Spain–Day Three–Barcelona to Madrid

Day three was a very early start.  We got up early and got on the road for our 7 hour drive to Madrid.  This van….is massive.

About 30 minutes outside of Barcelona we saw this amazing castle on the hill.  So of course we decided it was time for a detour to see what it was.  We were rewarded with amazing views, freezing wind, closed ministry, and freezing kids.  The dryer in our Barcelona flat broke…so we had two loads of wet clothes…that happened to be all our warm clothes and jackets.  Lovely.

Chris loves driving this massive van.  It is very hard to park…but he loves it….and navigating these tight mountain roads.

Our van at the rest stop.  It’s huge.  Why did I take a picture of a ketchup bottle do you ask?  Because this little bottle saved me a ton of money having to buy little packets at .50 euro each at Mc Donald's.  Three orders of fries…we used half the bottle.

Chris found some awesome restaurants while walking Madrid.

After dinner exploring in Madrid.  A great ending to a long driving day!

Spain–Day Two–Barcelona - Raining ALL DAY

We had very high hopes for day two.  Unfortunately when we woke up it was forecasted to rain all day, 100%.  Christopher woke the three older kids up at 6am and headed down to the coffee shop around the corner for hot churros and hot chocolate.  Apparently it was amazing…

Don’t worry guys, our ninja showed up…and upped his game with his fox ear warmers.

It took a whole day for Ben and Andrew to realize they were both wearing Ben’s sweatshirts.  Of course Ben chose today…the day it was pouring rain…to bring it up and claim his BYU hoodie.

Our first stop was the cathedral in the Gothic Quarter.  It was very gold and had a ton of rod iron everywhere.  It reminded me of the sound of music where they get locked up in the abbey behind the status.

The tomb of the Christian girl who would not deny her faith.  Apparently she was a geese herder who was tortured and finally beheaded…but when she was beheaded a geese flew out of her neck.  So now the cathedral always keeps geese on site to remember her.

We decided to get out of the pouring rain and head up to the castle on the mountain.  All castles are inside right?  We were very excited to head up the mountain and see this amazing castle. We had to wait a bit for the bus…and Andrew tried to sell his umbrella like the street vendors we’ve been seeing everywhere.  Finally he got a buyer…Zack!

Oh twinners….

We finally made it to the castle and braved the pouring rain for this awesome cannon shot.  As we walked inside the castle there was a stream of water running down the walkways…which we all stepped in and got our shoes soaking wet.  My plan was just to take off our shoes and walk around the castle barefoot….but then we found out the castle was all outdoors.  Even the guy selling tickets told us to come back a different day.  So back out to the rain we went….to wait for another bus…20 minutes.

We finally went back to the flat to dry off..put shoes in the dryer…changed clothes, ate a yummy hot lunch, and took a little nap.  Then Christopher we ready to head out in the rain again!

After seeing the monument we headed to the site of Barcelona first civilization.  It was inside…but FREEZING!  By this time I was miserable, cold, and getting sick.  But I was dying to see the famous cathedral so we headed back to metro to make our way across town.

We finally made it!  We run across the stream…aka street…and get in line….only to find out there are no more tickets left.  Ugh.  We were able to snap a quick picture before we were frozen and done being wet.  Kallie, Zack, and I headed back to the flat while the boys braved the rain and headed over to chocolate street.

After a yummy Chinese dinner, we headed back to the flat to drag all the mattresses into the family room and had a yummy dessert and watched A-Team.  A great way to end the rainy, wet, cold Barcelona day!