Rome

There is always at least one day of the vacation that doesn't go as planned. Today would be that day! We awoke really early so that we would be ready for a 6:15 taxi pick up to get us to the airport early enough to check in for our international flight to Rome. If you are ever in Barcelona and the taxi driver tells you there is a storm coming in from the sea, be sure you buy extra water and snacks, especially if you are planning to fly into that storm to cross the sea!

We managed to check in and find seats to eat our breakfast by about 7:30. Our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 10 am. So we were a bit early. In Barcelona they don't assign gates for flights until an hour before scheduled departure time and they don't do overhead PA announcements for boarding. We found our gate okay and even managed to get into line at the right time, though we were about 5 minutes behind the time we were supposed to start boarding. And then we waited, and waited, and waited. Finally the plane arrived and we boarded. We were in the very last row, which was fine with me since I planned on making the girls rest. 

So at this point we were about 45 minutes late leaving – about 10:45 or so. Then the captain came on and said something in Italian that made a whole bunch of people groan. Michael looked at me and I looked at him. (Because although Italian is close to Spanish because they are both derivatives of Latin, we don't understand much of it AT ALL.) Then the captain started speaking in English. Our flight wouldn't be leaving until 12:15 because of an electrical storm. Now I don't know if there was a current storm or if we had lost our place in the queue because they were late in the first place because of an electrical storm. I didn't ever figure that part out. What I did know is that we were going to be late, VERY late, to check in at our next place and we had no way to contact them. Vueling didn't have onboard wifi and we don't have international calling – we can manage to fool the computer into letting us call from Spain to the US when we have wifi, but we can't call from Spain to Italy wifi or not. Then when we finally left around 12:45 the turbulence was crazy taking off, flying, and landing. Bumpy doesn't effectively describe it. But I can't complain because the girls and I were so exhausted, we all slept through three quarters of the hour and a half flight.

SO we finally arrive in Rome at 2:30 and head off to buy train tickets. We got them at a tobacco shop that Michael had read about, but he didn't get any direction as to which train we were to take. So we bumbled through the validation process (did it upside down), walked onto the platform and asked the first official looking person we saw. Asked is a loose description, because it pretty much involved me sticking the paper with the directions I printed out from the internet under his nose, pointing to the name of the train we were supposed to find, and pointing at the train next to us with a questioning look. I felt ridiculous, but he nodded and pointed to the train. And the doors were closing on the train. So I ran over and pushed the open button, and much to my surprise it opened and we got on! And then we had to trip over bags and people to find open seats in three different rows. And then pray we were actually on the right train. Was there a route map with labeled stops to reassure us? Of course not. We were supposed to get off at the ninth stop. Anyone try to count to nine while being vigilant for pick pockets, wrestling five suitcases, five small shoulder bags, three kids, and a gazillion questions from those three kids? I lost count of the stops after four.

Fortunately we did know the name of the stop, so we leaned over to look at the names of each of the stops as we approached them and eventually came to the one we wanted. We managed to get out with all the bags and all the children. Hallelujah. Of course then our gps decided to take a nap for a bit. It took about 5 minutes to find the signal and then we started up the road. Until it told us to go through an alley. Michael didn't want to go that way, so we took the long way around to the other side of the alley and found the street. But not the building number. We wandered around for about 20 minutes looking for number 10. We found 5, 7, 12, 15, but 10? Nope. At one point we happened to look up and lo and behold number 10 was the same entrance as number 12. Did that make any sense. Nope. So we were back at the building where we started. And three hours late.

Of course the building was locked, as all apartment buildings are. We eventually were let in the building by a kind soul who probably thought we looked pathetic standing there, and then we sat. One man took me up to the seventh floor in the worlds tiniest, most adorable elevator and showed me how to use it (which was nice because I wouldn't have known what to do with all the doors I had to close) and told me the seventh floor was the bed and breakfast. So I rang the doorbell of the only door that didn't have a name on it. No answer. So I rang the doorbell next door to that one. Got yelled at in Italian. Couldn't be offended because I have no idea what was said, and to be fair they didn't have a clue who I was.

Back downstairs I went and throwing my hands up in utter failure I insisted that Michael deal with it. So off he went with Luke to find a payphone (!!!) to try to call the owners of the apartment. At this point we had been on the street or in the building for about hour and a half and I'll be honest, I was pretty sure we had been ripped off and there was no apartment to rent here. A couple minutes later a lovely woman came down, looked at me with the bedraggled girls and exclaimed, “Do you need help?” in very lovely, delightful English. I could have kissed her. I explained and she had her cell phone and told me – “I can call them, what is the number? “ Oh, the number I sent with Michael to try calling on the payphone? That number? Couldn't catch a break. But she took extreme pity on me and asked what my husband was wearing, left the building, tracked Michael down around the corner on the next block, dialed the number and explained to the couple that leases the apartment that we were here and waiting.

And 15 minutes later we were in a gorgeous apartment. This one is a two bedroom with a sofa bed for Luke. It also has a beautiful tile terrace where I plan to go relax as soon as it dries from the rainstorm that just rolled through. Because why wouldn't there be a rainstorm? Its been that kind of a day.

We checked in, dropped our bags, and left in search of food. We had eaten granola bars, beef jerky(thanks to the Nelsons, that came in handy!), bread, and cheese all day long. Now it was 6 pm and we were wiped out and really hungry.  First we went to the market to buy food for breakfast tomorrow. Isa said we were torturing her – “Why are we buying food for tomorrow when we are so hungry right now, Mom?” So after dropping everything off we successfully bought pizza for our first night in Rome. Because we are going to eat pizza every day if we can. And our kids will be so happy! My pizza was covered in olive oil with thinly sliced potato and rosemary. It was so good. Isa opted for cheese and ham and the other three had pepperoni and salami pizza.

Tomorrow we have tickets to the Vatican, and I have to hope that it will not be as difficult a day! I would also like to eat some pasta and have some gelato. After today, I may need a lot of gelato!

Ciao!

The comforts of home

Today we decided we needed to get to church!  Michael looked online last night and and discovered that the Barcelona Second ward started at 10 am.  So we woke up early, got ourselves dressed and caught the metro. 

This was the first church service that the kids had attended that wasn't in English.  Initially they were excited.  Then they were bored.  I told them to listen with their hearts, and I was proud of how quiet they were.  I understood enough to get the main message from each speaker.  Then a beautiful miracle happened.  Two great grandpa aged men got up to sing a duet of "I Stand All Amazed."  Its a beautiful song.  And the first verse was sung in English.  You should have seen how fast my kids' heads snapped up the second they heard English.  I started crying - it was like Heavenly Father  just found a way to reach out and tell His little children that they were loved.  Plus, how can you not be touched when two men who have seen so many years are singing their hearts out?  I had never seen that before.  Ever.  I had goosebumps. Here is a link to the lyrics if you don't know the song.  I Stand All Amazed lyrics

We headed home after sacrament meeting - I had promised the kids that I wouldn't make them go to all three hours of church in a language they couldn't speak - and rested up for a bit.
After a few hours we headed out to the beach for a relaxing romp in the Mediterranean.

 The kids actually cooperated on a project - they were digging a hole big enough to sit in - and it was nice to just sit back and let them do their thing.




Of course with their backs to the ocean they didn't realize that the tide was getting ever closer.....

Michael loves it here.  Sitting on the beach with nowhere to hurry off to and nothing to do is pretty much his idea of a perfect day.  As evidenced by the grin.  I can't figure out why this picture insists on displaying sideways, but since I am working with a netbook there isn't much I can do about it right now!



Here is the hole project completed.  This is version number two, since version number one was washed out by the tide before it was deep enough for him to climb into.  Loving the simple things in life.

For dinner tonight we broke one of our travel rules.  "Never eat food on vacation that you can easily access at home....." But it was a day to think about the comforts of home - church, English, and .......American fast food.  (Hanging head in shame here)  Yes, we let the kids have Burger King for dinner.  Sigh.  On a positive note I got to watch my ten year old shamelessly wear a Burger King crown for what may be the last time as he walked down the street towards the apartment.  Can't see that happening for much longer as my little boy approaches middle school.

Tomorrow we will be hitting the beach one last time and then packing up because it will be our last full day in Barcelona.

A Saturday in Barcelona

Today we woke up late and didn't have anywhere to go! What a joyous experience it was to leisurely eat breakfast and wander out to La Rambla around noon.  The walk there took us through an Islamic part of town and the smells were delicious!






Today we went to La Boqueria - Europe's largest and most famous food market.  It was a cacophony of scents and sights. Everything from saffron to octopus, chocolate to skinned goats' heads.  We also happened by a stall selling a whole sheep brain.  It was an experience.  The kids were equally enthralled and disgusted.  We bought a kilo of cherries for 3 euro.  Seemed like a safe choice!  Wouldn't know what to do with a sheep brain or a goat eyeball, Twitch....

Such fun.













We went home to have a relaxing afternoon. Had lunch and let the kids chill out and watch Disney all afternoon.  When the kids got hungry for dinner I decided to try making Spanish hot chocolate again, and this time it was a success! So I won't be winning any awards for mother of the year today, but my kids had Churros con Xocolate with fresh cherries for dinner tonight. And they think I am a rock star.  To finish out our kids' choice day we went to watch Font Magica one more time.

When we were there earlier this week we got a good idea where people could see the best, so as soon as we arrived we landed some prime real estate for the kids to watch the show.  Eventually Michael got up there too so that no one bumped them off and I could relax.  Doesn't look too high, until you see this picture of the other steps below.  Now my fear of heights made it impossible for me to tolerate being up there (reference the first Grand Canyon entry from last year if you want a recap of my phobia,) so I stood next to them initially.

But I kept having to take deep breaths if I stood near them, so I went down to the bottom of the steps behind them and ended up chatting with a very drunk Welshman.  As with most drunk people when one is sober, he was highly entertaining and he thought I was fascinating.  I felt a little maternal towards the poor guy because he paid 40 pounds for a couple packs of cigarettes and a six pack of beer. Now granted he made the street vendor go fetch him a couple packs of cigarettes, but I did want to protect him from himself a bit.  (Just for reference the conversion for that today is 40 pounds to 55 ish Euro to 65.25 US dollars.)  The street vendor shook his hand when he was done.  Tried to shake my hand too, but I just laughed and waved him off.  The Welshman was dressed very nicely, so perhaps that made him an easy mark. Pretty sure that guy could have been a stand in for James Bond if we had needed one, right down to the cream linen suit and British accent.

Either way the experience was amusing and poor Michael missed the whole thing stuck up on that wall with the kids.

I love days like this!

Tomorrow we are going to try to make it to church.  Should be interesting!

Cosmocaxia

Today we went to Cosmocaxia - Barcelona's science museum. 

Getting on the metro heading to the museum we had our first medical issue of the vacation - Gabi's nose started bleeding like crazy.  She hadn't bonked it or anything, it just started gushing, a lot like her dad's does.  Was I prepared with tissues?  Of course not.  But a bunch of Spaniards were - grandmas and ladies were handing me tissues and telling me in Spanish to put cold water on her neck to cool her down, trying to tell her how to hold her head and her nose, and doing a lot of staring which made Gabi feel very embarrassed.  One lady, who was obviously from the US because I could actually understand her, dug a chunk of ice out of a backpack in a napkin and gave it to me to ice her nose.  Couldn't have gotten more attention in an ER.  And after trying very hard to follow everyone's instructions, it did stop bleeding before we got off the train! Gabi was happy to be away from all the staring eyes for sure.  She didn't like that too much.


I mentioned yesterday how great the kids have been with all the grown up sites we have been seeing, so it was good to let them go crazy at a hands-on museum. 

 There were lots of exhibits, but we were more interested in playing with the kids than taking a whole bunch of pictures!

This was one of the coolest - it was a rainforest exhibit with the base of the trees in the aquarium.  It had some really large fish.

 Big fish.  Really big fish.

This was in the "What will the world look like in 85 years" exhibit.

We took the metro back and went to get food for dinner. After the market we headed up to our new favorite Middle Eastern bakery.  Oh my goodness they have a bread there that is like naan, but it is about an inch thick.  ITS AMAZING!  We let each of the kids choose a sweet every day.  This is Gabi's pick for the day - its baklava, but its the prettiest baklava I have ever seen.  This bakery has about 20 kinds of it.  Have I ever mentioned that baklava is one of my favorite desserts ever?  Baklava every day is pretty much my dream life.  So you can guarantee that I had a piece (or maybe two) myself.  Mine was covered in chopped almonds.  Mmmmmm.....

Font Magica

Our Font Magica experience started out very poorly.  Its only about a mile from the apartment, so we decided to head out around seven.  It was lightly drizzling.  By the time we got there we were dealing with a steady downpour.  After standing for a while in the rain I utilized my limited Spanish and asked an attendant when the first show started.  Nine.  Pouring rain for an hour and a half.  That wasn't going to work.  So we walked back home, and let the kids watch the Disney channel for a while.  I don't think I mentioned it before, but Michael was the hero of the day a couple days ago when he figured out how to get rid of the Spanish language overlay on Disney and the kids were able to hear the original English.  Never been so thankful for Jessie and Dog with a Blog in my life.  Of course I didn't even know those shows existed until this trip, but when I am trying to nap after a six mile hike, I want them to do something!!!


We also had the sad realization that all of our clean, dry laundry was no longer dry.  Bummer.  And one of the towels fell off the clothesline and landed in the courtyard of the apartment below us.  Ugh!  Such complications.

I tried to make Spanish hot cocoa while they were resting in front of the TV, and failed abysmally.  Such a discouraging evening!

So when the rain let up and we decided to give Font Magica another try I was unsure if it was a good idea.  I was not doing very well with vacation planning today.

Never been so glad to be wrong.  Font Magica was awesome!  The kids loved it -  they have been so patient with art and architecture and "Shh, we are in a church," and "Shh, we are in a museum" that I was so glad that they liked this so much.
The fountains are choreographed to the music playing, so they change and dance in time with the songs.  The colors change like crazy, but I was partial to the oranges and pinks because they contrasted so beautifully with the evening sky.  Its so much fun.  And its really tall.  I would guess some of the higher spouts are three stories high!

So pretty.  Perhaps if we are lucky we will make it back before we leave.

Park Guell

Today we slept in and then after breakfast we headed out in search of Park Guell.  Its supposed to have two little dots over the U, but I can't figure out how to Do that!  Park Guell was originally developed by Eusebi Guell as a posh housing development. He hired Antoni Gaudi as the designer.  The development didn't work out so well, and the property opened as a public park instead in 1926.  In 2013 the city of Barcelona started charging admission to the central part of the park to pay for its upkeep and to help preserve it. 

The walk from the metro to the park is a uphill climb.  Based on what I had read online I was really nervous about how steep it was going to be, but not even Gabi complained.  Even so, I was very thankful for our Colorado lungs today.

 I don't need to add much commentary, the pictures really speak for themselves!

After we had our fill of mosaics we started to climb the hill that the park is built on.  The overlook was reported to be worth the climb, and we took the chance.

Overlooking the city about half way up.

The mosaics were really whimsical and pretty, and we all liked them.

When we reached the top we switched off with another family to take family pictures.  The view of the city was spectacular.  In the distance, where the city stops, is the Mediterranean Sea.  

After a long, hot walk we were hungry.  This cafe is about a block and a half from the apartment, and today is Paella day.  Michael and I both ordered Paella, Luke had the Spanish version of shrimp fried rice, Isa had chicken fingers with fries, and Gabi was fortunate enough to find her first hot dog of the trip.  The hot dog plate came with a fried egg, patatas (french fries), and two foot long hot dogs without buns.  No way she could finish it all, but she was totally enthralled with it!  This picture does not show her enthusiasm in the least, but I loved Luke's expression while he is staring at prawns.

Paella is delicious!  Everyone was happy. Yeah for happy bellies.

Xocolata and La Rambla

Chocolate Dragon

When we were starting our initial vacation plans I discovered the Museu Xocolata, the Chocolate Museum, and I knew we had to go there.  Spain was the first European country to import chocolate from the Aztecs, and they sparked the love affair that the world has with chocolate.  The museum had the history of chocolate, a whole bunch of chocolate carvings, and a fun chocolate gift shop.  The individual tickets were chocolate bars with a qr code to scan for entrance.

Chocolate Messi!

Chocolate bull fighter

Chocolate Knight

We finished at the Museum of Chocolate and stopped at this lovely bakery and candy shop.  Everything looked so beautiful and it tasted just as good.

I don't know if I have ever made anything that looks that pretty!

Giggles in the metro.

After we were done munching on our sweet treats we hopped on the metro again and headed to La Rambla.  La Rambla is like a cross between Pike's Place Market in Seattle and 16th Street mall in Denver.  Replace the marijuana smell you would find in Denver with cigarette smoke and you pretty much have the gist of the ambiance.  We went in search of a Barca hat for Michael and a Messi jersey for Luke.  Tourist trap pricing, but hey, its an experience with a souvenir.

At the end of La Rambla is a statue of Christopher Columbus.  The kids decided they needed to ride one of the lions surrounding the statue.

And here is the statue of Columbus.





We did lots of walking today and haven't made plans yet for tomorrow.  I was told that Thursday is Paella day, so I have high hopes for a culinary experience tomorrow.  We have already tried two of the dishes that our hostess recommended - Chocolate con churros and Pan con tomaquet anb pernil.  Both were fabulous.  I have high hopes for paella!