Barcelona-day um, quatro?

I know. It's been a year. I'm still going to wrap up Spain and then try and round out the year, gosh it sounds so daunting but yanno, life is busy, what can you do? I prioritize-this isn't as important as laundry. No really. Blergh!

So, if I can recall events from a year ago, something incredible happened. Sorry to leave you hanging for so long, but the day we were to leave to Barcelona, Curtis-again on a whim-called the metro station police and you're not going to believe this: they found his wallet! WHAT? I was so dumbfounded! It very rarely happens, but somehow the wallet ended up with the police and he could come get it. Right then, when we were supposed to go get on a train to Barcelona!!

Luckily he had enough time to take a cab, only if me and Brynna took care of packing and getting breakfast. So yeah, we had an adventure ahead of us! Well, not really, but it was fun and tasty in the end. Brynna and I packed up and then ventured onto the streets of Madrid, alone.

This was on the street where we were staying. Amazing buildings, lots of cars and people walking around. All the time. But very European and pretty much the whole place fascinated me.

This building (white, square and behind the tree) was our hotel. As you can see, cars, people, but just very cosmopolitan.

I don't speak any Spanish but thankfully she does.

We walked past this place several times as it was just up the street from the hotel so I had to take a picture for my sister-in-law Roxy. Hee hee! We never went in there though-too busy finding pastries and tapas instead of hamburgers.

This was our big test for her language skills. Could she manage a purchase in Spanish?

Answer: Yes! We found a bakery and picked out some yummy pastries and drinks and things. We did ask things like (what is that?) and the lady would say something back that (to me) sounded like "blebhahlbahahlbhahsbbhahlblabalbablahaha!" And I'd look at Brynna and she'd say: That is a pastry with ham.

Ham? Really? They're obsessed with ham over there. But for breakfast? In a pastry? Eww. So I'd say something like: Ask if they have chocolate.

And in the end we had something like this:

*scream of delight* Yes! Yes!! These...were AMAZING! Now, they look like American style, sugary pastries, but they are not. They're pastries, croissants and things but they aren't as sweet as American doughnuts and things. But DELICIOUS! I mean, the chocolate is chocolate, not just butter sugar and chocolate flavoring. Guh...I'm drooling.

Same with this, a darker chocolate, muffin and pastry. The flat looking thing is called Palmeras and they are SO yummy. Again, more flaky and melt in your mouth than super sugary, but they're sweet too.

Anyway-proudly bringing our pastries back to the hotel we waited nervously for Curtis. And he got back just in time for us to hurry to the train station and then wait around trying to figure out how to get to where we were supposed to go. Being from Denver and AZ where we just don't do public transportation much, this kind of freaks me out a little but it was kinda cool to get up on the train.

Brynna getting on the cool, high speed train.

This is Atocha Station, that had terrorist bombings almost 9 years exactly before we were there. They have a memorial at the station but mostly it's modern, clean, efficient and you'd never know.

Aboard the train-the high speed train!

Getting ready to go. Things were pretty casual, but also this was a nice train. Comfy and capable of extremely high speeds.

The high speed train to Barcelona from Madrid only stopped once where it picked up and dropped off, but literally you could not tell you were going fast. I mean, we saw country side zip by but it felt like maybe 65 mph but we were going much faster- like 185 mph. Seriously. It rocked! Well, actually it was VERY smooth. It only took about 2 1/2 hours to get to Barcelona. (Normally, regular train would probably take about 6-7 hours, and by car probably longer.)

Spanish Countryside.

So we enjoyed our pastries, enjoyed the ride and arrived in Barcelona to bright sunshine. We checked into our hotel and got a late lunch.

Curtis had a salmon salad.

Me and Brynna were obsessed with Jamon Sandwiches, yes, ham. I'm telling you, they're obsessed, but for good reason. It's freaking delicious, but not for breakfast. ;)

We figured out the Barcelona subway and found our way over to The Sagrada Familia. I'm going to have pictures but I'm telling you, there is really no way to describe just how incredible this building is. Go to the link, browse, drool, plan your trip. It's been under construction forever, is not done, you have to get tickets to stand in line to get tickets and they are WORTH THE WAIT! This place is incredible. We didn't get tickets that evening but took pictures and that was on our agenda for the next day. But seriously, do NOT go to Barcelona and skip this place. It's pretty much epic.

Sagrada Familia. Extraordinary in almost every way.

We spent some time shopping, including going to a grocery store that was just down the street from our hotel. That was really fun and interesting. Just to see the familiar things and the weird things and try to find stuff we wanted to try and things to eat. We had a fridge and mini kitchen in the hotel so this was great for planning breakfast.

We wandered around until we found this place. It is a combination grocery store and something like a Dillards and a Barnes and Noble, Computer store and Cafeteria all rolled into one. Pretty amazing. And they give us crap for Walmart. This place was pretty much a one stop shop on a huge scale.

See!? Mini kitchen. Not just a fridge, we're talking fridge, sink, stove and plates and stuff.

After figuring that out, we went out to dinner of course. There was a paella place across the street so that's where we headed. YUM!

This my friends, is Paella. Strong, saffron, fish, chicken, delicousness inside of a paella pan just for you.

Brynna enjoying her paella and bread of course.

He was so happy with the food. :) And that they had diet coke everywhere.

And of COURSE we had dessert. This was a weird ice cream thing and a cake. It wasn't as sweet as American dessert, we still quite enjoyed it! Rather creamy this one.

Me enjoying dinner. It was a really fun day.

Our hotel room. Kinda weirdly retro and yet modern. And the beds-again, this is a "King" which means two twins. And hard.

And here's our third bed, a kind of hidabed thing in a separate room that is divided by a sliding wall. Kinda weird but it worked. And over there where Curtis is, there's a little table and off to the right is the kitchen (pictured above). Considering that it was in a very busy city it was actually a quiet hotel. And yes, it had bidets too. :)

So there we go, a much delayed post but I'm going to finish up shortly. I hope! :)

Epic Spain Trip, part tres!

So yeah, I suck. Whatever. I know I waited from um, July till October (31st) to follow up. So I'll catch up, yeah.

Where was I? Oh yeah, the Epic Spain Trip! So on day two, we woke up and got all ready and found a bakery and ate bad stuff. I have to say, though the diet there seems 'bad', rolls and the like for breakfast, there's a lot of walking around and I didn't gain anything on the trip. Which is amazing because I ate a lot of good food. Plus, let's say you have a croissant with chocolate on top? The chocolate won't be over the top sweet like it is here, just good.

Delicious muffin things and Aquarius orange drink-it's like a fruit drink. It was yummy!

We headed to the train station and it has this beautiful indoor garden area.  We got our tickets to Toledo and people watched for a while. The station we went to was the Atocha station in Madrid. It was the site of a bombing back in 2004 that killed 191 people and injured 1800. They've made it a beautiful place.

Brynna and Curtis looking at the turtles in the atrium at Atocha station.

While we were there, the interior was lined with various vendors selling everything from scarves, purses, vacation trips and candy. We found a vendor who had all this exotic candy-and recognized Turkish Delight! So, Brynna got to use her Spanish to get us some for the train ride to Toledo.

Turkish Delight! YUM! They had Rose and Lemon and a couple other flavors.

The ride to Toledo was on a medium speed train but it had no stops between Madrid and Toledo. It was pretty fast. I think (if I recall) it's about 45-50 miles and it took about a half hour. Nice train, quiet and swift ride.

Brynna riding the train to Toledo.

Once in Toledo, you arrive just outside the old city walls. There's buses that take you into the city and you mostly wander around. We found an ATM because buying touristy stuff was essential. Thankfully my cards were working. Yay!

Just outside the city walls. There's a huge amount of Toledo that is outside the old city but it's cool to see where the old part begins.

We wandered around the city and headed to the huge Toledo Cathedral that dominates it. This is me standing in front of it. Too big to get it all in!

While in Toledo we found a Lladro shop and I spent a pretty chunk of change on some gorgeous pieces.  We had to have them shipped to the states so I had to be patient and once they arrived I was so excited.

This is the Christus that the LDS church commissioned from Lladro when the Madrid temple was dedicated in 1999. It is simply beautiful.

These are LDS missionaries that the church in Toledo commissioned from Lladro because so many parents would visit Toledo and were looking for something to remind them of Spain and missionary work. I LOVED this and HAD to have it.

Brynna and Curtis walking up the narrow, cobblestone streets of Toledo. Cars could barely fit and we had to hide in doorways sometimes to let them pass.

As we wandered around looking in shops we found a little place that served churros and chocolate!! OMGOSH yum! It's like hot chocolate but thicker and you dip the churros in...mmm. Delightful, sinful and awesome all over the place.

Churros and Chocolate

Churros IN Chocolate!

Part of the Cathedral. Such a beautiful old building.

We got to go inside the Cathedral and it is beautiful and has an old, reverent feel. I took hundreds of pictures but I am just going to post a couple.

Stained glass window in the Cathedral.

Ornate carvings inside the Cathedral. Incredible and difficult to capture.

Huge pillars, marble floors, ornate everything, gold everywhere.

El Greco museum, an old "Spanish Style" home that is a museum for El Greco's works. Very cool and apparently when it was built the 'style' was copied and was very common in California.

We went to the El Greco museum in Toledo, which is pretty amazing. It is very near a high part of the town that overlooks the river. It's a natural barrier in addition to the walls and it is almost a sheer drop from this point to the river.

Curtis and me overlooking the river.

Brynna and I overlooking the river. It was drizzly and cool.

By this point we were pretty hungry having only had rolls and snacks so we had Tapas! These are quick little meals on the go. Usually involving meat they slice off of a hunk of stuff hanging from the wall.

Brynna enjoying Bocadillos de Jamon (Ham Sandwich)! Yes, it's just meat and bread. No condiments or lettuce or anything. Just yummy bread and yummy ham.

We had our little meal and then got back on the train to Madrid. We had thought about staying for the big Easter parades/processions (Procesions de la Semana Santa) but they didn't even start until 10 pm and the last train back was at 8 or something and we were exhausted! (And the next day we had to catch a train to Barcelona) So we skipped that, but had a wonderful day!

Epic Spain Trip, part deux! No wait, dos!

So, just as an aside-last week when I started trying to get caught up on my blog here-the internet went down mid-blog. So most of the week went by and we had no or very spotty internet. Hopefully that will not be the case and I can get caught up on the fun. :)

Where was I? Oh, yeah. Curtis got back from trying to find his wallet, after finding my cousin and we went to the Prado. Actually we were starving and got tapas first. If you're not in the know, tapas are sort of 'group snack' food that you can eat in various pubs/bars/restaurants all around Spain. It's sometimes plain sandwiches or other times just meat plates etc. They are usually quick and easy preparation and kind of lend themselves to sharing.

First place we went to, it was mid-afternoon and we had chorizo (which is not the same as Mexican chorizo), mushrooms, jamon (ham that is preserved by salting), calamari, and bread. We were then very full.

Curtis getting into the chorizo, delish! The calamari is under his hand, and also you see examples of 'water'-which comes in bottles instead of from the tap for some reason. Usually glass bottles too, not sure why.

Brynna enjoying her first tapas!

We headed to the Prado, this ridiculous art museum complex that would take days to properly enjoy and we had a few hours. This was really the only time I was feeling bad that we lost a day because of the blizzard in Denver. Good thing we discovered is that there's some pretty sweet discounts for students. Brynna got in free just by having a high school ID.

Streets of Madrid

Curtis really wanted to go see 'Guernica' by Picasso, which is a huge and very famous painting. It wasn't in the Prado, but at the nearby Reina Sofia museum. Another cool note, apparently if you go 'late' to a museum as we did for the Reina Sofia, there was a line but we all got in free! 

Waiting in line for the Reina Sofia museum, in front of the Royal Academy of Music in Madrid! :) Good vibes there for our musical girl!

Tired but having enjoyed gobs of art, we hustled back to the hotel, tried to make ourselves look less worn out and like we hadn't been awake forever, we then took a cab to a Flamenco dinner place. Our reservation was at 10:30 pm! Yes, in Spain they run on different hours!

And it rained while we were waiting, so we hid in a doorway. Apparently Spain received a lot of rain and snow this winter/spring, far more than normal. Which made for pretty greenery, but kind of a chilly night.

We went to the Corral De La Moreria, apparently a rather famous place (and expensive) where you first of all, pay just to get in (like Disney!), and then you're required to pay a minimum amount per plate/person-reminds me of comedy clubs.  So it ends up being pricey but it's really quite amazing and rather 'once in a lifetime' so we just enjoyed. And the food was FANTASTIC! and the dancing, AMAZING!

Prawns of some kind that were SUPER yummy! You can see Curtis' jamon-and amazing bread! This was while we were watching Flaminco dancers. Just super cool.

Jamon!! This stuff is everywhere and tastes a lot like prosciutto, but not quite. Yummier I'd say.

And something amazing we discovered at several places in Spain: Chocolate Coulant. I'm not sure where this comes from but it's like a mini chocolate cake/brownie/lava cake type deal and it's SO, so good!

I'm currently having technical difficulties putting up video-hopefully soon I will figure it out and I'll edit this blog so you can see this video I took at the Flamenco place. First off, the dancing on all levels was just beautiful, but the guy was absolutely a DIVA when it came to performance! I don't want to be all weird and politically correct/incorrect but just fyi, while the dancing is flamboyant and he was super diva, Flamenco is a decidedly "NOT gay" profession. It ranks up there with bullfighter in Spain. Ultimate in manliness as far as a career choice. And the guy we saw was so good! (He's also thin-I was thinking he has to burn like 8,000 calories a night!) Here's a picture:

The lead Flamenco woman and man who was just amazing! They were both incredible.

The bit I am hoping to have uploaded is a boy/girl dance and only about a minute of it, and it was incredibly romantic and shall we say...physically charged, but in this weird romantic, non physically touching way. Seriously, it left me (someone who is obviously long-winded) lost for words! Loved it! It was a great night and then we went back to the hotel and ZONKED!