The sights and sounds of Barcelona

Day 2

6-19-2019

Today was what our family considers a "chill" day. Last night, the plane took off two hours late, so we had less time than we anticipated for exploring the city. However, I think this was for the better- energy was running pretty low already by 4:00pm, and people were starting to get cranky. 

Barcelona is going to be the only city we go to on this trip, so it worked out well that we had the rest of the day to check out some of the beautiful sights it has to offer. We managed to make it through the day, 2 old churches (one was built in the 14th century church), many colorful streets, trying delicious foods at the market, swimming in the Mediterranean Sea, and riding the subway.  

Our rental car is probably the nicest we have gotten of our travels - our bags, and ourselves all fit comfortably, and it even has working AC! When we arrived at the place we booked to stay for the night, they initially were not super happy about our +1 sleeper (me) that was planned to sleep on the floor of our four-person room... but eventually, we were able to sort everything out. 

   

The market was definitely James's highlight of the day - our breakfast was the airplane food, and it was well past lunch by the time we arrived at the market. My favorite was the coconut-mango smoothie, but I mostly just loved taking pictures of all the beautifully arranged foods. 

 

My mom decided to get one of the meat cones on sale - according to her, it was not bad! However, Maya and James did not care for it as much.

 The churches we visited had the most beautiful architectural designs. Even crazier, these were built thousands of years ago. While normally I do not think of buildings in the artistic sense, these structures are true masterpieces.

 As we neared the beach, tapestries coated the ground with color, taped down on the corners to keep from blowing off. The vendors, scattered over the sides, either passed time smoking or calling out in Spanish to passerby. There were also shoes, bags, hats, and sunglasses for sale, all neatly arranged on either side of the walk way.

 

At the beach, James and I both jumped in, relieved to be out of the sun and give our feet a break from walking in our sandals. The water was the perfect temperature - at least, for the two swimmers from New Hampshire! Compared to the crowds onshore, it seemed most were much more intent on getting a nice tan than enjoying the salty blue sea. 

After the beach, we were all pretty tired. At first, we tried to fit a taxi that could fit a family of five - apparently, this is almost impossible. So instead, we ended up finding our way to the subway, and somehow managed to not lose anyone! One thing we have definitely learned today is that traveling with five is a whole lot trickier than four. 

When we got back to our room, us 3 kids nodded off to sleep despite our parents urging us not to (as it was before 7:00pm. They couldn't wake us up, so they went out for tapas without us. They went to a street packed with people dining "al fresco" and lots of restaurants. All of the restaurants were self serve - you just go pick out the food you want to eat, save the "sticks" and then you pay for the number of sticks you have. Each piece was about $.80 and every one was unique and delicious. Our friend Laura told us to enjoy the food because compared to Spain, the food in the USA is garbage. Too bad we missed out, but it made them really happy. I guess it's true that when you snooze, you lose. Sleep came easily to everyone after a full day.