Spain

The second part of our Southern Europe tour was Spain! We were less efficient in Barcelona than in Rome. Part of this had to do with the fact that none of us had been to Barcelona before, and part of it is that Barcelona is kind of a more complicated city—Rome only has two metro lines, and they each go to the main sites in the city, but Barcelona is not that way. Also, for the record, bus tour is not a very effective way to get around, I’ve decided. It is, however, a pretty decent way to spend a rainy morning, which is exactly what we did on Sunday. It was raining pretty steadily when we woke up, and for about half the day I was worried it wouldn’t stop. Matthew (he’s here now!!) and Rebecca had wandered out a bit the night before after he met us at the hostel, so he took me over to the Barcelona Cathedral while Becka was still getting ready. It’s quite close to our hostel, and the main building was closed for mass, but there was a neat little courtyard in the back that we got to see.

Then we all went out to get tickets for the bus tour we had decided to do, and we ended up spending an hour in the most infuriating line I have ever participated in... Matthew actually did most of the line-standing while Becka and I found a place to sit (apparently they do not have a pregnancy policy in Spain...), but I swear there were only like 10 people ahead of us, and they all took an absurdly long time getting their tickets! To be fair, it was actually a general tourism office, but they should have had some kind of express lane for “I just want the bus tour.” When we finally had purchased tickets, it was still raining. My hope was that we could ride around on the bus tour for a bit and it would eventually stop raining, but there was definitely a point where I despaired of anything but rain during our entire stay in Barcelona and had thoughts of trading my firstborn child for some sunshine... fortunately for Squishy (Becka’s nickname for the baby), it finally cleared up, right as the bus tour reached the pier. This was excellent because it was also lunch time, so we got off and had a nice seafood lunch. We also visited the mall that was there, quickly, to get poor Becka out of her wet shoes that she’d been enduring for the past three days...

My biggest interest in Barcelona all along, of course, has been the Gaudí buildings. We passed Casa Batlló early on in the tour, but there was a line outside there, too, and I’d had it with lines for the day, so I decided I’d try to get tickets online when we got back to the hostel. So after lunch we went up to Park Guell, which was my other big stop, but when we got there we learned that they sell tickets by time slot and were already full up for the afternoon... so we bought tickets for the next day, but by this time it was suddenly 4:00, and I was feeling like we hadn’t done anything at all that day. We did spend some time wandering around the free portion of the park, which was nice. And Matthew, at least, was enjoying the bus tour for itself.

Once we’d finished the second tour loop (we did one in the morning and one in the afternoon), we decided to get out to Sagrada Familia. The thing about Gaudí— half his stuff is extraordinarily gorgeous and brilliant, and the other half is wtf/looks like it belongs in Wonderland. Personally, I would put Sagrada Familia in the second category, but it was also cooler in person, actually, than pictures I’d seen. The outer stone was much lighter than I expected, for one. Also, what I could see of the stained glass from the outside looked like it might be worth viewing from the inside—it’s very expensive though (everything is Barcelona is...), and Matthew and Becka weren’t really feeling it, so I decided to go in by myself while they explored the lower portion, which is free and also used for regular church services. Except, it turned out they had closed entry for the day. I wasn’t totally married to the idea, so it was fine. The lower part was also neat. They had this beautiful white statue of Mary with Baby Jesus.

Matthew wanted to walk back to our hostel, which didn’t sound like a great idea to me, since my feet have been in like a constant state of complaint since about the end of or first day, but since I didn’t really know a better way to get there (the metro seemed too complicated to deal with, all the different lines, and the tour bus had also stopped running, but it wouldn’t have made sense to go all the way around the city again, since it only goes one way...), I agreed. Everything in Rome looked closer together on the map than it felt to walk, but thankfully the opposite proved true in this instance. But overall, by the end of the day, Becka and I both felt like Barcelona was not meeting our expectations, which was kind of lame.

Fortunately, Monday went better. We had all our tickets ahead of time and a better sense of where we wanted to go. Becka had been really hoping to make it to the beach while we were there, so Matthew took her down while I repacked our bags (they’d been getting increasingly higgledy-piggledy over the course of our travels, and with the lockers in our hostel, we basically had given up). Speaking of the hostel, this one in Barcelona was probably my favorite so far. They had a kitchen with free hot chocolate (and coffee and tea), and some common spaces with tables and couches, and they also provided shampoo (communally, but still) for showering, and individual lockers that were big enough for our backpacks. We slept in a 10-person room, but I didn’t even mind. Also, they had neat murals in the stairwell. And they didn’t try to push their parties on us.

Anyway, our plan for the morning was that Becka would stay at the beach or otherwise entertain herself while Matthew and I did Casa Batlló—it was far too expensive for her to join us when she wasn’t really that into it. So I packed up, checked out, and made my way to the Casa. Matthew ended up being a few minutes late, which made me nervous because it was also linked to a time slot, but it worked out just fine. The house itself was very cool. Matthew said, when it was finished, “I didn’t get the Gaudí thing before, but now I do.” They also had this REALLY cool guided “smart tour.” They hand you basically a cell phone, which you use to look around each room like a camera while the audio plays, and it superimposes images onto the space. So there was digital furniture in most of the rooms, but they also turned windows into sea turtles (illustrating the sea-themed inspiration of the design) and other neat things like that. The house is probably one of the best examples of Gaudí’s duality—it has this really cool art nouveau vibe going up two-thirds of the exterior, then a random gingerbread-looking roof that just doesn’t seem to quite fit... the interior is basically all gorgeous, though. It has a light well in the middle that’s just blue tile from top to bottom and a skylight at the top of the  six(?)-story house. Plus, in the very top window, they’ve created a photo booth out of this little balcony, and we got a really great photo of the two of us (without all our gear, which they make you leave outside in a tub).
Becka texted that she was outside waiting just as we were finishing up. Apparently she went to the Disney store after the beach, so she was in a good mood. It also helped that the weather was now cloudless and in the upper 70s. We got back on the bus to get to our time slot at Park Guell—and here is where my idea to use the tour bus as our main source of transportation once again failed us, because it took almost an hour to go like, three stops. But we had plenty of time. The park is absolutely stunning. It has a couple of Wonderland houses out front, but the sweeping staircase capped by the hypostyle columns is just breathtaking. The “monumental section” (the part you have to pay to get into) is relatively small, so it didn’t end up taking the rest of the afternoon, and we weren’t rushed, which was good.After the park, we went to Barcelona Stadium for Matthew. The tour didn’t really seem worth its price, but we had a fun little look around. Then we finished up another loop on the bus and had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Rebecca accused me of starving her in Italy, but she didn’t want to eat at any of the places we’d dined so far in Spain, so we let her pick out something nice and familiar. (Hard Rock gave us the pregnancy pass, too—it was only going to be a 10-minute wait, but according to Matthew, our translator, the hostess told the guy to bump us up.) Also, this was the first day of our trip that we didn’t get rained on once. Cross fingers for the remaining three days!!

Bonus—funny story about Matthew translating: we did a little bit of souvenir shopping on our way to and from the park that first day, and Matthew had noticed that Rebecca and I didn’t respond very well to the aggressive shopkeeper in the first spot, so at the second one he pulled the guy aside and told him in Spanish, “You’ll get farther with these two if you just hang back and let them browse. If they have questions, they’ll ask you.” And then he chatted with the guy. I did end up buying this neat crystal suspension of Sagrada Familia, and Matthew said the guy gave him an impressed/knowing/thankful look as I was pulling out my money. Becka and I got a kick out of it, anyway.

I made a mistake in Granada. A classic blunder, if you will. Apparently, one does not simply buy tickets to the Alhambra on the day of one’s visit—it seems they sell out about 2-3 days in advance. Unfortunately, that’s kind of the entire reason we came to Granada, so it put somewhat of a cramp in our day. We tried to see if we could adjust our schedule a bit to get tickets the next or something, but the only ones available would have been too late to make our flight home from Seville. Early in the morning, Matthew and I walked up to see if there was any possibility of remedying our situation.y weather app said it was raining when we woke up and would be for most of the morning, but when we got outside, it actually was clearing up and not unpleasant. We found out from the ticket office that we could try to purchase separate tickets for the outer gardens and the night tour of the palace, which might not be sold out, but we would need to do it online. So we made our way back to town, but along the way Matthew discovered a bridge of which the gatehouse was open, so we decided to take a look inside and see what we could. It led up into a decent portion of the complex, and I wasn’t entirely sure whether we had somehow managed to sneak in or there are just parts of it that are open (we learned later that it was the latter). Then we went back to the hostel to collect Rebecca and buy some tickets. It turned out that the night palace tickets were also sold out, which was really disappointing since that was kind of our last hope, but we bought the outer garden tickets and went up to see those. It was something to do as long as we were already there, but not really worth coming so the way to Granada for. That took up most of the rest of our day, but just as we were getting ready to leave, the skies opened up and it legit thunderstormed on us. It was the one time we hadn’t brought the ponchos, and I really didn’t want to get soaked, so we waited under an arch with a bunch of other patrons, hoping it would let up, until Becka finally made a run for the gift shop and bought new ponchos and an umbrella—the rain was so hard we really kind of needed both. Matthew had gone to return his audio tour up at the top (the taxi stop we were using was much further down the complex), but we actually ran into him waiting under an awning—apparently he has his limits. We gave him the umbrella when we got in a cab (ironically, the price was similar to if not cheaper than the bus). By the time we got back down to the city center, though, it had significantly cleared up. We went to a Churrería and had authentic Spanish churros with hot chocolate, which was fun. Then we browsed souvenirs until it was time to catch our next train. Matthew assures me we’ll come back someday to do it properly, but I’m not sure how much it lessens the sting of disappointment right now. :/

Seville, however, exceeded my expectations and made for a lovely final stop on our trip. Of course, we somehow managed to time our visit to the one day of the year that it’s NOT 80+ degrees and sunny, which some of us (Matthew) very much enjoyed, whereas others (Rebecca and I), less so. Matthew and I decided to join the free walking tour advertised by our hostel—who had held a free dinner for us for when we checked in, btw—since we didn’t really know much about Seville or have any idea what we wanted to see there. Becka opted to stay out of the rain and chill at the hostel. 

We very much enjoyed the walking tour, though. It was tip-based, rather than entirely free, but our tour guide was very knowledgeable and pretty fun. I enjoyed his accent—he’s Italian but said he’s lived in Seville for 8 years. We started off at the main cathedral, which is one of the biggest churches in the world, and is actually part converted mosque— the bell tower actually still looks very much like a minaret, which I found interesting. We also stopped by Alcázar Palace, which was on my list of possible things that looked interesting, and we decided to circle back to that for a visit later. Some other highlights included an old maritime university that was later used by a French noble family as an opulent home, a gold-capped tower that used to be prison, and Spain’s second-largest building, a former tobacco factory that now houses the University of Seville. Our last stop on the tour was Plaza de Espana, which had also been on my list but totally blew me away. It is this huge, gorgeous plaza—it kind of reminded me of the courtyard at St Peter’s— and it’s not really a building or anything, but it’s gorgeously outfitted in brick and tile, with  bridges over a small moat... so beautiful. I knew Rebecca would like this, but probably better if it were sunny out, and it was also all the way across town from our hostel, so we put it on the agenda for our second (half) day. 

We went back to the hostel to collect her, which may or may not have taken an hour and definitely involved getting pretty lost—we’d neglected to get ourselves a map before leaving the hostel in the morning. I guess I didn’t really expect the walking tour guide to just cut us loose halfway across the city? Once we finally got back and got some lunch, we decided to visit Alcázar, and we bought tickets online so we wouldn’t have to wait in line—I’m beginning to appreciate the superiority of doing it this way. It’s really not that hard and saves a lot of time and waiting. 

Alcázar kind of made up for missing the Alhambra, since I believe the styles are pretty similar, even if the Alhambra is supposed to be far grander. Matthew passed on an audio guide in order to keep from holding us up, but he looked so lost and forlorn that we made him go get one, and he shared its tidbits with us as we went along. It’s a very interesting place, since parts of it were built by Moors and others by Catholics. The whole first floor hardly felt like an indoor space at all, despite the audio guide’s pointing out bedrooms and such, and was covered in Islamic carvings, which I personally find very beautiful. Then the second story was much more enclosed and very traditionally European. There were some neat tapestries that I really enjoyed. There also is a massive stretch of gardens surrounding the palace. There was a hedge maze that we explored, and some peacocks were roaming around. Becka found the spot where a certain scene from Game of Thrones was filmed. The gardens were definitely more impressive than the ones we saw at Alhambra.

After the palace, we decided to try and see a flamenco show. We briefly pondered one that would have been far too expensive, but we were more relieved to learn from our hostel receptionist that there’s a bar that offers a free show not too far away. We also needed dinner by this point, so we stopped at a tapas restaurant near the bar. The food was excellent—even Rebecca was pleased. Tapas are small, more or less appetizer-sized plates, and you order a bunch to share. We had duck, salmon, a tiny burrito, and a Spanish omelette (also called “tortilla”). Our favorite was the duck. Then we headed over to the bar for the show, and there was only one male dancer, which was not quite the lady in the red dress you would expect, but he was very good. His ability to snap his fingers in time with the music was particularly impressive. Also, there was this adorable toddler across the room who watched with wide eyes for a while, then started clapping along with the performers, then full on dancing—she was SO CUTE!!! I wanted to take a video but they’d asked us not to photograph or video the performance, and I didn’t want to cause a misunderstanding and get in trouble or something... good fun, though.

This morning, we took Rebecca out to Plaza de Espana. They have rowboats you can rent in the most. It’s pretty shallow, but a nice way to soak in the atmosphere and enjoy the plaza. It was also sunny—the sun actually finally made an appearance about 6:00 the previous evening—but still not too hot. That was kind of our one thing today, since our flight back to Düsseldorf was at 3 and we walked there and back. Before we left, though, I also made an extravagant purchase, as I am wont to do when in Europe... We bought a blessing dress for our baby girl, in the traditional Spanish style usually used for baptisms/christening. It’s very beautiful, and we thought it would be nice to have something meaningful and unique (unique in our circles, at least). 

So that concludes our (first) tour! Now we’re back, home for Rebecca, which I know she’s happy to see. I’m definitely looking forward to doing some real laundry, haha. Also, I highly recommend the vacation-within-a-vacation method of travel. You get back and you’re still on vacation! :D