Barcelona

My parents offered to watch the kids for a night while Husband and I spent an evening in Barcelona. It was cheaper to fly than to take the train so we hopping on a quick 1 hourish flight and had a whirlwind view of the city. We felt sort of like we were playing hookie, like we were getting away with something, not having the kids with us. Now that I've had kids and traveled with them, I can barely remember why I felt stressed traveling by myself. A cross-atlantic flight, where you just watch movies and eat snack and read books and nap sounds like the ultimate luxury.

Anyways, I had two things I wanted to see in Barcelona in our 20 hours, La Sangrada Familia and walk La Rambla.

La Sangrada Familia is famous because it was designed by Gaudi and it is ...distinctive. It's interesting because it is gorgeous and ugly at the same time. If you get a chance to go, buy tickets online and you get to walk right in for your time slot, if not, the queue is 3 hours (thank you hotel consierge for that tip!). We happened to go at the perfect time of day so the setting sun threw rainbows all over. It is much more angular than a typical cathedral and he designed the columns to look like trees and branches. What do you think? Pretty or ugly?

 WE experimented with my phone's panoramic function. Because hey, we were two tech junkies without our kids!

We payed $7 extra to tour the tower. Totally worth it. You get to ride an elevator up and then take the stairs down.

We thought it was the staircase above, but it was actually a closed one with little alcoves to take in the views
It started out like this

and went to this

The views were stunning.

One the tips of many of the towers, there are mosaics of fruit. Ugly or pretty?

A little closer to a blue flowered one.







My husband is quite the cell phone photographer. Something I wouldn't have discovered if we were wrangling kids. Have I mentioned how much I love my parents?

It is just such a different style of cathedral.This is a sculpture of a saint.

Check out the front and back of it

It looks a little like it's melting.

Outside the church there was a Christmas market. These are a Catalan tradition where you beat the log and sing it a song about pooping out your presents.

They also sold cagoners, pooping figures that hide in nativity scenes. Not with the holy family, because that is disrespectful, but somewhere around. They have Obama ones, famous soccer players, and all kinds. We opted for the traditional one with the catalan cap.

 On the walk back to our hotel, we stopped to get some hot chocolate. Spanish style hot chocolate is thick, this one in particular was practically pudding.

And because everyone loves to look at food shots...

Croquettes with tuna (My mom says they have lots and lots of different kinds of tuna, almost as many as they have olives. I was surprised to see all the olive groves as we traveled. Then I remembered that I always calle green olives Spanish olives. Duh. The grocery store had an entire aisle full of olive oils. Think the soda section, but of olive oils. You could get it by the drum.)

 

Not the steak and potatoes with onions I was imagining. Delicious though.

The Catalan sausage with white beans and prawns was also unexpected. And delicious.

That night we walked down La Rambla. Think of it as Mill Ave in Tempe. Not a destination, but still a destination.



With a giant fountain on one end.

And monuments to Columbus

And lots of little restaurants selling tapas and paella.

I think Barcelona might have been the best part of the entire vacation to me. I'm not sure if that is because Barcelona is just that awesome or the break from the kids made it so. So thankful for my amazing parents letting us go and explore it.

Fuengirola at Night

It was fun to see all the holiday light displays and how similar and different the traditions were. Spain had much more of a religious-centered celebrations. Instead of Santa Claus bringing presents, the Three Kings do on January 6th. They still celebrate Christmas, but according to the friends we made on the train, most just spend it with family eating good food. Here is a fun little decoration my mom spotted showing the Three Kings cutting through the rope Santa is climbing.

Poinsettias were everywhere, most were planted in the ground. Not something you see much in AZ.

The lights were just like what you'd see here. They had lit nativity and then this build pavillion where you could pay a Euro and tell dressed up messengers of the Three Kings what you wanted for Christmas. Proceeds went to the zoo. It didn't photograph well so I didn't find a picture and we always came by when it was closed :(

They had these little light up, propeller things that flew super high and Grammy and PopPop indulged us. J had a blast trying to catch them

Granada

We were lucky enough to head over to Granada for the day and visit the Alhambra. Now I had no idea what this place was before we went to Spain, but it is pretty famous since it's been around since the 9th century. That's not a typo for 19th, we're talking a palace and fort that is old. You can read about it here.

 The views from the top made it easy to see why they chose to build on that location.

These were the barracks at one point in time. One can only hope the walls were taller or the ground lower.

We had to wait in line to go see inside the palace because they stagger the crowds every half hour or so. In the meantime PopPop had fun teaching J different hops and jumps.

 We waited happily in the shade.

They don't allow strollers in the palace, but they offer a place to store them and check out a baby bjorn to you. How cool is that? The States aren't nearly as accommodating. PopPop sported it well.

Inside they had the most elaborate mosaics and plaster work. Husband said he felt like he was in Assassin's Creed. I had heard all about the Moors and Moorish architecture before but it never clicked. Moors as in Morocco. As in Arabs in Africa, a 3 hour ferry ride from the tip of Spain. It made sense that they invaded Spain periodically over the last few thousand years.

These are shots looking up. The wood work is on the ceiling.

Imagine the poor young apprentice assigned to cutting out all those lovely iridescent tiles.

The plaster designs have Sanskrit words and prayers worked into them. The window shapes are extra pretty to me.

The scale is overwhelming.

 We decided to take some family pictures while we were there but it was tricky with the crowds and, you know, two kids to get looking at the camera.

 There were such lovely fountains everywhere, you could see how it was an oasis.

This fountain in the main courtyard is one of the icons of the Alhambra with it's 12 lions holding it up. Everyone was sort of looking at the camera.

Here is another elaborate wall and ceiling. Some of the knobs have been broken off. I want to see what it looked like when all the colored paint was on it. You can see remnants of the blue.

There is an impressive view of the city from the palace as well.



A newly 3 year old started to get bored of all the things to see, probably how you feel with the pictures. Fortunately Cinderella was there to help her out. (I bought a set of princess figures and individually wrapped them. A couple came out on the flight, but most came out whenever a tantrum was about to hit. "Happy girls can open a new princess" was enough to quell tears on more than one occasion)

There are amazing gardens for miles around it but we have two kids and decided not to push our luck. The paths were all paved with beautiful patterns made from different stones.

They had a cutout at the end that we got a kick out of.

There is also a palace constructed in the 19th century right next to the fortress and Moorish palace. The catholic kings weren't to be outdone.

This was the inside courtyard.

 These pictures were all on the grounds on the back to the parking lot. Again, check out the cool stones

Someone was done with pictures at this point. I'm tempted to make this one our New Years card. Maybe for the back

They have a million cypress trees along the walks cut out in fun designs.

The views from there were great too.



I love my sweet parents and couldn't ask for better travel partners and photographers. Having 4 adults makes traveling internationally with small children doable.