Zaugg Family European Vacation! Day 1 - Arriving at Barcelona

I'm skipping ahead to our recent trip in June 2024 because it was the trip of a lifetime and i am already forgetting things! I'll go back someday and talk about all the stuff in between I promise.

Cora and Arden had been wanting to go on a cruise vacation for years. Cora especially wanted to go to Italy and Greece "all my life." Arden kept mentioning how we should go on a big vacation before she heads off to college. I am not sure exactly how it happened but in a moment of weakness Cora convinced me to book a Disney Mediterranean Cruise! It was not cheap! But we were excited! We were getting on the ship in Barcelona, and getting off in Rome.

I spent weeks and weeks trying to find cheap flights (not very successfully), and trying to figure out logistics of where to stay before and after the cruise, what activities we should do at each of our stop...how to get to these activities, etc. etc. 

Finally, the day arrived! We flew on Royal Dutch airlines, and we flew directly from SLC to Amsterdam, leaving at 9 p.m. We all had our earphones and neck pillows and everything we needed to try and sleep as much as possible. Here is a picture of our row, with Arden and Cora are both sacked out. We got some sleep, but there were twin babies on the row in front of us, and their poor mom would just get one quieted down and the other one would start crying, they would not accept grandma and grandpa who were trying to help.

We had a stopover in Amsterdam but it was only a couple of hours, just long enough to get through customs which went super smoothly. We had a weird cheese sandwich snack on our next leg from Amsterdam to Barcelona, and then we finally arrived! It was like 6:30 p.m. local time. We waited for our luggage and got only slightly lost on the way to the airport bus. We found it and got off pretty near to our apartment were were renting! Bueno! Only after we got off the bus I checked the email of where to check in and it turns out we had to get our keys at a completely different place like 3 miles away! No bueno!

So, I sat my super-excited children and all of our luggage down on a bench in Placa Catalunya and ran for the metro. I bought a ticket and jumped on a train trying to hurry as fast as I can! After one stop I figured out that I was going the wrong direction! Perfecto! ARRGGH.  I jumped off the train and ran to the other side of the tracks and got headed in the right direction. I got off on the stop my phone told me too (thank goodness for google maps!) and walk/jogged to the office and got the keys (yay!) and reversed my course. I texted the crew to meet me at the apartment, and only like 45 minutes later than expected we got into the apartment.  It was in a great location and super cute: 

We were tired and starving and it was dark now, so everyone (except Arden who was more tired than hungry) headed to a nearby restaurant to get some Tapas! Yo tengo mucho hambre!

There were lots of adorable little restaurants with tables out on the wide streets. The weather was beautiful and warm and perfect. We got some croquettes, some patatas bravas, pan con tomate, and some other things I don't remember. They were all delicioso! See how happy we are (Dax does not love getting his picture taken, I promise he had fun):
 

Then un hombre simpatico walked by selling roses. We told him we had no dinero, but he gave Cora a free flower anyway cuz she's so cute:

Here is the view from our teeny little balcony up Rambla Catalunya. 

And here is the building across the street:

After dinner we brought Arden some leftovers and then headed off to sleep!