We’re in Spain! Barcelona to be exact.
Thankfully my spanish is coming back to me (a bit). Though they speak catalan -and castellano is my lingua. We haven’t had any trouble yet. Staying in the more touristy areas does wonders! Side note: My pater would like me to mention that the film Vicky Christina Barcelona never mentions this rather important factoid and instead pretends castellano is the language here. It bugs him so I am mentioning it for all four of you who actually read this blog. Love you guys!
Tell your friends, your enemies and the faceless old woman who secretly lives in your home about me! Promo over.
Without further ado: some photos (or as they say in castellano Fotos)
For our first day here (yesterday was mostly travelling) we went to the Gothic Quarter and hung out near La Rambla.
La Rambla
Columbus, dramatically pointing west
La Catedral (not the famous Gaudi one, we’re going there tomorrow)
El Museuo d’historia de Barcelona (Barcelona History Museum)
It’s located over Roman ruins and starts underground. You end up walking up slowly through the different Eras of Barcelona’s history from a small town to Roman settlement to Visigothic centre to Medieval City to its current status.
Diane and Diana – we crack ourselves up!
Roman Ruins
Wine vats!
Visigothic Church. Look how they used lighting to make it look as though the columns continue. Top notch stuff!
On special exhibition was a look at Jewish Haggadot’s created in or near Barcelona. A Haggadah is a special book read at the Jewish festival of Pesach or Passover. They are very beautiful and have a central text from Exodus about the flight from Egypt but also hymns and songs. Many have images to tell the story. It was truly marvellous and had a lot of great research done. We all loved it. The signs were written in Catalan, Castellano, English and Hebrew. The translating costs must be up the wazoo.
The last place in the Museum was a chapel formerly dedicated to St. Agatha. It was also beautiful.
Rating: 4/5
Pros: Incredible special exhibit. Super cool space and materials and fun for kids.
Cons: Gets stuffy and hot down in the ruins. Not the most wheelchair friendly. Pater wished the portable audioguide (or whispers of satan as I call them) continued for the entirety of the museum, not just the underground ruins.
After this lovely Museum we went for Churros (Xurros) and Hot Chocolate (Cacaolat) at this cool old cafe Granja Viader from 1870. We inhaled them and forgot to take photos (fotos). Sorry!
We then continued our adventure to find a tapas place with outdoor seating.
Adios! Watch out for more photos of me drinking Sangria
Liberté (formerly) of London 