European Vacation Day 2

Day 2! We woke up early to have our first full day of European vacation fun! We headed out fairly early in the morning (at least according to the teenagers) to hit the market a La Boqueria for breakfast. We walked up our beautiful street:

And headed over to Las Ramblas, along with quite a few other people. The girls were willing to pose for some pictures as we walked:

I loved the nice, wide streets, and the beautiful trees. The market was in these huge buildings, and had all sorts of treats of every kind, so many different kinds of fruits, lots of fish, pastries, bread, smoothies, and on and on!  Arden was looking for a specific stall that sold strawberries and nutella in a cup, as a friend of hers had visited Barcelona recently and raved abou tthem. I had a smoothie and others had some pastries and we all got lots to eat for our breakfasts.

After we were full, we got on the metro and headed over the La Sagrada Familia, a beautiful cathedral in Barcelona that has been under construction since the 1800s, designed primarily by Antoni Gaudi. It was incredible to come up out of the metro station, and turn around and see it soaring up into the sky:

We looked around the outside (Dax still not excited for pictures) and the carvings were so beautiful and intricate. We had an audio tour, but pretty much I listened to it and then gave everyone else the highlights, haha:

There were different sides to the cathedral, one side was the Nativity side, that is the side we went in on.

After looking around outside, we made our way into the interior. It was mind blowing! I took so many pictures, these are just a super small sample, but it will still be tedious for everyone but me:

The stained glass windows!

The columns and the intricate sculptured ceiling in organic shapes!

Did I mention the stained glass windows?!?

We got to go up inside a tower, we got to take the elevator up, and then walk down. It was good to see the city from above, and there was a beautiful park with purple trees across the street:

We were behind some statues, and we could see the ocean and everything.

Everyone was really patient with me taking pictures, and it was fun to see things from a different perspective...here is the back of the church from above:

After we walked around outside, we got to take these really cool spiral stairs down. Dax did not love taking them as there was no rail on the inside, and if you look down the middle, you could see allllll the way to the bottom. Which was a little scary, though it would have taken some talent to fall down that little hole. 

I actually loved going down the tower on the spiral stairs.

Once we got down, I had to go over and find one of the purple trees to take a picture of it. I looked it up and I think they are jacaranda trees. Beautiful!!

Here is the back of the church, which pictured the crucifixion. It was beautiful, and I loved the style of the sculptures.

After we got done with the cathedral, it was definitely time for lunch! We found a restaurant pretty close by, and I got some paella, which was ok but not great. I think everyone got enough to eat though. We headed back to our house for a rest. Cora and me wanted to go to the beach, but everyone else wanted a nap, still being a little jet lagged. Cora and I changed and then braved the metro and headed for Bogatell Beach, which we heard was a little more low-key and less pick-pockety than Barceloneta Beach, the main beach. Unfortunately, it was pretty windy and not all that warm. But it still looked pretty! 

The big hotel in the distance is the W that is on Barceloneta beach. There were a few brave people in the water, but not very many. We sat in the sun for a while, and walked along and put our toes in the water and enjoyed ourselves.

After a while, the other people woke up and we agreed to meet over in the Gothic Quarter. It was a fun walk, look at this building with all of the clothes hanging from the balconies! 

I loved walking down these skinny little...streets?  Can you call them that? Once in a while, a car would actually try to drive down them so I guess they were streets.

We met up at Placa Reial, a large and beautiful square with a fountain and palm trees. Dax was still not excited to be getting his picture taken! But we were glad he was with us anyway. 

We had dinner at a place that a guy I worked with who did a semester in Barcelona recommended, Bodi B. It was delicious and huge and reasonably priced and I would definitely recommend if you are ever in town! Though there are sometimes long lines.

Here is Arden's back and another cool narrow street:

We made Dax (and Preston) smile by getting some ice cream!

Okay, last cool little alleyway, but guys!  We don't have these where I live. I could have wandered for hours and hours.

After that, we headed back home for quick rest, and then went to a Flamenco show. Cora was crashing from missing the afternoon nap, so she stayed home from the show. It was actually really good, The guitar playing was amazing, the singing was great. The theater was really small, so after the show the dancers and musicians took a picture with us.

After the show was over, they wanted to give us a history lesson about Flamenco which went on a little too long for our tastes. We went and dropped off the kids, but I knew we were leaving the next day, so i wanted to go and see La Sagrada in the dark to see the star at the top on the tower of the tower of the Virgin Mary lighted up.

There was a pond across the way from the cathedral, and it was cool to see the cathedral reflected in it. 

As we were walking back home, we saw the guy who gave Cora a rose at dinner yesterday, and he was out selling roses again He remembered us, and offered us another free rose since he was on his way home (it was like 1 a.m.), but I made Preston give him a couple of euros. It was the most beautiful perfect rose I ever had. I was pretty tired, but I set my alarm to go on an early run.