Las Ramblas and Montserrat

We did some cool things this week.  First, we spent some time at Las Ramblas, which is a famous boulevard here in Barcelona.  It is a big street (.75 miles) lined with trees and shops all along it, and it is always packed with tourists.  It ends at the port of Barcelona where there is a big monument honoring Christopher Columbus. Along the way we ended up getting a few souvenirs and a lot of pictures.

This is another guy dressed up as a statue of Christopher Columbus.  

This is the best gelato we have found so far! 

Christopher Columbus monument

We also made a day trip to Montserrat, which is about an hour northwest of Barcelona.  It is a monastery up in the top of a mountain.  The name Montserrat means "serrated mountain", and the mountains were really cool looking.  This was our favorite thing we've done so far here in Barcelona. The views were spectacular, and the overall experience was amazing.

This is the view of Montserrat from the bottom of the mountain.  It's hard to see but up at the top of the mountain is the Montserrat Monastery

It's hard to see, but we took one of those small yellow cable cars up to the top (yes, Steve was a little nervous--he's scared of heights)

This is a view from the trail to the Holy Grotto (The Santa Cova)

What an incredible view from the top

Serrated Mountains

It's hard to see, but in the middle of the mountain there is a little chapel called the Holy Grotto, or the Santa Cova, where the image of the Virgin Mary was believed to have been sighted inside a cave.  There is a ~30 minute walking trail from the Monastery down to the Santa Cova

On the way to the Santa Cova

This is inside the Monastery/Montserrat Chapel.  Also here, we waited in line to see the Virgin of Monserrat

At the Santa Cova

This is the floor at the Montserrat Chapel.  Apparently it's a tradition to balance on one foot in the middle of the circle

First Week in Barcelona!

We can't believe we've been here for a week already! We have had a lot of fun since our last post, so we have a lot to talk about!

First, we went to the beach! We met up with one of Steve's friends from his internship this summer.  We didn't end up getting in the ocean this time, but it was still fun to walk on the beach! We ate at a restaurant called Barraca, which apparently is known for its Paella.  I don't eat fish, but Steve got some Paella for the first time--he wasn't very impressed.

This was a gross looking squid (?) in Steve's Paella. He didn't end up eating it.

Platja de Sant Sebastia in Barcelona

Second, we had our first week at Church here in Barcelona.  It was like a 30 minute walk from our apartment to get to church.  Our church building is a one story building in a little park surrounded by ginormous apartment buildings all around.  No one speaks english--well, one lady spoke it a little bit, but not fluent.  There are two total babies in the ward (including Mason), so everyone was saying hi to Mason all during church--nobody has any sense of personal space or boundaries (hopefully we don't get sick!).  Church is obviously in Spanish, so I didn't understand any of it.  That's a weird experience for me.  Steve did just fine.

Third, Mason turned 7 months old on Sunday.  He's got lots more of a personality, and it's so fun! He squeals when he gets super excited! It's so cute! He's getting so close to crawling, but keeps face planting and then crying.  He's just a few days away from figuring it out.  He just got his third tooth! Holy moly! It's kind of funny looking because it's a top tooth closer to the side rather than in front.  He also is having a tough time figuring the time change and his pack n play, but we're making progress.

Fourth, Steve started school! He says it was a good normal day so far (his Tuesday classes are all in English, so not too bad).  We will see what he thinks after his Monday classes, which are all in Spanish.

Finally, today we went to Parc Guell, which is one of Gaudi's major works in Barcelona.  Most of the park is accessible without tickets, but the more famous parts require tickets.  We weren't expecting it to be very busy, but it was crazy.  Because they only admit 400 people every 30 minutes, we would have had to wait almost 4 hours to get in.  We decided to walk around the rest of the parc and then we will go back another time.  We still had a lot of fun.

There was a really cool view of the city with the Sagrada Familia in the background. 

This is Mt. Tibidabo.  We'd like to make it up there soon.

Took me 50 blurry pictures to get one good one of Steve.  Mason kept bumping the camera.  But at least we got a good one finally.  

This guy just sits there and acts like a statue all day.  We thought he was pretty great!

Okay, two bonus points: I think we have found our favorite spanish treat here! Churros Rellenos! The Nutella filled churros are delicious! Also, we don't have any measuring cups or spoons here, so I ended up using Mason's bottle instead tonight to make rice pudding.  It turned out delicious on my second try (I guess leftover rice cooked with garlic doesn't go well in rice pudding, who knew).

September 11th -- Steve's Birthday (and National Day of Catalonia)

Well, today was another great day! Happy 27th birthday to Steve! Mason slept in until 10 this morning, so that was Mason's birthday present to dad (like Steve wakes up in the night anyway ;) ).  Not only was it Steve's birthday, but it was also National Day of Catalonia.  Natalie & Demis (our landlords/hosts) informed us that there were concerts and things going on in the evening, so during the day we decided to go downtown and go to the Zoo.  When we got down there, we found thousands of people celebrating the National Day of Catalonia.  We walked around Parc de la Ciutadella and the Arc de Triomf.  Also, while we were at Parc de la Ciutadella, we did a 30 minute paddle boat in the lake together! We had so much fun! It was so cool to discover a new part of Barcelona that we had not seen yet.

When we came home, we made dinner and then went out for birthday gelato! It was yummy!

As usual, Mason was great all day!

At the subway/metro station in Plaça de Catalunya, the ceiling was lit up to match the colors of the Catalan flag. When everyone exited the train, they all started cheering and clapping.  We were confused for a little bit until an old lady explained to Steve what was going on.

Thousands of people were either carrying a flag like this or wearing it as a cape.  Mason joined in and loved waving it around! A few people stopped to take pictures of him!

Pictures at the Cascada (Waterfall) at the Parc de la Ciutadella

We had so much fun in the paddle boats at the Parc de la Ciutadella

Arc de Triomf in Barcelona

Birthday Gelato!

Barcelona!

We made it to Barcelona!! The trip here was definitely long, but everything went much more smoothly than we had anticipated. I was really nervous about how the flight was going to go with Mason, and I had been dreading it for weeks...but he was an angel baby! We had about a 19 hour day traveling here, and he only cried for about 5 minutes total the entire day!! All day long other people were telling us what a good baby he is. Also, we can't go anywhere without people commenting on his smile and how cute he is! We agree :).  On our flight from Atlanta to Barcelona, Mason got to use a bassinet in air plane. It was so nice not to have to hold him the entire time. He could sit in it to just play, and to sleep.

Happily sleeping in the bassinet :)

We are staying in an apartment that we found on air bnb, and the couple we are renting from has been extremely kind and helpful. They had a taxi waiting for us at the airport when we arrived that brought us to our apartment in Sarria. Demis also took half a day off of work to show us around town yesterday. Our apartment is perfect for us! It is pretty small, but it is nice, and we love the neighborhood. I was expecting to be staying in a busy part of the city, but where we are feels like a small town...I keep telling Steve I feel like we are the only tourists here.  It is really quiet here and there are lots of babies and kids everywhere. There are separate stores where you buy your fruits/vegetables, bread, meat, and of course pastries and gelato :).  There is a really big and beautiful park/garden about a 5 minute walk from our apartment, so I am sure we will be going there a lot.

Adjusting to the time change has been the most difficult part of being here so far! Mason slept a lot on the airplane but neither Steve nor I could sleep because it still felt early to us. When we landed in Barcelona it was about midnight in Utah. And as soon as we landed and got situated in our apartment we went out to see the city. So we missed an entire night of sleep. Then last night Mason woke up at midnight, and I tried until 1:30 to get him back to sleep. I finally gave up and we were all awake until 3 in the morning. So we are all tired!

Of course, eating Gelato was on our to do list the day we arrived!

This is our street: Carrer de Monterols

This is our street-I am standing right outside of our apartment door!

Chocolat-Box: home of delicious crepes with Nutella for breakfast :)

In our apartment...He is still so happy despite being so tired!

Esade is the university where Steve will be attending school. It is about a 10 minute walk from our apartment.