Barcelona

Had I been left to my own devices I never would have chosen Barcelona as the second city for our trip. I would have sent us castle hunting or to some other ridiculous romantic thing that I would find in a similarly ridiculous book. The funny thing about romantic things is that they are the most dreamy when they happen without any thought. That was our Barcelona trip, perfectly unplanned.

Paris wore her out! she slept the whole flight.

If you can't tell from the pictures above, we started the Barcelona leg of our trip a little more than exhausted (and sick). Matthew and I had such terrible leg cramps, we were sleeping with Little Hotties to help relax our muscles. I think that is probably a good indicator that we had a great time in Paris.

We knew we wanted to do a few things like walk along the beach, eat some paella and check out some Goudi but other than that we just let things happen. Can you tell that Matthew was in charge? We are very similar when it comes to traveling but we experience things very differently. I like to go, go and go some more, I don't want to miss anything. Matthew wants to take it easy, people watch and eat. He likes to get a feel for a city, act like the locals and maybe see a few sights while he's at it. His way was definitely the only way to take on Barcelona. Paris was about the city, Barcelona was about the People, and they are fascinating.

Her favorite part of Barcelona was the light switches. Go figure.

Our first night in Barcelona, or BARTHelona as the locals call it, was relaxing. We took a short walk, acquainted ourself with the city, we took a nap and even ordered room service. I don't remember what we did on which day, when I pulled up our old google doc with all of our plans, Paris was full and Barcelona was completely blank except for our flight times. We roamed. We found ourself walking along La Rambla which is a beautiful street lined with shops and a pedestrian walkway down the middle. It was full of life and looked like a post card. My favorite thing about Barcelona was the lack of fanfare. Everything is beautiful just because of what it is, not because of who made it. It was simple, understated and nothing required your attention, you gave it freely. One evening we were wandering in the direction of La Sagrada Familia when we came across the most beautiful church. It was completely unmarked, there were no tourists, lines or fees and yet it was stunning. It was easily one of the most beautiful buildings we had seen on our trip and we had it all to ourselves. This happened all of the time in Barcelona. We were constantly surprised by incredible things that we could admire in the quiet of our own thoughts.

The highlight of the trip for me was definitely a walking tour that Matthew found for us. In all honesty, I didn't really want to go on this tour, but I am so glad that we did. We learned so much about Catalans and their traditions. Let me back up and tell you about our tour guide, she was this fantastic Irish woman who came to Spain as a grad student, fell in love with the people and never left. She was studying some obscure degree about catalans and anthropology so she knew her stuff and she was awesome. She took us to old neighborhoods and showed us how many centuries back the stones went, explained the many different flags hung in the windows, retold old legends and folktales. She had a group of complete strangers acting out battles scenes in the streets. It was fantastic. One of my favorite churches had a group of five pristine white geese living in the courtyard to symbolize the patron saint. Other churches were constructed purely by their congregation and other had the likenesses of their kings carved into the side in an almost theatrical manner. I'm telling you, these people have personality.

This little unmarked gem has the second largest rose window in Europe. The rose window of Notre Dame is slightly larger. 

We learned about their Christmas traditions on our walk, Catalans do not believe in a traditional Santa Clause, instead they buy logs. These logs have arms, legs and a face. All month long the children are responsible for feeding the log. Then on Christmas morning the log is partially covered with a blanket and the children are given a stick. They beat the log until it poops out their presents. They take a break and do it some more. I suppose it saves on wrapping.

The weather was perfect in Barcelona and it seemed so warm compared to France. Isabelle got to take a break from her layers and enjoy the beach for an afternoon. It was her first ever beach experience. She loved the birds and sincerely disliked the wind. It was a wondeful afternoon and one of my favorite memories from our trip. We stopped and had paella and soaked it all in.

We got hot chocolate in Paris so of course we did in Barcelona as well. It could not have been more different. This was more like a dark chocolate pudding, it was almost black. It was so bitter, they served it with packets of sugar and we dipped churros and lady fingers in the chocolate. It was deliciously rich, between the two of us we could not begin to finish it.

And finally, there was Gaudi. My goodness he was creative. Our hotel was just around the corner from Casa Batllo which is a very colorful apartment building that looks like melting ice cream. We also hiked up the longest steepest hill ever, (really, they have public escalators in the middle of nowhere because this hill is insane) to visit Guell park. The view was incredible and we could see for miles. The ocean was so perfectly blue and the blocks so perfectly symmetrical and there was color everywhere. Guell park reminds me of Hansel and Grettle because it is all gingerbread, iceing and candy. It was definitely the most ornate park I have ever visited.

Do you see La Sagrada Familia? It's HUGE.

Guell Park

From there we wandered to La Sagrada Familia. I have never, in all my life, seen something so mesmerizing. First of all it was massive. After we climbed that huge hill and looked at all the symmetrical little blocks La Sagrada Familia towers over all of them.  It is also very intricate, colorful and totally bizarre. The first thing I noticed was all of the stained glass. It was dusk the first time we visited La Sagrada Familia and the cathedral was lit from the inside making the stained glass glow. Everything is layered on La Sagrada Familia, so we could see beautiful colors in the background and then intricate facades of the nativity, the apostles, the crucifixion and more in front of the beautiful stained glass. It was remarkable. The next day when we returned in daylight hours I was surprised to find a similar theme to Guell park and more Hansel and Grettle. On top of each spire is a bowl of colorful fruit, the out buildings are all curving and whimsical and yet it is clearly a church.

I loved being there with Matthew. It was so nice that he spoke the language (mostly, Catalan and Spanish are pretty similar). One of Matthews favorite things to do was visit this fantastic open market near our hotel. We couldn't get enough of the fresh juices and smoothies and found this little shop that made the beast breakfasts. We loved the market, although, I couldn't quite handle how FRESH everything was. The very last thing we did was stop at the sweetest children's book store to get a souvenir for Isabelle. Matthew chose a book in Spanish and I have no idea what it says, something about love, it think. The pictures are nice.

Basically, we had the greatest time.

My sleepy baby on the flight home.