Friday we started our day by hitting up the large market where lots of local food can be seen and tasted, then we headed up Park Guell to see another Gaudi attraction. We did not have tickets to get in as they were sold out for the day, but a lot can be seen wandering around outside. We climbed as high as we could get (without really trying on purpose) and then wandered our way back down taking in the park from above. It's a unique park with sites different than anywhere in the world.
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Shopping at local market
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| Park Guell |
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| Park Guell |
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| Park Guell |
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Living it up on the streets of Barcelona
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SJ found a "nail" partner
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The rest of the day we wandered the city and ultimately found a great tapas place for dinner. We were really lucky and were able to get a table for 8 in back room that was relatively quiet. It was a treat having two friends around for a few days and the kids enjoyed as much (maybe more) as Mom and Dad did.
Saturday morning we said goodbye to Brad who had to return home to his family. It was a dreary day and we were struggling with laundry as we'd messed up the machine and couldn't get the water to drain, couldn't find a setting that took less than 2 hours to run, all of the directions were in Spanish, and since we didn't have a dryer and the weather wasn't conducive to drying anything, we couldn't get our clothes dry. As so often happens, it is the simplest things that become the biggest pains.
We finally opted to head out and walk around the city to see what we might find to do. Barcelona is one of the best cities to just walk and look. There is always a subway near by to get about anywhere, while the scenery and buildings are fantastic to just soak in. We wandered down towards the harbor, unsure of what we were going to do exactly, but along the way the boys played some soccer and then we hopped on a boat to cruise around the harbor (because this was free with our city passes) and it felt great to be on a boat again with our neighbor Ray!
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| Some harbor-side soccer |
Sunday was Mothers Day in America so the boys did their best to celebrate and pamper Mom by continuing our tradition of serving her breakfast in bed and hand written notes. Our first stop was church at Hillsong. It was great to worship in Spanish to songs that were familiar and the message was translated on headphones, so we were able to follow along. We'd misunderstood the service times, and as is common, things in Spain don't start on time, so Mom had to sneak out early in order to make her Mother's Day massage appointment.
One thing on our list since we left home was attending a Barcelona game, which we got to do at 5pm on this day. The weekend before was Spanish Mother's Day while we were in Valencia, and we joked that somehow we ended up celebrating by attending games on both days. Mom met up with the guys at the game after having had some good "solo" time, which is treasured and rare this year.
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Outside the stadium
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Our time here had been planned, to an extent, around when Barcelona had their last home game. Getting tickets isn't exactly the easiest thing as the entire 100,000 seat stadium is season ticket holders. About one week before the game the club releases tickets that have been put back in the system by the owners. Once this happens then it's a scramble to find and buy tickets. We searched over a dozen sections and never found two seats together, so we opted for 7 (Ray's still with us) single seats in the same section.
A Barca game is an amazing experience. Barca fans are fantastic and known worldwide. The whole city more or less shuts down. Cabs are hard to find and everyone is engaged whether attending or not. The energy can be felt everywhere. Upon entering the vibe is electric and time seems to fly by twice as fast as normal. Even Mom commented that the game seemed to go by faster than the kids games at home and they play 45 minute halves as opposed to the boys 25-35 minute halves! Every seat had a red, yellow or blue panel to be held up before the game which makes for an amazing view as the whole stadium participates and songs are sung.
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Fans holding their assigned colors
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Amazingly, after we got our seats figured out we were able to switch with people so that all 7 of us ended up together in two rows, which made it so much more fun to truly experience it together! We witnessed a great game as the final score ended 5-0! We saw a free kick goal from Messi (who is the best in the world at them), two goals from Suarez, one from Neymar and one from Rafihana. Definitely an exciting and unforgettable experience and a great way to wrap up Uncle Ray's visit!
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| Action during the game |
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| Eventually, through some trading, we got all our seats together |
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| Final score - great game! |
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Post game exit
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Following the game we struggled to figure out where to eat. Everything around the stadium was crazy and having 7 of us only made it harder. We ended up walking for a few miles and then made an online reservation. On our walk, we hit yet another God surprise. As we were walking Mom saw a woman talking on the sidewalk and she promptly announced, "That's her!" We all teased Mom and gave her grief, saying "Yeah, whatever." Mom was so confident that this was the missionary that our home church, River Valley, supports that she made us stop and then we noticed that we were standing right outside of The International Church. Turns out we'd been told to check out this church along our travels by a couple we met in Egypt who had previously pastored here and were enthusiastic about the new pastors. After waiting for Mom's "friend" to finish her conversation so Mom could give her a hug and introduce our group, we walked a bit and learned that Brandi and her husband are the new pastors that our Egypt friends were referring to! We were blown away at all of the unplanned kingdom connections that led to this interaction! It was a great connection and fun to hear Brandi's story very briefly before we parted ways and planned to return next Sunday for service.
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