Fall Break Trip to Barcelona Part II - Sunday

Our first full day in Barcelona was Sunday.  We looked for a church but there wasn't one close by, so we just planned our day to see the free things in town. Everything in Barcelona costs, so we wanted to take advantage of the free things while we could.

Breakfast on our little patio

We took our first Metro ride and found the system to be easy to navigate, clean and efficient.  We used it for our entire time in Barcelona.  We went downtown to the Gothic quarter, bought a map and found our first destination: the Santa Maria Del Mar Cathedral.  We arrived during the morning mass when it was still free to go in and look.  The cathedral itself was beautiful and I was able to understand a bit of the Sermon, so that was fun.  A band was playing traditional Catalan music outside and a group of people were dancing, so it was fun to see that.

On the streets of Barcelona (Gothic Quarter)

 A group of people dancing outside of the Santa Maria Del Mar Cathedral. It is a tradition that Barcelonians of all ages come here every Sunday around noon to dance Sarbanes.

Santa Maria Del Mar Cathedral

All of the details are beautiful

Inside of the Cathedral

The stained glass windows were amazing

As we walked out, we walked into a parade.  A group of police horses was standing behind some barricades.  They started walking and behind them for the next fifteen minutes came groups of women dressed in police and military uniforms behind their nations' flags.  About 40 or so countries were represented.  We are not sure what the parade was for, but it was interesting to see.

Beautiful horses, and very tall!

Check out that check pattern on the horses' rear ends!

women police forces from Italy

Women from the UN.

Women police forces from America

More horsemen at the end of the parade

From the parade, we walked to the Arc De Triomf and saw it.  It is a large arc and is beautiful.  The day was lovely and sunny and it was fun to people watch for awhile while Yulia planned our next moves on the map.

Some buildings we saw on our way to the Triumph Arc

We fell in love with these little old streets

Another impressive building

Arc De Triomf. It was built as the main access gate for the 1888 Barcelona World Fair.

Arc De Triomf

Street performers at the Triumph Arc Plaza. This must be popular act because we saw a few of these type of performers around the city.

We went and found a place to eat: a local shop where we had Paella, Feduela Fideuà, and soup.  Fideua is like Paella, but made with noodles.  We had a nice meal.

Sophie is thinking of how she is going to battle with this prawn!

Our next stop was the Picasso museum.  It was free from 3:00-7:00 in the afternoon.  We had to stand in line for 1 1/2 hours for tickets and our entrance was at 6:00 p.m.  We really enjoyed both the artwork and the opportunity to see Picasso's range and talents.

On our way to the Picasso Museum

Since we had to stay in line for a long time, we decided to entertain ourselves with gelato that we fell in love with last year in Rome. This time we tried flavors such as licorice, cinnamon apple, macadamia nut, lemon, caramel, and our old favorite flavor of raspberry. Yummy!

This is a huge line behind us to see the Picasso Museum

And this is a huge line in front of us!

Tickets in hand but still waiting to go in at 6 pm.

Outside of the museum. We were not allowed to take any pictures inside.

We next went to the Museum of the History of Barcelona.  That was really neat.  The upper part of the museum had an exhibit about the early inhabitants of the region and their agriculture.  The main part of the museum is below the ground and is an archaeological site that shows the original walls and roman settlement from 100 BC and moving up into the later settlements upon which Barcelona was built.  The museum was very high quality and it was very interesting - and free!

At the Barcelona History Museum

The museum is located in one of the old castles

This is when we were lowered down under the city level and discovered an old Roman town underneath.

The remnants of the Roman city wall.

Remnants of wine vats in a wine factory from the original Roman settlement.

Part of the Cathedral attached to the History Museum.

Just as we came out of the Museum, we heard bagpipes, and there it was: our second parade for the day! These are Galician gaita which are similar to bagpipes (Learn More!)

After they marched to the Museum Entrance, they all went inside. We are not sure what this parade was about, but the music sounded beautiful!

While we were looking for a way to get out of this area, we found this cute little courtyard. 

Happy to be in Barcelona!

Cathedral of Santa Eulalia which is one of Barcelona's largest religious buildings. We found it by accident while trying to find our way out of the area. It was started in the  13th century and took a long time to built (the very last part was finished in 1913!) The cathedral has gotten its name from the co-patron saint of Barcelona, Santa Eulalia. According to the Catholic tradition, Eulalia was a young virgin who suffered martyrdom during Roman times in Barcelona. She was killed at the age of 13 for refusing to dismiss Jesus as the son of God. In front of the altar, visitors can find stairs leading down to the cathedral crypt. Inside this crypt lies the actual, beautiful sarcophagus of Eulalia.

Also located in the courtyard is a small mossy pond known as the Well of the Geese. (it is behind the fence on the left).  The name originates from the fact that it houses a flock of white geese, whose ancestors have been living in the courtyard ever since its creation. The flock consists of thirteen geese, each one representing a year in Santa Eulalia’s short life.

Lots of street performers with beautiful voices!

When we finished the museum, we caught the metro to the magic fountains.  We got a snack at a cart and learned that the show would not play that night.  The fountains are similar to the ones at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.  We waited until 9:00 to make sure that the show was not going to happen, and it wasn't.  We walked home from there to our apartment - a walk of about 1.5 miles.  It was a long and busy day, but a great way to start our vacation in Barcelona.

Having a snack at the fountains

People waiting to see the Magical Fountains' Show

Loving it in Barcelona!

Fall Break 2016 Part I - Travel to Barcelona

Last year for Fall break we went to Rome.  This year we stuck with our Southern Europe theme and went to Barcelona.  Last year we had to take the kids out of school to go: this year since they are being home schooled (this will require a whole new post) they were on break, too!

Our flight this year was on Aeroflot, so we flew through Moscow again, but through Sheremetovo instead of Vnukovo Airport.  Our flight left at 7:30, so we caught a cab to the airport.  The flight was nice and we had a good break at the airport.  Our next flight was direct to Barcelona.  We arrived at about 4:30 pm.  We made it through passport control without problems, picked up our bags and got into our shuttle.

Eating at the Burger King at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow

Waiting for our flight to Barcelona. We've being to so many airports!

We had ordered an apartment to stay in and were met there by one of the workers - Oxana - who is originally from Russia.  The apartment was nice and was conveniently located near the Subway station and near stores.  We got settled into the apartment and then went out and found a place to eat.  We found a little cafe and ordered food - Paella and seafood dishes - and had our first introduction to Spanish food.  It was a nice introduction!

The living room of our apartment.

Our kitchen with the serving window that opens onto the little patio with the breakfast table.

Hello Barcelona!

Spencer is resting on our balcony

After dinner we walked to a grocery store that was nearby and bought some food for our breakfast in the morning.

We settled in for the night and planned our next day.

We were in Barcelona.

The night view out of our balcony.  There was a big group of students (you can see just a few of them  by the trees but there were probably a couple of hundreds of them right behind the trees) that had a band with them. They played the music and then marched somewhere else. We were told that there is always something going on in Barcelona each weekend. The next day was Sunday , and we got our proof!