Barcelona - Let the Party Begin!

As we rounded up our gear to head to the Valencia train station, we realized we were missing our bag with passports and Eurail tickets (and some cash)! We all thought we'd seen this bag on the floor of our apartment where we had several electronics and things piled as there was not a safe, but after emptying our backpacks and ransacking the apartment several times, it was nowhere to be found. The owner of our Airbnb came and helped us try to track it down and notify everyone that might be able to help. Then he pulled a string or two and got us all on the train (without tickets) 3 minutes before it left. Frazzled and not thinking overly clearly at this point, this was the best thing we could've done, so we sat back and researched our options at this stage. By the grace of God we arrived in Barcelona, our first city location of our travels that Mom and Dad have been to before when they backpacked Europe after they were married and graduated college in '99.

We settled into our apartment and checked out the local market and shops to stock up on some basics as we were all excited to settle in for over 2 weeks, which we have not done for several months. Dad then headed off to the police station to file a report on our missing bag - a fun experience in another language.

Our apartment was located in the great area of Sarria, which was it's own city prior to being considered part of the larger Barcelona area, so this gave it a unique feel with lots of small markets, cafes, and interesting shops and parks.

Sweet flower shop with the bonus of a cute old man walking in front of Mom's photo!

On Wednesday two of our great friends, Ray & Brad, arrived to celebrate Dad's 40th birthday! Interestingly, over a decade ago these guys were in a small group together and had the activity of adding M&Ms to a jar to indicate how many years of life they thought they had left to live - while both of these friends are 10+years older, their positive optimism caused them to have many more M&Ms in their jars than Dad did, which is something that we still laugh about to this day! It was such a treat to see familiar faces and get to catch up and be together! They arrived mid-morning and after some snacks were ready to head out and explore the city. We started at Casa Batllo, which is sometimes referred to as "The House of Bones," and we followed our electronic guide-devices around imagining the nature and creative inspirations behind Antoni Gaudi's design of this unique building. We enjoyed learning about his distribution of light by placing smaller windows on the upper levels with larger windows on the lower levels to make the most of the natural light. Afterwords we wandered down the street and observed La Pedrera, one of Gaudi's residential buildings.

Kids excited for new big people!

Great friends joined our crew in front of Casa Batllo

Audio guides are big with this one!

In front of open atrium that filtered light from above using blue tiles of different shades
and wavy glass behind the railings to resemble water movement, Casa Batllo

The central atrium has darker tiles at the top where light is brighter and lighter tiles as you move towards bottom

Wandering around in awe envisioning what the inside of this place once looked like

Even the attic is cool here - the Catalan arch Gaudi is famous for

Gaudi's La Padrera residential building

Then we wandered down to the Mediterranean and walked along the boardwalk, stopping to grab some paella.  From there we wandered to the Christopher Columbus statue and mounted a few of the lions as we watched the traffic whiz around the circle.

Look at that golden Mediterranean sand!

G can't not climb it

So, why not adults?

We ended the night wandering in awe around Las Ramblas market, sampling fresh squeezed juices, nuts, sweets, and eyeing the different cuts of ham.  This market was an experience in and of itself and even though everyone was tired, we enjoyed the colorful treats and atmosphere before calling it a night.

Las Ramblas market

Food anyone?

Ostrich eggs & more