Day 11 - Bareloneta Beach Day and FC Barcelona Futsol Game

Day 11, June 11 - Barcelona Beach Day and FC Barcelona Futsol Game






Barcelona is a unique place for many reasons, one of which is the expansive urban center sitting directly adjacent to a long coastline of beaches.  Aaron started the morning with a long run throughout the marina while the boys and I relaxed.  We then ventured across the street to Bareloneta beach, single-handedly the most crowded beach to which we’ve ever been.  


We stopped for a quick lunch at a less than thrilling eatery, however the view of the bay with swimmers, paddle boarders, sail boats and bathers was really fun to see.  We were serenaded by a local guitarist while we people watched. 

We walked quite a ways down the beach to move away from the intense crowds, and landed on two beach chairs with an umbrella near a kids rope structure, which kept Colton’s attention for most of our visit.   We played football, volleyball, read, and played for a couple of hours in the hot sun.  The water here is much warmer than in La Herradura, which is interesting to us because we are further North.  

We came back to our apartment for some takeout Paella and salads, and got ready for the boys most exciting event to date: the FC Barcelona Futsol match at Camp Fou.

After rewarding the boys with their scavenger hunt prize, a Jersey from the FC Barcelona store, we attended the Futsol match indoors.  It was quite a spectacle. With an intense and passionate fan base, the room was filled with singing, chanting, and screaming.  The boys caught on to the chant, “Barca, Barca, Barca” and we joined the crowd in two overtimes that led to their loss 4 to 3.  While Barca lost the game in the end, this experience was the boys’ favorite thing we’ve enjoyed so far.







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 25: Discovering Salzburg

Image
  Day 25 - Discovering Salzburg Aaron started today with his longest run on this trip, over eight miles throughout the city of Salzburg.  The boys enjoyed breakfast and a few rounds of Uno, while I carried on my Nespresso coffee and devotional morning routine in my newest location, a chair near an open, breezy window which overlooks downtown Salzburg.   We gathered ourselves to head out and immediately discovered a park, where the boys played for a bit.  A few things have kept us sane on this trip, parks being one of them.  We let the boys play for a while as we determined our plan for the day.  Having approached this city with far less research than others, I’ve booked the next two days with activities, but this day is free.  We decided to head into the Alstadt to discover the town and head up to the fortress.   We’ve gone a few days without ice cream (having taken it away on more than one occasion as our only weapon of parenthood!) so ...
Read more

Day 2: Discovering La Herradura

Image
Day 2: Exploring La Herradura, Spain; Costa del Sol Today we explored the quaint and quiet village of La Herradura.  La Herradura means “horseshoe” in Spanish, and the town is given its name because of the horseshoe-like shape of its lovely bay. Difficult to get to for most tourists, it is a locals paradise and remains quiet to tourism, making it an ideal place to start our trip.  Driving around the region is incredible, the mountainous area full of contrasting dark greens, browns, and bright fushia flowers everywhere. The locals are friendly and helpful, and the boys are using their Spanish beautifully, often to the surprise of those who live here. We spent the day discovering our first Pasteleria, a pastry shop.  We found a great cup of coffee at Liboa, a local restaurant owned by Jose, from Granada. We ended up staying for an amazing fresh lunch, and Jose gave us suggestions for our visit to Granada in a few days.  We then ventured to a beach on the other side of...
Read more

Day 23: Hohenschwagnau and Neuschwanstein Castles, and The Luge at Tegelbergen

Image
  Day 23 - Hohenschwagnau and Neuschwanstein Castles, and The Luge at Tegelbergen We chose to come to Fussen, Germany on our way to Salzburg, specifically to visit two famed castles in the region, Hohenschwagnau and Neuschwanstein.  The boys are not enthused about visiting castles, churches, or monuments of any kind, and given that we’d spent the prior day cooped up in a car, the day started out pretty rough.  In order to make things fun, I’ve tried to engage them in scavenger hunts, like we did in Barcelona for Parc Guell. Unfortunately, I came unprepared for this day, and they came pretty tired out and disengaged.  Aaron and I still enjoyed the history while doing some extra parenting.  We first took a bus up to Schwagnau from Fussen to make our 9:50 tour time at Hohenschwagnau.  Commonly underestimated in comparison to Neuschwanstein, I truly enjoyed this castle more than any I’ve visited.  It was most interesting to see the intersectionality of Eur...
Read more