Monday, October 13, 2014

Splendid Spain

We left in the middle of the night and arrived in Barcelona exhausted and travel weary.  Carl was so tired when we started the trip in Abu Dhabi that he left his computer bag at security.  Thankfully he remembered before we boarded and we found it sitting on a chair, love the security at that airport.

As we arrived at 9am we could not check into our hotel yet.  I was bummed as I had not planned on touring in my travel clothes (my way of saying don't judge me in the pics, been flying for 10 hours and no sleep for 24 hours)

First we took the metro to the Central Square in Barcelona where we found they were having protests.  Not sure exactly what was going on but something to do with divorcing the country.  People were everywhere shouting, clapping, wearing flags as capes and pretty much having a party.

One of the most important things to us when we travel is to try the local food.  This is sometimes a gamble, especially when we don't speak the language.  We went to a Spanish cafe for lunch and it was NOT good.  We were disappointed but decided to move forward (mostly to keep awake) and find our way to the Picasso Museum.

On our way there we wound our way through the little streets of the Gothic Quarter.  It was quaint, romantic, and wow, there was some great chocolate places along the way.  There was a miscommunication and instead of finding the way to the museum Carl lead us to a gelato shop that had the most amazing gelato.
Barcelona Chocolate!!




Carl enjoying some peanut butter gelato

We continued to stop at spots to try all kinds of things.  We found an empanadas place and regretted even more our first choice for lunch.  They were delicious and we need to go back to try the leek and goat cheese empanada.

Fun streets and shops of the Gothic Quarter

Along the way to the Museum we were sidetracked by all the shops.  I already know what I want to get each of the kids.

We finally made it to the Picasso museum.  We were not terribly excited since most of Picasso stuff we know could have been done by our kids!  We were blown away by the art he was able to put out at such an early age.  The museum was with definitely worth the time to go to.  No pictures, of course were allowed to be taken inside.

Courtyard of the Picasso museum

After the museum, we wound back through the streets.  We stopped and got some chocolate creme cookie ball thing and some hot chocolate.  It was really good.  Then we headed back to the hotel to check-in and get cleaned up.  We felt pretty funky and seriously needed a shower.  We Skyped with the kiddos, then headed out for some dinner.


Most amazing hot xocalate (next time say yes to cream, wow was that thick stuff!)

Nothing fancy tonight, since we are kinda drop dead tired.  Started off with Chorizo in a wine sauce and then pork sandwiches.  Both were very good.



After dinner we went around the corner of the hotel, where there was a local festival of some sorts going on.  They had firecrackers in trees and attached to pitchforks.  Seemed like a safe idea so we hung around for a little while and got 1/4 kilo of churros (when the say quattro, they mean 1/4 kilo not 4 churros).

 So when we got back to the hotel we gave most away to a group of American students.  The festival had a drum line and a lot of guys dressed as devils.  We asked what it meant, but the front desk lady did not have a great explanation.

Now off to bed, and prepare for another great day tomorrow!

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