SPAIN - Barcelona 1

Russ served a 2-year mission in Spain and was able to return for the first time in September of 2014 when he had to travel to Madrid for work. He LOVED being back and I made him promise that the next time he went I'd get to go along, too. 

Well, Russ had to go back a few weeks ago, and he paid up on his promise to me! 

My parents flew in to College Station the afternoon of Thursday, September 3rd, and Russ and I hopped on a plane that evening. 

Practicing our selfies during the looooooong flight.

Russ was scheduled to teach 2 classes in Madrid the week of September 7th, but we went a few days early so we could spend some time in Barcelona (which is where Russ was a missionary). We arrived in Madrid Friday evening, took the Metro downtown from the airport, stowed most of our luggage in some lockers, ate a quick dinner, and hopped on a train headed for Barcelona.

Russ was SO excited to get some Spanish food. His communication skills needed a little brushing up though, since the restaurant owner thought Russ wanted his Tortilla de Patata on sandwich bread.

Our train arrived in Barcelona just before midnight. When we got off I asked Russ about taking the Metro to our hostel, but Russ was so thrilled to be back in the city he loves that he insisted on just walking around outside for a few minutes before finding our way to the hostel (even though we'd been travelling for like 25 hours at that point).

When we made a reservation at our hostel we could choose between a room with 2 single beds, or a room with 1 double bed. We chose the double bed, but apparently that means they just shove the 2 singles together. :)

View from our balcony. Russ said this is totally typical. 

 Saturday was spent walking all over the city. Walking, and walking, and walking. And then some more walking. My feet were so happy when I took my shoes off at the end of the day!

Our hostel was just a few blocks from Camp Nou, where the Barcelona soccer team plays. 

First stop: Mercadona - the grocery store. I thought it was so fun to see all the little shopping trolleys lined up here. Most people walk to the market, so they bring these wheeled shopping bags to haul all their groceries home.

Here's Russ in his favorite section of the store. :)

After grocery shopping and stopping to eat a portion of our purchases for breakfast, we walked down a major road called Diagonal. As a missionary Russ spent many, many hours walking around here doing street contacts.

Many of Barcelona's famous sites were designed by the Spanish architect/artist Antoni Gaudi. The building behind us is La Pedrera. 

Gaudi's Casa Battlo. 

Placa Catalunya.

La Rambla - popular tourist street that leads down to the harbor.

On of the famous features of La Rambla is the collection of "living statues". People dress up elaborately and assume statue-like positions. Some of them are constantly in motion, others remain totally still until someone drops a coin in their jar, and then they magically come to life.

One of the foods Spanish foods Russ was most excited to have again was Melon. In the USA we have different melons - cantaloupe, honeydew, etc. In Spain it's just this one melon, and everyone knows what you're talking about. Russ bought a 1/2 melon at the store and thought he'd just eat part of it when we sat down for a snack. (You can see the famous Colon (Columbus) statue behind him.)

But once he got started, he didn't stop. Ate the whole thing right there.

Barcelona Cathedral

The Spanish food Russ has talked about most often is Paella. Previous to our trip he asserted that he had never tasted a bad paella. So naturally, that's the food we sought out for our main meal on Saturday. FAIL. This was a BAD paella. My smiling face tells you this picture was taken BEFORE I had tasted the food. So disappointing.

Arc de Triomf

All around the city there are racks of these bicycles. Apparently you can pay some sort of fee and the bikes are then available for you to use. Pick one up anywhere, ride it to any other rack, grab another one when you're ready to leave. So clever.

La Monumental
 Bull fighting has been outlawed in some areas of Spain, including Catalonia (northeastern region which includes Barcelona), so this building has been turned into a Museo Taurino (museum). 

La Sagrada Familia is probably the building Barcelona is best known for. It is a massive cathedral that is still under construction. It's another of Gaudi's designs. Construction was begun in 1882, and is scheduled to be completed in 2050. Russ was surprised at how much work had been done in the 14 yeas since he last saw it. (FYI - none of our pictures give a true picture of how enormous, and elaborate and incredible it is.)

This was the one place in Barcelona that we opted to pay the entry fee so we could go inside. Definitely not disappointed. Worth every euro.

The tallest of the external towers has not yet been built. When it's completed it will reach 170 meters from the ground. That's just over 550 feet. Like almost the length of TWO football fields put together.

This side of the cathedral features scenes from the birth of Christ. The side opposite features scenes from His death/resurrection. Every inch of the building seems to be elaborately decorated.

Walking inside the cathedral truly takes your breath away. We happened to arrive just as the sun was hitting the incredible stained-glass windows. Unbelievable.

This is a to-scale replica of the interior of the cathedral. Can you see the little tiny man next to the middle column? Yeah. That's how huge this place is.  

We stayed until they kicked us out at closing time. Our final stop of the day was a bit of a distance, so we hopped on the metro for the first time all day. We wanted to see the Font Magica de Montjuic (magic fountain show), but when we arrived there were a few other (thousand) people who had the same idea. We were tired and not in the mood to fight any crowds, so we watched the magic from a distance and then wended our weary way home.