Vamos a Barcelona!!!

Barcelona is next on the agenda and what better way to get there by then through the Spanish countryside.  I slept the entire train ride so didn't get to see much but Drew snapped a few awesome pictures along the way.  We took a cab from the train station and the first thing I noticed is that way more people speak English in Barcelona than Madrid and also there are too many tourists.  Our place was small (too small) and one block from the beach but we never got to enjoy the sun.  I will say the first few days were overrun by the crowds but after Jim, Emily and Nate headed back home to Amsterdam, the sun came out (I am talking a 20 degree difference) and we moved locations to a much quieter part of town and it wasn't until this move where we had the epiphany of "ya I could live in Barcelona."  This is going to be more of a picture blog because there are a lot of pictures.

Countryside between Madrid and Barcelona.

Santa Maria Del Mar Church in the Born neighborhood (one of my favorite barrios).  In the background what looks like a lamppost is the eternal flame.

Emily's good friend from her college days at Boulder lives in Barcelona and she was a regular fixture showing us good bars and restaurants.  This is at La Hacienda Restaurant in Born which is probably the best Mexican food I have encountered outside of North America.  Not as good as back home but hit the spot.

Plaça Reial (better known to English speakers as Plaza Real).  We went to a really fun dance club because the XGames and it seemed like a "players party" and we danced the night away.

A meaningless crab near our home near the beach that I loved.

The most crowded place on Earth, Calle La Ramblas.  A tourist magnet.

The sun appears to be out....this was not a common theme.

Panoramic of Plaza Real at day.

The Sagrada Familia.  I saw it ten years ago and it was under construction and I remember the sign saying it would be done in 2012 and I thought, "I will never see this building complete."  Fast forward ten years later, still under construction, look no different with a new estimated finish year of 2026.  

It looks like a giant drip castle and the size of it is massive.  I didn't realize how large it was until we got a view of the entire city from Parque Guëll and it dwarfs all other buildings in the city.

View from the hospital up the street (no one had to go to the hospital, just wanted a better view).

Aforementioned hospital.

Don't be fooled like we were.  It may appear to be a bull arena but it is actually a modern shopping mall on the inside.

View from Stephanie's balcony!

She took us to an amazing Ethiopian restaurant in the Gracia Barrio!  I need to get the name from her because it was seriously so good.  

Edit:  Thanks to Trip Advisor I was able to find the name of the restaurant which is called Abissinia.  Also of note, while we had Ethiopian, Nate and Jim went to the FC Barcelona soccer game which is probably the biggest soccer team in all of Spain and is the biggest soccer stadium in Europe seating 99,354 people (thanks Wikipedia).

Plaza Catalunya at the end of La Ramblas.

Park Guëll.  Very touristy and crowded and obnoxious but the views were so worth it.  As I may have mentioned before my favorite thing to do in a city is get a view of the entire thing.

If you look closely you can see the Agbar Tower in the financial district (tall building that looks like a bullet).  

Emily breaking rules by stepping over guard rails to take pictures.

We try to make it look like we are the only people at each site and I think we do a good job.

Tibidabo in the background from the park.

A better panoramic.

It cleared up for a few minutes to take this picture.  

The main Cathedral (Santa Eulalia) in Barcelona located in the Gothic district.  

Drew standing under one of the archways.

Romantic balcony acrobatics.

And the more conventional photo.

Inside the Santa Maria Church

La Boqueria Market off of La Ramblas.  I love markets and this one is no different.  

Lamb heads!  Not my favorite part of the market.

I liked this photo so I added it.  If we had Emily's camera we could give you a larger plethora of photos.

The entrance to the market.

The National Art Museum of Catalonia near Montjuic and the Olympic Stadium from 1992 where the XGames were being held while we were there from May 16th through 19th.

View from below entrance of the Museum.  We took this picture because it is the opposite view of the city that we had from Park Guëll.

Emily holding the Olympic torch.

Inside the Olympic Stadium.

Emily's shoe VS MJ's but I do not think this is his real shoe size.

Drew's future Alma Mater (he really wants to go to the University of Barcelona).

While in Barcelona we drank a lot of Estrella and Mahou.  We also had drinks at 100M (Montaditos) which was he chain we found in Madrid similar to La Sureña which sell everything for 1 euro.

McDonald's serves beer for no extra cost!  I rarely eat McDonalds but it was the best thing the airport had to offer

Finally we are off to our home in Europe where we are staying with Jim and Emily in Amsterdam.  We will be here the majority of the time and then make a lot of side trips out from here.  We are so excited to be here and be back on a normal schedule.  We love to travel as you can see from this blog but we like staying in locations for extended periods of time and getting a feel for everything.  Once we upload the photos from Emily's camera we will post more pictures and make a separate blog post.  Miss all of you back home and until next time.  Tot Ziens!!!

PS - If you are ever in Barcelona and craving Chinese food then check out Son Hao.  It is the BEST Chinese food I have had in my life, and I have been to China.  The quality of the Shrimp Curry and Kung Pao Chicken.   Just thinking about it makes my mouth water.

Multiplying in Madrid

It seems that every city we go to we always end up saying that we could live there and that definitely holds true in Spain.  Our last blog posted ended with Parque de Retiro and after our walk through the park we continued on through the city.  Here are a few of the items we encountered on our walk home that day:

This is the Alcala Door (better known around the world as the triumphant arc)

This is Plaza de la Cibeles which was beautiful.  It amazes me that every building, famous or not, is incredibly detailed.

 Here is the inside of the church we had a view of from our window the Almudena Cathedral.

We did our favorite thing and stop for tapas.  We had heard about this chain of bars called El Tigre and after one stop it became a hot spot.  A large beer is 5 Euros which is expensive relatively speaking but the beer is about 24 ounces and it comes with what seemed like unlimited tapas.  Prosciutto on bread, cheese on bread, mini hamburgers, cheese croquettes (my favorite), chicken wings (they look gross but thats because back home we are used to hormone induced chickens and I am sure this is how wings were intended to look and the taste was great).

We saw this little Osito on every post card and were expecting a much larger bear but it was tiny and we had to take a picture of it.  This bear is in the heart of the city in Puerta del Sol.

Our friends Emily and Nate arrived after we had been in town for a week.  Sadly the weather was not accommodating and the dreary Dutch weather followed Emily and Nate down to Spain.  We had one clear day and so we took them on a walk to try and hit up all of the best sites so here is the front entrance of the Royal Palace of Madrid at sunset (yes its about 9 PM in this photo).

We had vowed to go back to Parque de Retiro with our friends when they arrived and go on the boats.   We picked up cheese and wine and brought it to the park and started to have a picnic.  The day started sunny and warm but sadly that was the last we saw of the sun the next 7 days.  We didn't even manager to have a glass of wine or ride the boats but we did get this picture.

So we did the next best thing and made Sangria at home.  We were lucky enough to meet a Spanish friend in Argentina and we wanted to make Spanish sangria.  He had told us the key was to add a lot of sugar (we learned this later at the bar El Tigre mentioned above because they put one full scoop of sugar in each glass).  He told us to add any kind of wine, lemon fanta, gin (I know gross), slice lemons and oranges, cinnamon and sugar and then any fruit we preferred which we added apples.  I hate when fruit turns mushy in drinks so I think apples are the best.  I will say this was probably one of the best sangrias I have ever had.

Jim arrived the day after Nate and Emily.  We had to move into a bigger apartment when our three visitors got there.  The apartment was not nearly in as good of a part of town and I would not recommend anyone ever staying there.  The buildings looked the same but the clientele in the area were drastically different.  They good thing about the apartment is it was seven stories tall and we were on the top floor with no elevator so it was a built in work out daily.

Here is the main walking street in the rain.  Our shoes were all soaked and jeans wet and everyone was cold but we powered through the city and made the best of it with our paraguas (umbrellas).  

It is always nice to have visitors come and even with the weather we made the best of it.  We went to Barcelona after Madrid and sadly the weather followed us there but that is for another blog post.  We couldn't be happier to be back in Europe and it seems like a lot of people want to visit including family and friends so hopefully we can meet up with some people (other than Melissa where were all of you when we were in Asia and South America?  I get it, Europe has a "safer" image).  Okay hasta luego.

By the way we took the train to Barcelona!  I love public transportation!