We Cannot Feel Our Feet

We walked so much on Saturday & Sunday.  Neither of us had too bad of blisters, but our feet were generally sore & tired.  We woke up fairly early on Saturday, as we had tickets to see La Sagrada Familia.  As many of our avid blog followers know, we love visiting all the different cathedrals around Europe.  This basilica ranks #2 on our list, close behind St. Peter's Basilica (Vatican).  This basilica was modern, and Antoni Guadi's work was amazing.  He definitely left his mark on the city.  We both received audio guides with our tickets, and we were glad we did as we learned so many different details about the church including his lighting goals, what the towers stood for, and many other intricate details of the building.

 They are obviously doing work on it, which was disappointing for our pictures.  

 We loved these stained glass windows.  No pictures inside, but just small pieces of colored glass.  

 We love those audio guides! ha!

 We climbed the Nativity Tower.  Amazing views of Barcelona.  

 Out on the edge.  It was pretty scary! 

 Climbing our way down!

Next up, was walking all the way back down towards the beach.  We wanted to take few pictures of the Columbus Monument (Christopher Columbus) before making quite a hike up the Montjuic (hillside in Barcelona) to stop at a restaurant with beautiful views, and see the Montjuic Castle.  Our hike wasn't the easiest, as we didn't really know where we were going.  We found a beautiful garden, and then within time found Martinez Restaurant, where we sat down for lunch.  This was a great stopping point, as we were hot and tired from the long walk.  After lunch, we walked to another restaurant for a beer to enjoy the beautiful view one last time before heading further up the hill to the castle.  

 Columbus Monument

 The beautiful gardens. 

At the restaurant, Martinez.

Jeff enjoying his oysters and calamari.  

At the next restaurant, enjoying the views and some beer! 

After getting a little pep in our step, we walked up a million steps, huffing & puffing, might I add.  We made it to the top, and we were very glad we did.  The castle wasn't anything fancy, but it had the best views of the city.  Jeff really enjoyed this spot, and it was probably one of his favorites from the trip.  

 The entrance of the castle. 

 Beautiful views beach side! 

 City side views! 

We cheated and took the cable car down to the beach after the castle.  It saved us a lot of time & energy! 

We ended our day at the beach again, although the amount of people on the beach this time was insane.  We could barely find a spot to sit! Our last day, Sunday, came too quickly.  Our final destination before heading to the airport was to Park Guell, another one of Guadi's masterpieces.  This was another tough walk at times, as it was on another hillside.  We both agreed, it wasn't necessarily worth 7 euro each to get in because just outside this paid area was a part you could walk through for free. Either way, we were able to get some beautiful photos from this park.  

 Jeff "Lifting" the column

 We met a nice man from Texas, living in Germany, who took this photo. It is always great to meet an American here/there.  

Jeff saw this "hill" from park of the walk. He made it his goal to get there. 

One of my favorites 

 I was kind of freaking out at the top of this "hill".  There was nothing to stop me from falling off the edge, so I was having some serious fear of heights attack at this point. 

Great photo of Jeff on the top of the "hill"

This was definitely my favorite trip so far, and one of Jeff's favorites.  There was so much to see and do, and we felt there was still more we didn't even have time for.  Great experience in Barcelona, Spain. 

We Bought a Flat in Barcelona!

....Just kidding, although if I had to pick a place to own a vacation home...Barcelona would be the spot! We had an amazing time.  This city was the best of both worlds, great history & architecture as well as the beach.  We took advantage of both!

We got to Barcelona around dinner time on Wednesday, well I should say America's dinner time (6 pm).  We found out dinner time in Barcelona is from 9-11 pm! We actually were able to eat around that time due to being so busy throughout the day and evenings.  On Wednesday night, we were able to grab our first round of tapas: patatas bravas (potatoes with a cheese sauce), peppers, & chicken.  It was great! 

We, well I should say, I, woke up on a mission on Thursday.  This was the first trip that I really prepped for and did my research.  It helped that a few of our friends over here gave some suggestions, so from that I made an itinerary.  I know what you're thinking...poor Jeff. I eventually calmed down once we checked a few things off of our "to dos".  We were able to see this place called Casa Calvet, and to be honest we could barely find it because the building didn't really stand out from the rest.  Jeff laughed that I even had it on the "must sees". If you're reading this, and planning on going to Barcelona, you can definitely leave this one off of your list. I'm not going to even waste blog space by putting a picture up! hehe

We headed towards La Monumental (former bull fighting stadium), which was fantastic.  There were not many people there, so we were able to take advantage of the stadium and even stand in the middle of the bull ring.  La Monumental no longer does bull fights, which completely bummed Jeff out. We ended up getting some great pictures and really enjoyed our time there.  This was one of Jeff's favorite places we went while in Barcelona.  He has his eye on attending a live bull fight at some point. Yikes!

The outside of the stadium.  The blue & white parts of the building are made of small tiles.  Amazing!

Jeff inside the bull ring.  

Thanks, Sis for letting us buy the camera.  We took advantage of the self-timer & new settings.  We love it! 

After the stadium, we attempted to go to a flea market, but it wasn't open...so we headed onto the next destination which was Arco del Triunfo.  This was a beautiful monument in the city that we snapped a few photos of before heading into a park.  Grabbing lunch was up on the agenda, so we heading through the Gothic Quarter  and stopping at a local market to grab something for lunch.  The markets were amazing & everything was fresh.  The fish were a little too fresh, if you know what I mean.  Because it was so crowded, Jeff and I made a plan to meet outside with our items of choice if we got separated.  Good thing we said this, because the minute I smelled the fish...I quickly moved away from that area.  I think Jeff ended up with some sort of meat & pepper skewer and breaded spinach.  I came out with a chicken & cheese pastry and a strawberry juice.  We ended up heading back through to get some more fruit.

 Well this is a first...just a peacock walking around the city.  The zoo was close by, so I was convinced it escaped...

Now, do you see why I ran? This AND the smell...not cool. 

Can you believe I'm still only talking about Thursday? We accomplished so much at this point! We headed back towards the hotel to get some sun at our rooftop pool! Before the pool, we saw Casa Batllo, which was so creative! This building has to be one of the best pieces of architecture in the city.  We opted out and didn't go inside, but I'm sure when we live there we will have time to do that. Am I right?  The pool was so relaxing, and definitely a great way to unwind after a long day of walking the city.  We got cleaned up and headed out for, yet another, round of tapas. We tried a few other types including some sort of pork, grilled vegetables, patatas bravas (Yes, again!), guacamole, and Pa amb tomaquet. Pa amb tomaquet was a Catalan specialty.  You were given bread, tomato, garlic, and olive oil.  You rubbed the garlic and tomato on the bread and drizzled olive oil on top. Really yummy!  

 Casa Batllo...one of the many Gaudi pieces of "art" throughout the city. 

 Pool time!

Our little oasis! 

Now...Friday. 

So, since I "planned ahead" I obviously checked the weather before we left for Barcelona.  Planning a beach day didn't seem odd at all as all 5 days were in the mid 80's with zero clouds.  Little did I know, the forecast changed and we woke up to the sounds of thunder and rain.  After getting ready and eating breakfast the rained stopped, so we started our trek to the beach.  We walked through the city, stopping in/out of a few shops, markets...and feeling a few rain drops here and there.  At the time, it wasn't looking pretty for our beach-filled day.  We got to the beach, with dark clouds overhead, and just enjoyed the fact that we were sitting beach-side.  The rain came back, and within a half an hour...beautiful skies again.  We really lucked out because due to the hiccup in our morning, the rest of the day was beautiful and the beach wasn't that crowded. We got some sun, enjoyed some reading, had a few beers, and played around in the Mediterranean Sea. 

 Before...

 After...

We didn't leave the beach until around 6:30 or so.  We headed to the Flea Market to look around.  They had this club-type atmosphere at the very top of the multi-teared market.  Jeff grabbed a piece of pizza and a beer. I think he needed that to get himself through the flea market with me.  Poor guy. After the market, we got cleaned up and went to a Flamenco Show.  This is something I really wanted to go see, and once again Jeff was a trooper and went with me.  It was an hour long show where local performers would dance and sing.  I loved it!  Their costumes were amazing as well as their level of speed when moving their feet.  It was definitely a different experience for us, as we don't normally take advantage of shows and things like that while on holiday.  

It wasn't just an ordinary flea market. This place was huge! 

 Palacio del Flamenco   

Look out for another blog post to summarize Saturday and Sunday. Phew, I'm tired. 

Cancer, We're Coming to Get You!

A few friends, from the Better Halves Club, I hang out with on a regular basis invited me to run the Race for Life 5k (3.1 miles) with them this past Sunday for cancer research. We were told there were over 3,500 women signed up.  There were two different races, so we're assuming that number was for both races.  Either way...there was a lot of women out running and walking in support to cancer research.  I ran the race in memory of my Papaw Hedges, who lost the fight to cancer a little over a year ago.

We got there pretty early, and just chatted until the race started. It sprinkled a little before the race, but cleared up and became muggy.  At that point, we felt we were in Indiana with the sticky summer conditions.  Immediately after the race, the crazy England weather graced us with a few sprinkles, but quickly went away.  It was a great event, and the entire park was filled with pink in support.  They had a few pieces of entertainment before the race started.

Sarah, me, & Jo. 

So sad to see Sarah leave the UK in a few weeks and head back to the US for good. She will be missed! 

Jeff and another Rolls-Royce husband stood on the sidelines (women only race) to cheer us on and snap photos.  Not much to say about the race, other than it was more hilly than we anticipated.  We chatted and enjoyed one another's company, rather than racing to beat a personal best. We finished the race, and went to enjoy a pint together at a local pub.  All-in-all it was a fun experience, and hopefully more are in my future.

Celebratory pint after our run!

A big THANKS to Jeff Hansen and Sarah Henkle for snapping most of these photos and sharing them with me!