Where: Barcelona, the capital of the Catalonia region in Spain
When: February Half-Term (Monday 21st - Friday 25th) - this is the first UK spring break - the other is 2 weeks at Easter in between terms! (so lucky, eh?)
Why: We toyed with going to a sun-destination, but we really enjoy visiting large cities (we always have, but we probably also miss Toronto a bit). Liam's been desperate to play on a beach for months and Gemma doesn't care what we're doing as long as she's part of the action. Mark had been to Barcelona before during a 6-week Europe trip with his his BF, Nick, after Uni, but I (Krystal) had never been to Spain at all.
As we left for Manchester Airport in our rental car, it was randomly snowing and we worried that the 'Nicholson' flight cancellation curse which has plighted Mark's brother's family as of late was going to transfer to our Nicholson Family however, lucky for us, this was not the case. Mark had a brilliant idea to rent a car for the weekend, return it at the airport, store our child carseats at the airport in the 'excess baggage' area for 5£/item/day whilst away and hire a car when we got back - more value for money than just taking an airport taxi both ways.
We flew with Lufthansa via Dusseldorf, which Liam pronounced: 'Boosel-doorf?' - he's so funny. We were able to go through the express line with pram (oversized item) for baggage clearance, but got stuck behind a family of Muslims going to UAE with tons of liquids over 100mL (yeah, they totally got drilled by security). We had to open up 2/4 apple sauces, taste and eat straight away since they would spill all over our luggage (note to self: try to stuff them in checked baggage next time). I don't know why they do that - they don't make me use my hand sanitizer or lotion? Annoying.
The actual flights with Lufthansa were great, even though we were split up for the first flight (I sat alone with Gemma on my lap in a two-seater row with an empty seat next to me - sweet!). It was nice flying with a proper airline for once as opposed to the low-cost airlines that we've gone on lately. It's nice to get drinks and snacks and not have to pay for them.
Arriving in Barcelona, we got a taxi from the airport (sans carseats) and held on tight to Gemma. The not-so-funny thing is, it's not illegal to hold onto an infant in the back seat of a taxi - not in UK either! - Yikes! It cost 30 €
(euros) to get to our hotel, including a tip, which we expected from what we read online.
BEST HOTEL EVER! Petit Palace Museum Hotel was modernized 4 years ago and is in a great area of the city, just north of Las Ramblas - the main strip. We had a family room with bunk beds for Liam (he slept on the bottom bunk and we used the other mattress as a crash pad in case of a fall), a travel cot was already set up for Gemma and there was a Dell laptop with WiFi - total selling feature since Mark had a project for his online course due. The hotel also welcomed the kids with cute stuffed hippo and crocodile, and regularly had lollies at the front desk, which Liam (and Mummy) loved.
We got into the city just in time for dinner - most Barcelona locals eat dinner at 8-9pm, although many restaurants are open earlier and we ate at around 6 most nights. We had heard from everyone to watch our wallets in this city so we were really alert the first night - I wore my messanger-style handbag under my rain coat and Mark relived his backpacker days, keeping his wallet in a pocket in shorts he wore under his pants! After feeling absolutely ridiculous and seeing loads of tourists about, carelessly swinging their designer handbags around, I opted to wear mine normally, but keeping the zippers in front of me. Mark noted that we lived in Toronto for a long time and are smart about this sort of stuff. He did opt to keep his wallet under his pants, but I think it was because it made him feel like he was in University again and he did just have a birthday :)
The only sketch part of the whole trip was on our first morning in a cafe for breakfast and a guy who we later found out was from the Congo came over asking for money. That wasn't necessarily the problem - he just continued to talk to us and he still had some white make-up on his face from buskering the day before. Dude, just take the handout and move on.
Onto the real sights: Barcelona is full of amazing architecture (lots of Gaudi) from when the walls of the city opened up and expanded to L'Eixample district in 1860.
Sights & Experience Highlights:
Las Ramblas - outdoor promenade with buskers, kiosks (some selling caged pets!) a famous drinking fountain (Canaletes), and the entrance to the main market, 'Mercat de St. Josep' or 'La Boquiera' as it's . La Rambla, the street leads to the Port Vell where a statue of Christopher Columbus turning his back on the city stands.
Plaça Catalunya - 2 huge fountains and a large square that Liam loved.
Casa Mila Mila or La Pedrera (Gaudi) - I remembered this one as a favourite from Art History and Mark wanted to see the 'storm trooper-esque' rooftop so we did the tour and actually went inside. They had 'buggy parking' for the pram and offered a carrier for Gemma, although we wanted to get her walking a bit so we declined. It was really interesting Modernisme (Catalan art-nouveau) architecture consisting of wavy concrete and iron, and a good stop for the kids to play around on the rooftop. The craziest is that people actually live there and during the day loads of tourists are trampling through! If you take the stairs, you see notes on doors asking not to knock or enter:)
Basilica de la Sagrada Familia (Gaudi) - This is the unfinished Gaudi legacy - and there were lots of cranes and construction to prove it. There was also lots of reconstruction going on as there always is with older buildings. We didn't go in this one as we had already had a big day and thought it would be too much for the kids. We walked around the entire site. Mum and Dad admired the architecture while Liam admired the cranes and all the work going on (we seriously stopped to watch a crane lift some large steel rods!)
The Markets -We went into two markets but Mercat St. Josep (official name) off Las Ramblas, is the most popular with tourists. We bought a few things on different occassions- coffees, delicious fresh fruit, fruit juices, pasta for lunch and almonds for snicky-snacks. Prices are better before 10am when locals shop. It was great getting such fresh produce - some just shipped in from North Africa:)
Parc de la Ciutadella - the site of a Universal Exposition in 1888, a ginormous public park with an impressive fountain structure (La Cascada) designed by a number of Catalan artists (including Gaudi). The Catalan Parliament meets in one of the buildings here, plus there's a zoo, a few museums, a play park and lots of sculptures. We ate our market lunch by the fountain one day and watched the locals 'siesta' - mostly kids playing football:)
The Beach - the Barceloneta beach is very much like the Toronto beaches in look and function and also has a boardwalk. The area was revitalized for the 1992 Olympics and the residential buildings in this area were created for the Olympic Village. We spent an afternoon at the beach - not warm enough to go for a swim, but we all had fun playing in the sand.
Montjuic - a big hill by the sea and the site of a Jewish cemetary in the Middle Ages (hence the name - Jewish Mountain), a second Universal Exposition in 1929 and most of the Olympic events & celebrations in 1992. We didn't realize the fenicular was part of the metro system and couldn't figure out how to get on it to get up so we walked - yowzers - Mark pushed the pram up! Once up, we took a cable car ride to the very top to explore the Castle and have lunch (Liam enjoyed looking at the shipping docks below). From the cable car we had great views of the city and could see the Palace on Montjuic as well. We took the fenicular down and connected with the metro back into the 'downtown'.
The Tapas - not Catalonian, but Spanish and great for eating out with kids - you can order lots of variety and the food just keeps on coming! We went to two tapas-style restaurants. We felt confident overall with our restaurant choices as there were quite a few locals dining at each one. Mum and Dad also sampled the Sangria and Cava (Catalan champaign).
Mark went for a run early one morning down La Rambla (street) to the beach and back. He tries to run once or twice in cities we visit on holiday - he only got out once in Barcelona since he needed to finish up his project during our down time:)
My University Spanish prof would be amused at my attempt to speak Spanish in Barcelona. It wasn't required as most people do speak some English, but it definitely helped and I believe that people appreciate and treat you better if you attempt to speak their language. Although locals in Barcelona apparently speak Catalan - a mix of Provencal French and Italian - it all sounded Spanish to me, although I have been known to mix up my French and Spanish anyway.
My Spanish came in handy when ordering our white coffees (with milk - cafe con leche), cold milk (leche frio) for the kids at restaurants as milk in Europe comes warm and with sugar - we saw this in Prague too. It was also useful while shopping and for saying how old the kids were in order for Liam to get a lower chldren's rate for some tickets (Casa Mila, Cable car). The only problem was that numerous times I would be spoken back to in full-on Catalan or Spanish and have no idea what was said, then having to do the meek 'sorry?'
Most transit systems in Europe (and UK too) seem to be free for kids under 5 which is great. We bought a T10 metro pass, which we had read on travel sites was the best value for 9 €. It got us 10 rides on transit and was good for multiple people with pass-back allowed (you reading this, Toronto?) We used it for the subway and the fenicular. We had trouble getting the pram through one of the turnstiles in the metro and a group of young African guys assisted us through the right one - cheers guys!
My Spanish also came in handy when we had to go to the Farmacia (pharmacy) - one time to see if we could get an oral steroid (prednisolone) without a prescription for Gemma's new cough and a second time to get more kids paracetamol (like Tylenol). We got the paracetamol but not the steroid since I couldn't remember what her dosage was, but had I, I would have gotten it. (We took Gemma to the Urgent Care Clinic when we got back to England and she got the meds she needed.)
The only souveniers we bought were an FC Barcelona ball for the kids and a 'windy thing' for Liam - one of those things you stick in the garden and the top spins around with the wind. There were lots of other things we could've bought, but nothing we really fancied enough to lug back with us (we're also being very conservative now that we're coming back home soon and haven't got much room in our luggage).
Our taxi back to the airport was way safer than the first we took - this one was more like a minivan and the back seats had built in booster seat conversions and a child seat on hand for Gemma. Our two flights back to Manchester were similar to the flights we took there and we were split up between Dusseldorf and Manchester. Back in Manchester I had no trouble getting back into the UK with my Visa (didn't ask me if I had a job like last time - being a Stay-at-Home Mum is work enough!). We picked up the kids' car seats from excess baggage for 40£ total (not bad) and got our new car hire. When we got back to New Mills, I took Gemma straight to the Urgent Care Clinic for her cough while Mark and Liam got Fish 'n Chips.
Overall Barcelona was beautiful (the great weather definitely made it more comfortable seeing the city), the food was delicious and the people were lovely.
Photos: Facebook
Adéu,
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