Barcelona Zoo

Last week was "La Semana Blanca" or ski week for the kids.  Some families head to the ski slopes or other exotic destinations during this week, but Bob was gone to Germany for business and so the kids and I occupied ourselves locally.  Luckily for us, there is always a lot of interesting stuff to do around Barcelona.

On Tuesday we headed to the Barcelona Zoo for the day.  During the last two weeks in February, tickets to the zoo are half price, so €10 per adult and €6 per child.  When we got to the zoo, we discovered that because it was the week of Carnival, if the kids had come wearing a costume they could have gotten in for free!  We'll know better for next year.  Going to the zoo during ski week has become somewhat of a tradition as we did the same thing last year with friends Manju and her son Asvin.  This year Manju's husband and older son came with us as well and Ciara's friend Mia from her class at school.

The Barcelona zoo is a pretty nice zoo.  I like the fact that it's not too big (like the Toronto zoo) and you can really see a lot of animals up close.  There is also a cool dolphin show (all in Catalan though), petting zoo and some playgrounds, in any case enough to keep kids of all ages busy for hours.  It's also located within Parc de la Cituadella which is a really beautiful park in the centre of Barcelona.

Dolphin Show 

We arrived just in time to see the penguins get fed.  We were so close we could have touched them.

Nathan, Aryn, Rylan, Asvin, Cole, Mia and Ciara

Everyone loves capybaras

We thought this fruit juice stand was funny.

Feste de Santa Eulália and Llum Barcelona 2015

Last weekend we ventured downtown to see the light displays as part of the Feste de Santa Eulália and  Llum BCN.  The Festival of Saint Eulalia honors one of the patron saints of Barcelona who was just a young girl when she was martyred by the Romans.   The festival is geared towards children even though the story of Saint Eulalia is pretty gory and I would never tell it to my children.

We had never been to Barcelona during the Feste de Santa Eulália before, so this was a new experience.  We headed over to La Catedral and we just happened to arrive during a huge Ball de Diables.  There was loud music, correfoc, fireworks and dancing everywhere but without the crowds that you normally find during festivals in the summer.  After dancing with the diables we walked around to see the light displays set up for Llum BCN.

It's nice to walk around Barcelona's old neighbourhood and be surprised by the cool light installations set up by design students from Barcelona.  Many of the installations are also interactive and some are even performances.  We were also surprised to run right into the devils again with correfoc and drummers on a narrow street.  I don't think that we have ever been so close to the correfoc before.  It felt like we were too close.  The kids hid behind a trailer so not to get showered with sparks.  I could feel the sparks landing on my head.  It was a little hot, but it doesn't hurt and fortunately my hair didn't catch fire.  All in all we were really impressed with the festivities and light displays.  Llum BCN is now one of my favourite festivals.  Goes to show you that there is always something cool going on in Barcelona no matter what time of year.

Here is a short video of the diables dancing around with correfocs and one of the light shows

Fireworks display in front of the Catedral

More fireworks

Ball de Diables in front of the Catedral 

Neat light installation in Plaça Real

Projection show on the town hall in Plaça Sant Jaume

Another projection show

Another interesting light display.  Hundreds of illuminated white ropes hanging from the ceiling.

We waited in line for about 20min to get our chance to mingle with white ropes.

The kids didn't mind at all.  We love interactive art!

Cavalgata de Reyes 2015

I need to go back and blog about the Cavalgata de Reyes.  This is a huge parade that always takes place  on the evening of January 5th because the next day is El Dia de los Reyes Magos or the Day of the three kings.  Here in Spain, it's kind of like Christmas morning because the night before the three kings bring gifts to all the good little children and just like in other western countries, the bad kids will receive coal.

We had heard great things about the Cavalgata de Reyes in Barcelona as it is one of the biggest celebrations of the year.  We were a little worried about the crowds, but we got there 40 minutes early and there was only one row of people in front of us.  We decided to situate ourselves on Via Laietana near Plaça Sant Jaume.  While we were waiting for the parade to begin, we could see a couple of fathers pushing and shouting at each other on the other side of the street.  It was quite embarrassing as the police had to intervene.  Not a great example for their young children standing beside them.  You do have to hold your ground as more and more people crowd into the streets and try to push their way to the front.  There was a huge police presence trying to keep the people from moving onto the road, but in the end, as soon as the parade started, all the children moved to the front and stood in the road as close as they could to the floats and performers.

It was quite the parade: very cool floats, lots of performers in crazy costumes, music, dancing and of course the three kings and tons of candy.  There is something so exciting about thousands of candies raining from the sky.  I thought it was cool that the candy is shot out of cannons. Even though they are not great candy, it's just the thrill of catching them.  Even the adults get into it and there is a very good chance of getting your fingers stepped on as you try to pick up candy from the ground.   All the kids enjoyed it.  We would do it again.

Here is a small sample of what the parade was like