Spain!

I bet you thought you'd NEVER get to see these pictures! I was beginning to doubt if I would get to them myself. If it wasn't such a big trip I would just skip posting about it and move on but I want to write about it for us. I have a ton of pictures and numerous posts so I'm going to just plug away. Then I can move on to other fun events like birthday parties and weddings!

We had an afternoon flight to Newark before heading on to Barcelona. It was a little tough getting Jane to sleep but once we succeeded she was able to sleep for a solid 5 hours. It helped that the long flight was at night and that the flight stayed dark most of the time. Kevin and I didn't get much sleep though so we were pretty tired once we arrived in Barcelona at 9 am local time. 

1st international flight!

Once we got through customs and were preparing to figure out how to get to the hotel (we decided not to mess with bringing a car seat so public transit it was). It was then that I realized I didn't have my wallet. I had condensed down to a small wallet so I wasn't bringing everything and I thought it had fallen out on the plane. The other possibility was that it was in the car back in Kansas (we'd stopped at Target on the way to the airport). This ended up being the case but caused a lot of stress and I spent a lot of time monitoring our credit and debit cards during our stay. 

It was also a little stressful getting to our hotel since we weren't familiar with the area and couldn't use our phones. Eventually we made it though. After a nap we met up with a bunch of Kevin's work folks for a really nice dinner at El Nacional BCN. Fancy tapas and fancy wine. I was glad that Kevin's work took care of the bill!

The next day we slept in pretty late. Kevin didn't have to be anywhere until the afternoon which was nice. While he was at workshops Jane and I had a little time to explore. First stop...the roof of our hotel!

Hanging by the pool

After studying the map and planning a little walk we went out and came upon this beauty. Because of it's location we actually came by here several more times during the week but enjoyed different parts of it each time. 

Catedral de Barcelona

It was Sunday afternoon and the next day was a local holiday so there were festivities going on outside the church. 

We were able to go inside for a closer look. There was actually a service going on and I was a little surprised they were allowing people in. 

Inside the Barcelona Cathedral

The church was absolutely beautiful. So large and intricate. 

A baptismal

Jane was such a trooper being in the stroller so much. It was a bit of challenge since she had just started walking and wanted to move around but there weren't very many good places to just let her be free while out and about.  It was just the two of us that evening since Kevin had a work dinner so we went out for an Argentinian dinner at a place near our hotel. It was a little lonely that night since Kevin was out late. I was stuck in the hotel room with a sleeping baby and didn't even have Netflix or Hulu to keep me busy. I ended up finding a movie on Youtube to watch but the quality on there is always questionable. 

The next morning we had breakfast with Daddy before he grabbed a cab to his conference. We had a fun walk planned in El Born. 

On our walk we passed by the oldest church in town. (supposedly)

Capella d'en Marcus

A walk through Passeig del Born which is the neighborhood center. It used to be a jousting square but is now just a beautiful street. 

At the end of Passeig del Born was the El Born Cultural Center.

The Cultural Center used to be the city's main produce market (1871-1971). Underneath the market hall are medieval excavations which was amazing to see. Jane was napping for a good chunk of our time here so it gave me a chance to wander around and read the signs.  

There is another permanent exhibit here which would have been fun to go to but with Jane I decided it wasn't worth it. 

Instead we grabbed a snack at the cafe!

Jane enjoyed looking down on the excavation. 

After leaving the Cultural Center we headed over to a the Church of Santa Maria del Mar. It was amazing! (Although Jane didn't seem to think so and had a little tantrum while inside. Luckily no services were going on at the time).

Church of Santa Maria del Mar

The church is 14th century and was where shipwrights and merchants used to come to worship. The stones were quarried at Montjuic and were carried across down on the backs of porters (bastaixos). 

Church of Santa Maria del Mar

The interior was very Gothic in style and unadorned compared to many churches. It had more until the Spanish Civil War when the working class burned all the wood furnishings and decor. You can still see where the ceiling is blacked from the carbon. 

Church of Santa Maria del Mar

The columns in the church actually inspired Gaudi (a famous architect that you'll hear more about later). 

Church of Santa Maria del Mar

After leaving the church we continued on our walk and stopped at Pla de Palau which is the oldest main square in Barcelona. 

On to the waterfront to take a look at the Barcelona Head. Actually done by an American artist for the 1992 Summer Olympics. He used styles of several Spanish architects...including the Cubism of Picasso. 

Barcelona Head

After this we went back to our hotel to rest and get cleaned up. There was an outing planned with the conference to see La Sagrada Familia that we would be joining Kevin for.