The Rain in Spain...

Our plan was to spend today in Barcelona. We debated whether to visit Montserrat --a famous mountain outside Barcelona that looks like an upside-down saw. There's a monastery there and a boys' choir that sings every day. In addition, you can take tram rides up to extreme points of the mountain, and the view is supposed to be amazing! There's also Montjuic -- a castle converted into a war museum that sits next to Olympic venue sites and a Spanish village which houses artisans doing work typical of the various parts of Spain. In addition, I had no idea I'd have such a fascination with Gaudí, and Barcelona has several other buildings he designed, as well as a garden area devoted to him.

As luck would have it...we woke to pouring rain. Sightseeing with 5 kids is an adventure anyway...and we chose to skip the rain option and head to France. That's how you can tell you have a hard life -- when it rains in Spain and so you have drive to France instead. It worked out well since our trip from Barcelona to Switzerland would've been 10 hours, and this way we were able to divide it into halves.

Driving through France this time, I finally put my finger on a way to describe the countryside. It looks like a Thomas Kinkade painting...not necessarily quite as light, but that soft look his scenery has looks like France. I tried to capture it as we drove along the freeway, but I'm not sure the pictures do it justice. There were tree-covered mountains on both sides of the road for much of the trip -- not covered with pines, but covered with deciduous trees. It must be amazing in the autumn.

Some French landscape (photo taken from our vehicle while en route to Valence)

We arrived at our hotel and since they couldn't accommodate a party of our size until 8:30, we headed into town to find dinner. Things didn't look very promising until we took a left-hand turn and found ourselves gazing at a beautiful view -- a gazebo with a fog-covered mountain behind it. It was charming. After locating parking and a brisk walk in the freezing weather, we managed to make our way back to a restaurant that was near the gazebo. After our cool reception at the hotel, we weren't sure what to expect, but the owner was so friendly and kind. He came and attempted to translate the menu for us into English. We gave him a round of applause for his efforts since we were the only ones in the restaurant! He  cooks all of the food himself, and it was delicious! We all shared a creme bruleé for dessert, and it might be my new favorite food.

Le Esplanade Champ de Mars, a Romantic park area near Le Briand (the restaurant where we ate).

Delectable Creme Bruleé!!

As we left the restaurant all of the people who had come in after us wanted Rosa to wave at them, and she smiled and even managed a small "au revoir." I've decided we need to learn the 4 most useful verbs and basic words like please and thank you before we visit a country. The kids took it as far as assigning everyone a couple of languages to learn so that we can speak to people wherever we go!

Heading back toward the car, we could see a couple of people standing out in front of a bar. From a distance, we could see a long, white wedding dress and Rosa started talking about the beautiful woman in her wedding dress who was going to get married. It was about then that I realized the woman was a bit large and hairy...I tried to shush Rosa who was going on and on about the beautiful woman getting married. Right as we pulled up next to the "bride," Rosa looked up and said simply, "Oh. It's a MAN." We just kept walking...

The Sagrada Familia and Las Ramblas

After a breakfast of fruit and pastries, we headed to the train station. That was an added bonus of having a lot of company early on in our European adventure -- we learned how to navigate the public transportation (not that the Linguist needed the lesson), but now the rest of us feel pretty at ease with how it all works after having done it so often over Christmas.

I knew ahead of time that the Sagrada Familia was designed by Gaudí and that the word "gaudy" was a result of his artwork. I tend to like things done more simply, so I didn't really expect to like what we saw there. Construction on the Sagrada Familia has been ongoing for nearly 100 years. The outside is pretty impressive...and, well, gaudy. What I didn't expect was what was inside. The first thing that caught my eye was the stained glass windows running from floor to ceiling -- not in one continuous piece, but in smaller windows. The glass is being completed according to Gaudí's design, and they've been working on it since 1999. Not all of the windows are done yet, but those that are are breathtaking -- usually running from top to bottom in rainbow order.

Close up of one window.

Another perspective on stained-glass windows

The other thing that's hard to miss are all of the pillars that are in the interior. They aren't uniform like those we've seen in Greek or Roman architecture, and the ceiling above them, while lovely, isn't particularly uniform either. On reading one of the informational pieces about the room, I learned that Gaudy designed it to feel like a forest and on taking a step back, I could see that the pillars were tree trunks and the designs on the ceiling above were in imitation of leaves. The impression is that of sitting in a huge forest of trees with light filtering in from all directions. It was breathtaking! And in my opinion, a brilliant design for a place of worship.

The "forest-like" ceiling

In another room outside the chapel, they had a display on Gaudy and his art. Like I said, I know very little about him, and I was interested to learn that he was sickly as a child and as a result, spent a lot of time on nature walks with his mother. His love for nature is reflected in all of his archicture -- from the bent line (picture a leaf blowing in the breeze...it goes from straight to bent and back again) to a spiral (snail shell) or even the shape of a seed. He must have been an absolute master of geometry the way he took two or three different geometric shapes and combined them to create intricate looking columns, or tweaked the straight edges traditionally used in architecture to make a bent edge. We also saw a display he created to understand reverse tension (picture an upside down arch). I was blown away by the whole thing and it made me think about art and architecture in a different way. I'm hoping we'll have a chance to see some of the other areas in Barcelona that he influenced.

Note the shape of the windows like honeycomb &  the lights like cut off tree branches

View of the back of the Sagrada Familia

After the Sagrada Familia, we were able to fulfill Pianogurl's fondest dream and eat at a KFC. She saw one in Germany in February and has been dreaming of it ever since. It was good, but a little disappointing in that they didn't serve macaroni and cheese and the taste of everything but the mashed potatoes was a little different than what we're used to in the U.S. The biggest complaint was no salt on the fries...

Following lunch we headed to Las Ramblas. It's basically a huge median that has shops and booths on both sides and hordes of people walking in the middle. The Linguist said there are usually entertainers along the route, too, but we didn't see any. Deep Thinker was positively dying to spend his money. It seems he doesn't feel like he's been somewhere until he's procured a keepsake. The first booth that really sucked the kids in was a pet shop. They had the cutest little bunnies -- one was even a lop, a bunch of hamsters and two sizes of turtles -- little and teeny tiny. After dragging the kids away from that, we did manage to spend our money on mosaic turtles -- much less messy! We also strolled through La Boqueria. It's a huge market like the one by Maria's house in Valencia, but about 4 times the size. It's mainly food, and of course the draw for our kids was the seafood displays because the food was still moving! Talk about fresh! The lobsters, crabs and shrimp were still wiggling around on the ice. The Net even found a live version of a long, skinny shell he found at the beach in Valencia. They told us it's called a "knife" because that's about what it looks like. The octopuses were oohed and awed at...although I still think the turkey head with the bulging eye takes the cake in this department!

The famous Ramblas of Barcelona

These are the "Navajas" (knives) kind of like long, skinny clams.
These were alive and measured about 6 inches long.

An historic cathedral in Barcelona near the Ramblas...it didn't all fit in the photo.
Note the Gothic architecture.

After we finally twisted our way through the plentiful seafood area, we came to the real treasure -- a table full of chocolate! The woman was so kind and gave us little bites of a whole bunch of different yummies. The kids picked out big coins of chocolate, filled with nuts or crispy rice. The Linguist. Pianogurl and I chose truffles, chocolate-covered sugared nuts, and fancy little candies that looked like miniature cupcakes. We took our treasure and made our way to the Cathedral, where we sat on the steps and ate chocolate while we listened to a violinist. He was pretty amazing and now all the kids want to play the violin. However, he seemed a little crabby and when people clapped he told them that thanks was money. Rosa took that to heart and carried several coins over to his open case. We opted not to go into the Cathedral since there was a 25-minute wait time and a cost of 42 euro for our family -- perhaps on another visit. I'm curious because it's Gothic architecture and so different from what we've seen in Italia.

Dinner was at a little place next to the metro station. The boys had pizza, Rosa had her signature -- spaghetti with parmesan. The rest of us had bocadillas (sandwiches). They were filled with tortilla, which in Spain is a dish made with potatoes, onions and eggs. Think omlet with a lot of diced potatoes cooked in with the egg and you'll have the right idea. The bread was rubbed with tomato on the inside, but other than that, had no other toppings. It was pretty tasty, but I'm not a huge fan of the hard bread Europeans seem to love. The only advantage I see to it is portion control! Dessert was churros, both plain and chocolate dipped, and miniature cups of what they call hot chocolate for dipping. It wasn't quite as thick as the Italian version, but was definitely closer to pudding in texture and melted semi-sweet chocolate in taste, than to anything I'd drink!

The Net enjoyed Churros and chocolate

I told The Linguist that I love being a tourist -- too bad we aren't independently wealthy so we can spend all of our time eating new foods and looking at and learning about new places and things. I tell myself that I'm sure it'd get old, right? 

Heading back north

From The Linguist...
It was bound to happen...our departure day arrived.  We had to leave to head back up to Barcelona.  I've never been a big fan of goodbyes and prefer saying see you later.  We knew it was going to be difficult to leave but I didn't realize how difficult.

After getting everything together, we made our way down with a few bags to start loading the van.  I had been quite fortunate because parking wasn't too difficult or far from María's house.  Once I got the van parked (thanks to Will who had saved me a parking spot in front of their house), I went up to get the rest of the bags.  Sadness was in the air...the kids didn't want to leave.  They enjoyed the pampering, the food and especially the dogs.  Songbird and Deep Thinker were beside themselves.

After taking them up a second time to say goodbye to the dogs (after 15 minutes of full-up wailing), they were happy to say goodbye to the dogs again.  We again made our way downstairs tearfully.  As the kids stood out front crying and hugging María, people walking by were wondering who died or what could be the cause of such anguish. One woman stopped and asked if they were lost children!  We finally got everyone in the van and slowly pulled away.  What a great time we had!!  The drive north was not too bad though the tears over not seeing the dogs returned again a few times. As did the request to get a dog...  

Maria's country house and the Oceanographic Museum

Another typical Spanish breakfast is toast, rubbed with garlic and topped with meat and cheese. It was really yummy, and something we'll probably serve at home again! I forgot to mention that we ate rotisserie chicken and potatoes from a local shop for dinner last night...the potatoes are some of the best I've ever eaten. They were cut in half, scored, sprinkled with salt and I'm not sure what else and turned just like the chicken. Heavenly!

I've also failed to mention that, for the most part, we've been speaking in Spanish this whole time! María and Will speak some English, but being that we need to work on our Spanish, we've been trying hard to use just Spanish. I am, quite frankly, shocked at how much our ability to understand and speak has improved in such a short period of time.

The Linguist is narrating now...After breakfast, María wanted to show us her country home near an orange grove.  It was quaint and what added to the ambiance was the sweet smell of orange blossoms.  After visiting her country home, we headed to Valencia to visit the "Oceanografic" museum.  It's part of a series of the impressive museum complex called the "Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencas" (the arts and sciences city) in Valencia.  The oceanografic is a marine-like park (similar to Sea World) that is not too big and not too small. We saw some of the most bizarre fish in the aquariums there.  There was an enormous one with a single fin on top and bottom that really was cool.  We also saw a tremendous sea lion that must have weighed a ton (literally).  When they howled, it sounded like a really loud, really long burp.  The entertainment value was great, the animals were super cool and we had a great time.  We'll have to finish visiting the rest of the museums next time we visit Spain.

All smiles!

Cool rays!

Sun fish...not like the ones we catch in the US that fit in your hand.

Close up of the mighty sun fish (Oceanografic) 

Belching seal.

Looks like a whale no?

The Market and Alcoy

About halfway through France, the light on our dashboard that shows the gear started flashing. We looked in the owner's manual and it said it could be an indication of transmission trouble, but that it also sometimes happened if the gas cap wasn't screwed on correctly. The Linguist messed with the gas cap and it stopped flashing...until we were leaving Barcelona. He spent some time Monday researching possible causes and finally called a Honda dealer in Valencia who agreed to look at it. According to their machine, it's a temperature gauge in the transmission...so we're pressing on.

While The Linguist hung out at the Honda place, the kids and I explored the nearest local market. I love the location where they are because we could stand on the balcony and peruse the stalls before we even went out shopping! They had similar offerings to what we find in Ferrara -- shoes, clothes, jewelry and a few other odds and ends. The most interesting find was the box of huge caterpillars at a pet stall! Oh, and the meat department of the Mercado. The Mercado is like a market, but inside. Individual vendors have their wares displayed and there were several fruit and vegetables stands, a nut counter and several meat stands, as well. The boys were immediately drawn to the meat counter that boasted skinned rabbits (whole, but skinned) and a huge head and neck of a turkey, its beady black eyeball still intact! The woman running the stand was very kind in answering all of our questions about exactly what animal each piece of meat had come from, and I'm sure was amused at our ignorance in the world of meat. Probably much like the way we used to laugh and shake our head at the Utah cousins who wanted to eat the calf grain when they visited the farm!

All blood and bugs having been discovered, the younger kids wanted just one turn around the market and then begged to go back to the apartment to play with the dogs. Pianogurl and I dropped them off and then spent an hour or so perusing. She found the perfect purse, and I got a really cute skirt for just 8 euro.

Following the market, we headed to Alcoy to watch a re-enactment of a battle in 700 AD between the Moors and the Christians. This was The Linguist's first area on his mission and his first mission days were actually during this festival! The first thing that struck me about the city was the beautiful blue dome on a huge cathedral. The next, was the fact that nearly everyone was dressed in period costumes -- not just the folks involved in the re-enactment, but the whole city! We eagerly walked up the road to the plaza, afraid that we'd missed the battle by a few minutes. We were pleasantly surprised to find that it had yet to begin and jockeyed for a good position along the edge of the crowd. The first half hour or so was a yelling match between the leader of the Moors and the leader of the Christians. We couldn't understand much of it, and about the time things looked like they were going to take off, Rosa had to go to the bathroom! Thanks goodness for close porta potties!

On "El Puente de Sant Jordi" in Alcoy.  The Linguist crossed this bridge almost daily back in the day.

The men (and a few women) lined up in groups. Apparently, during this particular battle there were many military groups from neighboring areas who came to defend the city against the Moors. Each had their own unique costume, so there was a wide variety in dress among the different groups. We heard a shot that sounded like a cannon and the "battle" began. I was expecting something along the lines of what we had seen in the United States -- maybe 10 minutes of fire. I soon realized we were in for a totally different experience. What we thought was a cannon blast was the shot fired from one of the guns. A Moorish group would fire off 6 shots or so and then a Christian company would answer. Each shot was like a cannon blast -- literally rocking the ground we were standing on. We stood with our fingers in our ears, watching in fascination. About the time "shrapnel" started falling on my head, I looked around and realized that Pianogurl, Rosa and I were now the only spectators sitting as close to the railing as possible, everyone else was squeezed back against the wall of the buildings. We moved back, too! Songbird didn't like the noise and was in tears by this time. It made us all reflect on how horrifying and chaotic it must be to live in a city where a battle is being fought -- let alone to be on the street with the guns.

Near the faux castle in the main square, Alcoy.

We stayed and watched all of the groups march through the square and proceed on their route throughout the city that followed the actual route of the armies during the battle. We stumbled on a victory party in a neighboring square where Lionel Ritchie's "Celebrate" was blasting and people dressed in period costume were dancing, eating, drinking and selling balloons! (that was another of those surreal moments!). We posed for pictures with some folks in costume that we stopped on the street, bought pastries in a little shop and paused for snacks on a bench in a crowded park. All this time we could still hear the gun blasts at regular intervals! We wound through the streets and back to our van and as we left town, the guns were still blasting. Apparently it lasts for 4-5 hours before the final showdown in the plaza...

The Linguist has vivid memories of climbing this hill many times during his time here.

The Linguist has a similar photo.

Gotta love the pastries!

Swimming in the Mediterranean!

The Linguist says that technically we didn't swim in the Mediterranean. Since the day was chilly, most of us did more wading than anything else. The kids, however, did swim -- so swimming it is!

For me, this was one of those surreal moments when things I've just heard about seem to come crashing into my reality, and I wonder whether this can really be happening. I was walking along the beach, looking out over the Mediterranean Sea! The sky was a beautiful blue, coming down to meet the line of dark blue water out in the distance. The mountain rising up ahead was what really took me back. I've spent plenty of time on beaches in Florida, but I've never stood on the beach and gazed at a mountain. I told The Linguist that I need to live on a beach with a mountain...in my castle, of course!

Deep Thinker and The Net really enjoyed shell hunting &
playing in the beautiful water.

Happy smiles all around the beaches...though there were
no sneeches.

Despite the cool wind, the kids loved the beach and begged to go back every other day we spent in Spain! They collected shells and The Net even found what he thought was a shark's egg case. (We later identified it as a stingray egg case.) He also found another shell that was about 1/2 an inch across and about 4 inches long. We learned later (when we saw them alive in the market) that it's a creature called a "knife."

María served us more delicious food -- fideua (not sure if that spelling is correct) -- which is a macaroni dish seasoned with saffron, that has shrimp and chunks of fish in it. Since the shrimp had eyes and antennae still attached it caused quite a stir! Rosa and Deep Thinker had to have their food segregated and ate just the macaroni. We fed the younger kids eggs and nutella bread for their second dinner and put them into bed a little earlier. We ate leftover salad from the night before around 10 p.m. Spain has such a laid-back, take-things-as-they-come feeling. I'm pretty sure I could get used to dinner at 10 and breakfast at 10 the next morning! A little different than our 5 and 5 routine at home.

Fresh shrimp from Fideua trying to escape...not.

The Lladro factory

We had crepes for breakfast! Yummy! María had meats and cheeses to put in the center, along with Nutella (Deep Thinkers favorite food!). Spanish breakfast is served with warm milk to which we all added chocolate! The Linguist has always said that he didn't like regular hot chocolate made with hot water. I never understood what was wrong with it until living in Europe where what we would call hot chocolate is served with milk all the time. It's so much more creamy and rich I don't like the kind with hot water anymore either. Their hot chocolate takes decadence to a whole other level -- it's a cross between melted chocolate and pudding and is much more suited to dipping than to drinking. I don't think I've managed to finish a cup yet!

We spent the morning touring the Lladró Factory, which was fascinating. It was started by the Lladró brothers who built a kiln in their backyard and started pouring porcelain there. Eventually their business expanded and they are currently one of the premier porcelain makers in the world. Their statues are breathtaking and positively intricate. First the statues are carved from traditional materials, then molds are created using the statue for a model. The liquid porcelain is poured into the mold and left to dry for a specified period of time. Since something as small as an arm on a figurine may be composted of 3-4 different molds, it's a pretty lengthy process. After the molds have dried, the porcelein is removed from the mold and the different pieces are pasted together using liquid porcelain.

Artists paint each piece and then the pieces are fired in the kiln. The detail was impressive -- not just with the painting, but also with the detail work. We watched as a woman molded miniature flowers using little bits of porcelain. Each petal on their flowers is made individually!  

This masterpiece, La reina del Nilo (the queen of the Nile)
costs 150,000 Euros and takes 3 months to make.

You can make out the flowers on the middle of the boat.
Each petal is maybe 1/4" long by a bit less skinny.

The royal queen herself...