Advertisement
Waterfront space
Enorrnous waterfront public space with oodles of groups of either school or daycare kids sitting in the shade of palm trees munching fruit. This morning's bright sun beckoned - go to the beach, the beach...
So, after Kim's huevos magnifico we headed to the Barceloneta Beach where Marika, Will and Bruce set foot on a Mediterannean beach for the first time in our lives.
Then we headed to Montjuic - the site of the 1992 Summer Olympics (one of the 5 Olympic sites we will be near this trip...). We toured the Pablo Espanyol which was built for the 1920 world exposition, and to create it architects and planners visited 1,600 Spanish towns to recreate buildings from each of Spain's regions. In art galleries in the Pablo we saw some wonderful regional art including some by Miro who has been a fave of mine since my early twenties. Kim and I delighted in Will and Marika spending an hour together in the gallery without us, talking with each other about their likes and dislikes - and occassionally beckoning either Kim or I to talk about a piece of art - something we are both proud of and excited at their ages that they can find real enjoyment in art galleries and that they don't view them as intimidating or boring - kudos
One small step for man
My (and Will and Marika's) first step on a Mediterranean beach in Barceloneta. to them for knowing right away what they hate as much as the stuff they like!
We had Valencia paella, incredibly yummy anchovies in vinegar (Marika had seconds!!), tuna empenadas and yes, more calamari for lunch while listening to a classical Spanish guitarist.
On the way back we took a funicluar down from Montjuic and the kids liked it so much we went back up and down one more time.
We strolled for a long time with Kim checking out shoes and us buying the occassional pastry... A bit weird that the kids browsed a candy store without asking to buy anything but (like their father) can't pass too many European pastry shops wiithout trying something!!
For dinner the kids had Marguerita pizzas and Kim and I had pizza with local olives and ham - and the pizzeria instead of giving us a bottle of pop like our local pizzerias (which we don't even take) they gave us a bottle of red wine!
A couple of local neighbourhood observations - free bicycle air pumps on some street corners and communal bicycles everywhere - and at a local cervezeria offering a bottle of San Miguel beer
AND tapas for 1 euro. Sometimes I feel like I am in Papua-New Guinea in terms of the height thing. The oddest moment is walking in a drizzle and seeing the tops of all of the umbrellas - a real oddity indeed - sort of like wearing mega-platforms - not even one tourismo has been near as tall as I am and certainly not the Spaniards. I think the reason I get all of these surreptitious glances is that I resemble a likely candidate for a Manchester United supporter and a hooligan at that. As Hitch would have Doris Day sing, que sera, sera.
Tomorrow we head to the Costa Brava town of Figueres and the Dali Museum.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.1s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 11; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0547s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Kathie Steinhoff
non-member comment
Wave tag
I LOVE the wave tag photo! Wanna be there.