Ashtons of Colorado

There's always something sort of sad about heading home from a long awaited vacation, but it's also a lovely different kind of anticipation. This usually involves sleeping in one's own bed. Traveling long distances is not easy; I'm not very experienced in it but I know I'm not good at it.

Waiting for our taxi to take us to the airport.

A funny thing about Spain; most cars are small but ALL cars park VERY close. They use bumpers to yanno, bump. It's kind of amazing how good they are at parallel parking-or it just accentuates how bad I am at it! No way I could park that tight.

At Barcelona airport, waiting to board.

This airport was very modern but clean lines, different feel than Madrid.

This is not a very picture heavy post-wanna know why? Uh, traveling is a rough go.

Flying from Barcelona inland. I believe that is the Mediterranean coastline.

No idea where this is but it was after we'd flown a while and passed over the Atlantic. So I think it could be Canadian coastline. It was the first land we'd seen in a while and then we sort of followed the Eastern Seaboard to Miami.

We flew from Barcelona and though it was morning (Barcelona time) when we left, it was late afternoon when we made it to customs in Miami. We waited in customs for a while; very long lines, but for Americans it moved faster. Once there we had to wait for a while until our plane to Denver arrived-and then we didn't get into Denver until about midnight. And then had to drive home from DIA. So we'd been up for about 26 hours we figured.

I tried to sleep on the plane but I couldn't. This time we were further back on the planes and much more cramped. In the morning I wasn't tired, in the evening I was exhausted but too squished and sick of sitting to be able to sleep. I tried dozing but made no progress so I listened to music and looked forward to home.

We zonked out and slept well (at least I did!) and then an interesting thing happened. Sun coming up, about 6ish and I wake hearing this most beautiful music. Apparently the church up the street was doing a sunrise service with amplifiers and they had performances. I am sure some people were annoyed, but it was so pretty and a nice way to wake up on Easter Sunday.

My parents brought my boys back from AZ and were settled in, my house was clean and we had a wonderful Easter.

These three kids are so amazing. What blessings they are to me.

Waiting for the train.

Spanish Countryside from the train.

Not sure about efficiency but finally we ended up in Figueras, a town about 90 miles or so from Barcelona, by train about 2 hours. It is the home of the Dali Museum, and though a small town with no apparent tourist draw, once we arrived at the museum the line stretched very far out the door.

See that building at the end of the line? We first had to weave to the right and loop around a fountain, then zig zag in line until the ticket window.

Like, it took at least an hour and a half just to get to the ticket window. And so Brynna and I did what any logical and practical ladies would do. We went shopping while Curtis stood in line. In fact, we went and had churros and chocolate, bought a sandwich for Curtis to eat in line, then shopped about 5 stores for mementos and wandered back to the line and still waited.

Chorizo sandwich for Curtis.

Churros and Chocolate for Brynna and I. You can see in this picture just how thick the chocolate is. Seriously it's almost like pudding. These churros were not as good as the ones we had in Toledo, these were more greasy, but they still were yum.

Still waiting in line.

Once we finally got into the museum, it was interesting-Dali was interesting-to put it mildly, but also ahead of his time in many artistic forms. The museum, of course, was really quite busy, but we wandered at our own pace, enjoyed the art, did more line standing and then finally headed back to the train station, where we barely made the incoming train. There was this huge computer glitch right when we were at the desk, kind of stressful when there's like 10 people waiting after you. But we made it and the train was not nearly as crowded going back.

Plaza in Figueras, very quaint town, from what I saw.

Once we got back we relaxed for a little while at the hotel. We tried to figure out where to go to dinner, and planned to go to the supermarket place but it was closed: Good Friday. 

Our hotel in Barcelona.

So, we started wandering around and a ton of places were closed up. It was kind of strange for a Friday night but we figured it was because of Good Friday. However, it may also have been that it was uh, about 7:30 pm. We were kind of early for dinner. We found a place open about 8 and it looked completely deserted, but while we ate it started filling up and was actually rather busy by the time we were done.

Waiting to order dinner. We waited kind of a long time but it was nice to relax.

Yes, even in Spain he's on the phone. Haha!

Omgosh, this was a weirdly amazing and satisfying meal. Jamon and Cheese with oil. This was the entree by the way. Odd but really tasty. I was full but still ordered dessert.

Curtis had this soup with all kinds of things inside. I'd say it's a gumbo but it was not the same.

Me at dinner, looking goofy but having a nice time.

Very ham/bacon heavy egg dish Brynna had for dinner.

Some kind of cinnamon ice cream with wafers, tasty.

Chocolate ice cream with a dessert similar to French toast maybe.

Chocolate Coulant. AMAZING! :)

Overall an interesting and fun day, but we had to pack up and head out to the airport in the morning. We were heading home from Barcelona.

I don't speak Spanish so I'm trying to remember my counting in the Espanish. Day 5 was Barcelona! First off, we got up and had our breakfast in the hotel room as we'd purchased food the day before.

Super weird hair dryer thingie in the bathroom.

Breakfast. Bread, yogurt, juice. They have amazing bread there. And by amazing, I mean, I want to fly back there to eat it!

Then we did some wandering around. We took the metro first thing over to the Sagrada Familia, got tickets so that we could come back later and stand in line for tickets. I know. Makes no sense but that's how it's done. So we decided, hey, we'll hop on the metro and go to the Picasso museum. We got all turned around, but wandered around having fun finding it.

Morning walking around Barcelona.

Lots of little streets, tall buildings, motorcycles and mopeds. We got a little lost the first day but we had fun.

This, according to plaques, is part of ancient roman architecture left in Barcelona from roman days. really old. And randomly in the middle of the city and surrounded and incorporated into buildings. Kind of fascinating how history is just there.

We were warm, and thirsty and found HORCHATA!!!!!!! K, yum! This rice and cinnamon drink is served chilled and that cup is a 'small', where in the US it'd be a kiddie cup probably. Everything had more modest portions but we were satisfied the entire time. Also, Horchata in Spain is epically more delicious than anything I've had in the US.

Yay! Lines! We waited about 45 minutes to get into the Picasso Museum. Which was very nice, and worth the wait. I thought I took pictures in museums but maybe I couldn't in some. But this one was very nice.

This, on the other hand, was a longer line that wound around the Sagrada Familia. And in order to get into this line, we had to have the right hour tickets to get in line. And then we waited in line to go pay for tickets to get in! People were selling fans, castanets, postcards and other things as you passed by. No water though, which I thought was weird. And I was thirsty.

We finally got tickets and bought the additional ticket (where you had to wait in line but at least you had an appointment) to go up an elevator into one of the tall towers. And Sagrada Familia...let's just say the place is SO worth the wait. I mean, do NOT miss this when you visit Barcelona. It is seriously a bucket list place. Gorgeous, gigantic, beautiful, detailed, so much artwork in the stain glass, the carvings, the creation the vision, the feeling inside is one of reverence and awe and holiness and gratitude to nature and God, despite the huge crowds of people.

Waiting oustide, looking UP. It's been under construction for more than 100 years and probably has 50 to go.

Carvings of scripture above the entry door.

Beautiful stain glass is complete about 2/3 of the building. In this picture you can see the different sections have different color schemes and then at the back you can see where the stain glass has not yet been installed. Each piece is a work of art and the colors are incredible.

A section of stained glass. These are so very tall. I'm standing well below the bottom windows.

You can't really get a feel for just how giant it is, but these columns behind Brynna are just ginormous.

Pillars going up to the ceiling, these are supposed to evoke trees protecting us from the elements.

This crucifix is the main focus in the worship area of the main section of the cathedral.

Example of the carvings on the exterior. They are varied in style and topic but are covering the entire building.

This is a nativity scene carved into the building.

Brynna and Curtis up inside one of the towers (there are going to be 12 when complete to represent the 12 apostles)

Looking out of the tower over the city and into the Mediterranean.

Some nice guy took a picture of Brynna and me on the tower. (Curtis had already started down the stairs) It was tall enough to give me vertigo.

The spiraling staircase taking us down the tower. No idea how many stories but it was dizzying and beautiful and I could not believe how many people left their gum. What the heck!?

After several hours of enjoying the Sagrada Familia, we decided to go see the park that was created by the same man that was the architect of the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi.

Stopping for tapas!

Of course, after spending all that time in lines and things we were hungry and stopped at a little place for tapas. It's so weird, these little bars that are mostly empty but you just wander in and they give you food. :)

Curtis having Jamon sandwiches. yum. Oh and with Diet Coke and I had Fanta. :)

Chorizo. YUM!! (and this is not the same as the Mexican Chorizo-it's WAY better)

I had this chicken dinner thing, which, hilariously, came with fries.

Heading up to the Gaudi park and so bizarre, there is an escalator to help make the climb easier because it's up on a hill, but the escalator is outdoors. Just right in the middle of the street. Kinda weird. I wondered what it was like in rain. Does it rust or have problems? You can see a person riding it in the bottom of the picture.

Gaudi created this park: Park Guell as a pastime and used tiles to create imagery, buildings, pathways and all kinds of things. It's a free park and had lots of people milling around. Apparently Gaudi and his style was so unique there's a word that came from his style: Gaudy! But it's actually quite beautiful, and it made for a wonderful additional thing to do in Barcelona after seeing the cathedral.

Underside of a portion of the park. Each column is sculpted with pieces of stone or colored tiles. Most things evoke nature in Gaudi's work.

Brynna and me underneath a different section. Above us are thousands of tiles decorating the underside of a giant pillared overlook.

Overlooking a piece of the park. The houses there are all tile covered and they have this magical, fairyland feel. Like Disneyland but without the rides or all the over-priced tourist stuff. It's pretty amazing.

Overlooking part of the park and Barcelona beyond with the Mediterranean on the horizon.

This is Sagrada Familia from Park Guell. It's so big. It just towers over the city and that huge center section is going to be twice as tall as the other towers.

Curtis and Brynna overlooking Barcelona.

Finally we headed back to our hotel, had dinner and collapsed! It was a wonderful, busy and fun day.