At the end of the Summer, we went on another vacation to Europe! I guess it was kind of a "babymoon", because it was only a couple of months before Auggie was born (I think I was 27 weeks?).
We went to Spain, Andorra, and France! Barcelona was our first stop, and we spent four days there. After that, we drove up the coast to a beautiful beach town called Tossa De Mar. We only stayed there for a day, but it was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. Our third stop was the country of Andorra, which is kind-of-jokingly-kind-of-seriously where Don wants to retire. I have to say that after spending a day there, I don't think I would mind! We ended our trip by meeting up with Harald and Elke in a small town in southern France called Montpellier.
It was a lot of travel, but it was worth it!
Barcelona, Day One:
We arrived in Barcelona in the morning, and spent the afternoon walking around the city to get our bearings. Normally, we would have gone on a run to explore everything the first day, but I couldn't go very far with my belly. :(
I think the two words I would associate with Barcelona are "color" and "architecture". Everything in Barcelona is so bright and saturated, and the Catalonian artists are mostly famous for their architecture.
{Placa de Catalunya}
I really liked this roundabout because there were sooooo many pigeons everywhere. This picture doesn't do the pigeons justice.
We spent several hours walking along La Rambla, which is the main street that runs right through the heart of the city. It is famous for its restaurants, street performers, and markets. It's probably the most "touristy" spot in the city.
{La Boqueria - Mercat de Sant Josep}
We found this amazing market off the side of La Rambla where we bought fresh squeezed juice and fresh fruit. The market was huge, and it had everything from candy to fish. The photo of the "mercat" fruit stand is my favorite picture of Barcelona color!
One of the things that makes Barcelona such a cool city is the geography. It's located on the Mediterranean Sea, but just across the city from the harbor is a small mountain range. Within the span of a few miles, the city turns from beach to mountain. This makes for some great views of the city!
{Port of Barcelona}
The harbor was so picturesque with boats and palm trees. I loved it so much! Also, can we talk about how tired we look in this picture?!
{The Magic Fountain of Montjuic}
Everybody suggested that we go see the "Magic Fountain" at night, and so we did! The fountain is in the middle of a huge staircase that leads up to the Museum of Catalonian Art.
A couple nights a week, the fountain plays a show (think Bellagio, in Vegas), and hundreds and hundreds of people fill the stairs to see it. I didn't know what to expect, but the fountain was soooo much bigger and brighter that I thought it would be!
Barcelona, Day Two:
{Sagrada Familia}
Day two in Barcelona was all about Gaudi, Gaudi, Gaudi! Antoni Gaudi was a Catalonian architect who designed a ton of famous buildings and homes in Barcelona. His style was heavily influenced by nature, and he felt that lines in architecture should always curve. His buildings have an extremely distinct look, almost like they are melting. He is also very famous for his use of ceramic tile mosaics in his architecture. The technique is called "trencadis", and everybody in Barcelona looooves to attribute it to Gaudi. I'm pretty sure Gaudi didn't invent the concept of a tile mosaic, but whatevs. We enjoyed making fun of how much people in Barcelona brag about Gaudi.
Our first stop was La Sagrada Familia, the Roman Catholic cathedral designed by Gaudi. It is actually still under construction, and the six largest steeples haven't even been built yet! Don and I talked about how awesome it would be to go back when it is completely finished. I can't even imagine what it will look like because it's already massive.
Here we go again with all the color! This is the only gothic cathedral I've been in that isn't dark and dreary inside. When we walked inside, the light, color, and rainbow stained glass windows were mesmerizing! I can't even describe it, but it was pretty unreal.
Gaudi's curving lines!
So, I have a story.
While we were taking our tour of La Sagrada Familia, I started to feel a little woozy. It just so happened that Barcelona was in the middle of a really intense heat wave while were there (90's and above, high humidity), and I think it just got to me. I wasn't prepared with food or water, and we had been standing in the sun listening to the tour guide for about an hour. By the time the tour was over, I just felt like something wasn't right. We went into the chapel to sit down, and I started to fade in and out...sweating, feeling like I was going to pass out, etc. etc. Eventually, I felt so weak that I sort of melted into a little ball on the floor underneath one of the pews.
I knew I needed food and water STAT, so Don left to find something as fast as he could. Over the next five or ten minutes, I just sat there in a rapid heart rate daze, trying to not to "slip away". People kept stopping and asking me if I was ok, and one of the employees kept checking in on me. I was so scared of being that pregnant woman who passed out in the chapel of La Sagrada Familia and got shipped off in an ambulance to a random hospital in Spain! Luckily, that didn't happen.
Don came back with a Coke in hand, which was the only thing with sugar he could find in the vending machines. I drank it sooo fast, and started feeling better almost immediately.
It's a fun story to tell now, but that was actually a really scary moment for us. From then on, we made sure I always had food and water in the backpack for emergencies. Pregnancy travel lesson learned!
{Casa Mila}
Casa Mila is one of the most famous Gaudi houses. Essentially, it's a luxury apartment building with a sweet rooftop deck.
Gaudi's famous ceramic tile mosaic technique. :)
This hallway is the inside of Casa Mila. Gaudi wanted it to resemble the inside of a whale's belly.
Casa Battlo is another Gaudi house, but we didn't go inside this one.
{Gothic Quarter}
The Gothic Quarter is the center of the old city of Barcelona. This was actually one of my favorite sections of the city. It looks so medieval! It's like walking into a quiet, deserted Renaissance festival...if that makes any sense.
We also saw some kind of territorial merchant chase-down thing happen. It was so bizarre. We were walking by the street vendors, and suddenly one the older vendors quickly motioned to the boy next to him. Within seconds, the boy packed up his blanket and started sprinting down the street. A few seconds later, a different man came walking up to the older vendor and just took his merchandise. Just stole it. We couldn't understand the conversation, but we're pretty sure it went something like, "get off my street".
This is the Gothic Cathedral in the Gothic Quarter. Although this looks big, it's a baby in comparison to La Sagrada Familia!
{Olympic Park}
In the evening, we decided to check out the Olympic Village from the 1992 Barcelona Games. For obvious reasons, I was very excited to see it!
The outdoor diving platform was surprisingly impressive. It was designed so that the divers would have an incredible backdrop of the city from platform to pool. I spent a lot of time afterwards googling "1992 Barcelona Olympic divers". It's worth the search.
Look at that view! And check out the size of La Sagrada Familia compared to the rest of the city. So cool.
Holding the torch!
This is a picture of the Olympic Stadium, which is the building with the track! We tried to find a way inside, but every entrance was locked. Google told me I could get in, but alas, it wasn't true.
This is the Museum of Catalonian Art that I mentioned earlier. Just below this is the Magic Fountain and the huge staircase that leads into the city.
Barcelona, Day Three:
{Park Guell}
Park Guell is another landmark designed by Antoni Gaudi. Construction was started but never completed due to lack of interest and funding. It was meant to be a gated community on the hillside overlooking the city, but only two of the houses were actually finished.
Before construction ended, they built the gatehouses, the entry staircase and plaza, and some corridors and walkways. I really wish they would have finished the entire subdivision. The architecture is so cool and unique!
These are the two gatehouses.
This is the main staircase that leads to the plaza. The idea here is that residents could wait at the top of the staircase for their cars to pull around and pick them up. #fancy
This is one of the walkways. I mean...how cool is this?!
{Top of Tibidabo}
One of the small peaks that overlooks the city is called Tibidabo. There are cable cars that go up and down the hillside, and we really wanted to ride to the top. It took us several hours of walking/hiking to find the base of the cable car, only to discover that it was out of order! We still aren't sure if it was out of order, or just out of order for us...
Either way, after a lot of investigating and multiple languages, we finally found a bus that took us to the top. Up at the top, there is a beautiful cathedral...right next to an amusement park. We found that juxtaposition pretty ironic.
{Placa Reial}
We went to Placa Reial for dinner, which is one of the most famous squares in Barcelona. There are restaurants all around the perimeter, and everybody just sits outside on the patios to eat.
When in Spain...order paella! Except don't. It was pretty gross. If there was a vegetarian paella, I would be all about it. I mean, the flavor was excellent; but having my seafood stare at me isn't my thing.
Cuuute tourist husband! So handsome.
Barcelona, Day Four:
{Montjuic Cable Car}
This was our worst idea of the trip. We waited for hoooouuurs in the searing hot sun to be crammed into a tiny cable car where the ride only lasted *maybe* five minutes. We could barely see out anyway. Ugh. It took us across the harbor and dropped us off at the Montjuic hillside. The end.
Ok, so the view was cool...but it still wasn't worth it.
{Castell de Montjuic}
The Montjuic Castle is a fort that sits on the top of the hillside overlooking the city. We took a "behind the scenes" tour for $10, and it was way more worth it than the cable ride. We got to see the water storage underneath the castle, the dungeon cells, and the top of the tower!
The history of the castle is fascinating. It changed hands multiple times and was used for several different purposes. It was originally built for protection and defense of the city, but it was also used as a prison during later wars. In the 19th century, the castle was even used to bombard Barcelona with canon fire...its own city that it was built to protect?! Needless to say, the political history of Barcelona is intense.
This is a picture of a prison cell. There were messages written all over the walls. One prisoner had written that he was incarcerated innocently on such and such a date...so sad.
The view from the top of the castle!
That's it for Barcelona, but we had so many more adventures on this trip. Stay tuned!
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