SPAIN-days 1 & 2

Barcelona was great!  We all ended up loving it.  The kids loved the food...no, not the paella but KFC, Dunkin Donuts, Burger King, and Hard Rock.  They were so excited to eat at some American places besides McDonalds, and so were we honestly.  We also liked the warmer climate and the people were friendly and restaurants were kid-friendly, which was nice.  
We stayed for 9 days, which seemed like a long time, but we didn't have to rush to see things and we walked for hours everyday.  We rented an apartment, which was small, so that got old after a while.  It was in a great location, close to the grocery and metro, which made it easy to get around.



Emerson's first plane ride...she slept the whole way!

Drake's first encounter with a bidet....I think the bidet won

Arc de Triomf

We were excited to see palm trees!!!

Barcelona Cathedral

Our first restaurant choice, it was decent and had a cool atmosphere.  Where Kade and Preslee are sitting is where our first experience with theft occurred.  A group of ladies came in and sat there, they were taking pics and socializing.  A few minutes later one jumped up saying her purse was gone.  There was apparently a couple that sat down beside them, Mike said they looked like tourist, and then the purse was gone.  Along with her room key and number!!  Needless to say they bolted outta there.  Theft is a huge problem in Barcelona and most people know it beforehand.  All the men carry their wallets in their front pockets and the women hang on to their purses.

Walking the streets of the Gothic Quarter

The Magic Fountain-the water danced to the music that played. It was a fun show but cold and you got wet if you stood too close!

MNAC building- national palace that is now an art museum

GIRONA & COSTA BRAVA
We decided to set up some private tours around Barcelona.  This was our favorite one, and it was so much nicer to go at our pace especially with 4 kids in tow.
Our day tour with Charles started out with someone walking towards our van, because the hatch was open, trying to steal our bags that were in the back.  Charles ran to close it and he got really angry about it. He told us that theft is so bad here because even if the thieves get caught, they just get a slap on the wrist, there's not really much that is done to them.  
Charles was a great tour guide, he's an American that has lived in Spain for 14 years, and he currently lives in Girona with his family.
Girona is a very unique, ancient city that has been through many battles.  You can tell on some of my pics how the wall structures are different...put back together at different times in history after the destruction.  Some buildings look more primitive where others look more modern.

The Onyar river...the colorful buildings are more modern day Girona

Some bar we stopped in...they had a small obsession with Bruce

Kissing the Lion's Butt-we saw a group of people getting in line to kiss this statue's butt.   Charles says it's a tradition and it means you will one day return to Girona.  So, Drake was our guinea pig but he didn't get too close...yuck

Charles racing the boys..he had two of his own, so he was great with kids.

Placa de la Catedral-the stairway was very large

One of many times Mike had to carry the stroller up stairs

The Roman Wall built for protection in the 1st century BC

Those are the Pyrnees mountains in the distance, they had snow on them!

The usual picture that I get...Preslee all smiles, Kade making some kind of hand gesture, and Drake turning his back because he doesn't wanna take another pic!!

Very small streets in Girona

El Call the Jewish quarter

The bridges on the Onyar separate the old and new Girona

PALS, SPAIN- very old, medieval town

Romanesque tower

COSTA BRAVA-beautiful, coastal town

The water was freezing, but there were swimmers!

It was a great day, even the kids enjoyed driving to all the towns and seeing the history.  Girona was a great town, that I'd go back to and stay there.  It was small and had great restaurants and nice shopping (that we didn't have time to do...bummer).