Barcelona Days 4 & 5

We've covered alot of ground in the last two days.  Yesterday was highlighted by several Gaudi themed stops in Barcelona.  Gaudi was a master architect in Barcelona in the late 1800's to early 1900's.  He had a style all his own that borrowed heavily from nature and science.  Our first stop was La Sagrada Familia, a gigantic cathedral, now basilicca, that is still under construction.  This place was started in the 1880's and still probably has 50 to 100 years of work to do before being complete.  We've seen a couple of giant cathedrals on our travels, including Notre Dame, and this one tops them all.  The photos below are OK, but nothing can do this place justice,

 We then set off for two more Gaudi inspired destinations.  The first was Las Casa Mila, which was a Gaudi designed apartment building.  Again this was full of cool geometry coupled with flowing, organic shapes.  The best part was that we got access to the crazy rooftop, and on a sunny day after alot of walking, this was a great place to fire off alot of pictures and to rest in the Spanish sun.  We then toured the attic of the building which is actually a very thorough and modern museum of all of Gaudi's works and then a large apartment that is restored and furnished in detail to an early 1900's lifestyle.  This was actually a really cool visit.  The photo below is of the roof top detail, full of crazy vents, chimneys and meandering rooflines. The photo shown just above is of the Sagrada Familia from the roof of Casa Mila (La Predrera).

Our last big stop of the day was at the "Block of Discord" where there are three buildings that each try to outdo each other in a very outlandish way.  We snapped some photos but were pretty burned out after this.  We then spent the afternoon meandering back to the hotel, snacking and sampling local beers along the way.  It'll be pretty hard to return to winter in Wisconsin after a day like that.

Today we arrived safely in Madrid via high speed rail, if my math is right we were going 180 miles per hour at top speed. We left the train station and after our initial forced march in the rain and in the wrong direction we got back on track. It’s easy to get turned around here. We then got to our hotel, a late lunch of gyros and then visited the Prado museum. This is probably the best collection of art from the European masters, probably a better museum than the Louvre in Paris. That being said, after you see about 500 paintings you kind of run out of steam, it’s a shame. We then stopped for beers where they traditionally give you a little appetizer plate with each order, so that was our dinner. We finished it off with little doughnuts that you dip in a mug of chocolate sauce – the boys will love this once we figure out how to make it for them.

Should be sunny tomorrow and we’ll get oriented to the city. We’ve also arranged for a guided tour with Stephen Drake-Jones, Chairman of the Madrid Wells Society.  We'll have a 3.5 hour tour including stops for tapas and drinks for tomorrow night, should be a proper Spanish evening. Rick Steves (the travel guy on PBS) recommends this guy in his guide book, so he should be awesome, I spoke with him a few times today and he sounds like a blast.  He said that he's not a tour guide, he's a retired historian and he's pretty good.  At least he's modest.  That being said, he must be a good guide to be a British tour leader in Spain!!!

Stay tuned!!!

Barcelona Day 3 Continued

We had another good day in Barcelona.  We did a nice run in the morning, several miles out to the beach and back.  There are lots of runners and bikers here, so it's a really good environment for running.  Once we headed out for coffee we stumbled into a local festival.  Lots of fresh bread and sandwhiches, we had a great fresh crepe with Nutella and bananas.  We even spotted a young couple who are fellow Pointers, what are the odds of that?  After a good start with fresh, local food and not too much coffee we found our way to the funicular, a train that went right up the side of the mountain.  We still had a short, steep walk up to the top of the mountain.  Up on top is an old Spanish fort, really cool spot overlooking the city and the harbour.  This mountain, Mt Juic, was also the heart of the Olympics as well as a key Spanish fort and art museum.   We had a great visit to the fort but then stumbled across a professional bike race on our walk down the mountain.  It was fun that kept crossing the path of the bikers as they did multiple circuits around the mountain.  It was extra interesting as these were THE pro teams, not some lower class race, but the full on top pro teams.  Every team from Sky, to Lotto to Radio Shack and everyother team was here.  We made it down the mountain and saw the finish of the race, it was unlike anything we've ever seen before.  The speed of the support cars and police escorts was fun enough but to get up close and personal to the riders and support staff was really cool.  Kelly even got 2 full water bottles right out of the team coolers at the end of the race, one from a Russian team and the other from a French team.  When we got to the Picasso museum the line was several hours long so we passed on that and had a beer.  We then took a walk for churros and chocolate followed by a stop for beer and then dinner at a tapas restaurant with cheap food and vino tinto.  We then made it back to the hotel for an early night for a change.  Tomorrow we will try to hit the trifecta of Gaudi works, we'll see how it goes.

Barcelona on Day 3

Day 3 of our Spain trip and here are some images.  So far so good, no major issues and LOTS of walking. We've seen most of the sights in the old part of the city, most notably the Barcelona cathedral, Barcelona maritime museum the old market and the waterfront. Today we'll spend some time in an old Spanish fort and also at the Picasso museum. Tomorrow we plan to have a Gaudi-centric day visiting several notable sites that are rooted in the architect/artist Gaudi's work.  Tomorrow will also be our last day in Barcelona prior to moving on to Madrid to end our trip and return home on Friday.  The food has been great and relatively reasonable, it's hard to get something bad to eat regardless of how bad my Spanish is. There are also lots of small bakeries for snacking throughout the day, when they say chocolate croisant around here, they really mean it!!! They also readily sell beer and wine in these parts, that's really convenient!

Cabin Fever 2013

 Cabin fever is setting in here in Wisconsin.  While we've stayed very buys this winter, the boys are starting to get a little tough to deal with.  We've spent lots of time exploring every nook and cranny of the house, making Power Rangers equipment, drawing, playing with pirate stuff and anything else we can think of.  We also continue the potty training with Nathan and now Elliot.  Elliot watches his brothers very closely, actually, he studies them very closely.  He can point out eyes, ears, hair, belly buttons and everything else as he's learned from his brothers.  He now wants to wear underwear and he is also demanding that he gets his chance on the potty chair.  If only Nathan were so pro-active!  Anyways, it won't be long and we'll be diaper free, we hope!!!