A Spanish Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this last year, Dallin and I decided to celebrate with a trip to Barcelona, Spain. We flew from Venice Marco Polo airport to Barcelona airport on Ryanair on Thursday morning. When we arrived in Barcelona, we hopped on the train at the airport to take into the city. Within 30 minutes we arrived at our stop and walked to the flat that we rented. We rented a tiny little flat in the city on airbnb.com. Here is the link. It was super cute, but luckily Dallin and I had it our to ourselves because it was so little! We were amazed when the owner told us it was her primary residence. I couldn't imagine living in such a small space permanently. Just to give you an idea of how small it was, the toilet had to be set at an angle for it to fit in the bathroom! Haha. But it was clean, nicely decorated, and it was in a great location, in a quiet Spanish neighborhood right by the metro station. Perfect for our weekend away.

We got settled in our flat and then set off to explore downtown. We first headed to the Ramblas, the main pedestrian thoroughfare of Barcelona. We got some lunch at a little place a bit off from the Ramblas called Restaurant Elisabets. It was a cute little place decorated with antique radios and flooded with Catalan locals. Unfortunately, our first experience with Spanish food wasn't that great. Maybe we just got unlucky, but I have to say that Italians are definitely better at cuisine than the Spanish. At this restaurant we got some paella. It was... meh. Not really bad, just not that great. My main course was pretty good. It was chicken stuffed with mushrooms and ham in a cream sauce, kinda similar to chicken cordon bleu. Dallin got some kind of meat that was subpar, though. Then we got these mousse things for dessert. They were ok.  After our Spanish cuisine experience, we continued our journey down La Rambla.

Walking down La Rambla.

Along the Ramblas there are all of these little pet shop stands with bunnies, birds, fish, and turtles. The Catalan children will bring their parents here on Sundays to buy a pet for the apartment.

This is La Boqueria, a lively food market selling fruit, candy, tapas, sandwiches, fresh fish, and lots of ham!

Pretty buildings along La Rambla

The Ramblas ends at the harbor with a monument honoring Christopher Columbus.

I decided to ride the lion on the monument for a bit.

After our walk down the Ramblas we decided to continue our sunset stroll along the harbor of Barcelona.

This is the Head Sculpture of Barcelona. Pretty cool. It's along the harbor.

Me walking along the harbor.

We continued walking through town to the Picasso Museum. The museum is contained in a Gothic palace and it is unique because it follows the evolution of Picasso's style. It starts with his young boy years of realistic paintings then shows his progression through his life to his cubist style he is famous for. Both Dallin and I enjoyed exploring this museum and learning more about Picasso and his style. Our favorite exhibit showed all of Picasso's many renditions of Valezquez's "Las Meninas".

Picasso created over 50 interpretations of Velazquez's painting!

After exploring the museum, we stopped at an awesome tapas bar for a light dinner, since we had a late lunch. We loved the tapas. At this bar, you just grab a plate and choose from the array of mini open-faced sandwiches. When you are ready to leave, you just go up to the register and the bar tender will just count up your toothpicks to calculate your bill.

Tapas!

After some tapas we walked around the Ribera district and the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona, enjoying the ambience-- Spanish families out for their evening paseo, guitarists playing lovely melodies, and the warm glow from street lamps and lively restaurants reflecting off of the shiny cobbled streets. We then hopped on the metro back to our little flat to watch a movie on our iPad and then sleep the night away.

The next morning we woke up and got ready for the day, walked from our flat to the metro to make our way to the Casa Mila on the Passeig de Gracia. We grabbed some yummy ham sandwiches and pastries for breakfast along the way.

The Casa Mila

The Casa Mila was designed by the famous architect, Antoni Gaudi, as a ritzy apartment complex. It now just accommodates the many tourists who flock to experience Gaudi's modernista style first-hand. I remember learning about Gaudi in my art classes at BYU, but I always found his style to be kind of strange and actually, a little ugly. All of his buildings reminded me of melting ice cream cakes or something. After visiting Barcelona however, I have realized that you really just have to see his designs in person to fully appreciate his unique style. After seeing many of his designs in person, I now find his works to be incredibly beautiful! But looking back on these pictures I understand my previous feelings about Gaudi. Pictures just cannot do him justice. Anyways, enough of me being artsy-fartsy... bottom line-- I am now a huge Gaudi fan.

We toured the Casa Mila that morning. You enter first into the courtyard of the complex and then climb all of the stairs up to the roof of the building. The rooftop displays Gaudi's style of artfully decorating the roof with the functional aspects of the building. All of the decor on the roof are either chimneys or stairways of the building.

Me on the roof.

Chimneys and stairwells.

Dal and stairwell.

You can also visit the attic of the Casa Mila which houses a museum about Gaudi. It explains how he came up with his designs. I especially loved how Gaudi drew inspiration from nature. The museum shows a bunch of models he used for his designs and a lot of them were just natural things like animal skeletons, flowers, leaves, and branches. He was quite a religious person and saw God as the greatest architect, that is why he drew his inspiration from nature.

After visiting the attic, you can also tour one of the apartments. They have it decorated in the style of when the Casa Mila was completed with furniture and decor just as if a family had been living there.

After touring the Casa Mila, we continued walking down the Passeig de Gracia to what is called "The Block of Discord". This consists of three different Modernista facades all right next to each other. With each building's elaborate details and twisting architecture it appears that each facade is attempting to outdo its neighbor.

Part of the "Block of Discord" with Casa Batllo by Antoni Gaudi on the right and Casa Amatller on the left by  Josep Puig Cadafalch.

After walking the Passeig de Gracia, we hopped on the metro to get to the Sagrada Familia Church. When you emerge from the Sagrada Familia metro stop and turn around, prepare to be amazed. The Sagrada Familia, this absolutely mammoth church which is still under construction, will blow you away. It is just so HUGE! We just gazed at it for a moment after we got there because we were so amazed. Then we remembered that we were really hungry so we set off to find some eats.

Unfortunately there are hardly any decent eating options near the Sagrada Familia. We walked all around the neighborhood and couldn't find any decent restaurants, so we had to settle for McDonald's. It was our first time ever eating McDonald's in Europe, and I must say, it wasn't too bad. McDonald's tastes better in Europe and the restaurant is a bit classier here. And it was nice because we got to eat out on the patio with a great view of the Sagrada Familia in front of us.

After nourishing ourselves, we then got in line to visit the Sagrada Familia. It was a long line but it moved pretty quickly. This is now my new favorite church that we have visited in Europe. It's so unique because it still under construction. It began construction in 1882 and it still probably won't be complete for another 30 years or so. It is like a modern day Notre Dame or something.

This is the passion facade. In each nook of the facade is a scene from Christ's Passion.

Christ's crucifixion on the Passion facade.

Another reason why I love the Sagrada Familia so much is because it is so modern in style. Dallin and I have seen so many Baroque and Gothic style cathedrals but the style of the Sagrada Familia is just so different from those. It's also different because it is so new inside, it gives you a glimpse of what it must have felt like to step into the older churches like St. Peter's Cathedral or Notre Dame when they were first completed.

The Nativity facade. This facade depicts all of the scenes from the nativity between beautifully carved flowers , plants, animals, and angels.

Closeup of the Holy Family on the Nativity facade.

Lastly, I once again, just loved Gaudi's style. I love the amazing details of the facades and all of the scenes from Christ's life that are depicted on them. I also loved the interior. Gaudi designed the interior pillars of the church to resemble trees, so the inside of the church actually feels like a forest and the ceiling is carved with flowery bursts. The interior is absolutely beautiful!

The forest-like interior.

I loved the stained-glass windows. The beautiful colors were breathtaking!

 After touring the Sagrada Familia we hopped on the bus and made our way to Parc Guell, another one of Gaudi's works.

Entrance to Parc Guell.

Parc Guell was originally designed to be a high-income housing development. The idea flopped and the results were to turn the work into a beautiful park.

Entering Park Guell

Me standing in what was supposed to house a produce market for the community in the original Parc Guell project.

Yeah, I am about five months pregnant, so that's why I look rather portly here.

Enjoying the colorful terrace. Gaudi even designed these benches to be ergonomically correct!

The terrace in Parc Guell.

This cute pink house was Gaudi's residence for 20 years. It's a model of what the houses in the housing development would have looked like.

That evening we returned to Eixample to eat a yummy pizza dinner at a restaurant called El Raco. Then we made our way back to our flat to rest.

The next morning we toured the Gothic Quarter, which seemed to be the heart of Barcelona. We went into the Cathedral of Barcelona, perused a few Christmas markets, and admired the beautiful streets.

In the cloisters of the Cathedral.

Later that day we were waiting for a restaurant to open to have lunch at. We were standing under the eaves of a building and... it happened. I knew it was bound to happen at some point. I finally got pooped on by a pigeon. Bleck!!! It was disgusting. I felt something drop on my head and asked Dallin if he saw anything. He said, "Yep, its bird poop". I wasn't sure if he was kidding or not, because he likes to freak me out like that. I made him take a picture of it, and finally, I realized he wasn't kidding. Ugh, I was so upset! Our pal, Rick Steves has told us many times that if you get pooped on, don't touch it, just let it dry and then pick it out. It's a lot less messy. I could hardly stand it! Just sitting there with bird poop on my head. It finally dried and we went into a Starbucks to wash my hair in the bathroom. GROSSS!

I HATE PIGEONS!

Luckily after that ordeal, we had an amazing lunch which brightened my day. We went to La Crema Canela which was this awesome Asian fusion restaurant. It was so good!!! We got these chicken skewers with this amazing rice that had all this yummy stuff mixed in. It was delicious. And it was a really nice, classy place too. We loved it.

After lunch we walked down the Ramblas again in search for a bicycle rental shop. When we finally found one we rented two bikes and took a one and a half hour tour on bike of Barcelona. We rode through Citadel Park to the Arc de Triomf then down to the beach and harbor. I love exploring cities on bike. You can see so much more of the city in a shorter amount of time. So fun!

Me with one of the moving statues on the Ramblas. They stay still, until you give them some money and then they come to life.

Barcelona's Arc de Triomf

Barcelona's Beach. It's probably nice in the summer!

Riding by the harbor.

We then returned our bikes and then got some dinner at the same tapas place we went to the first night. Dal loved his tapas!

Dal's favorite were the tapas with chorizo on them. YUM.

After some tapas we decided to ride the funicular up to Barcelona's mountain, Montjuic. This is where the Olympic stadium is, as well as the Montjuic Castle. We explored the castle a bit and admired the views of Barcelona from above. Then we took a bus down to Placa d'Espanya. From there, we walked to see the "Magic Fountains". They were so magical! Haha. They were these big fountains that shoot up with colorful lights and music, kind of like the Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas. That night the show was to Disney music (the Spanish versions, of course). It was kind of corny, but I have to admit, I enjoyed it. :)

The Magic Fountains!

After watching the inspirational moving water, we headed back to our flat and went to sleep.

The next morning was our last day in Barcelona. We packed up our stuff, said goodbye to our flat and set off to find us a delicious breakfast.

Saying goodbye to our street in Barcelona.

And boy did we find it at this magical little hole-in-the wall.



It was here that we consumed the best thing about Spain-- Churros and Chocolate Caliente! It was so yummy. Churros should always be paired with pudding-thick hot chocolate.

Churros and Chocolate Caliente-- part of this balanced breakfast.

After this yummy breakfast we took one last stroll down the Ramblas, then hopped on the metro to the Estacio Nord bus station to catch our bus to the airport. An hour later, we arrived at the Girona airport and then flew back home to Venice. It was a great weekend in Spain, and we were thankful to spend Thanksgiving in Barcelona!