We Were in Spain?!

So May seemed to last much longer than just 31 days, and it seems crazy that we were in Barcelona just a month ago, from April 28-May 3. We'd planned the trip in a kind of covid-break fever, along with our trip to Mexico--with numbers low (back at the beginning of the year) and all of us vaxxed, it seemed like this was our chance to finally do some traveling. Andrew's fifteen-year MBA reunion was planned for May, and our discussion about how he should definitely go quickly expanded into--Hey, let's ALL go! So we pulled the kids out of school for a few days and went. Our first time back since we left in 2007.

It was very very strange and exceptionally wonderful to be back. Lots has changed. It seemed much more crowded and touristy than we remembered, and there were new procedures for timed tickets to Gaudi sites and things like that. But we reconnected quickly. We rented an apartment in the Barri Gotic, a narrow four-story apartment with one room on each floor, and after dropping off our bags we headed out for our first day. NO NAPPING--our jetlag-survival rule. Don't even sit down. Just...get...going.

With only a few days in Barcelona, our plan was mostly to just walk around and eat, but we did want to introduce the girls to Gaudi. So our first stop on the first day was the Sagrada Familia. We walked around the interior and went into a spire, then walked a precarious spiral staircase down. We had lunch outside at a cafe with a view of the Sagrada. Over the next couple of days, we also went to the Casa Batllo and La Pedrera, and the Barcelona Cathedral. It was like visiting old friends. We went to our old apartment and took a picture outside, and walked along La Rambla. We had dinner at Taller de Tapas, an old favorite. On our last day, we went to the beach. The kids LOVED this because there was seaglass everywhere. Luckily we had a plastic bag with us and they collected until it was time to go.

Andrew had a lot of reunion things to do over those days as well, dinners and then an all-day event on Saturday, so the girls and I also got to explore alone. We walked a million miles and did lots of people-watching and shopping. They both bought clothes at Zara and H&M, and became obsessed with a trendy Spanish discount store called Ale-Hop. Ale-Hops were all over the city and we probably went into five or more. They bought pouches, pens, notebooks. At H&M, they bought a large quantity of costume rings (and then Lucia had a heartbreaking loss of a ring when she flung her hand up outside Taller de Tapas and the ring flew off, never to be seen again).

We ate gelato several times. Greta dropped her cone while trying to take a selfie of herself with her cone (eyeroll) (I bought her another cone). We walked to the port and looked down at the too-many large fish. We ate a lot of croissants. We had churros y chocolate at an old place off the Rambla. The kids were really great travelers, as usual, game for anything as long as shopping and snacks were involved. 

We also went to a fish spa. We'd walked past it during our day on our own, then dragged Andrew back the next day. He took pictures while we soaked our feet in vats of fish. It was not pleasant. I will not do this again. I actually can't even look at the pictures without feeling vaguely panicky.

I have to admit to being quite wimpy about meals out with the kids--so we mostly just bought groceries and ate in our apartment. Time to learn some Spanish (she says for the one-millionth time, knowing she'll never actually learn Spanish).

Andrew and I each had one unfortunate meal involving squid--careless / clueless ordering--but otherwise ate very well.

We had only four days in Barcelona, not nearly enough time. Too soon it was our last day, and we had to do our telehealth covid tests--the most stressful part of the trip. In theory it would be nice to be stuck in Spain; but we did not want to be stuck in Spain. We were all negative, cleared to fly home. And that was our quick Barcelona trip. More of these, please.