Bonnie and Dan Visit

As this summer may be our last in Spain so we decided to stay in Spain instead of going back to Canada and visiting our family and friend.  For the last few months we have really been encouraging all of our family and friends to come visit us here in Barcelona.  I think that our plan worked!  Since the end of May, we have hosted 3 groups of visitors from Canada and we will have 3 more groups coming through in July and August.

On May 30th, Bonnie (Bob's sister) and her youngest son, Dan, arrived in Barcelona.  It was so much fun showing them around.  They were pretty happy with everything they were able to see and do. Here is a summary of their week here:

Sunday May 31st 

- parc de Labirint

- Feste de la Cirera (cherry festival) in Santa Coloma de Cervelló (important to show them correfoc)

Monday June 1st (holiday for the kids because of segunda pascua or second Easter, because in Barcelona you need to celebrate Easter twice)

- Drove up to Begur and spent the afternoon at the beach in Sa Tuna

Tuesday June 2nd

- Downtown to la Rambla, Boqueria, Barri Gotic and la Catedral

Wednesday June 3rd

- La Sagrada Familia

- More exploring downtown

Thursday June 4th

- Bonnie does a gyrotonic session at a studio in Gràcia

- Parc Guëll 

Friday June 5th

- A bit of shopping along Carrer Gran de Gràcia

- Bonnie does another gyrotonic session

- Bob meets them downtown to explore El Born, Parc de la Cuitadella and Barceloneta

- Flamenco show near Plaça Reial, http://www.masimas.com/tarantos (the show was pretty short, about 45min, but it was enough to get a taste of flamenco and the price for tickets online is only 8€)

Saturday June 6th 

- Some shopping at the local street market in Esplugues (my favourite for finding clothes)

- Afternoon in Sitges at the beach and exploring the town

Sunday June 7th

- Afternoon in Montjuic (we discover that the castell de Montjuic is free every Sunday, and now they have a really neat interpretation centre that talks about the history of Montjuic)

Ciara and Aunt Bonnie in Parc de Labirint

Group photo in parc de Labirint

One of our favourite Costa Brava beaches, Sa Tuna

Enjoying some churros in Santa Coloma de Cervelló

Click on the link below to see the full video clip

https://goo.gl/photos/NjdBkRUmtZzFNB8j6

Walking through Sitges

Castell de Montjuic

Hiking to Tibidabo

Last year Manju and I hiked to Tibidabo in March.  We took carretera de les Aigües  (front side of the mountain) from my place and it took us about 2.5 hours, since we didn't really know where we were going.   This time, I checked out Google maps beforehand. We took the high road over the top of Collserola and made it to Tibidabo in just under 1.5 hours.  It is a great hike because you walk through a forest, you get great views of the city and the final goal of reaching Tibidabo, the highest point of Barcelona.   This time, we decided to also go up the elevator to the top of the famous Temple Expiatori del Sagrat Cor.  It only costs €2 to go up the elevator and then you have to climb up some pretty steep stairs, but it's really neat at the top.  You really can't get a better view of Barcelona.  You get to look down on the Collserola tower, and the Sagrada Familia looks like a tiny church from up there.

Once you are at the highest point of Barcelona, the walk back to Esplugues is pretty easy.  It's almost all down hill and we were able to do it in a little less than an hour.

Front view of the Temple of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

View from the left side of the temple

View from the right side of the temple

Here you can see the Collserola Tower and the last peak in the distance is Esplugues.

Selfie with Manju at the highest point in Barcelona

Correfoc de Primavera (Spring firecrackers)

Well, there really is no word in English for correfoc because it's something very particular to Catalunya.  The kids love watching the people parade in the streets setting off correfoc during local festivals.  Saturday May 16th was the Correfoc de Primavera en Esplugues.  This is a great local celebration for no specific reason, just an opportunity to stay up late, get sprayed with millions of sparks and listen to loud music.

Here are a couple of pictures that we took of the correfoc infantil (for kids) and then a couple of videos of the correfoc adulto (much more intense)!  In the last video, we are standing in what we consider a safe distance, about 15 metres away from the main action, but you will see that really no one is spared from receiving a shower of sparks on their heads.

International Day at ASB

Saturday May 16th was International Day at the kids' school.  This is an annual event and the biggest event the school organizes for the community.  Last year we were 3 moms representing Japan: Hideyo, Yuko and me.  It was a great experience, so Hideyo, Yuko and I were excited to do it again this year.  This year, 4 more Japanese moms signed up to help, Miho, Yoko, Makiko and Masumi so we were 7 moms in all!  We decided to make curry and rice again this year, and Yuko (who is now vegan) provided 12 bags of edamame and made a huge chocolate tofu cake.  I also made dorayaki, which I discovered is very easy to make.   It was my idea for everyone to wear Hello Kitty Barcelona t-shirts, I thought that it would be kind of cute and I don't own any Japanese clothes.

With so many other moms participating Hideyo and I didn't have to make so much food ourselves and this year I got the chance to leave the Japan table and try food from all the other countries.  International Day was a huge success, over 500 people attended.  I think that everyone, especially the kids had a great time.  Ciara was even on the stage dancing.  There was some pretty interesting entertainment, including a scantily clad Brazilian dancer.

Masumi, me and Makiko

Makiko, Hideyo, Miho, and Yuko in front.

The Japan Table - three kinds of curry, edamame, desserts and origami

Cole is sitting on Aryan with Manju and Anu from the India Table

These are my dorayaki, I have to make them with kidney beans but tastes pretty much the same.

Ciara not being shy about dancing on a stage in front of a large crowd

Ciara and Maria Belen with the colourful Brazilian dancer

A Day in Andorra

Bob and I are big fans of hot springs. After we discovered the natural hot spring in Alhama de Granada, I have been eager to find other hot springs in our region.   I spoke to my next door neighbour, and she told me that there is a huge thermal water complex in Andorra called Caldea.   With my parents staying for a week after we got back from Paris, I figured it would be a great time to make a visit to Andorra.

I checked out the Caldea website and I was sold.  It looked amazing!  It is the largest thermal centre in the world.  Our timing was perfect too.  During the month of March there was a promotion: with each adult pass, one child could enter for free during the month of April.  Caldea is not cheap, each adult entry (3h) is €34,50 and a child entry is €25.  Since we would be 4 adults and 4 children, we saved €100. 

After doing a little research on other things to do in Andorra, I found Naturlandia, which is a nature park in the mountains with lots a great kids activities and the largest alpine coaster in the world.  I also noticed that children under the age of 14, could get in free with a Super3 card.  Super3 is a local kids' TV channel and they have a kids club.  With your free membership you can enjoy discounts or free admission to different events, attractions and activities all over Catalunya.  So I quickly sent in the Super3 card application for each of my kids.  We were very fortunate that their cards arrived the day before we were planning on going to Andorra, Tuesday April 14th.   During low season adults are €22 each and kids are €15 each, which is actually not that expensive given the amount of activities they offer, but we saved €60 with our Super3 cards. 

It took us about 3 hours to get to Andorra, because of the inevitable traffic getting out of Barcelona.  First we went to Caldea.  It is an incredible facility.  There are 3 floors inside as well as a large pool outside.  I like the fact that the children had access to every part of the centre as usally children are not allowed into spas.  There are lots of different pools, saunas, steam rooms, jacuzzis and relaxing areas.  Our only complaint was that the water temperature was pretty much the same in all the pools.  My parents were hoping that at least one pool would be really hot, but they were all around 34 degrees.  Still, the kids had a blast exploring the different pools and because it wasn´t busy, they didn´t annoy too many people in the process.

After Caldea, we left my parents in the town of Les Escaldes to do some shopping and the rest of us headed off to Naturlandia which was about 30minutes away.   It was a gorgeous day to be up in the mountains.  As it was low season, so there were not very many people there.  The kids barely had to wait to do anything, even the Tobotronic (alpine coaster).  I think that one ride on the Tobotronic is worth the price of admission, it was so much fun.  But besides the Tobotronic, there were bouncy castles and  trampolines, we did archery, rode pedal cars, drove little jeeps,  went on an Airtrekk (the longest skytrail in Europe) and a giant zipline.  Pretty fun day!

Relaxing in Caldea

The main pool

Mom really liked the placemats from the restaurant.  It was good food and huge servings.

Doing Archery at Naturlandia

Sitting beside the Tobotronic 

Hangin with the Naturlandia mascots

Paris Trip Last Day - Eiffel Tower and Jardin d'Acclimatation

Tuesday April 7th, was our last day in Paris, so we needed to finally climb up the Eiffel Tower.  Since we were going to walk up the tower, my parents opted out and spent the morning cleaning the apartment and packing.  The tower opened at 9:30am, so we were aiming to arrive there at 9:30 to avoid a long line-up.  We got there just after 9:30, but there was already a pretty long line-up to go up the stairs.  When we looked at the line, we wondered if it was really the line for the stairs because there were all sorts of people in line, seniors, small children, even a couple with a baby, women in high heels etc...  Fortunately the line moved steadily, but we were in line for about 40min before we reached the ticket booth.   An adult ticket to climb the stairs is €5 as opposed to €9 to take the elevator to the 2nd floor.  The benefit of the stairs is that the line moves much quicker than the line for the elevator, but you cannot access the 3rd floor by the stairs.  If you want to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower you have to take the elevator and so you have to buy another ticket on the 2nd floor.   We were happy just going to the 2nd floor.

Once we started up the stairs, I quickly realized that it wasn't that hard of a climb.  The kids could have ran all the way up to the first floor if there weren't so many people in front of them.  We stopped briefly on the 1st floor to take a look at the view and then made our way to the second floor.  Again, climbing to the second floor was no problem at all.  I am sure that my parents could have done it.

We went around the 2nd floor, looking at the view from each side of the tower, and then as there was really nothing else to do, we started back down to the first floor.  On the first floor we watched a short movie on the making of the Eiffel Tower, then we headed back down to the ground.  So all in all, it was not very difficult taking the stairs up the Eiffel Tower, and it only takes about 15min to reach the 1st floor and another 15min to reach the second floor.

After our Eiffel Tower visit, we headed over to the Jardin d'Acclimatation in the Bois de Boulogne.  This is another place that I visited when I was a child living in Paris, but it has changed a lot.  We met my parents at the park at around 1:30pm.  Regular park entrance fee is €3/person, but since we have more than 2 children, we all got the reduced rate of €1.50.  The biggest change in the park is the huge Fondation Louis Vuitton.  It's a building designed by Frank Gehry, very impressive and surrounded by cool fountains. 

We had lunch and then let the kids go on a couple of rides.  For 35 Euros we got 15 tickets and most rides were one ticket so Grandpa bought an extra ticket and the kids got to go on 4 rides each.  Not all the rides were open, so 4 rides was enough.  On this particular Tuesday afternoon, the park was pretty empty except for 100 or so orthodox Jews.  It must have been a special Jewish day, but there were no line-ups at all for any of the rides which was great.  The kids also enjoyed the many playgrounds in the park.  My parents tried to visit the Fondation Louis Vuitton, but unfortunately it was closed on Tuesdays.  Something I forgot to check before I made the plans.   In any case, it was a beautiful sunny day and they kids had a great time, probably the highlight of their trip.

We headed back to the apartment to pack everything up and our Bluvan was waiting outside for us at 6:30pm. We got to the Beauvais airport by 8pm and our plane didn't leave until 9:40pm.  You would think that we had plenty of time, but airport security is so slow at the Beauvais airport that as soon as we got through security it was time to board the plane. 

After a short flight it was good to be back in Barcelona and  we were happy that Grandma and Grandpa could spend another week with us here.

Looking up the Eiffel Tower from the base.

View from the second floor, Trocadero and all the way to La Défense.

View from the tower, Champs de Mars and in the distance the Tour Montparnasse

View of the Seine river and l'Ile aux Cygnes

 

a beautiful day at the Eiffel Tower

Side view of the Fondation Louis Vuitton

Soaking up the sun in the Jardins d'Acclimatation

 

Kids decided to play in the fountains, not sure if they were supposed to do that, but it was our last day in Paris so whatever.

 

One of the 3 roller coasters in the park.

Not a very big roller coaster, but fun enough.

One of the playgrounds

Another playground

Rylan's favorite ride

 

Paris Trip Day 6 - Montmartre, Jardins de Luxembourg, Invalides

Monday morning we headed up to Montmartre to visit La Basilique du Sacré Coeur.   It was a beautiful day, and from the basilica we got a great view of the city.  Fortunately it was only about a 5 minute wait to enter the basilica and it was free.

From Sacré Coeur we walked over to Place du Tertre for a look at all the artists at work.  My parents met a Japanese artist there who has been living in Paris for over 40 years and loves it so much he will never go back to Japan.  My parents almost bought one of his paintings, but it was a little pricey.  Cole kept expressing interest in different paintings, causing brief moments of hope for some poor artists who thought I would buy my 6 year old a painting.

Walking down towards rue de Clichy, we stopped at an Asian restaurant to grab some lunch.  Probably not what my parents had in mind, since they eat Asian food all the time, but the kids saw Vietnamese salad rolls in the restaurant window and so we had to go in.  We love Vietnamese food and we have not had any since we moved to Spain so it was a real treat for them.  So far since we arrived in Paris, we have eaten Turkish food, Israeli food, McDonalds, a lot of canned ravioli (this is another things we can't get in Spain and my kids really miss) and now Vietnamese food.   We didn't realize how difficult it would be do eat French food in France.

Dad wanted a picture in front of the Moulin Rouge, I guess just to say we were there.  I kind of wanted to leave the general area before the kids saw something they shouldn't.  Next we headed over to the Jardins de Luxembourg.  I had heard that there was a really nice playground there.  When we got there the playground was crawling with kids and the admission was a little pricier than I expected 2.60 Euros for each child and 1.60 for the adults.  Since we had come all this way, I just paid for all the kids to go in.  It's a great playground for young children, but not so great for older kids.  Nathan and Ciara were a little disappointed because there was nothing challenging for them and there were way too many little kids around.

After an hour in the playground we headed over to the circle shaped basin where you can sail toy boats.  There are a limited number of boats and a pretty long line-up to rent a boat.  My parents were going to visit the Musée du Luxembourg as they had an exposition on the Tudors, but again the line-up was too long, so they gave up.  It seemed like every tourist in Paris had the same itinerary as we did.

We decided to make our way back to the apartment, but first I thought it would be nice to pass by the Rodin Museum since it wasn't too far from where we were.  On the way we came across the church of Saint Sulpice and decided to go in.  Yet another beautiful church inside and out as well as the second tallest church in Paris after the Notre Dame. Somehow we completely missed the Rodin Museum but ended up at Les Invalides.  The walk was a bit longer than expected and the kids were kind of tired by this point, so we quickly saw where Napoleon was buried and then walked right through the Army Museum to the other side where we found a metro station. 

Monday night we decided would be the one night the adults would go out for a nice French dinner and the kids could stay in the apartment and have canned ravioli.  It doesn't seem fair, but in reality the kids were pretty happy to just stay in and watch movies for one evening.  There were quite a few restaurants in our neighbourhood, but as always, when you don't have a plan, it's hard to find the right restaurant.  We ended up at an Italian restaurant, the food was good and the service excellent as we were the only people in the restaurant at first.  We felt like we saved the waiter's evening and also attracted more customers as no one wants to eat in an empty restaurant.

After climbing the stair to reach Sacré Coeur

 

In front of the basilica

 

Inside the basilica

 

View of Paris from the steps in front of Sacré Coeur

 

Place du Tertre

 

Playground in Jardins de Luxembourg

 

Kids watching boats in the basin in Jardins de Luxembourg

 

 

Saint Sulpice

 

Inside Saint Sulpice

 

The inner courtyard - Les Invalides



The dome where Napoleon is buried