Barcelona, Day 3

This day we made plans to visit Park Guell, which was designed by Antoni Gaudi. We grabbed a quick pastry at a nearby cafe and set out for our first adventure on the Metro.

It was chilly and gray when we left, so I bought the flimsiest umbrella I've ever seen, just in case. And it was the best €5 we spent. By the time we exited the Metro, there was a light but steady rain. Plus, the nearest Metro stop was still 1.4 kilometers away from the park entrance, and it was up a very steep hill. If you want to make this trip with a baby, I definitely recommend a carrier over a stroller.

Seriously, zoom in, because you have to in order to see the bottom.

The first entrance to the park is free, then there's an inner entrance that you pay to get into to see the bulk of the mosaic work. And it's still raining.

Still in the outer park, there's an elevated area with three stone crosses, and it had phenomenal views of the city. I assume. I started up the stairs, and halfway up turned right back around.

I mean, look how close she is to the edge, on slick stone steps. Nope.

Of course, Matt and the kids had no problem going up there, so I just stayed with Clara. And we could still see the city.

After this, we made our way down to the inner entrance (more stairs). It was still raining, and the kids were really whining at this point. They kept begging to go back to the hotel, and we really debated about going any further. Since we didn't want to miss seeing the artwork and architecture, we pressed on. We're going to experience art and culture whether the kids like it or not!

This picture pretty much sums up our outing

More stairs. There was a path that was stroller friendly, but I think Matt was used to carrying the stroller by now, and stairs were quicker.

We hung out in this area for a while, since we were out of the rain. Lily chased the pigeons, one of her favorite activities.

Poor Clara didn't have an umbrella

Into the "dragon," as the kids called it.

"Dragon"

And down to the bottom, where the rain finally stopped.

Once the rain stopped, the kids were much happier. We walked to a different Metro station to get back, and thankfully there were no more major hills. On the way to the station, we stopped and had lunch.

Yes, she was asleep. But she perked right up when the food came.

I had the menu del dia, which had salad, pasta, a little chicken leg, fried potatoes, and tortilla (the tortilla was like a potato pie, not the kind you put on a burrito). It was very good, and we had dessert here, too. I ordered a chocolate mousse that was in a pie, and it was heavenly. We ate it too fast for a picture though.

We made it back to the hotel so the kids could dry out and rest. And poor Clara's jacket was soaked again. When we ventured out for dinner, we bought her a touristy sweatshirt to keep her warm, and that was her souvenir.

We wandered around some side streets to look for a place to eat, and found Los Toreros. I ordered a steak and a liter of sangria. The steak was so-so, but the sangria was good. Matt had oxtail something on mashed potatoes. His was excellent.

After dinner, Matt dropped the kids and me off at the hotel. He then went to get dessert for the kids and a couple of drinks for us. I think the kids got dessert because they had behaved so well, but I don't recall (probably because of the sangria).

Matt brought back a traditional Catalan dessert called Coca de Vidre. It's a sweet flatbread with pine nuts, and to me it tasted like burnt sugar. The kids didn't eat much of it.

And that was the end of day three.

Barcelona, Day 2

After waking up naturally (courtesy of excited children), we headed out to explore. We had breakfast in a little cafe on La Rambla. I had a traditional Spanish breakfast of a croissant, coffee with milk, and orange juice, Matt had a cured meats and cheese plate with bread, and the older kids had ham and cheese sandwiches.

After breakfast, we made our way south toward L'aquarium Barcelona.

Port Vell

The kids loved climbing on these little "hills."  Well, one of them liked it.

The Aquarium was a lot of fun. The bigger kids were excited to look at everything, and Clara would randomly point and shout, "Feesh!"

It was a little crowded, but not unbearably so. Around the big shark tanks, they had a moving sidewalk, which really helped the congestion. Of course, it made for blurry pictures, so I don't have many.

Once we left, it was getting close to lunch time. We wandered aimlessly until we found a place that looked suitable. The food here was good, but the service was terrible. And we must have had some miscommunication, because the server brought out one entree for Matt and me to share (we ordered the same thing).

Most of the restaurants we visited had wifi, which was very helpful since we can't get international data for another month or two. Matt downloaded the Google map of the city, which helped us get around easily. We discovered that we weren't far from the Chocolate Museum, so we stopped there next.

The Chocolate Museum was a fun place. It was small, and had some displays and movies about this history and making of chocolate. But mostly there were fantastic sculptures, and we all liked looking at everything. It was hard getting pictures with the glass.

Darn reflection!

Detail shot from the scene above

Of course we visited the chocolate shop after the tour, and we each choose a treat.  Yum.

By this point, the kids needed a rest, so we started walking back to the hotel.

As we walked, several locals said, "Hola" to the kids. Miles happily said it back, while Lily said loudly, "We don't live in this country." Luckily she only did this a few times.

Souvenir shops were everywhere, and they all had these little figurines with pants down, pooping.

These are called caganers. There were traditional Catalan boys and girls, and a huge variety of famous people (from the Pope to footballers to Donald Trump). These figurines are even commonly included in nativity scenes (although typically far from the manger). Of course this was one of the kids' favorite things.

After some rest at the hotel and some TV time, we were all ready for dinner. The lady at the hotel had suggested a place, and said it was very child friendly, so we have it a try.
This is what it looked like inside...

And no kids menu. Hmmm, child friendly? Thankfully we were early birds and they sat us in the corner.

Matt and I ordered chicken paella, and the kids shared a shrimp pasta dish. Our food was good, the pasta was not, but the kids liked it.

Once we finished dinner, we went back to the hotel and put the kids to bed. So exciting, right?