief to be reunited!

AND, what a relief to see our lone luggage still left on the (no longer moving) luggage carousel!

And ALSO, our driver was still there, patiently waiting for us... Phew!

TRIPLE relief!

BUT, that is not where all the "excitement" ended...

Our driver, Leonardo, was so kind, and all was going well as we set out from the airport to our hotel until...

2) - We ran into an active street protest! I don't even know what they were protesting about, but they had completely lined one of the major streets coming from the airport, and it was blocked and impassable.

In fact, at one point, our driver got out and was fussing in Spanish telling all the cars ahead of him to turn instead of waiting to try and get through... Ha!

So...

Welcome to Spain, kids!

Anywho, after a bit of a detour, we (finally, all 5 of us!) made it to our hotel, got checked in, went and took care of some things we needed to do healthwise in order to board the ship in a couple of days, left Grandma behind to rest, and took a little stroll on La Rambla to grab something to eat...


We decided on the Hard Rock Cafe (HRC)...


So authentic, right?

In all seriousness, this HRC has a special place in my heart, because back in the late 1990s/early 2000s, I was really into collecting HRC tshirts, and had my parents get me one in every foreign city (that had one) that they visited. As you can imagine, I amassed quite a collection over the years.

When I last visited Barcelona in 2001, I made a visit there, too!

{July 2001}

B was really interested in getting a Messi Burger (named after Leo Messi, a famous footballer)...

We grabbed a to-go order for Grandma and headed back to the hotel to nap. We planned to take a short nap and get up and explore a little more before going to bed early, but that isn't exactly how it shook out!

B and I were the only ones who ended up venturing back out. We decided to grab some paella and found a wonderful little restaurant, Cafe Moderno BCN, tucked away off La Rambla...


In search of some more authentic Spanish food, we each ordered a paella dish, and in addition, I ordered some patatas bravas for us to share...

I ordered the veggie paella...

and B ordered the mixed (chicken and seafood) paella...

and ate every single bit!

We took some (of my) leftovers back for Grandma and the girls, and retired for the night.

Planning for an early start tomorrow after lots of nice rest tonight!

More {EUROPE} 2022 Fun

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Wednesday, June 8, 2022

Ready to CRUISE! {2022 edition}

 Here we go again!


Much like back in both 2018 and 2019, my mother is taking us all on a wonderful cruise, and this time we're headed back to Europe to explore some cities along the Mediterranean!

I did a similar cruise itinerary about 21 (HOW can it be?!?!?) years ago, and it was wonderful! Now, I'm really looking forward to sharing this part of the world with our kids!

This morning we started our journey.


We picked up Grandma and headed off to the airport with Hubby, who plans to meet up with us a little later, driving us.

More to come, but in the meantime...

{CA, HI & MEXICO} - A Look Back at Our LAST Cruise
Day One - Los Angeles
Days Two-Five - AT SEA
Day Six - In and Around Honolulu, O'ahu, HI Day 1 
Day Seven - In and Around Honolulu, O'ahu, HI Day 2
Day Eight - The Road to Hana, Maui, HI
Day Nine - In and Around Hilo, Hawai'i, HI
Days Ten-Fourteen - AT SEA
Day Fifteen - Ensenada, Mexico
Day Sixteen - Los Angeles
Day Seventeen - Los Angeles
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