Gaelec's Blog: November 2009

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Adios Barcelona, allô Montréal

We got up at 3h30am to go take our plane (this time the time was right :P). We had no trouble finding a taxi and lucky for us, it was a van. The flight from Barcelona to Frankfurt and from Frankfurt to Montreal went super well. Lianne is a natural.

My vacations were great but it was also great to finally be back home after a month. Next step: organize the 1032 pictures I have, post some of them in my old posts and create albums in Facebook ;)

Lianne in her plane-bed

Barcelona day 7 or Inaccessible Pleasures

On Sunday, our last day in Barcelona, we wanted to take it chill. We went to Parc de Montjuïc, a small mountain with a couple of things to see. Unfortunately, the Font Màgica (Magic Fountain) was not working but the view of and from the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya was very nice. We walked up (and took the many escalators) to the olympice stadium were we bathed in the sun until we felt we should make our way back for supper and for preparing our trip back.

When we got off at the metro station near our apartment, I went to see if I could buy more white chocolate croissants. Most stores were closed because it was Sunday. I almost jumped with joy when I saw that the bakery was opened only to have my joy crushed when I realized that they were out of those delicious croissants :( After that we went to see if a certain shoe store I had found 2 days earlier was opened to bu more running shoes but it was closed. There were so many asiics and adidas models in there. They could all be seen from the huge glass door but we were unable to even touch them :( I wish they would have had a steel shutter like most of the other stores.

We got home, started to prepare our luggage, went out to a tourist restaurant to eat more tapas and paëlla before we left and finally came back to pack everything up and go to bed.

Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya inthe back

Sometimes it was easier to carry the stroller by myself to go up steps

You must remember the name by now :P

View from the front of the museum

Nath pushing the stroller with the Force

Olympic Stadium parc area

Monday, November 23, 2009

Barcelona day 6 or Meat day

Saturday was a nice day. We started off the day slowly by doing some laundry and browsing the net. We were meeting Lionel at 3pm at a metro so he could pick us up and we could go to Park Güell, the other masterpiece of Gaudi that I absolutely wanted to see. It's the Lizard fountain :D

We met at the given place and time and drove to the park. Lionel brought his 7 year old son, Nathan, with him and we all walked peacefully in the park. We took some pictures and I saw the famous lizard :D I was just a biiit sad that there were so many tourists around and that I couldn't take a picture of the lizard in all its glory.

After that we went to a bar in Tibidabo, the mountains to the north, that had a super nice view of the whole city. We had a drink and then left for Sant Cugats because Lionel invited us to have supper at his place.

That's where the meat part comes in ;) For starters we had 3 different kinds of coldcuts that were just fucking amazing ! And we ate a lot of them :P And for supper I ate a 430gr entrecôte :S Again, great food, great company and great wine :)

We left to take the last train hoping all would go well. But noooo... The train stopped a couple of stations later. We were waiting patiently wondering what was going on. Then a guy came to tell us in spanish that the were doing something on the track (which we saw when we exited the train) and that we had to take the bus. We managed to understand, Nath caught up with the bus before it left by yelling "Un momento! Bebe!" while I was making my way with the stroller. The bus was only to bring us to the next station where we had to take the train again. I guess these type of things is what makes travelling so fun ;)

We got home and went to bed to get ready for our last day in Barcelona.

Parc Güell

The lizard !!!

The lizardS !!!

View from the restaurant where we had a drink

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Barcelona day 5 or Spanish art nouveau

Friday we visited the Palau de la musica. Created by Domènech i Montaner between 1905 and 1908, it rivals Gaudi's architecture. The 50 minute guided tour is simply breathtaking (Lianne was calm the whole time!), especially the sun mosaic. Surprisingly, nothing was being renovated.

After that we went to see the Hospital de la Santa Pau by the same architect and then walked all the way back to the apartment while stopping on the way for a snack and to look at 2 other of Gaudi's masterpieces.

For supper, we bought prepared dishes at the colorful Mercat de Santa Caterina and ate them in the comfort of our Spanish home with a glass of wine.

Palau de la Musica Catalana

Mercat de Santa Caterina

Hospital de la Santa Pau

Sagrada Familia again :)

Random Art Nouveau building

Gaudi's work

Gaudi's work bis

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Barcelona day 4 or Ubi day

During the German press tour I had met David, a producer at Ubi's Barcelona studio. I wrote to him so we could have lunch and visit the studio here.

Ends up the studio was outside of Barcelona but it was easy to get there. We discovered a nice town called Sant Cugats as we were walking to Ubi. We were surprised to see a LOT of kid and baby stores but later learned that this city has the highest birth rate in Spain.

We got to Ubi and met my friend David. We also talked a bit with a guy from Montreal that we knew and Nath saw an old friend,Lionel, from POP sands of time. We all went out for lunch and talked. It's always nice to eat with locals, especially if they're friends. We made plans with Lionel for Saturday and came back to Barcelona.

It was too late to start anything big and it was too soon to eat so we went shopping :) I found two really nice pairs of jeans but only bought one.

For supper we ate at a nice catallan restaurant and we were lucky that Lianne slept the whole time :D

Spanish looking church in Sant Cugats

Friday, November 20, 2009

Barcelona day 3 or "blue jeans sur la plage" or "Gaudi I love thee"

Wednesday was a sunny and hot day. Nath wanted to check out a gluten free restaurant/store at a mall east of where we live. Lucky for us our travel guide had a suggestions for a walk along the beach. We took the metro to get close to the beach and started our walk. It was nice to smell the sea and Nath let the waves lick her feet. We wished we had something else than jeans to bathe a bit more in the sun.

We got the mall and Nath was sad to learn that the shop had closed. We settled on one of the restaurants on the mall's terrace and ate paella and drank sangria (not so bad for a plan B).

After lunch we quickly checked out a videogame store to see if ACII was there (it was), took a picture of the game on the shelves and then took the metro to go see one of two of Gaudi's masterpieces that I really wanted to see: Sagrada Familia.

I think "breath-taking" or "awe-inspiring" would be the best words for me to describe it. I was giddy with joy. Unfortunately it's not finished and there's still 50 to 80 years of work to be done but still. I visited what I could while Nath braved the heights and took the elevator to go on a narrow passway between two towers. She said it was very scary. I believe her. I also bought some souvenirs while I waited for her.

We came back to the apartment for a bit and went out to eat supper at a catalan tapas place. It was a Schwartz kind of place. Efficient and no frills but service with a smile. White whine is served in a small porcelain bowl, Nath guessed to keep it cool. Everything was excellent. Especially the squid which is the best I've ever had.

Nath eating the gluten-free croissants she found at the supermarket the first day we arrived

Our apartment in Barcelona

I think these are also partly Roman ruins

The beach! Lianne is wearing a cute hat I had bought in Japan

Diagonal Parc

Big suspended pottery and mosaic thingies

Sagrada Familia :D

It's actually a balcony under that statue

Magic square of 33. I guess it's for the age of Christ when he died/resurected

The old part of the Sagrada Familia

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