You Guessed It - A Catholic Church! (Barcelona, Spain 12/18/08)

Bright and early at 8 am Kyle decides to wake up. I however decide it is NOT time to get up. Finally around 11 we head out for the day. It’s a balmy 50 degrees outside so we decide that sweatshirts and rain jackets were enough – that ended up biting us in the butt as 50 degrees and windy is not warm enough…

We decided we would take the 2 day bus tour around the city. There were 2 routes we could take so we took the red one first. We found a way to the bus stop and got our tickets on board. Our first stop was La Sagrada Familia Catholic Church.

As we step off the bus we realize we’re starving! We find a Pizza Hut (they don’t have those in Switzerland so it’s ok to eat there on vacation) and I am very excited for some breadsticks…unfortunately it doesn’t open for another 45 minutes. So we continue walking and find a fabulous mediterranean restaurant that also has pastas and wood oven pizzas. I order a ham pizza and Kyle gets a tapas variety plate with the intention that we share. Ten seconds after the food arrives Kyle’s plate is empty and I didn’t get to try anything – that’s fine, no pizza for you Kyle!

After lunch, we spend much of our afternoon at La Sagrada Familia. I bet you can’t guess what type of church it is from the picture…you guessed another CATHOLIC CHURCH! I must say this church was pretty cool.

Here’s a little history:

It’s the only gothic cathedral still under construction. It was started in 1882, is currently only 50% done, and the anticipated completion date is sometime in 2026 (although, I betcha that the cathedral will never be completed – for tourism sake). Antoni (pronounced Antonio in English) Gaudi took over the project in 1883 – he is probably the most well known Spanish Catalan architect ever.

The cathedral will have (they aren’t all done yet) 18 towers: 12 for the apostles, 4 for the evangelists, 1 for Mary, and 1 for Jesus. Construction for the church is funded completely on private donations (in fact, our tickets say something like ‘by buying this ticket you consented and are donating to the construction of La Sagrada Familia’): that is one reason that it has taken so long to complete the project. If they don’t have any money they don’t build.

Gaudi was kinda crazy. He never married and the older he got the more he poured his heart into his project. Towards the end of his life, when he know it wasn’t going to be completed before he died, he made very, VERY detailed plans for how is show be completed. The plans were destroyed in the 1930 during a civil war so (if you’re good, I’m not) you can supposedly see where the style changes and additions are made.

There are also several other beautiful buildings around Barcelona that are Gaudi’s, here's his most famous:What ended Gaudi's life was in 1926 he was run over by a city tram. Because he looked like a pauper (and no one but his friends knew what he looked like because he refused to have pictures taken of him) no one would help to take him to the hospital. (I found this to be both funny and tragic.)


After our audio tour of the cathedral we hop back on the bus and take in around the rest of the red loop. (We had a slight delay with some stupid old people tourists got in our way and the bus left without us. No really, I heard them say ‘Sagrada Familia’ like 10 times – I’m sure they were looking for it. “See that GIANT BUILDING that’s casting a shadow on you so you can’t read your map? That’s it, go over there…”)


My little shutter bug continues to snap pictures like it’s going out of style as we finish up the loop (I think we hit at least 3 cars and half a dozen people along the way – apparently that’s OK to do in Spain) and we decide to get off at Las Ramblas.






As we walk down Las Ramblas, block after block of the same stores we realize we’re freezing still (remember, only raincoats today). So we pop into their friendly neighborhood Starbucks for a cup of joe.


***”Joe” Side Note*** We don’t drink it. Kyle had hot chocolate and I had hot milk with chocolate, caramel, foamed milk, sugar, and a splash of coffee to give it color (aka Caramel Machiatto) because I don’t know how to order my normal Sugar-Free Vanilla Latte, Skim Milk, No Whip, Extra Foam in any language but English. Yeah, I’m one of them – but all I really wanna do is cut down on the calories…


When we finish our drinks we’re still not thawed out. So Kyle rips up one of the paper plates we got (to go with the chocolate cake that came on it) and we played checkers until he rocked me old school. He gloated for a long time – but I kinda had to let him. It’s not very often that he beats me at anything…
Back outside to walk along block after block of the same stores. We saw about 10 H&Ms, 4 Mango, and at least 50 Hola Newstands. Also, about a million ‘street performers’. None of them actually PERFORMED anything except for these guys. So we taped them and gave them some money.

Finally we find a metro stop and head home – but not before we find a Dunkin’ Donuts!
On the way back to the hotel we stop by the grocery store (both because we want some snacks and breakfast food and because I find it fascinating to see what the sell and for how much).

The grocery store rocked my world! The aisles are like 3 Wal-mart aisles wide (that’s 7 Swiss grocery store aisles wide) and you can actually afford to purchase things! We went a little crazy: Chips, soda, water, tea, donuts, candy, juice…

We’re done hunting and gathering so we head back to the hotel and put it all down. About the time we get back to the room we realize that we didn’t eat dinner so we drop everything and head back out to the Pan and Co. (Spain’s answer to Subway) for some sandwiches – we had a coupon.

Finally! Back to the room and some reading before bed.

Rock Paper Sissors Lizard Spock

After months of watching this show Kyle finally admitted that he likes it and even looks forward to seeing it.

Watch this - I dare you to tell me that it's not funny (and it doesn't remind you of Kyle a little bit).

Hasta Luego Switzerland! (Barcelona, Spain 12/17/08)

**Warning Side Note** Kyle and I made a very detailed list of EVERYTHING we did while on our cruise (and even wrote some of the posts while on the ship when we had nothing better to do). Therefore, these will probably be LOOOOOOONG. I won’t be offended if you just scroll through and look at the pictures (but if you want to tell me I’m an awesome and detailed blog writer that would be ok too).

First of all 7am is WAAAAAAAY to early for a flight. I think I’d rather be shot in the head before I take another 7 am flight (unless its for something like getting to go give birth to Matt Damon’s babies).

We left the house at 4:39 (can you tell I know the exact route to the airport by now?) Took the 5:04 direct train to the airport (there must be a lot of idiots have early morning flights) and were there by 5:45. Even though Zurich was having the first snow since, like, 1947 everything was still on time. My favorite part of the Zurich airport is when you get to take the little train from the main part to Terminal E. In the train you get to see a 30 second little video that always gets me so excited because at the end a cow moos – hehehe. Kyle also likes it because when you going away from the main terminal you get to see Heidi (think Jessica Rabbit from ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’ with braided pig tails and lederhosen). We ALWAYS go to Terminal E – who in their right might flies domestically within Switzerland, it’s like the size of a postage stamp! Well, this time we had to talk to Terminal A – it’s just as far away, you just don’t get to take the train. I would have been really disappointed but then realized that I was going to the freaking Mediterranean!

While we were waiting in the gate Kyle insists that I stabbed him in the eye. My story is that it’s not my fault if he can’t control his own bodily convulsions. I was pointing at him and he thought it would be a good idea to head butt my finger with his face…see how well that worked out for you Kyle?!? (sometimes I really think boys are the stupider sex :P)

Everything was going smoothly until after we got on the plane. The captain comes on and says it’s going to be a little while – the tractor thing that is supposed to push us back is missing. We started pushing away from the gate and then stop. The tractor is stuck in the snow – we need to get a bigger one “don’t be scared when it feels like the earth is falling out from underneath you, the tractor is just stuck and we have to get back down to the ground before the bigger tractor can take over”. About 10 minutes later he gets on the loudspeaker and says that it’ll be about 30 minutes before the bigger tractor gets there. Once the tractor gets there he comes back on and says the plane now has to be de-iced (um, it’s snowing OF COURSE the plane has to be de-iced…) an hour later, at least, we leave. Our hour and 23 minute flight took us just over 5 hours gate to gate…good thing I was going to the Mediterranean!

So on our way through customs I realize that Barcelona doesn’t have nearly the same customs ‘regulations’ that Amsterdam did. In Amsterdam the customs guys were all like 18 year old super models (even Kyle made a comment about it at the time). Everyone is lucky that those guys had shirts on…otherwise I would have never left the airport and Kyle would have had to find is second wife earlier then originally anticipated :) ).

Once at the airport we got directions to take the train 3 stops then take the metro 2 stops, walk around the corner and we’re there. Luckily Kyle and I had done some research beforehand. The directions were exactly right but that was no help in purchasing the actual tickets. Even the machine we used was helpless! We wanted to buy or tickets in English so we picked that option – the only thing it changed was “Otros Opciones” to “Other Options” on the screen of about 15 things (Megan, if that’s not right I want you to reprimand Kyle like you would your students – he should know better!). But we knew we wanted a T-10 card and went on our merry way.

You have to remember that we had to pack 20 days worth of clothes and all the stuff that goes along with it. Our suitcases were HUGE and super heavy. We have a pretty good system: Kyle will carry the 2 big bags and I carry everything else (this time that was my Vera duffle, purse, camera bag, and Kyle’s overnight backpack). Every time we went down a flight of stairs Kyle would count them. By the time we got to the forth flight Kyle said that if their wasn’t an elevator we were going to have to live in the subway tunnels until it was time to get on the boat or we found an elevator – luckily there was an elevator at our stop.

We finally get to our hotel (the directions were actually very good), get checked in and up in our room, and Kyle instantly, INSTANTLY passes out on the bed. I have a new camera I need to learn to use, a new book that burning a whole in my bag (yes, please tell me how lame I am – the book is ‘Shift: How Top Real Estate Agents Tackle Tough Times’) so I leave him a note that I’m going to the pool on the roof to read and play.

Key in hand, I head up to the top floor, I wonder around the 1 (singular) hallway looking for where the hell the pool is when this guy comes out of NO WHERE and scared the crap out of me. He only speaks Spanish and I didn’t have my personal translator with me so there I am trying to explain to him that I want to go to the pool (it’s like high 50’s – that’s warm enough to sit in the sun, fully clothed, reading outside). At one point I say ‘aqua’ thinking that he might get what I want from that – instead he hands me his water bottle, not exactly, but that is what I said… Finally, he decides I’m completely incompetent and shows me how an elevator works (since I still have my key in my hand he knows I need to eventually get to floor 4). I decide to head to the lobby and sit around there with my book and camera (I found out the pool was closed for construction – probably what that guy was doing).

There are 2 things we do in every city we go to.

1. Go to the Hard Rock Café (if there is one) and pick up their city pin (I think I have 7 or 8 now with many more to come!)
2. Find a super cool magnet that must: a) be 3-D b) state the name of the city (or mountain when we’re in Switzerland, not just country or region) c) be super cool
   

(I’ll have to post pictures of my magnet/pin collection sometime – its awe inspiring and completely tacky all at the same time!)

So, off to find Hard Rock! We had a map to get there but somehow got a little turned around and ended up on the ‘shoe street’ (I think Kyle knew this place existed but tried his hardest to keep me away from it…). So, we did a little woman’s shoe shopping but ended up with nothing (I don’t think I was in the mood). We finally found Hard Rock and by this time we were starving! Kyle had a plate of meats for dinner – no I’m serious, it was almost like we were back home – and I had honey mustard and a unlimited refillable Diet Coke (I’m sure something came with my honey mustard, like fries or chicken nuggets or something – but I don’t remember). We were both very happy with our dinner selections.After dinner we stopped by the Hard Rock Store to pick up our pin and then headed out to find the Barcelona casino. We didn’t know exactly where it was – just the bus stop. But we weren’t taking the bus, we were taking the subway. So we found what we thought was the closest subway stop to that bus stop and headed off. When we popped our head up from the station we were in the deserted warehouse district. Kyle thought ‘Hey, this looks seedy, let’s walk around here for a while!!’ (He also thought the river was north of us – it was south.) After about 15 minutes of walking around and thinking we were going to get mugged we decided to head back to the subway and head home.

In the subway we thought about going to Las Ramblas to check it out at night but then remembered the 3 am wake up call and decided we liked sleep more…there’s always tomorrow!

Here are a couple more pictures of things we found around Barcelona on the first day:

(Please notice that trees and dogs are acceptable but volleyballs are not)
You can never go wrong with Starbucks!
I never need to go to the grocery store again! I could live forever from this vending machine - heck I could live on Oreos and Sunny D alone! (I think that's a rotisserie chicken on the right)

Pictures are up!

Unfortunately the link I originally posted doesn't work. However, in "mid-January" Snapfish will give me the option to post a link to the blog so you can see all the pictures.

As soon as this link thing works I'll make sure to post it - until then you'll just have to stick with the highlights, sorry!

Our Adventures Begin!

A few things before I become a blogging machine. Even though Kyle and I both get a little sea sick when the boat really rocks I think we’ve decided this is one of the best ways to travel (Dude, all I had to do was give them my credit card number and the rest was done for me!). There was no possible way that we could have gotten to all of these stops in the amount of time that we did (and for the same price). Granted, some of the stops were better then some of the others but we made sure to get off and look around at every port. Even at the ports we didn’t really care for we were able to realize why we didn’t care for them and were able to learn from that. Plus, this was a great history lesson – in school you do units on Europe or Egypt or whatever but you don’t remember any of it. Why should you? This is the best history lesson ever!

We hope to be able to do another cruise next year. Next year I think we’ll take a tour of Asia (or Australia – but everyone’s done Australia, we can do that once we get back to the states). Cruising is kinda like the ‘cliff notes’ of travel – but really that’s all I need or want. After a couple of days and hitting all the big places in a city I start to get a little stir crazy anyway and ready to see something different. If anyone wants to join us on an Asia cruise next year let me know – we’ll get something booked ;)

We took, literally, THOUSANDS of pictures! Having a camera in my hand at all times really facilitated that… I’ve decided to set up an account to store them all online. I will continue to post the photos I really like on the blog (and the panoramas through Bob’s software) but if you would like to see ALL the pictures we took I’ll give you a link as soon as it’s ready. I will also go back and upload all of our previous trips to the website if for some reason you would like to see those as well. If you see one that you really like I will happily send you the high quality image if you want it.

Carol, you were right; I’m sorry I doubted you. You told me that I wouldn’t need half the stuff I packed and I didn’t completely believe you because, I thought, I was not going to be at the beach and a pool the whole time. I brought 2 party dresses for formal nights, I wore 1 for about 30 minutes until we decided we were uncomfortable and went and took them off. I brought 4 pairs of tenni-runners and only really needed 1 pair (1 pair I didn’t wear at all). I also have to remember that the sweatshirts I bring have to match SOMETHING. It does no good to bring all black clothes and 1 brown sweatshirt – I didn’t wear it once. We did take advantage of the ‘cheap’ laundry day they had on the ship and that helped (I’ll also remember that for next time). We thought we packed so well and there were STILL things we didn’t need (and the weight was so much that we really didn’t get to buy souvenirs – not necessarily a bad thing).

Ok, I think that’s it – let’s start the show!!