Arrival in España

The kids had two weeks off from school at the end of February beginning of Marchfor winter break. Everyone here goes skiing, but we decided to leave freezing France behind to find the sun and fun in España. On our drive down the Costa Brava to our rental apartment we stopped at Tossa de Mar for lunch and a little playtime on the beach. Taylor introduced the kids to tortilla de patata (kind of an egg/potato thing). We ate at an outdoor cafe and the kids collected all kinds of sea glass from the beach. Clara made this great mosiac with her glass treasures. This starts the beginning of our journey in Barcelona and it ends with the post labeled Montserrat.

FCBarcelona Game

Spencer has been dreaming of hitting at FCBarcelona football (soccer) match. Both he and Olivia worked hard to earn tickets to the game. When we arrived in Spain I said, "hey, I want to go too!" So we called and got last minute tickets for the entire family. It was a blast! 90,000 people were there to watch the 10pm game. When they started singing the team song at the beginning the entire stadium was rocking. Taylor bought a big banner and the kids wore their Barcelona jerseys. Lilly was interested the entire night. At one point she turned to Taylor and said, "That Messi guy is really fast!" She was right. He can run like crazy and manage the ball like no one else. Barcelona was behind all night but during the last three seconds of the game they scored to tie the game! The crowd went wild and we cheered our home.

Barcelona

Day 2 we met up with Mark & Tifiny Reed and their 5 fun kids. Talk about a great vacation! Barcelona is one of our favorite cities. It's so cool and funky looking with the crazy architecture of Gaudi dotting the streets. We took the train in from our rental apartment and spent the entire day on foot. The kids were great troopers as we hit all kinds of sights.


The Sagrada Familia is still under construction after all these years. Construction began in the late 1800's! Really this place is an engineers nightmare or greatest challenge. Taylor held a contest to see who could guess how many steps to the tallest tower...this created some competition and fun as we toured the scene.


Taylor wondering why they just don't finish this darn project!



This was a fabulous open market in the center of Barcelona. They had fresh fruits from all over the globe. We sampled lots of delicious berries, fresh squeezed juice and cactus plant...not many were crazy for cactus.





La Rambla is not a place to walk quickly. It is to be taken with great stride and enjoyment. We stopped to watch the performers - the birds and reptiles for sale - to enjoy the flowers, etc.

Taylor and Mark were the navigators. It's not easy to get a group of 13 people all over a major city, but they did it.
Lilly and Sophie found these fabulous Spanish flamanca dresses and shoes. They twirlled the streets of Barcelona bringing smiles to all the onlookers.



After hitting the Picasso museum we headed home...we were tired from all of that fun!

Beach Day

Suffice it to say we were thrilled to be in sunshine...albeit a tad bit cool and windy, but sunny and beautiful. I think the kids were completely oblivious to the fact that we were at the beach in Spain IN February. They were just happy to be at the oceanside, playing in the sand with good friends.

When everyone was sufficiently cold and tired of playing on the beach we went exploring the city. Typical of Spanish coastal towns there were awesome white building and churches built high above the surf. We wandered through the curving alleyways and the kids played all along the journey.


It didn't matter if you were an old man or a young man this is the place to hang out, enjoy the view and shoot the breeze!