Advertisement
Published: March 28th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Statue of Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus at the Barcelona Harbor pointing to America...Bella insisted he was pointing to "YaYa's house" We just returned from a week of Spanish adventure! We began our journey in by flying into Barcelona. After everything I had read about the city (warnings to beware of pickpockets..preparing us for late night noise and all night partying), I was really expecting a wild, chaotic city (similar to New Orleans), but what we found was that it was incredibly clean, orderly and efficient. I think due to the Olympics, everything is very nicely organized and ready for out of town guests. We got crazy and decided to try a true European hostal, rather than a hotel in Barcelona. It was very interesting...kind of like staying with a long lost Spanish grandma. The Innkeeper was this very sweet and loud, spanish speaking-only lady with a hostal full of friendly pets. She had 3 dogs, 2 cats, a ferret, several birds and who-knows-what back there... Our room was tiny, but clean and cheap. The location was perfect...just one block from the Ramblas (famous pedestrian hub of the city). I think Nate and I were ready for more luxurious accomodations, but the girls LOVED it and didn't want to leave. Maria, the innkeeper kissed and weeped over the girls when we left...told
La Sagrada Familia
Gaudi's unfinished Cathedral you, just like a long lost grandma (one which we didn't understand a word she said)hee-hee.
I really loved seeing Antoni Gaudi's incredible modernist architecture...I have never really seen anything like it!...very surreal. We visited "La Sagrada Familia", Gaudi's unfinished Cathedral..with spires that drip like candlesticks, topped with mosaic clusters of bright fruit (yes, I said fruit). It is really something. Gaudi also has many other buildings throughout Barcelona with dripping, rounded edges that make the whole structures look like they are melting, or straight out of the game "Candyland"
We did have a bit of an "incident" with a city bus in Barcelona...which, thankfully, did not result in any injuries. The girls had just sat down on the bus when we heard a huge "pop" and the window over their head shattered, exploding glass inward, over their heads. I, being a good American, immediately thought it was a shooting and was grabbing my babies to the floor yelling "get down, get down". Thankfully, it was not a shooting, but a weird bus accident where he sideswiped a van as he was pulling away from the curb..we don't know what caused the window to shatter, but it was scary. A
Abby and Nici
Bella was our photographer, so we had to get low! woman standing next to the girls was injured, but the girls were unscratched. YaYa was shooting some good prayers up to heaven for us on this trip!
We saw the "Body Worlds" exhibit at the museum, with all of the human corpses preserved an dissected to give an incredibly vivid peek at the human body. The girls really enjoyed it, and were not at all creeped out..the exhibit was really well done. Most of the bodies were of the male origin, so we did spend the rest of the day answering questions about male anatomy...something daddy REALLY enjoyed (not).
We rented a car and drove all the way down the Spanish coastline to a little Mediterranean village of Salobrena, where we did a major "upgrade" in hotel and had a balcony with a view of the Sea....ahh, heaven. Unfortunately, it was really windy and chilly, so we only played on the beach for an hour and spent the rest of the time wandering the little village.
From Salobrena, we drove 45 minutes north to Grenada to see the Alhambra fortress...A Moorish complex which was built in the 1200's and taken over and completed by Christians in teh 16th Century. The
Alhambra is the biggest attraction and Spain and it was a nightmare getting tickets to get in. We arrived in Grenada at 7:30 am and did not get admitted to the complex until 5:30 pm. It was really cool, but we were pretty tired by the time we got in, so I think the drama was somewhat dimished. If you ever get a chance to go...book tickets like a year in advance. UGH! It had a ton of Arabian architecture and detail, so it was really different than other European spots we had seen.
While we were in the Southern part of Spain, they were celebrating Easter (Semana Santa)..which in Spain is a week long party of processions with huge gold guilded floats depicting the resurrection and masks and robes. The costumes were really startling, and a bit scary, even though they had deep religious significance....just Culturally very different than anything I have experienced(masks with pointy tops, only the eyes showing..similar to KKK robes)..Bella was a bit confused and kept saying "I didn't know it was Halloween...where is the candy?"
We then drove North to the mideval City of Toledo (just South of Madrid)..a beautiful walled city surrounded by an
Patchi, the Hostal dog
He was one of many critters at out hostal. immense gorge. We stayed in a hotel perched on top of the gorge, overlooking the city called The Parador, which was a remodeled 18th Century rustic Palace.
On our last day, we headed up to Madrid to and did a really fast "run through" of the city, before crashing into bed and getting on the plane.
At the Madrid airport, we did witness a bizarre "pileup" involving two little Spanish nuns, a priest, a bunch of luggage and a moving walkway. It was absolutely crazy and the priest and nuns all ended up "hiney over head" on the escalator. We were directly behind them with all of our luggage, so Nate had to quickly help our girls walk backwards with all the luggage to avoid being part of the wreckage as I was desperately trying to help the nuns regain coverage of their panties, footage and dignity. We later saw one of the nuns being urged back on another escalator by her colleagues with yells of "just get on, Jesus will help you!" Poor thing was terrified! Will I go to hell for laughing??? I couldn't help it.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.082s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 6; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0361s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb