Beautiful Barcelona and Magical Madrid

A few days ago we visited Barcelona. Barcelona is in Spain on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. They speak Spanish there. When we arrived we met up with Deh, our AirBNB host, then headed out to see the city. We first took a look at the Christopher Columbus statue pointing to the New World.

Then we got some tickets for the hop-on hop-off bus tour that we would take the next day. Next we walked around Las Ramblas and found a market that was very busy. It was inside but outside. You enter a structure with a roof, but it’s open air. We saw fruits, a bunch of different kinds of fish in all shapes and sizes, brains, hearts, livers, nuts, candy, and Dada let us share a cup of watermelon. We spent the rest of the evening walking around shops and having dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. We had a little mini lesson on old singers and artists like the Beatles, Elvis, NKOTB, Madonna, and the Rolling Stones. That night trying to sleep was a big pain! Our apartment was crazy loud and the beds weren’t very comfortable.

The next day we walked to the main plaza in town and got on our hop-on hop-off bus tour and zipped around the city a little bit, eventually coming to a very, very, very, very, very cool church that looked like Ariel’s Grotto. It was really cool. Different than any church you’ve ever seen. It was called Sagrada Familia and was designed by the famous Spanish architect and artist Antoni Goudi.

It was very crowded so we had to wait an hour and a half to get in. When you enter, its colors are really bright and cool. It also has the feeling of Disney Magic. It wasn’t really like a normal church. (Dad note: Arya says it pretty well, but this place is outrageous. The pictures don't do it any sort of justice at all. The biggest tell was how much the girls were in awe. We've seen a lot of churches this year as you can imagine. They're kind of over them. When we walked into Sagrada Familia though, they were both smiling and openmouthed the whole time. I've already made an appointment with myself to return to Barcelona just to go here again when it's complete which they anticipate to be around 2030. It is in the top 3 if not my top pick of amazing sites for the year.)

Some other stops on our bus that day were to the Olympic Stadium, Plaça Espanyol, and MNAC (Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya). Ash and I did a fun jumping picture here. 

The next day we took a train to Madrid, but at the Barcelona train station there was a slide park that was a dragon with slides coming off of it. Ashley and I practiced climbing up the slides and sliding down. My favorite was a curvy fat slide that Ashley and I licked our hands to help us climb up!

Once we arrived in Madrid, we saw these baby heads at the train station. One was awake with weird eyes, and one was asleep very calmly.

After a bit of confusion getting to our apartment and no access to phone or internet, we finally made it! We decided to go to a big park with a bunch of playgrounds. It took only a couple minutes to walk there, and on the way, we had the BEST orange juice in the world. At the park the first playground was a wooden playground with beams and nets to climb around on. (Dad note: All of the playgrounds here are part of a very large open space, riverside park area called Rio Madrid. If you happen to travel to Madrid with children, be sure to spend a few hours there. They have figured out what parks are supposed to be. It's not on a lot of the touristy lists because it's "only" a park. This is the sort of place every city needs for families.)

The next playground wasn’t as fun, but still entertaining.

Another playground was hustling and bustling with kids of all ages at an area filled with 7 slides on a hill. The slides were really fast and you sloshed back and forth down to the bottom. One of my favorite slides was one with an open roof and went very curvy.

At yet another playground, there was an interesting pirate ship, but it was closed for renovation.

Finally we arrived at one of the last play areas. It had a bunch of tires you could bounce on, circle swings, and long chain swings hanging from a bridge that were crazy. We spent some time there and moved on.

Walking along the sidewalk there were also balance beams and play areas. One had wooden blocks connected on a wire that was super tough to balance on. 

Day 2 in Madrid we spent walking and taking the Metro all over town. We visited the Royal Palace of Madrid and Cathedral next door that were over a thousand years old. I helped Dad guide us.

We had a snack at a famous churro restaurant. We got fresh churros with a cup of very rich chocolate for dipping. Mom and Dad got fresh squeezed OJ.

After a Spanish lunch of Paella, Pizza, and Sangria (for the grown-ups), Mom made us go to an art Museum. They had children’s audio guides with pictures of famous art. We took turns finding the art piece, and then listening to a story about it. Some of the famous artists there were Picasso, Velazquez, Poussin, and Goya. It was kind of boring but the audio guide helped a lot. To make up for the two hour art stop, we went to another huge park. Dad said it was six times bigger than Central Park in New York. 

After a pleasant time in Barcelona and Madrid we flew home. It was so good to be back be back to my bed and pandas!