Christine, Joseph and Erika Visit

Our next group of visitors were our good friends and neighbours from Brampton.  They had been planning a European vacation for the past two years with visits to Spain, Austria and Germany. Unfortunately just a few weeks before they were to leave, Christine's husband got called away on business to India and he had to miss the Barcelona portion of their trip, but we were happy to host the rest of the family.  Here is a breakdown of their visit:

Saturday June 20th

-  My kids rediscover the joys of playing with Lego
- Hike up to the top of Collserola to view the city
- Attend local drumming festival in Parc del Torrents

Sunday June 21st
- Drive to Montjuic and for the first time ride the cable car to the fort.  Even though it is expensive, everyone was hot and tired so maybe worth the price.
- Visit the fort (remember it's free on Sunday)
- Stop to play in all the different parks on the way down the mountain.

Erika, Ciara and Christine riding the cable car up Montjuic

Monday June 22nd
- Kids opted to go to school, and I took Christine, Joseph and Erika to Sagrada Familia.  This was my 3rd time inside, but we all went on the guided tour, which I had never done before, so it was more interesting.

Tuesday June 23rd - Longest day of the year or shortest night (Nit de Sant Joan)
- We took our guests downtown to visit La Rambla, La Boqueria, La Catedral
- Walked to El Born district and visited the Born Cultural Centre (they have really nice public washrooms and it's never busy)
- Highlight of trip was a visit to the Chocolate Museum.  (My kids all got in free with their Club Super3 cards)  Your entry ticket is a chocolate bar (nice touch).  We learned the history of chocolate and how it came to Spain and then the rest of the museum is filled with chocolate art.
- Walked to Parc de la Cuitadella and there happened to be a guy making giant bubbles in front of the fountain.  The kids spent almost an hour chasing and popping bubbles until their heads were all soapy.
- We walked back to Plaça Sant Jaume to get gelato
- At around 8:30pm we walked to Parc del Pou d'en Felix in Esplugues to prepare for the Sant Joan festivities.  This year we purchased a box full of different fire crackers and fireworks.  At around 9:30 the diables started their procession with correfoc around the neighbourhood and ended upat the park.  At 10pm they lit a giant bonfire the band played and the diables lit up their correfocs and started dancing around the fire.  The heat is so intense that we have to more back even though we are sitting about 20 metres away.  Once the lighting ceremony is over, the crowd disperses and everyone starts setting off their own fireworks all over the park.  I go back home with Christine, Ciara, Cole and Erika.  Bob stays with the other boys and finishes the box of fireworks.  It was a long day!!

In front of La Catedral

Museu de la Xocolata

Everything is made of chocolate

Parc de la Ciutadella

Playing with Bubbles in Parc de la Ciutadella

Meeting Julius Caesar on La Rambla

Waiting for the shortest night of the year to begin

Here come the correfoc!

Lighting the bonfire

Lots and lots of fire:

Wednesday June 24th,

- It's a holiday in Catalunya so we head up to Costa Brava, the roads are empty in the morning so it's a good time to leave the city.

- We stop in Castelló d'Empúries where we have rented a small house through HomeAway.  It's right in the centre of the old town and even has remnants of the original wall that was built around the town in the middle ages.   The owner is really nice and tells us all about the history of the house.

- We head up to Cadaqués and spend the afternoon at the beach near Sa Conca and then wandering through the town.  We quickly learn that Cadaqués is not a great town for a big van, the streets are really narrow and steep, but the seaside is beautiful for going on a walk. Unfortunately we didn't get time to visit Dali's house or the Dali Museum. 

Sa Conca, water is shallow, but still very cold

Nathan and Joseph snorkelling 

Rylan on the rocks of course

Selfie in Cadaqués

Nathan and Joseph exploring

walking through town

The church La Santa Maria de Cadaqués

Thursday June 25th,

- We spend the morning exploring the little town of Castelló d'Empúries which is really quite cool.  The old gothic church was first built in the 10th century and is very well preserved.  You can see remnants of the old wall and the moat that surrounded the town.  We also took a quick tour of the Ecomuseum Farinera which is not really that interesting, but with our large family card (targeta de familia numérosa) the kids and I all got in for free, so it was worth it for us.  Then we had lunch in a little restaurant right in front of the old church. 

- The afternoon we spent at the beach in Empuriabrava which is all white sand that stretches for miles along the coast.  Here there are lots of amenities, the water was much warmer, and better for swimming but no fish to look at.

Lunch in front of the church

Santa Maria de Castelló

The old wall and moat

Friday June 26th

- Before we leave Castelló d'Empuries we go shopping at Decathlon, both Christine and I spend about $200 (it's a fun store)

- We drive back to Barcelona

- In the evening we take a walk around Parc del Forum, in Diagonal Mar area of Barcelona.  It's such a contrast between Downtown Barcelona because there are so many wide open spaces and not many people. 

Strange playground/art installation in Parc del Forum

Saturday June 27th,

- Before leaving  for Germany I take Christine to a local open air market in Esplugues.  Of course I end up buying more stuff than she does, but at 1€ or 2€ for an article of clothing.  I don't feel so bad. 

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