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.

Spring Break Trip to Sri Lanka Part II: Unawatuna

The girls' suitcase had arrived with no problem, and so they quickly changed into their swimming suits and spent the morning in the pool.  Our sun screen hadn't arrived, and so the girls got quite crispy.  Yulia went out and found some sun screen in the afternoon so they were protected from then on, but they were crispy the whole vacation!

One of the two outdoor pools at our hotel. The other one was for smaller kids, so our kids didn't even consider it.

Life is great!

Sophie and Lexa

Twins!

King coconut tree. They are yellow, and the milk is very refreshing.

Our hotel had a restaurant in it and we decided that we would try it out on our first night.  We were very glad we did.  The girls all ordered yummy food - Nika ordered crabs and Lina ordered lobster! Sophie ordered spaghetti and Lexa ordered curry chicken.  All of the meals came with delicious salads and with dessert and they were really good.  After trying it the first night, we pretty much decided to just eat there every night.  Yulia had a different fish entree every night, and I tried a variety of sea creatures as well - with a plate of calamari my last night and a seafood risotto on the third. The meals cost about what a casual dining place would charge (think Chilli's or Olive Garden), but so much better.

Happy with their orders

We loved the salads there!

Lina with her zebra lobster. We actually do not know what it is called, but Lina was very happy to eat it! Especially because she got to eat it without any utensils. A win win situation for Lina!

They had two huge German shepherds hanging out in the dining area. Here is one. They were super calm and very friendly.

Our hotel room was two suites.  They were on a separate balcony with its own entrance and a private little pool.  The only problem is that the power went off in the girls' room the first night and wouldn't stay on after that.  Yulia and I slept in their room on the second night so they could have air conditioning, and after that, we told the hotel that something needed to be done.  They seemed a bit surprised that something as little as a lack of electricity would make us unhappy, but eventually they gave us another room in the balcony next to ours.  No problems with electricity there. The owner of the hotel was very apologetic and gave us our family dinner for free on the night they moved us into the new room.

Our little private pool.

Girls hanging outside of their door waiting for the lights to be fixed. Again.

Our bag arrived early on Friday morning, and so we had toothbrushes, changes of clothes, and most importantly our swimming suits.  Yulia and I joined the girls in the pool in the morning, and in the afternoon we went down to the beach and played there.  The girls mostly found shells and waded.  Yulia and I also did some swimming.  I swam more, but we both went in and swam. The waves in Sri Lanka are quite high - better for surfing than swimming, but it was swimmable and very warm. We stayed at the beach until about five when it started to lose a bit of light, and then cleaned up and ate a lovely dinner.  Our second day in Unawatuna was much better than the first!

Ocean!

There were quiet a few stray dogs hanging out at the beach. Here is one of them. The beach itself wasn't super clean, there was garbage that the tourists left.

Spencer swimming

They were so excited to get into the ocean but the salty water stung their burnt skin, so they quickly changed their plans to castle building and shell hunting.

Building something that in the next minuted turned to ...

...this!

Lina watching the ocean.

Finding treasures!

Double trouble!

After 5 pm a lot of locals came to the ocean with their kids. Some of them would go swimming right in their clothes!

More locals coming to the beach.

Coming to our hotel from the beach along the narrow village road. Had to be very careful because those tuk-tuk drivers are sometimes down right crazy!

Not sure why we took this picture but here it is...enjoy!

Our little fruit stand close to our hotel. We got bananas from them a few times. They are cute little bananas that are really tasty!

Yep, perfect for the kids!

Trip to Rome Part III - Spanish Steps, and Zoo

On Tuesday rain was forecast, but it was supposed to be a light rain.  We decided that we would go and see the Spanish steps and spend some time in the Villa Borghese Park.  We knew that there was a zoo there and that there was an art gallery.  We figured that if it was raining we'd look at art, and if it wasn't we could go to the zoo.

Spanish Steps

Piazza di Spagna

At the plaza by the Spanish Steps

We took the Metro downtown to the stop near the steps.  They were closed for repair, so we didn't get to sit on them, but we got to see them.  We also climbed up the steps just to the side of them, so we got the effect of climbing them.  At the base of the steps is a fountain shaped like a boat.  It was commissioned to commemorate a flood that took place in which a ship was washed up from a canal into the city.  The kids loved the fountain especially.

The boat fountain. It was built by Bernini, the father of the famous Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

The view of the city and of Vatican from the top of the Spanish Steps. 

Since we told them that there were 135 steps in the famous Spanish Steps, they started counted the steps of all of the stairs they climbed on since!

The day was a bit gray and there was a bit of sprinkling, but it wasn't cold or too wet.  We walked from the fountain to the Villa Borghese Park.  The park itself was very large and had a lot of pathways, areas with statues, and wide roads.  Every block or so was a little cart selling gelato and treats.  We found a little pond with some benches around it.  We sat for awhile and the kids were kids.  They found sticks, they ran, they shouted, they wanted to climb the trees and to throw things.  We let them get that out.  Then we walked to the gallery.  Tickets to the gallery were sold out for the next three days.  It was the only place in Rome where waiting wasn't an option, apparently!

It is not every day that they roll out the red carpet for you! Just inside the entrance to the Villa Borghese.

At the small pond/fountain.

Kids being kids at the park!

A statue of Victor Hugo in the park

At the park. We loved those trees!

Excited to go to the gallery not knowing yet that we couldn't get in!

We decided to head to the zoo.  We weren't sure if it was a little zoo or a big one.  It turned out to be the zoo of the city of Rome, so a big one.  It cost us a bit to get in - but we were committed and we all love the zoo.  It was a good medium-sized zoo.  Our favorite animals were the ones that were found in the reptile house - which was quite impressive.  We also liked the wide selection of monkeys - chimpanzees, small monkeys, orangutans and more.  They had African Wild Dogs in two places - and they were very interesting looking and incredibly stinky!

Mandrill - the world's largest monkey!

Some more monkeys doing monkey business!

Lemurs

Inside of the reptile house

Sometimes your face looks just like the other end!

We spent about three hours in the zoo and saw everything there was to see.  We bought lunch at the little zoo cafe on our way out of the zoo.  We walked to the Metro stop from the zoo - but took the long way, so we got in some extra walking.

At the little zoo cafe. The girls are studying those zoo maps trying to figure out where things are at the zoo.

In the evening we decided to go to someplace a little more fancy.  We went to a little corner restaurant and bar that was about a block from our hotel.  It was run by a mother and her two daughters.  We arrived and were about the only ones, but by the time we were getting our food, the place was full.  We ordered pasta - and the portions were huge.  I also had a pork chop, which was really delicious - and since I got to eat pasta from all the girls - I had plenty to eat.  None of us left hungry and we really liked the food.

At the restaurant waiting for food and having a good time.

That is a lot of fettuccine on Lexa's plate!

Day three was in the book.  We survived and thrived during a rainy day in the park in Rome!