I was invited to present at a conference in Barcelona this fall, so my mom and Audrey and I headed there for 3 1/2 weeks. We got an apartment in the old city (Barri Gotic) as a home base, and set about exploring the city and making several day trips out into the countryside.
The plaza near our apartment |
Audrey traveled well and made herself right at home |
Our first trip out of the city was to do a tour of several wineries |
Now that's what I call aging a wine! |
Of course, to go with all the good wine in Spain, we had to eat a lot of good food |
Our second trip out of town was to the Pyrenees, where Auds and I did a little hiking. It was cold, though! |
Luckily, back on the Mediterranean it was pretty warm and nice most days |
Another plaza near our apartment. Yeah palm trees! |
We walked a lot, and saw some amazing sights, like this Cathedral |
A fountain in the park. Yeah gold horses on top of an arch! |
There is so much great public art in Barcelona |
Even the graffiti is vibrant and cool |
Lots of bike paths |
Who doesn't love cycling AND tapas?! |
Oddly enough, Audrey rarely got comments on her hair like she does here in Canada |
But she got a lot of comments on her cheeks! |
Half way through our visit, my two sisters joined us. Yay! |
We went on our third day trip all together up to Montserrat |
You may remember this from my June 2007 blog posting as the monastery in the mountains where Nelson proposed to me |
I took Audrey for a hike and showed her all the sights, and told her lots of stories of Nelson and I's weeks camping and climbing up here. |
Our final daytrip was to the ancient city of Girona, then to Figueres - Salvador Dali's hometown where he created a museum for many of his works before he died. |
I breastfed near this piece. I'm not kidding |
Yes, that is a full sized lips couch! |
A special surprise treat was that Dali also made jewelry, which I didn't know and was quite delighted by. If you think about it, it's just miniature sculptures. |
Of course, we also saw lots of Gaudi's fanciful masterpieces, including Parc Guell. |
Do you like my hat? |
Unfortunately, we all headed back to frigid Canada addicted to fresh figs and pomegranates, not something you generally find in your 100 mile diet here in winter! Mmmm... |