Saying goodbye to Barcelona

Today is our last day in Barcelona.  We have had a fabulous time here and there is much we will miss (and a few things we won't). The casual, easy-going way here suits us all very well.  There has been lots to see and do, and we have many highlights from our time here (and about 2167 photos--thanks Sierra and Jonah!).

Sierra has enjoyed having her people take care of her.

Some days, Barcelona looks a lot like Santa Cruz.

We've been going at a slower pace the last week or so, enjoying the good weather and lots of time on the beach.  Much more, in fact, than we ever spend as a family while we are at home in Santa Cruz.  Funny how that works.  Living in the city for 8 weeks (first Florence, now here) has been fun and easy, but we are looking forward to a more peaceful (and hopefully less smoky) stay in our travels through mostly smaller towns in France.

Sierra gives some volleyball coaching to her somewhat reluctant student, Jonah.


Here, in no particular order, are some of our favorite things from our time in Barcelona:

• Picasso Museum (don't trust any guidebooks that say it's somewhat disappointing--we all loved it--especially his many riffs on Velazquez's Las Meninas)
• manchego cheese
• La Boqueria
• the many gardens of Montjuic
• Miro Museum
• anything and everything Gaudi, especially Park Guell, La Sagrada Familia, and Casa Batllo
• OK, and La Pedrera too--what can we say, we love Gaudi!
• playing volleyball on the beach

• tapas (well, two of us loved them, one of us didn't care as long as they had cheese, and one of us did not like them because he never got enough food)
• El Born
• the clean and efficient metro
• Las Caracoles
• all the action and activity outside our door (except at 2 a.m.)
• the abundant blue and green sea glass on the Barceloneta beaches 
• the fountain show at Font Majica

• El Vaso de Oro
• morning bike rides up to Montjuic (you've just read Tom's contribution to the blog)
• Spanish classes at Enforex
• churros y chocolate

 While we are traveling in France, there will be either more posts to the blog, because there will be so much more to share (thanks to Tom's amazing and exhaustive trip planning), or fewer because of less access to the computers and/or the internet.  However, I can guarantee that there will be at least one blog post from someone other than me (I know, you're thinking "finally!"), because Jonah wants to please his big cousin David and his Mimi, both of whom wondered why he hadn't posted anything.  And once Jonah posts something, Sierra will undoubtedly want to chime in as well, right Sierra?

Lots of sun in Barcelona--finally!

I am thankful to report that we are finally experiencing some of the weather we anticipated in Barcelona--warm and sunny. 

Tom shows us how he feels about the change in the weather.









Last week was quite cool, drizzly and dreary.  Luckily for us, the timing was fairly good, as Sierra and I were in Spanish classes all week, and Tom was toiling away vigorously on trip planning for the balance of our trip after Barcelona.  Jonah got lots of school work done and enjoyed several visits with his good friend Keith, who was here in town with his family for the week.

The awesome Spanish student.  No basico for her!











Having not taken classes in . . . ahem . . . many years, I wasn't sure how it would go being a student of Spanish.  However, I really enjoyed my time at Enforex language school, and Sierra did as well.  She, of course, was several levels above me, but each of us felt that we learned quite a bit, and we were especially appreciative of the opportunity to practice speaking Spanish.  The week was intense, with classes for 5 full hours each day, but rewarding.  We actually considered signing up for another week, but decided that there were too many other things we wanted to do before we leave Barcelona the middle of next week.  Now, looking at the beautiful day and great forecast for the week, I think we made the right decision.  We wouldn't want to be suffering spring fever after only a week of school.

The middle of this past week also marked the middle of our sabbatical.  It's hard to believe we are now more than halfway through our adventure.  We have seen and done so much in the last 2 1/2 months, and have so much more to see and do in the 2 1/2 months that remain.  We've had a couple of very minor hitches here and there, but overall, I think we can all agree that it has been an amazingly wonderful experience so far, allowing us to experience so many different places and cultures and to enjoy a level of family togetherness that is so elusive at home.

And, having said all that, Tom and I are going on a date tonight and Jonah is as excited about that as a kid on Christmas.

 The view from our balcony yesterday morning during the Curso Bombers 2010.  That was one huge road race!

The beautiful sights at one of the many amazing gardens at Montjuic.

Gaudi and Grandparents

We had a great time this past week with my mom and step-dad in town.  The first couple of days were pretty low-key as they adjusted to the time change.  We visited Montjuic, including the castle at the peak and took in the fabulous views.  We also went to the Chocolate Museum, and everyone enjoyed eating their "tickets" for dessert that evening.  We had to abandon our plans to go to the Picasso Museum when we realized that "free first Sunday" equals line lasting for many blocks.  We finished that day, Easter Sunday, with a Catelonian tradition, La Mona--a cake traditionally given to a god-child by his or her god-father on Easter  All agreed that la mona looked much tastier than it was.

Tom and Poppy proudly display La Mona that they hunted down after a vigorous search.







After that, it was a veritable Gaudi-fest!  For those of you unfamiliar with this icon of Catelonian architecture, Gaudi was the prolific leader of the Modernism movement in Barcelona.  His most famous and recognizable work is La Sagrada Familia, which consumed Gaudi in the final years of his life and remains unfinished to this day, over 100 years after it was begun.  You may have seen photos of it and heard it referred to as the "drip castle," which seems apropos from the outside.

Once inside, we were captivated by the posts and ceiling, mimicking a forest of palm trees, and the colorful and geometric stained glass windows.  Even more fascinating than the cathedral itself (which will be a sight to behold when it is finished in 30 years, and I plan to see it in person), was the exhibit on Gaudi's philosophy of how architecture must relate to the natural world in all its elements.  His work is certainly crazy to look at, but he clearly was a genius in his understanding and application of science, nature and math to his projects.


We continued to marvel at Gaudi creations over the next few days, including La Pedrera, an enormous wavy structure originally built as an apartment and office building, and Palau Guell and Park Guell, both of which were commissioned and funded by Gaudi's primary benefactor, Eusebi Guell.

While we loved La Pedrera, especially its undulating roofline covered with human looking towers, Park Guell was our favorite spot of all, with meandering paths, aqueduct-style ramps replete with cozy sitting spots, the large open gathering space upheld by a forest of palm-like columns, and the gingerbread-looking castles and mosaic dragon at the entry.

Our wonderful time together this week flew by much too fast and we are now suffering grandparent withdrawal!  The coming week will be light on blog posts (unless I add some more pictures from last week), as Sierra and I will be spending 5 hours each day in Spanish classes!  Ack!  It's been many years since I've been in school and estoy un poquito nerviosa!

One of the amazing views from Park Guell

The weather in Barcelona has been beautiful so far and we've enjoyed several walks and runs along the beachfront.  While our apartment has some quirks (more on that in a moment), it does have a fantastic location, right across the street from Port Vell and La Rambla del Mar, shown in this photo:

It's a ten minute walk to the beach, and there's always plenty to see along the way, including various street performers, impromptu concerts, and the same guys selling knock-off Gucci and Prada bags that we saw in Florence, and Rome, and Athens.  Do you think they're following us?

The thing Tom has been missing the most on this trip has been his bike.  Now that we're in one place for several weeks and the weather is warming up, he decided to buy one for our stay in Barcelona.  He started with Craigslist, but that didn't quite work out--and none of us were that surprised when the guy with the black bike for 45 euros didn't show up to meet Tom on the Ramblas at 9 p.m. the other night (but we were all very thankful he didn't get mugged).  So, we headed out to the Diagonal Mar mall, where we got Tom a lovely orange bicycle for a birthday present.

It matches the few throw pillows and the lampshade over the table in our otherwise very somberly decorated apartment, so we're thinking of setting it up in the living room to provide a splash of color.

Speaking of color, we had a chance to visit Mercat de La Boqueria the other day, and we found one of our hometown favorites, padron peppers!!  Despite the teeming crowds of tourists, I'm sure you could hear our squeals of excitement several stalls away. Although they can't possibly be as delicious as those grown by James and Heather, we are still happy for this little taste of home.

La Boqueria is an amazing place to visit, even if to just gaze at the rainbow of color laid out before you around every corner.

Back to the quirky apartment mentioned earlier.  We were so excited when my mom and step-dad, Jim (lovingly referred to as Poppy by kids and adults alike), joined us yesterday, and we have lots of fun things planned for our week with them.  However, we were a bit concerned that all plans would have to be abandoned when Poppy became trapped in the bathroom yesterday afternoon.

Mom and Poppy arrived at around 11 a.m., after having flown through the night from New Jersey, and they made a valiant effort to stay awake and lively in the face of overwhelming exhaustion.  Finally, they succumbed and took a short nap late in the afternoon.  Mom popped up after 20 minutes, took a shower, and joined us in the living room, looking lovely and refreshed.  Poppy took his turn in the shower next.  As the rest of us were happily chatting away, we were suddenly assaulted by the sound of furious jiggling of a door handle, followed by loud pounding.  Now, you might think we'd be surprised by this, but it was actually quite a familiar sound.  You see, this same problem had happened to Jonah several times in this particular bathroom.  In Jonah's case, it the jiggling and pounding would typically be followed by yelling and screaming.  Luckily, Poppy didn't get to that level. 

It seems that there is some misalignment or catch in the hardware that occasionally makes it very difficult to open the door.  We sent Jonah down the hall to tell Poppy the trick about how to get the door open--just push it very hard while simultaneously turning the handle.   This trick has worked for Jonah every time, but Poppy did not experience the same results.  After about 2 minutes, Jonah said "well, I guess it's not working" and returned to his computer game, leaving Poppy stuck in the bathroom.  Fortunately, the rest of us had a bit higher level of concern about Poppy's predicament, so we sent Tom down the hall to get him out.  After 5 minutes of jiggling and pulling, they decided they needed another strategy.  Tom got his Friends of the Uffizi family card out from his wallet (that card is truly amazing on every level) and tried a burgler-style extraction.  No luck.  Then, he got his multi-tool (we knew that would come in handy--although we didn't predict this precise need for it) and tried to dismantle the hardware.  This worked to get the handle off the door, but not to get Poppy out of the bathroom.  Poppy, meanwhile, was trying to MacGyver the inside of the door with some dental floss, toothpaste and the shell of a Tylenol gel cap. This went on for a good 20 minutes.  I guess I should say a long 20 minutes.  At this point, we all agreed that I should phone the apartment rental company to report the emergency.  I did and they promised to dispatch their top guy at once.  Meanwhile back in the bathroom, all the benefit of the nap and shower was rapidly dissipating, and Poppy was starting to sort out where best to place the towels on the floor for his night's sleep.  Tom was continuing to wrestle with the handle, but we were losing hope.  So much for those delicious tapas we were going to enjoy for dinner.

Suddenly, Tom caught the right angle with what was left of the handle and the door opened.  Poppy emerged, not quite as refreshed as he'd been 40 minutes earlier, but still smiling, buoyed by thoughts of spending his night in an actual bed.  Shortly thereafter, our superman appeared, sans tools, ready to kick the door in.  I think he was actually a bit sad to learn that we'd already gotten the stupid thing open.  While he examined the wreckage, Poppy bonded with him and got his life story, and the rest of us finished up our glasses of wine (not the kids).  Superman left, and we all headed out to Taller de Tapas.   YumMY, were they good!!  We're SO glad we got Poppy out of that bathroom.

On to Barcelona, but first . . .

Yes, we have arrived in Barcelona and are happily adjusting to our new environs.  It is a beautiful and lively city and we are enjoying seeing the signs of spring burst forth on the trees right outside our windows.  We are just across from the port and have had fun exploring the waterfront and the beach.  Tom has gone this morning to Carrefour, the European version of Costco, to buy a bike, after our neighbors told him they found some there for 89 euros (about the cost of a week's rental).  We'll see if he comes riding back in a couple of hours or returns on the metro empty handed, but he has certainly been missing his bike, so we hope he has success.
Sierra hasn't had the chance to download any of our Barcelona photos yet, but I know the fans like photos, so I will share a few more from our visit to Boboli Gardens on our last day in Florence.  Hopefully tomorrow I will have some Barcelona shots.