Thursday, March 23, 2023

Week 10: March 12-19

Spring Break!! 

This week was so much fun! It was so great to get to see Wyatt again, and we had the absolute best week together. We got into Barcelona late Saturday night, so we just went straight to our Airbnb and went to bed. An American living in the apartment building actually had to help us open the main door, which was kind of funny. Our Airbnb was right around the corner from La Sagrada Familia. It was the perfect location and setup for us.

On Sunday, we went to the Barcelona Cathedral, where we had views of the whole city from the roof, and the Diocesan Museum. Then, we walked around the Gothic Quarter, explored Parc de la Ciutadella, and saw the Arc de Triomf.

On Monday, we walked around Park Güell for a few hours. We got there before the huge crowds and before it got too warm and sunny, so it was really nice. Gaudí’s ceramic tiling work was beautiful. Afterwards, we went to the Banksy exhibition, and then we did the night experience at La Pedrera-Casa Milà. The rooftop view of Passeig de Gràcia at night was really cool. For dinner, we found a really good empanada shop around the corner from our Airbnb.

On Tuesday, we did the FC Barcelona player experience tour of Camp Nou and the FCB museum. We got to see where players sign their contracts, all of the press rooms, and both locker rooms, and we got to walk along the edge of the field. It was so fun! Then, we went inside La Sagrada Familia. Before coming to Barcelona, I imagined La Sagrada Familia to be more of a gothic cathedral, but it is definitely not. It has Gaudí’s unique style with incredible stained-glass windows. It’s also not finished yet, which I didn’t know. We went up into one of the towers on the Passion façade. It was neat to see the tops of some of the towers up close and the city views were great. The intense wind, however, didn’t help my fear of heights. For dinner, we discovered our new favorite restaurant – La Taquería – a Mexican street food place. We ate there two more times during the week.

On Wednesday, we toured Casa Batlló, visited the Picasso Museum, and toured Palau Güell. It’s amazing how different each of the places Gaudí designed are.

On Thursday, we took a tour of Montserrat and the Oller del Mas winery in Manresa. After the bus ride out to Montserrat, we took a train to the top of the mountain, where we explored the cathedral, monastery, and cheese & honey market. Wyatt and I also hiked out to an overlook where we could see all of Montserrat and the valley below. We then took a bus to the winery, where we had tapas and tried three different Spanish wines. I’m not much of a red wine person, but the two we tried were actually really good. It was fun doing an organized tour because we got to meet other people. There were two girls our age from Arizona, another girl on a work trip from the Netherlands, and a couple visiting from Canada.

On Friday, we spent the day on Montjuïc. We started by taking the cable car up to the top of the mountain – super fun! Then we explored the castle, watched some guys play archery, hiked a bit, and had a picnic lunch. We walked around the botanical gardens for a while, saw the Olympic stadium, went to the Olympic Sports Museum. We finished our day at the Joan Miro Foundation. We had wanted to see the magic fountain show at the end of the night, but unfortunately, it wasn’t running because of a need to conserve water.

On Saturday, we went to the beach at Barceloneta and walked along the coast. Then, we took the port cable car across the harbor. That one wasn’t as fun as the Montjuïc cable car, though, because they packed like 20+ people in a tiny cable car.

On Sunday, we both had early morning flights. We left for the airport around 5am. Unfortunately, we were flying out of different terminals, so I had to say goodbye to Wyatt on the Metro. It was hard to leave, but there are only 6 more weeks until I see him again. Once back home in Bonn, I unpacked and relaxed the rest of the day.

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