Viajamos a Barcelona

Everyone who knows me, knows I'm an uber planner, so you'll be amazed to know that in less than a week's time, we bought our flights, booked an apartment, and hopped on a plane to Barcelona, Spain.  We found a contemporary 2 bedroom apartment in an old building in Ciutat Vella, which in Catalan means "old city".  It's the oldest part of the city and a few minutes (walking) to La Rambla, Barcelona's major pedestrian street.  On La Rambla, to our left is El Mercat de Sant Josep (more commonly known as La Boqueria) and to our right is Gran Teatre del Liceu (the Opera House).  Armed with some junior high Spanglish, seeing street signs written in Catalan is quite confusing to me.  It's close enough to Spanish, making words seem familiar, but different enough to make me second-guess myself.  Also, Catalonians really like to use the letter "x".

We've spent two nights in Barcelona and are on track to getting over jet lag by tomorrow.  The kids and J are adjusting quicker than me.

It's pretty awesome to be able to say we're spending Christmas 2013 and celebrating New Year's 2014 in Barcelona!  A surprising number of shops and restaurants were open on Christmas Day.  Despite rain early in the day, by the time we got out, the rain had stopped, sky was a little cloudy, and temperature in the low 50's.   After a traditional Pakistani Christmas lunch (joking!), we took a long stroll on La Rambla towards Plaça de Catalunya ("Catalonian Plaza") through the chic Eixample ("Expansion") neighborhood and turning around at Avinguda Diagonal ("Avenue Diagonal"), just before I got sucked into all of its luxurious shops.  The kids enjoyed racing mom or dad down the block and posing next to the lumache pasta.

Day 2 consisted of more sightseeing on foot to get our bearings.  Today, we headed on La Rambla towards the water and Port Vell.  Peanut was very excited to see a real dragon on the street.

He wasn't as excited about the Monument a Colum (Columbus monument), but of course, the Aquarium and bungee trampoline (which you can do anywhere in the States) were big hits.