The Thanksgiving We Missed...

After seven straight kid-less posts, this blog is starving for a bit of cuteness!  Michael and I had to forfeit our Thanksgiving to go to Spain, but the kids got to celebrate the whole sha-bang!  In fact, sending them to Nashville to spend Thanksgiving with their favorite people in the whole wide world was about the best gift we could have given them.  We never would have been able to spend a holiday apart from the kids if we hadn't felt like we were actually doing them a favor... as much as I hate to admit it, we don't hold a candle to cousins in their eyes!  I told them for months that they had better cry every day that they miss me and that they'd better be too sad that I'm in Spain to have any fun on Thanksgiving.  But they would all giggle and yell in protest that they would NOT cry one bit and that they WOULD have the most fun EVER.  Only Anna Kate seems to have a soft spot for my feelings, because she would eventually pause and say, "...but I will miss you a little."  Well that made one of them!

I'm the photo-documenter of the family, but I have to give props to my sister Erin for taking the time to post a few pictures on Facebook for me Thanksgiving Day.  She said Gabe and Wesley were kissing the TV because the announcer had just said that Pokemon would be in the parade.  Carigan's always quick to jump on any bandwagon!  Note the milk spilling from her cup... it's a good thing Aunt Erin's a sweet and patient hostess!

Abby and Anna Kate making the traditional monkey break Thanksgiving morning.  Sad I missed these moments, but grateful I could sneak a peek from Spain.  I can't thank Erin, Andrew, Grandma & Granddaddy enough for making sure our kids had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  They were in heaven!

Erin and her crew put up all of their Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving so they could celebrate an early Christmas with the kids.  It's become a tradition to exchange gifts with the cousins after Thanksgiving since we don't get to see each other at Christmas.  My kids each got their own scooter!  Abby used her own money to buy Anna Kate that Hello Kitty necklace (below), and she wouldn't take it off for days after we returned from Spain!  Months later, it's still her favorite necklace.
 

Carigan's actually pretty good on this thing!  I guess I should have labeled things when I packed the kids' clothes, because Wesley is wearing Anna Kate's vest in this photo:

Michael and I flew from Barcelona to Munich, where we caught our plane back to the States.  Flying over the Alps was breathtaking!  I absolutely love Germany.. those green fields and red rooftops brought back many happy memories of the summer I lived in Bremen.  Made me wish we were staying a few days, except that I couldn't wait to get back to...

These little guys!  We got in late on Monday, November 26, but Erin let the kids stay up to welcome us.  I couldn't wait to get my hands on them!!!  Anna Kate actually slept between Michael and me that night - she was supposed to sleep on the floor beside our bed, but I couldn't turn her away when she climbed in with us at some point.  I was desperately low on sweet little girl snuggles!  The next morning they were all eager to show off Baylor, CalebGabe'nAbby's puppy.  Anna Kate was especially smitten.  So sad that she has the worst allergies of anyone in the whole family!  But she deems loving on Baylor worth the sniffles (and Baylor is about as allergy-friendly as they come, so that helps).  Tuesday morning we said goodbye to Caleb, Gabe & Abby before they left for school and then packed up and grabbed an early lunch with Erin and Grandma at the little Mexican restaurant they love.  Then we hit the road for the looooong drive back to Florida - we had to drive it straight through without stopping at Mimi's and Grandpa's to rest for a night like we usually do, because we had to get the kids back in school.  I was worried about such a long drive, but the kids were champs!  That brief window of being able to drive long distances like that (without stopping!) is about to come to an abrupt close once more with a new baby on the way, but it gives me hope that easier travel days will return in the future!

We got home, put up our tree, gave the kids their souvenirs and got down to business, preparing for the Christmas season!  Wesley was SO proud of the soccer jersey we brought him, because it's Mr. Jose's favorite team;  He couldn't wait to show it to him at church!  We only had four days at home between our return from Nashville and our departure on our Disney Cruise!  We were busy, busy people!!!  

One Last Night in Spain

We left the cable car station and walked the remainder of the way down Mount Montjuïc instead of taking the incline rail back down to the middle of the city.  The tree-lined street we walked from Montjuïc took us straight to the Olympic complex.  Lots of pretty things to admire along the way.  

Barcelona's Olympic Stadium, home of the 1992 Summer Olympics.  Those are the first Olympics I remember watching... I was aware of previous Olympic games but I don't have any memories of sitting and watching a ceremony or an event prior to Barcelona.  So cool to be here in person!  Built in 1927, Barcelona's Olympic Stadium was intended to host the People's Olympiad, an anti-fascist alternative to the 1936 Berlin Olympics.  But the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War devastated those plans.  The stadium was renovated in 1989 to host the 1992 Olympic Games.

Michael and I have a thing for cities that host Summer Olympics!  We've seen the Olympic complexes in Sydney, Athens, Atlanta, & Barcelona together over the past 8 years.  I've also been to London, so now I just need to go to Beijing and I'll have seen all sites of Summer Olympic Games in my memory!   -BELOW- Standing outside the stadium, with Palau Nacional (home of the Barcelona Museum of Antiquities) in the background.

Remember seeing this funky-looking tower on TV during the Barcelona Olympics??  I remember it always being the first image on the screen when flipping on Olympic coverage every day that summer in 1992.  It was built to transmit television coverage of the games.  It's supposed to be an abstract depiction of an athlete holding the Olympic flame, and it also functions as a giant sundial.  We weren't sure what was up with all the giant yellow columns everywhere on the complex... not sure if they served a purpose, but they're not particularly attractive.  But they're big!  One thing you can't help but love about Barcelona - outdoor escalators!  They're scattered about the base of Montjuïc and come in quite handy.  This escalator dumped us off right by Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya:

Taking another outdoor escalator on the front side of the museum, facing Plaza de España.  Those are the re-constructed Four Columns in the background, right by the Magic Fountain.   So glad we caught a performance of the Montjuïc Magic Fountain the night before... it's not nearly as impressive when they have the water turned off!  This same spot was quite breathtaking the night before:

That brightly lit shopping mall standing in Plaza de España is actually Barcelona's former bullfighting ring.  Built in 1900, it was converted to a mall and re-opened in March of 2011.  Bullfighting was banned in Barcelona in 2010, but has been frowned upon in Catalonia for some time.  The last bullfight held in this ring took place in 1977.  Those twinkling shopping mall lights spoke to me saying, "This is your best bet for finding non-Spanish food!" so we headed inside.  Giant Christmas tree in the middle of the former arena:

We never stumbled upon a Hard Rock Cafe in Spain (would have been nice since I was always craving American food!), but inside Arenas de Barcelona we found the next best thing... Happy Rock!  I guess if you can't rock hard, you might as well rock happy!  Michael was able to circumvent my boycott of authentic Spanish food and ordered traditional tortilla Española as a tapas.  I got a Greek salad. Then he ate a burger and I had quesadillas.  A good meal in Spain was a rare and happy thing for this pregnant chic!  After dinner we climbed the stairs to the arena's new towering 27-meter dome, one of the largest in Europe.  What a view! 

Loved the many Christmas trees up there too!  From Plaza de España we took the metro back to Columbus Monument and walked the lower portion of Las Ramblas one last time.  We still had one metro ride remaining on our card, so we picked one final landmark to catch a glimpse of in Barcelona.
 

We took the metro to the Arc de Triomf station and emerged from underground to see this towering above!  I wasn't expecting something so big and impressive!  The Arc de Triomf was built in 1888.  That's all I know.  :o)

One last super-cool thing for a history dork like me... we happened to be in Barcelona on the very day that citizens participated in a historic vote to attempt to move forward in separating from Spain and creating an independent Catalonia.  Political signs like this were plastered all over the city.  Even cooler, the hotel that served as headquarters for the election was literally just one block from our hotel in downtown Barcelona!!  We knew something big was going on there, because the place was surrounded by television trucks and policemen and other security.  Michael thought maybe one of the candidates was staying there.  We didn't realize until we got back to our hotel and flipped on the TV that it was actually the headquarters where everything was happening!  Every major International news channel from CNN to Aljazeera was broadcasting live from one block away, in front of a building we had literally JUST walked past!  We opened our window and could hear the sounds live from the same spot we were seeing live on TV.  So cool!!!  It was a special geek-out moment for me.

I polished off the last of the Nutella while watching the election coverage (and hearing it from the open window).  We had to get up at 4:30 the next morning to head to the airport, so this was my official last photo in Spain.  We had such an amazing trip and I'm so very thankful to have been able to spend that time with my hubby and create some special memories just the two of us before our family grows to six! 

Bouncing around Barcelona

Waking up in Barcelona (November 25), our first order of business was the same it was every morning in Valencia: walk to the nearest McDonald's for my morning Happy Meal.  The breakfast of  Spanish champions!  I've mentioned several times that finding food was a challenge.  Here's the thing... they don't seem to eat in Spain so much.  They mostly sit and drink coffee or sip wine and smoke cigarettes.  Every outdoor cafe would be crowded with patrons, and I'd make a game of skimming each table as we walked past to see if anyone was actually eating anything.  Sometimes you'd spot someone getting a little crazy and eating some bread, but mostly everyone was just drinking and smoking.  Food seems to be an afterthought - mostly offered at weird hours in tiny portions known as tapas.  Cafes and restaurants don't even serve hot food until the afternoon, so if you're pregnant and need more than some bread or a pastry in the morning to fill your tummy, American fast food is about your only choice.  But they don't serve breakfast - they serve what they serve all day long, even first thing in the morning.  Thus my daily morning Happy Meal.  At least I was able to bring the toys home to the kids as souvenirs!

Armed with a list of must-sees from our friend Jose (one of our close friends here in Florida has family near Valencia & Barcelona, and actually spent much of his childhood living in Spain), we set out to see as much of Barcelona as we could in a day.  Two of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi's most famous designs were located just down the block from our hotel.  This is Casa Milà, built from 1905-1910 for a very wealthy couple.  Gaudi was a devout Catholic and implemented many spiritual symbols in his design.  Gaudi's stuff is interesting-looking, but not something we got really excited about.  We basically did the Chevy-Chase-at-the-Grand-Canyon toe tap and moved on.  Below is Casa Batlló, built in 1877 and restored by Gaudi from 1904-1906.  I loved the colors.

Gaudi's most famous project is still under construction - Sagrada Família.  The Roman Catholic church has been under construction since 1882, and is not expected to be completed until around 2026.  When Gaudi died in 1926, the project was between 15 and 25 percent complete.  He is said to have commented, "My client is not in a hurry."  The spires were kind of cool, but honestly, the whole thing looked a bit on the hideous side to us. The newer construction blends poorly with the older portions, and it seems jumbled.  The spires of the older sections were the only part I admired. 

The line to pay (and it wasn't cheap!) to go inside queued so far I knew it would take hours.  It's so ironic to me that the Barcelona Cathedral is so breathtaking and you can walk right in for free, and people stand in line for hours to see the inside of this monstrosity just because it's Barcelona's most well-known landmark.  Save your money, people!  We decided to skip the line and eat gelato in the park.  We used the metro to get across Barcelona throughout the day.  One metro line connected to an incline rail that emerged on Montjuïc, high above the city:
 

From there we purchased tickets for Telefèric de Montjuïc to take us the rest of the way up to Castell de Montjuïc.  The views from the gondola were amazing!

Arriving at Castell de Montjuïc (or Montjuïc Castle).  The original fort was built in 1640 and newer fortifications were built up around it.  The original fort (within the walls of the newer structure) was demolished in 1751. The site has an extension history and has played a role in many of Spain's military conflicts over the past few hundred years.  The castle remained a military prison until 1960, when it was ceded to the city of Barcelona and refurbished as a military museum.

November 25, 2012.  Surprisingly, this is where I knocked out some Christmas shopping - I bought several scarves and some jewelry from from vendors on the grounds.

I'm so proud of this picture!  I told Michael to hold up his finger... he didn't ask questions.  Either he's super-gullible or just used to me by now.  He hadn't noticed the statue and didn't know what he was pointing to (or touching).  Ahhhh, I crack myself up...

The view from Montjuïc was incredible!  We could pick out Sagrada Família and other landmarks, but it was too hazy to capture on camera.  City on one side, sea on the other.  Beautiful!
 

Heading inside...  It reminded me so much of Castillo de San Marcos, the Spanish fort in St. Augustine.  Made me miss my kids!   On the top level, above the courtyard:

Taking the cable car back down the mountain (at least part way down the mountain... we walked the rest of the way so we could see the Olympic complex, but walking down is easy!  Glad we took the incline rail going up!).