Adios Spain...Bonjour France!

April 2nd--Today we were sad to leave Barcelona...we loved Barcelona! An awesome city! The only thing we were glad to leave was the dreary cold weather that had been around for several days. We said "Adios!" to Spain as we set off for France on a train. Our train left Barcelona about 5:15 p.m. and we arrived at 8:45 p.m. in Narbonne, France. We had about an hour and a half wait for our next train which left at 10:04 p.m. We were on that train for about an hour and twenty minutes before we arrived in Toulouse, France. We had a brief wait here and finally boarded our sleeper train at 12:20 a.m. for Nice, France. We quickly boarded the train, rolled our luggage down a narrow hallway and found our "room". I use that term loosely because there was barely enough room to turn. Thank goodness we had purchased all 6 beds in this room because our luggage needed 2 beds to themselves. The kids were quit troopers up until this point, but they were ready to go to sleep. They had both cat napped some along the way, but were begging for a bed to lay down on. So, we quickly got organized and all climbed into our own bunk bed. The kids slept really well. Mike says he slept pretty good for being crammed in a small, hard bed. I slept okay for the first part, but then couldn't go back to sleep probably from all the movement of the train. We arrived in Nice at 8:00am, April 3rd. It was funny because we got off the train looking like crap warmed over and it was the middle of morning rush hour. The station was packed and everyone was running around while we were tyring to wake up and get our bearings. We exited the train station and found the bus to our apartment. It was only about a 10 minute ride and dropped us off about a block from our apartment. We were met by Jean-Pierre, who gave us our keys and let us in. We are excited about the apartment as it is right on the water overlooking the Mediterranean. After dropping off our luggage, we headed out to find something for breakfast. We found a bakery by the apartment and picked up some breakfast. We took it over to some benches overlooking the water and enjoyed a great breakfast and some much needed sun. We then made our way to the grocery store nearby for necessities. We've basically spent the rest of today laying around the apartment trying to "recover" from our train journey. We are all pretty tired from the trip and have all seemed to have gotten Austin's cold. The kids took a really long nap and actually slept until 6:00 p.m. I just hope they are so tired that they'll still go to sleep at a decent time tonight.

Shot in the Dark

April 1st -- Today was my day to attempt to get the last of my travel vaccinations. The reason they couldn't be done before leaving the States is because of the time that has to elapse between the first and second and so on. Anyway, I headed out about 10:00 a.m. to go to the Hospital Clinic nearby our apartment. Once arriving there, I wandered around for about 30 minutes until finally somebody directed me to another location. So, I walked there and all that was at that corner was a church, but there was a Pharmacy next door. I went into the Pharmacy and there was a really nice lady that spoke fairly good English. I was thrilled! She was going to help me get the shots and told me to come back between 2:30 & 3:00 this afternoon. I walked back to the apartment where I met up with Mike and the kids. We headed out to Parc Guell by bus. Parc Guell is a colorful park where Gaudi's artistic magic shines through. Gaudi intended this 30 acre garden to be a 60 residence housing project, but again, he was before his time in the concept and the housing project never developed. Upon entering the park, there are 2 gate houses made of gingerbread flank. From the houses, we climbed the stairway, passing the famous ceramic dragon fountain. At the top of the stairs, we walked through the "Hall of 100 Columns" which was designed for a produce market for the housing project. As we continued up the stairs, on our left was a pathway of columns that resembled a surfer's perfect tube. This is another one of Gaudi's inspirations from nature. Once up top, we reached the terrace where there are colorful, mosaic benches (ergonomically designed). From the terrace, we got a great view of the Sagrada Familia and Barcelona. We also got a good look at Gaudi's House and Museum. This pink house was Gaudi's home for 20 years, until his father died. After enjoying a lite lunch at the park, we headed back toward our apartment. I ventured off again for the Pharmacy to get what I thought was my vaccination. Never in a million years did I think what happened next would happen. When I arrived to the Pharmacy, the pharmacist handed me the 2 vaccinations and asked for my money. I was like, "who is going to give them to me" and she just shrugged her shoulders. After a little bit of a language barrier, she finally pointed me in the direction of "CAPS" to go find someone to inject the vaccination. Thank goodness I was able to find the location. Come to find out, this was the original place I had been looking for earlier this morning. Anyway, a nice lady got me checked in and showed me where the waiting room was located. I barely sat down before my name was being called. Another nice lady injected the shots for me and I was on my way. All I can say is that I'm so thankful that it is all taken care of now. Upon returning back to the apartment, I was greeted by Mike and the kids on the street. They were just returning from a shopping trip at ZARA (Mike needed to find a light jacket) and eating ice cream. We all rested a little bit before heading out to see Gaudi's work at night. We first went to visit Casa Batllo, originally home to the Batllo family. We picked up our autoguides and were on our way through the building. Immediately we were amazed at this beautiful work. The Batllo family apartment was on the main floor and had a mushroom shaped fireplace, ventilation in the doors, beautiful stainglass windows, and a huge window overlooking Passeig de Gracia. Through the huge window, you can see the columns modeling bones which gives Casa Batllo it's other name "The House of Bones". Gaudi placed an atrium in the middle of this building to bring in natural light. The atrium is lined with blue and white ceramic tiles and windows the get smaller the higher up they go. The colors and texture gave it an ocean feel. The attic showed more parabolic arches and Gaudi's creative us of ventilation. From the attic, we climbed the stairs to the rooftop. This rooftop is a lot smaller than Casa Mila, but still amazingly beautiful in it's own way. The chimneys are clustered together and we got a close up view of the crested dragon's back on the top of the front facade. Casa Batllo is more impressive than Casa Mila. Casa Batllo is less of a museum with no furnishings so we were able to enjoy the architecture more. I don't think there was a straight line in the entire apartment building...classic Gaudi! Upon finishing our tour of Casa Batllo (a little after 8pm) it was getting dark outside and time for dinner. Since it was our last night in Spain, we decided that we should enjoy tapas one last time. So, we walked across the street to eat at Tapa Tapa. Thay had a wonderful selection of tapas and it was very good. After dinner, we took the subway to see Sagrada Familia at night. Again, we had that...AWWWWWWWW! moment upon seeing it all lit up. We walked around the church enjoying the night views and soaking in a few last moments of its majestic form. We snapped some final pictures of the church in order to remember our love of all things Gaudi.

bad hair day...good hair day.

March 31st--Best laid plans often go awry...we had planned to get up early today to get more of a Gaudi fix, but when we were up between midnight and 3:00 a.m. with a coughing 3 year old...well, we slept a little later once everybody got back to sleep. Austin has his first international "head cold". It's one of those where he goes along throughout the day just fine, but once he lays down, he gets all stopped up. Anyway, when he woke up at midnight, we gave him cough medicine, Claritin, and rubbed Baby Vicks on his chest and feet. I blew his nose for the next hour or so, but he finally fell back asleep and slept perfectly fine the rest of the night (or morning). He's been fine today other than the occasional cough and runny nose, but at least it's coming up. He got a little sleepy at lunch and basically laid down on me and went to sleep. See the picture...it's too cute! Anyway, I just skipped a little ahead on the day. Before lunch, we headed for Palau Guell by way of La Ramblas. The kids wanted to go see some more of the mimes on the street and even had there own money to drop in the buckets. As we approached the bottom of the Ramblas, we turned off to go to Palau Guell to get our Gaudi fix for the day. The Palau Guell or Guell Palace got its name because it was commissioned by the wealthy landowner, Eusebi Guell. The Palau Guell is the only building that Gaudi actually completed (1890). This building shows Gaudi's first attempt at a curvy style with an arch doorway and was a private residence for the Guell family until 1936. In the middle of a renovation, the main floor and the Neo-Gothic cellar are the only areas open to the public. The cellar was used as a stable and there are still rings on some of the posts. It didn't take us long to walk through the areas that were open, but it was neat to get another look at some of Gaudi's work. We then went back up the Ramblas to get some lunch. We couldn't enjoy any of the mimes on the way back up because it started to rain. So, we headed into Hard Rock Cafe located in Placa de Catalunya. It was packed with a lot of Americans and people trying to get out of the rain. Luckily our wait wasn't that long and we enjoyed a nice/relaxing lunch. Austin was so tired, he could barley eat. As I mentioned before, he fell asleep only after a few bites. After lunch, we did some shopping at ZARA. We have seen this store all over Spain...think Gap. Austin needed a few things so we thought this would be a good place to go. It was a successful shopping trip, and we caught a taxi back to the apartment. Upon arriving back at the apartment, I asked our new friend, Sam from the ItalianJob restaurant if there was anyone around the area she recommended doing my hair. She was immediately on the phone with her French hairdresser. He was available right then and was only a few blocks away. I took off to get my hair done on a "bad hair day" day while Mike and the kids just hung out at the apartment watching a movie. The owner of the salon, Ana, is from Barcelona, but speaks excellent English. She just married a guy from Dallas and absolutely loves Texas. In fact, her husband was in Austin and she was on her way there next week. Daniel, from Paris, was my hairdresser. He did a great job so my first European hair experience was a success (until I had to walk back in the rain).

Oh, Gaudi!

March 30th --Wow! What an amazing day and experience we had! I'm not sure I can put into words the wonderful architecture that we saw today, but I'll give it the ole' college try. (I'll put my degree to good work.) Modernista architecture is Barcelona's main attraction and one name tops them all, Antonio Gaudi. Barcelona houses much of Gaudi's architectural work. Antonio Gaudi (1852-1926) immersed himself into each project, often living on-site. One of his projects is the Casa Mila (La Pedrera) and that was our first stop for the day. The exterior of this building is described as "a roller coaster of melting ice cream". Casa Mila was Gaudi's last major work (1906-1910) and we got to tour three sections: the apartment, attic, and rooftop. Upon entering, we all received an audioguide. They even had a kids version that sounded like someone out of Mary Poppins doing the commentary. We, then, headed up the elevator to the attic. The attic was originally the common place for the tenants of the building to use as storage and do their laundry. It was also used for ventilation. The attic now houses the history of the architect's career with models, photos, and videos of his work. It's all displayed under distinctive parabola-shaped arches. These arches were inspired by a python snakes skeleton. It was here that we learned about his hanging model system method that he developed for architectural design and calculation. We would see this method in action throughout the day. From the attic, we climbed the stairs to the jaw dropping rooftop. The rooftop houses 30 chimneys that provide building access, building ventilation, or ventilation of chimneys. Some of the clusters of chimneys resembles masks. Upon leaving the rooftop, we walked the stairs down to the 4th floor apartment. It was decorated as it might have been when the building was first occupied by Barcelona bourgeois family during the first decades of the 20th century with period furnishings and household appliances. It circled the entire floor with the atrium in the middle providing daylight into the apartments. After leaving Casa Mila, we grabbed a quick bite to eat (tapas) and headed down the Block of Discord. Several of Barcelona's top Modernista mansions line Passeig de Garcia. The block got it's name because the structures look as though they are trying to outdo each other in creative twists. There are 3 mansions on this block: Casa Lleo Morera, Casa Amatller and Casa Batllo. The one that stands out the most to us is the Casa Batllo by Gaudi. The exterior has skull-like balconies and a tile roof that suggests a dragon's back. Gaudi based the work on the popular legend of St. George (Jordi) slaying the dragon. From here, we took the subway to the Sagrada Familia stop. Upon stepping out of the subway, we turned and there it was...(hear angels singing)...Gaudi's most famous and persistent work, Sagrada Familia. This Holy Family Church is an unfinished landmark church. The words fail us when trying to describe this church. The pictures won't even do it justice. I'll take a moment to give some background on the church that we enjoyed learning about before going into some of the details we saw. Gaudi worked on the Sagrada Familia from 1883 to 1926. He died in 1926 after being hit by a tram. He is buried in the crypt at the church. Since then, construction has still moved forward, being led by various architects, and is expected to be completed in the next quarter century. The construction project is worked on by local craftsman, who often cap off their careers by working on the project. Interestingly, all of Gaudi's original plans and designs were destroyed during the Spanish Civil war. So the subsequent architects have each added a little of their own designs, while staying with Gaudi's original theme and concepts. Upon completion, the church will have 18 tall towers. The 12 smaller towers (330 feet), representing the apostles, will stand in groups of four and will mark the 3 entry facades of the building. Four taller towers (dedicated to the 4 Evangelists) will surround the two tallest, central towers: a 400 foot tower of Mary and the grand 550 foot Jesus tower, which will shine like a lighthouse. The 550 ft tower will be one foot lower than the local Montjuic mountain, as Gaudi believed that you should not interfere with nature. Anyway, that was a little background on the church. Upon entry, we got audioguides and began the tour at the Passion Facade. The story of Christ's passion unfolds here in a Z shape pattern. Over the door are the alpha and omega, Jesus on the cross, and the grid of numbers adding up in all directions to 33 (Jesus' age at the time of death). There is a distinct face of a man just below Jesus on the cross and this is a memorial to Gaudi. When we look high above Jesus on the cross, we can see a figure perched on the bridge between the 2 towers. This is the soul of Jesus, ascending into heaven. After admiring the outside of the Passion facade, we entered into the church. It is definitely a construction zone with the current work being done on the Nave. We were able to see some stainglass windows in place, the choir completed, and Gaudi's love for nature. The columns are described as "tree trunks that branch out at the top". The roof are the leaves of the trees canopying like a rain forest. Currently, the construction is focused on stabilizing the existing Nave and adding the third, biggest entry--The Glory facade. From the nave, we walked to the east side of the church exiting at the Nativity facade. This is the only part of the church that Gaudi saw partially completed before his death. It was here that we could see Gaudi's vision of playing out in the nativity, from Jesus' birth to Jesus as young carpenter and angels playing musical instruments. The tree of life is high above the middle door. We then entered into the Rosary Cloister where we rode the elevator up the Nativity Facade. Once arriving up to the top, we walked over the bridge that connects two of the towers. We got a close up view of the tree of life and the many pinnacles. The view up here was awesome and indescribable. The elevator does not take you back down, so you have to walk the 300 or so feet back down a very narrow, spiral staircase. It was a very tight spiral with a opening in the middle that went all the way down. It was more than a little concerning for us with Austin! However, we made it down safely with stops along the way for great views of the city and close-up views of the Nativity facade. After reaching the bottom, we entered the museum below the church, which again highlighted many of the architectural developments and methods of Gaudi and served as a history of Gaudi and his work. The museum also contained the model workshop which has been a central part of the development of the church since Gaudi first used models as the basis for the church's construction. We exited the museum and the church after 3 plus hours, that felt like 15 minutes. Out of all the churches that we have seen so far, this one captured our attention and interest like no other. Maybe it's because it is still a work in progress or maybe it's because of its massive stature. Whatever the reason, it will not be a sight we soon forget and one that has peaked our interest in all things Gaudi. We are already discussing our plans to return to Barcelona someday to see the completed Sagrada Familia.

Spring Forward

March 29th --We had good intentions of starting today early with some major sites to see. Losing an hour of sleep in the middle of the night caught up with us though. Europe doesn't Spring Forward until the last Saturday of March, so we all slept later than usual. It worked out fine though because the weather was still a little wet and chilly this morning. By the time we left the apartment, the rain had blown through. We decided to do Rick Steve's guided walk starting from Placa de Catalunya. We headed down Avinguda Portal de l'Angel which is named "Gate of the Angel" for the gate in the medieval wall, crowned by an angel, that once stood there. As we were walking along, we came to a fork in the road with a blue and yellow tiled fountain. This fountain was once a freestanding well. In the 17th century, it was the last watering stop for horses before leaving town. We went to the left in the fork and headed for the Cathedral de Barcelona. We arrived at the Cathedral during church service. We have visited several churches throughout Spain, but never at service time so it was really neat to see one take place even though we couldn't understand a word of it. We were still able to feel the emotion though. Also, there was a piece of paper at the entrance, in English, with 5th Sunday of Lent bible verses. Since service was taking place, there were parts of the Cathedral that were roped off so we went into the cloister first. In the cloister, we saw a tiny statue of St. George slaying the dragon. Jordi (George) is one of the patron saints of Catalunya and apparently the most popular boy's name here. That statistic is ironic considering the first person we met upon arriving in Spain was Jorid who met us at our Madrid apartment. Anyway, something fun to see in the cloister were the 13 resident geese that used to function as an alarm system. Any commotion and they would honk, alerting the monk in charge. As we were finishing up in the cloister, the church service was letting out so we were able to get a closer view of the choir loft and the high altar. It was perfect timing for us to see all that is involved at the Cathedral de Barcelona. After finishing up there, we walked to Barcelona's highest elevation called Mount Taber. A plaque on the wall says "Mont Taber, 16.9 meters"..not a very high "high point". We stepped into the courtyard to see a surviving corner of the Roman Temple which kept a protective watch over Barcelona. Leaving Mt. Taber, we passed a modern monument to a 300-year old massacre that is part of Catalan culture and history. On Sept 11, 1714, the King ruling from Madrid massacred Catalan patriots, who were buried in a mass grave on this site. It was interesting that the Catalan's have been remembering 9/11 for nearly 300 years. We then made our way to the Picasso Museum which houses the best collection in the country of the work of Spaniard Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and since he spent his formative years (age 14-21) in Barcelona, it's the best collection of his early works anywhere. We saw works of:
Age 12-14, 1895-1897 when his artwork is realistic and serious;
Adolescence Year when he was developing his talent;
Early Success when he won 2nd price at a fine-arts exhibition for his Science and Charity print; this got him the chance to study in Madrid;
Barcelona Freedom 1900, he quits art school and no longer paints portraits of his family;
Paris, 1900-1901, arrives in Paris at 19 years old and invents Cubism;
Blue Period, 1901-1904, the bleak Paris weather, the suicide of his best friend, and his own poverty lead him to this period of painting many blue prints;
Rose Period, 1904-1907, he is lifted out of his funk and into a happier "Rose period" with his Retrato de la Senora Canals (woman in pink) painting;
Cubism, 1907-1920, his invention of the Cubist style is seen in a photo where a man is holding a bowl of fruit;
Eclectic, 1920-1950, he begins painting beefy women and painted a bull/horse symbolizing both feminine and masculine;
Picasso and Velazquez, 1957, he painted more than 50 interpretations of Velazquez's print Las Meninas (in Madrid's Prado). This was neat for us because we had already seen the Velazquez painting ourselves in the Prado Museum.
As a wrap up, we walked through 41 ceramic works Picasso made in 1947. It is just amazing to us to think that Picasso died the year before we were born. When we think of Picasso, we think of him as someone that was painting a long time ago. It was great to see that he was so talented at such an early age, how his mood was portrayed through his paintings and that he was still just as talented in his later years.

The Cathedral and museum pretty much filled up our day so it was time to head back to the apartment and figure out dinner. Dinner tonight (I can hardly write anything about food anymore after my mom informed me that we certainly DON'T miss a meal, which she is right about...what would traveling be like without experiencing all kinds of food) was good right up until dessert. We got take out from a restaurant right next to our apartment. The owner was so nice to give us some small pastries for dessert. Well, one of them tasted like...I hesitated to say it, but it tasted just like bathroom air freshener, if there is such a thing. The next thing out of my mouth was "give me some curry chicken to take away the bad taste in my mouth." This coming from the girl who wouldn't even touch Indian or Thai food before. Apparently, I have "sprung forward" in my tastes and likes!

Barcelona underwater

March 28th -- Today was a cool, rainy day in Barcelona. We stayed in the apartment relaxing and reading (and watching TV for the kids) for most of the morning. The rain let up by late morning and so we decided to head down to the harbor area and visit the Aquarium. We decided that was a great way to spend a rainy day. We took a bus down to the harbor area. It was much easier than our previous day's transportation challenges. The aquarium, billed as the largest in Europe, was great because it had a huge Mediterranean collection. It was neat to see such different kind of sea life than what we normally see. At the end of the aquarium, there was a play/explore / interact area for this kids that kept them entertained for a while. We left the aquarium and went to the IMAX theater next door. They were showing the feature "Giants of the Ocean" in 3D. We thought it would be exciting for the kids. However, it was a little too much "5th grade science class" and it was in Spanish (which we expected). It was still cool and the kids enjoyed the large 3D fish. After the movie, we caught the bus back to the apartment. We folded down the sofa bed in the living room and had a movie night featuring "Finding Nemo". A perfect end to our "underwater" day in Barcelona.