Saturday, February 14, 2009

A week off in Barcelona

Saturday, February 14, 2009
With my February break in sight and Matt's incredible 6 weeks of vacation time, we couldn't pass up our first opportunity while living in Europe to do some traveling! We debated for a while on our destination....sunny Tenerife on the Canary Islands? The snowy Alps of Austria? We decided that slightly warmer weather coupled with endless amounts of sight seeing and outdoor opportunities would make Barcelona the perfect choice. And thankfully, we were right!

Barcelona exceeded our expectations. We arrived on a Wednesday morning after a short Easy Jet flight, and were greeted with a 65-degree sunshiney day! After checking into Bonic, our cozy urban B&B right in the Gothic Quarter, we set out to explore the city. Our first stop....Park Güell, which is adorned with architect Antoni Gaudi's whimsical designs, straight out of a storybook. Along the way, we spotted a flock of wild parrots, just like in San Fran's Telegraph Hill. The park was fabulous and after walking around for a while, we soaked in the sun with a fresh pitcher of sangria!

The following 3 days were spent exploring the Gothic Quarter, museum-hopping, strolling down the famous Las Ramblas, taking siestas, and soaking in the Spanish culture. We even got to see an authentic Flamenco show! It was "seem-puhl" (as our hotel host, Fernando, would say) but very good. On the last day, we woke up to some falling temperatures, but the sun was shining so we decided to spend a good part of the afternoon on the beach. For both of us, it was our first time seeing the Mediterranean Sea, so it felt extra special. Our first excursion was so much fun! We both felt a serious travel bug coming on as we boarded our plane back to Berlin, and we are Next trip...the French Riviera in April with Les and Steve!

At Parc Guell, overlooking beautiful Barcelona!


One of the many over-the-top street performers on Las Ramblas

Flamenco!


Aah...sunshine!


La Sagrada de Familia - another of Gaudi's masterpieces


I love this one of Matt eating gelato


We stumbled across some remains of a Roman tower!

2 comments:

Anonymous

WOW, BARCELONA!!! I'm green with envy! How incredibly fun to be sight-seeing these romantic places with the man you love! Next the French Riviera?! Nice! The pictures are wonderful, keep them coming. Are you still enjoying your teaching job?

Laura Harrington

Thanks for your commenting, Tracey! Yes, vacations are always wonderful aren't they? My teaching job has been good...challenging, but good :) Hope you are well!

 
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