Saturday in Barcelona

I have to be honest and say that the day really starts at 1:30am, when I finally hit the hay.  I have this theory that if you look confident, like you know what you’re doing and where you are going, you are much less likely to be a victim to hoodlums.  And since we got lost just trying to find our apartment, I am making dang sure that I had a firm plan for today!  I study the map, study Rick Steves, draw our course out on the map, and write all of the details down in my little orange notebook.  It’s a good thing too.  It’s hard to enjoy sites when you are concerned about safety. 
After about 5 1/2 hours of sleep, I get up and get ready for the day.  I go out on Las Ramblas and scrape up some dinner (I mean breakfast).  They are pretty tasty pizza-type things on baguettes (I’m pretty sure that they have a name, so please one of my readers enlighten me).  Tasty and filling—mission accomplished.

We are staying in a studio apartment with a divider between living area and sleeping area.  Liz takes the sofa/sleeper while the girls and I take the “bedroom.”  Aside from the fact that the ceiling leaks (which Billy will come and fix), the place is stocked with everything we could need—everything from a washer and flat screen tv with dvd player to Ronald McDonald smiling at me through my bedroom window.  Man are we lucky!
After I feed Wynne and get her ready, she is ready for another nap.  Last night wore the poor girl out.  We decide to delay our departure so that we don’t have to travel with a grumpy baby.  Liz stays back with her while Evie and I have a little mommy/daughter date where we go grocery shopping and check out the square.  I give Evie the camera.


Evie can’t resist all the shop windows.  (Secretly I can’t either.)  I’m so glad I gave her the camera.



Our little photographer captures the big square and then this beautiful blossom tree tucked away in a little courtyard.  She has me stand on a bench and pose.
Once we go back and get Liz and Wynne, it’s off to the metro station, short walk, and then Sagrada Familia, by Antoni Gaudi.  The cathedral is located in La Eixample, a part of town known for its wide, pedestrian-friendly roads, and nice shopping district.  We could resist taking pictures of the roads. 



I knew the cathedral was ornate, but I will admit having my breath taken away when I saw it—its sheer size is amazing, and. . . well. . .it’s so gaudi!

This is the entrance.  It depicts Christ’s crucifixion.


The exit is the Nativity Façade.  I am dying to see the inside, but the line is at least an hour long, and Wynne is getting restless.  Not to mention that Evie does NOT want to go in.  We decide to move onto our next site.  As we are leaving, we spot this little guy.  The guy behind the Chihuahua is a as a one-man-band playing traditional Spanish music.  As he plays, the dog bobs his head to the beat.  It looks pretty cool, and Evie LOVES it (hence the pic).  
After La Sagrada Familia, we are off to the Parc Guell, another brainchild of Gaudi.  We plan on taking a 10 minute walk to the recommended bus stop, which will take us right to the entrance.  I’m excited for the little adventure, and we head off.  We’re checking our map the whole way, looking determined as we walk, and I’m glad to be in a country of the language that I actually studied.  I comment to Liz about how much I can understand.  Right after which, a lady approaches me with a flyer and starts speaking to me in Spanish.  I panic when “Ne mluvim Cesky,” instantly comes to mind (“I don’t speak Czech”), but I realize that that is completely useless before I actually say it.  Whew, that was close.  So I pop out with, “No hablas Ingles,” to which she promptly apologizes and walks off.  Ah, the desired affect!  But wait, as I run over the words in my mind, my face burns red as I realize that I just told her, “You don’t speak English.”  Two years of high school study, and two intense years of University study, and this is the Spanish I come up with?  I meant to say that I didn’t speak Spanish, but instead I insulted her for not speaking my language in her country.  Ugh!
We find the bus stop, and bus 24 pulls up.  We try to get on, but the driver says something in Spanish.  I don’t even try.  I turn to the other people at the stop who are going to the park and timidly ask, “Does anyone here speak English?”  Luckily a guy does and he explains to me that the driver will take us to a different stop where a bus will come and pick us up and then drop us off where we need to go.  “Oh, I’ll just follow you, ok?”  So much for the confident traveler who knows right where she’s going.  Once we get to the other stop and wait for a while, I give Wynne a sandwich and the guys check their map.  They are about to take off when they show me that the entrance to the park is literally a block away.  We’re on our way! 

The Entrance—pretty crazy huh?  I look at this and say to Liz, “The Big and Spacious Building!”  The park is a mixture of Mayan Jungle paradise and Disneyland (minus the rides).  It is both funky and beautiful, and Evie is in heaven.  We picnic here, relax in the shade, and take many photos.  The view over the city to the Mediterranean is stunning, and we couldn’t have been here on a more beautiful day.


Our crusty rolls, ham and cheese leave all sorts of crumbs (as Wynne’s sweater shows), and Evie loves how all the pigeons in the park love the food she is throwing!  “Liz, how to you feel about pigeons flying over your lunch?” 


I love these beautiful girls!


A band at the top of the Big and Spacious Building, a guy blowing a giant bubble, and then the stairs/walkway that we carry Wynne in her stroller down to get to our metro stop.  Whew, is THAT a workout!  Good thing too, because our next event is Rick Steves’ “a sweet little walk,” which is a trip in the Gothic Barrio where we eat tarrons in the first candy shop (local nuts that have been candied), hot chocolate and churros in the second shop, and then truffles in the last.  The tarrons and choclolate are so rich that we really have to stop there.  We’ll never get the truffles.  Dang, I guess we’ll just have to come back. 



Lastly, I really want to see Flamenco, the traditional Spanish dance like clogging, only. . . not, really not.  So I call a couple of places; it isn’t cheap anywhere, but I find a place that would work for us.  They assure me that I could bring my little girls.  They are family friendly, only. . . not, really not.  It starts out great, with sprites and pineapple juice for everyone, and Wynnie even gets a “free” roll, but then the music starts.  But it isn’t really music.  It is screaming!  It was so loud that even the men next to us cover their ears.  The dance was amazing, but Wynne is screaming (which no one can hear, btw).  I take Wynne right outside where we watch from the entry, until the manager comes and tells me that I can’t do that, and that I need to either go inside or leave, that I could come back without the baby on Monday (when we fly out), and there is no way they can refund my money.  Once again my face feels red hot, but not from embarrassment.   
Evie loves her souvenir from the park!

So, we go to a free fountain/light/music show instead.  And we have a great time!  The best news is that it doesn’t even make Wynne cry!

Barcelona—Arrival

Travel tale warning:  This story is about four smallish-town, American females traveling to a foreign country alone, during Carnival week.  They are staying in a 4th-floor studio apartment overlooking Las Ramblas, the beating heart of Barcelona, the wide streets where everyone will come to join the literal “street party” that is going one.  Everyone is invited, and they do come and party—very loudly and exuberantly, until about 5 in the morning, all three mornings we are there!  Sounds like a recipe for disaster, I know, and totally inconsistent with the fact that our group consists of a devoted wife and mother, a future missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a little girl who still loves to dress up and play pretend with her little sister, and one who can’t even crawl yet!  We are a pretty harmless crew who play it pretty safe.  And just for the record, I would have NEVER ventured on this little escapade, let alone stay where we stayed if I had known what was happening the first weekend of March in Barcelona.  I’m not a big risk taker when it comes to the safety of my kids.  But if there’s one thing that I have learned since coming to Europe, that is to just let go and roll with it!  I have so little control of the world around me!  I study and plan and work all I can trying to navigate my way here, and I’m still surprised in the end—always, without fail, every time.  But in this case, we get lucky.  The surprises end up being ok, even magical, one of those rare cases when ignorance really is bliss, and not just plain ole painful ignorance.  Crazy?  Maybe.  But worth it?  Every second. 

 

The Travelers!

On Friday, March 4 we depart from the Prague Airport and are to arrive in Barcelona sometime around 4 o’clock.  It’s a 2 hour 20 minute flight that is uneventful and ideal, really.  We meet a really cool Californian lady in the boarding line and her baby, Clara, who is about Wynnie’s age.  Evie says they’ll be BFF’s.  Clara and her mom are going home to Clara’s 2 brothers and dad who works for a cycling team in Spain.  Both Clara and Wynne fall asleep and fly great.  I lay Wynne’s head on my lap, and her feet on Liz’s.  She sprawls and stays asleep the whole time!  Awesome. 

Waiting at the Gate

We arrive and it is game time!  We have to find an ATM, pick up the Euros that I need to pay our contact for the apartment, find a Tourist Information desk to get a map of the city, find the train station, purchase our T10 passes (ten rides on public transport), call our “Friendly Rentals” contact, Billie, and then embark on the 40-minute ride we would have to the Plaza de Catalunya.  Well, between not knowing where our stroller will come out (gate check doesn’t mean that the stroller actually comes out at the gate with our airline, apparently), feeding the baby, taking the shuttle to the other terminal 5 km away, finding the train station, and taking our potty stops, it takes us at least 40 minutes to even get to the point of calling “Billie.”  (Liz, “Billie doesn’t really sound like a Spanish name, does it?”  Me, “No, maybe if he were Enrique.” “Or Jose.” “Or Jorje.” We both laugh. Me again, “but Billie. . . “  We grow silent, and then wonder.) 
I’m feeling good, ready to go, and then pick up my phone to give Billie a call—no service, emergency calls only!  Liz, “I think my phone might work.”  Me, “No, I don’t want to use your minutes.  Here’s a payphone right here.”  The payphone works fine, and I make contact with “Billie.”  “How are you getting here?”  he asks in a thick Spanish accent.  “The metro.”  “There’s a train station that goes out to the airport?”   “Yes, it’s just right here.”  “Don’t come by train.”  “Why?”  “It’s horrible.”  Then the phone dies.
I scramble trying to feed more coins in the slots while Liz pulls out her phone and tells me she has service.  The guy in line behind me looks impatient.  I take Liz’s phone, hang up the payphone and dial Billie again.  “Why is the train horrible?” I ask.  “You will get pick-pocketed.  Come by bus.  Call me when you get to the square”  “OK.”  It all sounds mysterious to me, and I’m already skeptical about Billie, but decide to spend the extra money and go with the guy who lives here.  After all, it is in his best interest that we don’t lose our money, right?  (Me to Liz, “He’s definitely Spanish.”)   We walk away from the train that very normal-looking people are boarding, leave the station, go back to the terminal, ask directions in broken Spanish, and finally find the shuttle that takes us to the square.

Our first chocolate croissants (full of chocolate pudding.  We thought we were in heaven, until. . . . )

I’m surprised by the palms, the architecture, the feel of the place, by the familiarity.  It feels a little like Mexico!  I’m in Europe—Spain, but I feel like I could be in Mexico.  It must be like England is to the US.  Europe is the mother, and the Americas are her rebellious children inheriting many of her characteristics, but stubbornly molding their own identities.  It’s fascinating.


On the Shuttle, Leaving the Airport, notice that the sun is low in the sky—this is important.

We arrive at the square and I call Billie.  “OK, just walk down Las Ramblas, and I will meet you by the …. and the McDonalds.”  Between the bustle of the square and his accent, I don’t quite catch it all.  But how hard can it be?  I can spot a McDonalds a mile away.  So, we walk.  And we walk.  Billie had made it sound like it was pretty close, but this isn’t close.  I hate to call him again, but maybe I should.  I do, and he tells me to just keep walking.  So we do.  (Liz, “What do you think he looks like?”  Me, “I don’t know, late thirties, maybe early forties, short, and professional.”) 
By this time.  We are getting hungry; Wynnie is tired.  It’s nearly 8 o’clock, and Evie’s starting to complain.  Ah, the McDonalds.  We walk under the eaves where there is heat, and we call.  Billie says, “I’ll be there in 2 minutes.”  We wait, and wait, and 10 minutes later, I reluctantly call him again.  “Are we in the wrong place?” I sheepishly ask.  He answers, “I told you that the road is between the KFC and the McDonalds.”  Me, “Ohhh, the KFC. (that’s what he was saying) OK. Well, there is no KFC.”  Billie, “You are still probably by the square; keep walking.”   “How long of a walk is it?”  Billie, “I don’t know how you walk.  Maybe 10 minutes?”  “OK, see you then.”
So we start walking again, quickly.  We go another 10 minutes at a pretty good clip, trying to to run people over with the stroller.  Still no sign of a McDonalds and we are struggling to see street signs in the dark. .  I notice the road is climbing in elevation.  On the map I checked before we left, the apt is between the square and the sea. I may not be a rocket scientist but I know water doesn’t flow up hill.  “Hey, we’re going the wrong way.”  Liz, “Do we call Billie?”  “No, I can’t bear to do it.”  A few minutes later I’m on the phone with Billie.  “Hey, we’re going to be a while.  We walked the wrong way.”  He seems a little frustrated, but patient.  We buy a good map along the way—the TI map is garbage.
Sooo, apparently there are 2 roads on Las Ramblas, and we take the wrong one when we were finally heading in the right direction, but with the aid of a good map and several more minutes walking, we find our way, the McDonalds, and even the KFC.  We stop.  I look around.  I only see a woman and a big, 6 foot 3 inch, young guy with low-rider pants, canvas tennis shoes, a studded black belt, T-shirt, leather jacket, and an earing in his upper ear.  No way.  I don’t even give him a second glance.  He comes toward me.  I stop and say, “Are you Billie?”  He says “Yes.”  “I’m Heather.”  We shake my hand, and he heads across the street.  We follow him through the door in the side of the building, and we file in.  I will admit being nervous at this point.  I go up the lift with Wynne in the stroller while everyone else takes the stairs.  I’m trying not to let my imagination run away with me at this point.  I think back.  I have checked out Friendly Rentals on the web, looked them up on Trip Adviser, and have only read good reviews.  I have talked with their customer service on the phone, and they have been fantastic.  True, I have never booked a vacation apartment rental, but I like the price, the benefit of being able to come and go as we please, the use of a full kitchen, laundry, baby crib, and being in a good location.  I have also been told on a couple of different occasions that apts. are the way to go in Europe with families.  I decide to trust my initial gut instinct.  
He shows us the apartment, and everything looks fine. 

 
View from our Room

After Billie shows me everything, I give him the cash agreed upon on the internet.  He leaves; we lock up, and we get everyone settled in.  We connect to the computer, let Spence know we’re ok and put Wynne to bed.  We are STARVING.  McDonalds is hopping with cute families and people in costumes. Family dinner hour seems to have just started.  At 10:30, I get back “home” with Big Macs, McFlurries, and French fries.  Dinner is served.  We’ll need it, because tomorrow is a big day. 

Roma, Bella Roma–Day 1 (until about 4PM)

 


Outside of our feet, the metro is our mode of transportation.

 

We arise early, load up our backpacks and prepare for a packed day. We’ve made some modifications to our itinerary based on Melissa’s suggestions. It turns out her insights lead us to some of our best moments. Living in Europe has made us pretty comfortable with public transport, so we board at Termini metro station, make the transfer and we’re off at the Cavour stop looking for pick pockets every step of the way as Brick has informed us we should do.  Right as we surface at the Cavour station we meet the notorious Con Artist Number 3. He meekly asks for directions in Italian all the while plotting to distract us and use his wicked switchblade to cut my camera bag from my back and run off with it. Not to be fooled, we do our best to orient him and as he walks off it seems he’s just a nice guy asking for directions. I raise an imaginary mug of Root Beer in salute to Brick.



The non-descript facade of San Pietro En Vincoli.

  We set off with our map in search of San Pietro En Vincoli as recommended by Melissa. The cathedral supposedly has the chains that were used to hold Peter while he was in imprisoned in Jerusalem. I use my Italian again (of course, entirely impressed with myself no matter how horrible it probably REALLY sounds) to get us pointed in the right direction. The cathedral is very non-descript on the outside…you would never know it was anything worth seeing. But inside while not the largest, grandest cathedral I’ve seen, it has a very quiet, intimate beauty worth contemplation. There are hardly any people inside as it’s yet early for tourists and we pause to inspect beautiful murals and gothic depictions of days gone by. You can’t help but feel transported to a different time and place as you contemplate these things. Some people (read, "some Mormons" ) are not fond of cathedrals. I’ve heard people comment on how they are dark, spirit-less places that people cannot wait to get out of. I’ll confess I can’t pass a cathedral without wanting to go in. I find them to be places of majesty, awe, contemplation, beauty, and yes, spirituality. San Pietro is such a place and the crown jewel is Michelangelo’s statue of Moses (complete with horns believe it or not) adorning the corner. He spent over 30 years on the statue, and ever since I studied Michelangelo and high school I’ve had a reverence for his work. To see it in person is something  of a dream come true.
Within a stone’s throw of San Pietro is that colossal edifice the Coliseum. Now we’re talking. This is no collection of ancient statues and busts and rich people’s patios. The Coliseum is nothing short of a first class ticket to step into ancient history...even Brick agrees, giving it three triangles.

The Coliseum is simply stunning

Inside the Coliseum you feel the majesty of Rome at its peak. This edifice could hold 100,000 people with the nobles and senators seated closest (think season ticket holders) and the plebeian types seated in the nosebleeds. The Coliseum's ground level has since deteriorated revealing a complexity of catacombs underneath that were rigged with pulleys and platforms, making the “back stage” for the theatrics that would come above…lowering and raising animals, set pieces, etc. The spectacle must have been amazing. Coulson and I both agree, the Coliseum rocks.


From the Coliseum we connect directly with what is called The Forum.  If the Coliseum is the modern day Super Bowl, The Forum is something like The Mall in Washington D.C. It’s a collection government and commerce situated all within a large swath of land that has sunk well below much of the surrounding area…giving you the feeling your at the bottom of a large municipal amphitheater of sorts. We run into a hitch. I cleared off the entire memory card before I left (it’s a 4 gig card) but for some reason it says I only have 3 pictures left. What?!?! I quietly curse Becky D. from thousands of miles away for not only making me give her a list of drinks for the reunion (I will take that to my grave), but for not using her ESP to send me a subliminal message helping me to fix this. How can I be in Italy and only take 3 pictures? We begin going through the museum pictures and delete any and everything that seems totally boring freeing up a couple more shots.  Fortunately there were plenty of boring pictures, so we’re able to buy our selves a few more shots.
The Forum is mostly 80-90% destroyed, but I find it utterly fascinating.  Hardly any buildings are fully intact but perhaps it’s like the early Atari game Adventure…it’s your imagination that provides the magic, filling the gaps for what isn’t there.


The mighty ruins of the long past Roman Forum fires the imagination of Rome's days gone by

 This is quite simply the genesis of Western Civilization as we know i. Rows after rows of columns appear: one crumbled, the next 2/3rds intact, the next, all in a row allowing you to complete the line for what appears to be the Roman Pennsylvania Avenue.  We also catch a wonderful break.  The sun appears and burns off some of the early morning cloud layer giving us our bluest skies that we’ll seen the entire trip.

In my mind’s eye I fill in the details for each tumbled building and ponder a day in the life of a citizen thousands of years prior. I reflect on The Forum during the rest of our trip and decide it’s my favorite site of all.

We climb out of The Forum and wend our way toward the Pantheon which requires all of our map skills in order to navigate the maze of quaint Roman streets interspersed with high speed avenues. It bears a narrative detour to describe the Italian relationship of driver and pedestrian. Pedestrians just launch out into the street making the speeding Vespas and Fiats come to a grinding halt. It seems like suicide to step out in front of any motorized vehicle and Coulson and I both hug the curb while the Italians stride with bravado. Toward tend of our trip we follow closely behind confident Italians as they talk nonchalantly on their cell phones while parting a sea of traffic allowing us to  ride in their wake.

We also pop into a camera shop looking for a new memory card…we keep returning to old pictures and deleting the worst ones…but it’s getting down to the nubbies now. Only good pictures are left. And unfortunately, the new card I buy doesn’t fit. We’re getting desperate but have a few clicks left for the Pantheon.
Back to the Pantheon (another three triangle site). It was initially dedicated to several pagan gods but as Rome became Christianized it was given to the Catholic church and became a shrine to Mary, Peter, Jesus, and others.  Coulson indicates he was taught in his history class that as Rome was in decline and marauding armies were invading and destroying much of her beauty because the Pantheon was religious in nature it remained mostly untouched.  As a result, in contrast to The Forum the Pantheon is in pristine condition.  The dome is impressive as well with only St. Peter’s Basilica being larger.
At this point the hunger pangs are setting in…as we’ve probably walked a good 5 miles by now. We set off in search of Melissa’s recommended gelato shop but don’t have any luck. We look for Brick’s recommended spot and its been closed. We find Brick’s second spot…but they don’t serve cones…bruuuuump (buzzer sound). We finally find Giacoletti’s which is Brick’s final recommendation. It doesn’t disappoint. We get the large gelatos and I order white chocolate, hazelnut,and pistachio. The gelato is a meal in and of itself and makes American ice cream seem like…well let’s just say it will never taste the same again.    Giacoletti’s gets three triangles from us as well.
 

Topped off with gelato we head toward the most touristy of probably all the spots we’ll see in Italy, the Trevi Fountain.  Brick gave this just one triangle, and so I wasn’t anticipating anything to spectacular and the trip there is feels like wandering through a catacomb to make it.  With our map (and this is pretty much our entire time in Rome) we have to stop every 30 feet and check again. I even dust of the Italian again, “Dov’e La Fontana Di Trevi?”and after wandering down what seem to be random streets we stumble upon the spectacle.


The touristy Trevi Fountain - only one triangle according to "Brick" Steves -- yet we'll visit twice we like it so much

 The fountain is cool and Coulson and I both decide Brick is again too intellectual for us.  We like the unabashed fun of tossing our coins into the fountain and promising we’ll return again some day (I certainly hope so and tell Coulson we need to come here with his oldest).
Right next to Trevi we find another camera shop and this time we strike gold, buying the right memory card for our camera.  Excellent, we now have 300+ pictures we can take and we feel free to again snap away.
While the 7,000 calories of gelato we consumed has not yet burned off we’re at a break point where we have seen everything we planned on that day and its only 3PM or so.  Coulson’s attention span (while pretty impressive for a 12-year-old when I think about my level of interest at the Lincoln Memorial at that same age) pushes him forward when I would have liked to have lingered in a few more spots a bit longer…hence our rapid finish for the day.  Still we are well paced companions overall and had I been with Heather (I adore you sweetheart!) we’d probably still be looking at the fountain just outside our hotel .    We decide to go ahead and eat lunch and head back to the hotel.  Lunch is downright cool because we are looking for an obscure little pizzeria that Melissa recommended to us having stumbled upon it herself in a rainstorm some 15 years earlier.  After a bit of henpecking we are rewarded with Pascali’s Pizzeria and some of the finest pizza I’ve had.  “Due etti di quattro formaggio per favore” I say per Melissa’s instructions hoping I haven't requested a pizza topped with Mr. Pascali's first born child.   In no time I’m savoring the crunchy crust, tangy tomato sauce, and cool ambience with one stout Mr. Pascali serving it all up with the verve of an Italian sole-proprietor. 

My wisteful face only signals that we must depart this heavenly bastion of pizza glory

Trajan's magnificent column

By this point Coulson and I are mentally exhausted and ready for a break in hour hotel room.  We identify a path to get us to the Flaminio metro station that takes us by Trajan’s column (pictured to the left now topped with St. Peter instead of Emperor Trajan – another change due to Christianized Rome) and finally to Piazza Popolo where we are treated to couples macking at every bench.  We often joke about “metro mackers” haunting the Prague Metro but these guys are definitely more amorous, playing a level of tonsil hockey not witnessed during our time in Europe (although I have seen some French in Paris make the most of waiting for the crosswalk to signal the way is safe for pedestrians).  Why anyone feels a need for this kind of public display of affection is beyond me. 

Have you seen my gum?  Oh here it is in the back of your throat.

I forgot my pants today, is it ok if we wear the same pair?  It's a bit chilly this afternoon.



Blech is right.  I don't care how old you are, this is just gross

  We poke fun at them secretly while taking in the wide open space of the piazza while resting our weary legs.  We’re probably at 7 miles we’ve walked by this point and we are totally ready to crash.  I snap a few random pictures in the piazza…

…and then we head out for the hotel.