Day 10 - Barcelona

 Day 10, June 10 - Barcelona


Barcelona overflows with life on every corner.  The narrow alleyways are surrounded by palm trees, cafes and boutiques.  Our apartment is so cool; a historic gothic building that is in an area protected by UNESCO, it has two stories with bay windows overlooking the Ronda Litoral. We’re just blocks from Las Ramblas and equal distance from Barceloneta beach.  


We started our day with an awesome breakfast at Milk, definitely some of our best food to date.  We ventured to La Boqueria, the large outdoor market famous for fresh seafood, juices, nuts, chocolates, spices, fruits and vegetables. The colors throughout the market were so intoxicating, and we had to treat ourselves a juices (pineapple/coconut, lemon/lime, papaya/pineapple) right away. We also stopped to grab a chocolate treat, and enjoyed our many choices with a cafe Americano just outside the market.


For the afternoon, we rented bikes and ventured uphill to visit Park Guell. We adapted to the traffic filled with bikers, walkers and electric scooters. Barcelona is a city built for biking, as each main road has a bike lane with actual stoplights dedicated for bikes. It took us a minute to get comfortable, but once we got the hang of the signals, it was quite fun.


Park Guell was designed by Antoni Gaudi as a high-end community for the wealthy of Barcelona in 1900. However, the project was a complete failure and is now home to a park for tourists that overlooks the city. We bought a Barcelona scavenger hunt online, and the boys took on the challenge of finding items throughout the park, specifically dragons and bats represented throughout Spanish architecture.  We promised a prize once they accomplished the hunt, and it kept them occupied while Aaron and I enjoyed the views.


On our way back downhill (way easier!) the boys grabbed a croissant and we found an outdoor park for the kids to run around.  After all that biking they still had energy to play tag!  We stopped at a fish market on the way home to grab seafood for our pasta dinner, and came home to cook a big meal as a family.  Unfortunately, we dropped a jar of pasta sauce on our kitchen floor, twice actually, reminding us that we do live in reality.  It was an incredible mess to clean up.  After some clean-up, a delicious meal, and an extensive round of laundry, we called it a night. The boys were asleep by 9:45, our earliest tuck-in so far.






















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