Barcelona, Spain

Last night we stumbled into a really nice tapas restaurant and while we almost stumbled right back out when we saw the white table cloths and dimmed lighting, we stared at each other a good, long moment and decided to give it a try.  We decided to give our kids the opportunity to be well behaved.  And overall they did great!  They had duck, chorizo, gazpacho and more.  They sat in their seats (mostly), ate and spoke quietly.  Even the little guy kept his composure so long as we kept the puffs coming.

The experience took me back to another time and place, when we were sitting in little cafes and tapas places in Spain.  We made a total of three trips to Spain, the first was to Malaga when Sugarplum was a tiny little thing, the second was Madrid when she was 6 months and the third was a stop in Barcelona on our final Mediterranean cruise just before we returned to the states from Ireland when Honeybun was nearly 4 and Sugarplum was 21 months.  While we only spent one day in Barcelona, we had some great moments and made some wonderful memories there.

 We arrived just after lunch, got off the ship and took a shuttle to the end of the main street, La Rambla where we had the rest of the day to explore on our own.  We were dropped off in front of the Christopher Columbus statue so took the opportunity to discuss a little American history with Honeybun and the strong ties between our two countries.  We then wandered up the street, taking in all the shops, restaurants, street performers and more.  We wandered into the St. Josep Boqueria but didn’t stay long as it was very crowded and hard to navigate with the buggy.  Sugarplum was our tour guide and spent much of the time walking, which was a first for her.

When we reached the top of the the street, we decided to head towards the famous Cathedral and as Honeybun had fallen asleep in the buggy, we decided to stop for a snack (hubby has a fondness for Spanish meats!)  We had a great little snack at a café next to a park where Sugarplum sat nicely watching people making huge bubbles.

When Honeybun woke up, we decided to head up to Castel de Montjuic which sits on a hill, high above the city.  We took the Funicular and teleferico from the city centre up to the top.  We loved exploring the old fort and enjoyed the beautiful views over the city (Honeybun even spotted our ship in the port!)

We decided to walk down the hill (the public transport was expensive and took us away from the area where we wanted to go.)  We found a park with HUGE slides on our stroll down so took some time to play.  The walk down was long and a bit tricky with the buggy, but we made it and though we only spent a few hours in Barcelona, I’m so glad we got to go and see the rich culture there.