Another day in Barcelona!

The next day Jane and I had another walk planned in the Eixample district. This district is newer part of the city and is the same district that we were staying in. 

A passage through some housing area. 

A little cut through of a nearby residential area brought us to this awesome Water Tower Garden. I guess later in the summer it turns into a sort of temporary beach and a lot of families in the neighborhood hang out here a lot. 

Next stop on our walk took us to the Church of the Holy Conception. Unfortunately it was closed and we weren't able to go inside. It used to be in Old City but was moved once Barcelona began to expand. 

There were a few other sights along the way and while fun to walk by the pictures aren't that cool so we're skipping ahead to the Block of Discord.

This block features three buildings by three Modernista architects including Gaudi. 

Casa Batllo (Antoni Gaudi)

You can take tours of the buildings but unless you reserved ahead of time there are typically long lines. It's easy to reserve but since it was just me with Jane I didn't know how easy it would be to make a specific time and she probably wouldn't have lasted long. Plus we had the stroller and a lot of Barcelona I found to not be stroller friendly. 

Casa Batllo

It would have been really cool to go inside but it was still fun looking at the details and differences in style between each building. 

Casa Amatller (Josep Puig i Cadafaich)

Casa Amatller

Casa Lleo Morera (Lluis Domenech i Montaner)

Not far from the Block of Discord was another beautiful building, La Pedrera (a.k.a. Casa Mila) done by Gaudi. It was actually his last major work before he became focused on Sagrada Familia. 

You can take a tour of this house's interior and go to the rooftop but opted out that afternoon.  I wanted to go and we thought about going later in the week but it didn't end up happening. 

I did get to go into the atrium for a bit though and peek up. Just looking at the exterior is pretty awesome though. After I lost Jane's hat and we spent some time back tracking in hopes of finding it we finally went back to our hotel to cool off, eat, and nap. 

That evening Kevin had originally planned to head out on another excursion with conference folks to a winery. Based on how late we kept Jane out on the Sagrada Familia tour the night before I decided to skip that event. Kevin surprised me though and decided to skip that evening. We were pretty excited to have him around that evening and decided it would be a good night to go and do laundry. The laundromat was a little ways away so we managed to do a little sight seeing on our walk there. 

Sant Pere de les Puelles

Came across this cook Benedictine monastery and decided to take a quick peek. 

I loved seeing all the Romanesque and Gothic styles throughout the city. 

We made it to the laundromat and Jane had fun walking around while we started the loads. While we were waiting we grabbed dinner at a nearby restaurant. Kevin just went over to get our stuff when it was done drying. 

Laundry time!

After dinner we started our walk back. I wanted to show Kevin a few things that I'd seen on my walk so we went back by the Cathedral of Barcelona. 

It was late and the church was closed but Kevin enjoyed looking around. That church is just amazing!

Near the church was the Monument to the Martyrs of Independence. 

It was so fun having Kevin around to share some of the beautiful architecture with. 

Heading back to our hotel we stopped by the Palace of Catalan Music. I'd walked by before during the day but didn't go inside. I thought it was more beautiful at night all lit up. 

This concert hall was built in 1908 and was absolutely beautiful. 

Again, a tour would have allowed us to see more of the interior but we were able to walk in and peek around a little bit around the entrance. 

Such a beautiful building. 

Back at the hotel it was bath night for Jane. Our first hotel, although amazing, had no bathtub so a sink bath it was. 

We then had a pretty chill evening in our room watching a YouTube movie while Jane slept. We'll have to come back to Barcelona someday without kids if we are going to experience any of the nightlife which I hear is pretty fun.

La Sagrada Familia

The conference Kevin was attending had events going on each night. One of these outings was a bus ride to La Sagrada Familia and then drinks and appetizers at Hospital de Sant Pau. Jane and I took the subway to the conference location to meet up with Kevin before heading over to the church.

Happy on the bus!

La Sagrada Familia is an incredible church created by architect Antoni Gaudi. Gaudi had spent 43 years working on this church when he died and it remains unfinished. In the last few decades more work has been done and the hope is that it will be finished by 2026 to mark 100 years since Gaudi's death.

The church embodies all three of Gaudi's foundations: classics, nature, and religion. Many of the plans for the church were destroyed in the Spanish Civil War so they have had to study the remaining plans and sort of guess (based on knowledge of his style) what he would want the rest of the building to look like. 

I guess there are still a lot of challenges remaining before the building is to be completed. They have to make sure the church can hold up to the vibrations of a nearby high speed train that was put in, they have to construct the tallest church spire ever built (there are currently 8 of 18 spires Gaudi had planned), and they have to buy out people living in condos nearby so they have the space to finish what Gaudi envisioned. It's crazy that they could actually be done in 11 years with so much left to do. 

I took so many pictures of this beast and I had trouble deciding which to post. There is just so much detail everywhere. Truly incredible. 

I read somewhere that skipping the interior of the Sagrada Familia was fine but I completely disagree. If you are ever in Barcelona I highly suggest paying to go inside. Definitely worth it. 

Jane was getting a little fussy around this time so it made it a little difficult to listen to the guide so I know I missed a lot from the tour.

I still enjoyed taking in the beauty of design though. The stained glass was fantastic. 

Normally you can take an elevator up to the top but the church was preparing to close. I wouldn't have gone anyway since Jane was on the verge of a meltdown (super tired baby). If we ever come back to Barcelona I will be sure to go up though!

After leaving the church we walked over to Hospital de Sant Pau. It was a beautiful hospital. We were just in the courtyard and never went inside but definitely enjoyed the location. 

 Luckily Jane fell asleep on the way over. We were hoping she would sleep for longer but I think she got chilly with the wind and woke up. It made socialising and eating (it was appetizers that you had to basically attack the caterers wandering around for) somewhat difficult. We decided we needed to head back.

 Fortunately one of the chartered buses was preparing to leave and was making a stop not far from our hotel. It was much easier than trying to figure out the bus system at night with an overtired baby. 

It was a long day but really fun. Jane was such a trooper and put up with being taken all over the place. It was definitely nice to get back to our hotel though!

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. 

Jane: 1 year old!

Last week our baby girl turned 1 year old! I'm truly in disbelief that a year has already gone by. I know its cliche to say "it goes so fast" but it really truly does. I personally think it goes even faster the second time around. We actually took these pictures last week but with all the craziness going on around here I haven't had much of a chance to do any posting. This is actually my 3rd attempt to fit some blogging in during naps.

This is the same exact chalkboard we used for Anna at 1 year. Glad I never erased it!

Jane's 1 year appointment was actually today and here are her stats:

Weight: 22 lbs 6 oz (83%)

Height: 28.5 in (23%)

Head Cir.: 19 in (99%)

I still think she's a little taller then they measured but at least this time they didn't have to re-measure. She certainly isn't a tall child but I don't think she's that short. We looked back and she's almost an inch taller then Anna was at a year and 2 1/2 pounds heavier. We stuck Anna on the scale while we were there just for fun and fully clothed she was not even 29 pounds so Jane is quickly closing the gap between them. 

Jane's 12th month was a big one. On Memorial Day at almost 11 1/2 months Jane officially became  walker. She started the day with a max of 4-5 steps to a person very close by (usually me) and by the end of the day she was walking across half the room and doing it just because she could. Since then she's just taken off and is walking all over the place. It's been pretty fun but tiring because she's less content to just be held and wants to move. It made getting these pictures pretty tricky but we had fun.

Jane also became an international traveler this last month. I may have mentioned previously that we were accompanying Kevin to Barcelona, Spain for a work conference. It was amazing and I have a ton of pictures to sort through and posts to make but there has been way too much going on since we got back. Hopefully I'll get to it soon!

While we were there Jane got another tooth and now has EIGHT! I'm hoping we get a little break from teething before the next round hits. Sleep was going really well but the traveling kind of messed things up. We are finally getting back to normal and last night Jane slept until after 7 am! Whoo hoo!

As Jane gets older more and more of her personality shines through and it's amazing seeing the differences between her and Anna. Jane is very sweet, very silly, and overall very happy although she is very stubborn and has a flare for the dramatics. She definitely knows what she wants and lets you know when she is unhappy about getting something taken away. I took her off the swing the other day when she wasn't ready and you'd think her life was over with the little fit she threw. It's moments like that in which I realize I have TWO toddlers now. Jane can be pretty social when and flirty when she wants but she definitely has her shy moments and is very much a Mama's girl. Since Spain she has been wanting Daddy more and more but I'm still number 1 :)

It's been watching Jane start to really figure things out. From attempting to put her shoes, hat, or bow on (obviously not well) to  "using" items she sees us using to copying noises and expressions. One of my favorite things she started doing was saying "Nah" when we ask her a question. I think it even means "no" most of the time. Other times she just does it to make us laugh. She's been giving her version of a kiss lately although it's usually just the "mmmmmaw" sound. We are working on no teeth when she does go in for the real kiss. Biting in general has been a bit of a problem. Mostly it is just me and Kevin but occasionally she gets Anna. I notice she does it most when she's getting tired or hungry. Since it seems like it is a communication thing I'm hoping we can nip it in the bud soon. No one wants their kid to be the biter!

It's also been fun to be able to play with Jane more and more interactively. Her favorite game right now is the "grab it" game. She prefers to play with Daddy but others will do in a pinch. Daddy comes for a toy that's in her hand saying "Ahhhh" and pulling it to himself. Then Jane does it and it's so cute seeing her grab that toy and pulling it back so fast while making the noise. She smiles so big when playing. Sometimes she even initiates the game. I love that she's attempting to communicate more. She hasn't really done any sign language yet (I admit I'm not always consistent with it) but I'm trying to do more of it so hopefully we can communicate even better. She's not really talking a ton yet although she is very vocal. She says "mama" and "dada" but we're not 100% sure it's referring to us yet. She does make noises like "quack" and "ahh ahh" when looking at pictures of ducks and monkeys respectively. 

Such a fun month and so amazing to watch our two girls playing together and their love growing. I'm hoping to post a few videos along with Spain pictures, shower pictures, and birthday party pictures. I better get busy! Happy birthday sweet Jane. We love you so much.