Barcelona Day IV: Aquarium and Beach

We decided to have a slower day on Tuesday, and ordered tickets to the Aquarium.  The Aquarium has the largest collection of Mediterranean fish in it, and we love zoos and aquariums in general.  We got off to an easy start to the metro at about 9:30 a.m.  We stopped and looked at the Christopher Columbus memorial when we got off the metro, and then walked to the aquarium itself.

Riding a Metro on our way to the port

At the Christopher Columbus Monument

Our world class travelers

Kids found a school of large fish hanging by the pier

On the pier

On our way to the aquarium

Lots of tourist were using segways to move around the city.

The aquarium was a bit smaller and tighter than what we expected, but there were some fun exhibits.  We spent a few hours wandering around and looking at the fish, penguins, and other sea creatures.

After we finished at the Aquarium, we walked to the Barcelona beach, which is the public beach.  It was an overcast day with intermittent sprinkles.  It wasn't cold, but wasn't really a warm day either.  We have been in the ocean plenty lately, so we didn't have the kids take off their shoes and wade in the water.  The beach was not very crowded.  As we walked we saw a few people swimming.  As we got closer we noticed that the swimmer coming out of the water next to us was a woman and was quite topless.  That was something we really hadn't thought about on the type of day it was, and the kids were a bit shocked.  Europe!

Barcelona Beach. We added the Mediterranean Sea to the list of seas and oceans we've been to.

Watching the waves

Sisters

As always, Lexa was looking for shells

Watching the sea

We walked down the beach to the Port Olimpic area where the Olympic games beach water sports were held during 1992.  We knew there were a lot of sea food restaurants in the area.  We picked one, sat down and had an enjoyable lunch.  The twins shared a pizza but the rest of us tried different things.  Lina had octopus which was a big tentacle.  Nika had a sea bass.  I had a sole, and Yulia had a risotto.  We had a great meal and enjoyed it.

This was a fancy restaurant but it was worth the money

We walked form Port Olimpic to the bus station and bought tickets to go the next day to Servera to visit Yulia's friend Olya from Krasnoyarsk. We took the Metro home and spent a quiet evening in our neighborhood.  We ate at a little restaurant near our house - they weren't open when we got there at 7:30, so we got the bar food sandwiches and sides.  We weren't too hungry since we had a nice lunch.  We struck out trying to find Gelato in the neighborhood, so we promised the kids we'd try again on Thursday.  We went to bed a bit early so we could make it to the bus station in plenty of time the next morning.

A trip to Aquarium

Aquarium "Duman" in the summer

Back at the beginning of February  when the weather was a bit dreary and the kids didn't get to go out to play in the snow much because it was either really cold or really windy, or both, we decided to take them to a local aquarium for some entertainment. We've heard that it was relatively small but had a good selection of fish. It was actually a good size aquarium in my opinion, probably not as big as Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas but of the same level. The Aquarium is located in the entertainment center “Duman” and is the only aquarium in the world that is located over 3,000 km away from the ocean. They have more than 2,000 of sea inhabitants from different parts of the world.

One thing that I haven’t encountered anywhere else is the way they do the ticketing. They issue you a sort of credit card on which they put the money for your pass.  And then when you go in you have to swipe that card which will open the gate and let you in. Interesting!

Sophie and Lina looking at some fish

Spencer, Nika, and Lexa 

Room with the fish of Kazakhstan

Nice crew!

We really liked the aquarium. They had a nice selection of fish found in the rivers of Kazakhstan along with a lot of tropical fish, and even an alligator (maybe it was a crocodile, I do not remember). Then they had a long and winding tunnel with sharks and sea turtles and other creatures. It was pretty impressive.

This poor alligator didn't have much space at all.

A tank with piranhas 

Sharks or catfish?

Going through the tunnel.

Cute clown fish!

The sea turtles were big!

At the far end of the aquarium they had a viewing room where you can watch the feeding of the sharks. When we were there they already fed them for the day, so we didn't get to see it but the kids liked climbing up the stairs to the second story of the viewing area.

The shark feeding viewing area.

When we were going back through the tunnel again, we saw a mermaid swimming with the turtles!

The little mermaid!

Doesn't it look like I am the only one who is having fun?! For the record, everybody had fun, just not everybody had fun posing for the pictures!

It was a nice aquarium, not too small with a lot of things to see and not too big so the little kids don’t get tired. We had a great time! And of course our kids couldn't pass this great opportunity for goofing around! 

Lina and Lexa 

Nika looks way too happy considering the situation

Poor shark will have some digestive problems!