Blogs from Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, Europe - page 23

What a big day. The good news is I got pickpocketed - but chronolgy rules, so first off to Parc Guell. Two of Gaudi's passions were nature and ceramics. The vast Parc Guell is an expression of both. Natural beauty and Gaudi buildings, walls and ceramics. We spent hours walking and ogling and listening to music and watching various buskers. Willl and I saw lots of wild parakeets and other avian species. After leaving the Parc, Marika decided she needed to do some serious shoe shopping so she and Kim went off and Marika picked and paid for with her own money (from Christmas) some silver sandals and a hair pin to match - it was the first time near this age that she radiated a feeling of being pretty and stylish - a heartwarming moment ... read more

Our apartment in this leg of our Barcelona visit is way way over the top. It is almost part of Iberia's most famous building - the Sagrada Familia by Antoni Gaudi. It is right across a park from the entrance to the Sagrada - the rooftop terrace looms over the Sagrada. Really quite surreal. The little park below our living room has sections for a dog park, a children's play area and a pond which from our apartment reflects the church. The apartment has four balconies - one off of Marika and Willl's bedroom and one off of our bedroom - and one off of each end of our living room. Great sized bathroom and kitchen. Yesterday was a travel day from Lisbon and the rest of it was looking in awe at the Sagrada - ... read more

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 ... read more

We were fortunate that Will's godfather David Pepper chauffered us to the airport as we enjoyed his stories of his recent trip to Poland. Needless to say the night flight delight for the kids trumped any notion of la-la land so aside from the occassional fitful doze, all of us were awake pretty much through the night. I managed to stay alert in the face of Air Canada's best sleep-inducing measures - interminable Hugh Grant films - it is to weep. Why I love Barcelona - 1 in a series Seamless, cheap, safe ande frequent public transport. In our bid to only use public tranport in cities this trip, nothing can beat our experience here thus far. Out of the terminal onto big comfy modern airport shuttles to the Renfe train terminal which whisked us past ... read more

Our last day in Barcelona arrived and we said goodbye to my dad and Glenna. After D's morning nap, we headed off to try to go to Palau Guell which had been closed for renovations but was scheduled to open today. It was also closed for renovations when we were here six years ago. A coincidence we thought, but apparently the renovations began in 1990 and we just happened to be here for opening day!! We actually managed to get a ticket, but our entry time wasn't until later in the afternoon. So off we went to see the Museum of Barcelona City. The Museum showcases quite the history of Barcelona. Its main claim to fame is the discovery of the ruins of the Roman city of Barca right below it. Unlike most of the ruins ... read more