I had grand intentions of getting all the pictures up and the trip all described, but like most things, and especially things with this blog my intentions are not always fulfilled. So here is day one and 7 of our trip. Middle to be filled in subsequently with link to the rest of the pictures. Really, my sister wasn't with us thig time so I can't just point you over there for pictures and descriptions. (Yes, I still have to write about Brugges, Amsterdam, and Bath)
1. After spending the previous day freaking out about insufficient funds in our Irish bank account and locating and figuring out how to use our American ATM card, we had gone to bed early in preparation for the 3 am alarm to get us to Shannon airport in time for our 6:30 flight to Barcelona.
Somehow Silas had sensed that a trip was imminent and woke up with us bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to go. Needless to say he fell asleep again about 15 minutes into the journey. The flight went fine, we even arrived a bit early. We caught a bus from the airport in Girona to the bus station in Barcelona. We drove through a area of vineyards and I told Silas that is where grapes grew. In his typical fashion he simply responded "moe grape?" and "whe dey go?" after we had passed them.
We had arranged to meet Ben and Sonja at Ciutadella Park in front of La Cascada Fountain. We changed out of our Irish garb of sweaters and long sleeves into our Spanish garb of t-shirts and sunscreen while we waited and enjoyed the sunshine and gorgeous park. Just when we were contemplating heading for the apartment to meet the owner and get the keys, Ben, Sonja, and Ian stroll up to meet us! They looked pretty tired but seemed to be in good spirits. Ian seemed none the worse for wear for his trip across the Atlantic and climbed right up the stairs to the gazebo. Although he did smack his forehead on the wooden flooring upon reaching the summit.
We walked fairly quickly towards the apartment, because I am always in horror of being late. You'd think Ireland would have mellowed me out a bit in this respect, and sad to say I think it has, but I still hate being late for things. Ben tried unsuccessfully to exchange some money, so I had to get some more to pay for the apartment. Did I mention how relieved I was that we had gotten the ATM/Bank stuff straightened out before the trip? I got a rude call from the apartment owner that we were late, as though it wasn't already a herculean effort to control my anxiety. When we did arrive, only 15 minutes later than planned, I found that she had left and another man met us and gave us the keys. There were two decent sized bedrooms and one tiny bedroom where we set up the cots for the babies. There was a large living room with a couch, some book shelves, and a TV at one end and a dining room table on the other end. Off the dining room end was a very tiny kitchen equipped with a refrigerator, stove, oven, microwave, coffeemaker, washing machine, and dishwasher. It also had the basics for dishes and silverware and pots and pans. It even had a decent chefs knife! Unlike some of the other places we stayed it didn't have any basic foodstuffs, like salt, oil, etc. The cleaning lady was still there, so we just got a rundown of things and left our bags and headed out for some lunch.
The apartment was on a fairly busy street and just a few blocks from the beach, so there were lots of restaurants in the area. We picked a place that had nice outdoor seats and we all ordered a big dish of seafood paella. I ordered some milk for Silas, which came hot with sugar. He wouldn't drink it. Instead, Silas and Ian ate grapes and toasted bread, then ran up and down the sidewalks while the four of us took turns eating rice studded with mussels, shrimp, and something that looked like giant crayfish.
After lunch, Sonja, Ben and Ian went back to the apartment to rest. Orrin, Silas, and I headed out to stock the kitchen. We had read about the great market just off the famous Las Ramblas Street so we decided to head there first. We took a gorgeous walk, that I had been too distracted to enjoy earlier, from the apartment past the Museum of Catalan History, past a harbor filled
with yachts simple and extravagant, pairs in rowing shells, sailboats big and small, and huge cruise ships. There was a cable car cutting across the sky, Roy Lichtenstein's comic book head sculpture, and a monumental column dedicated to Columbus (he's actually pointing toward Italy). We strolled down the busy pedestrian street filled with street performers, restaurant tables, flower stalls, caged birds and other small animals, and souvenir stands until we finally reached the market, La Boqueria Mercat. It was amazing and overwhelming. Filled with people, Orrin expertly navigated the sleeping Silas through the colorful stalls of vendors selling fresh herbs, chocolates, breads, sausages, and fruits and vegetables. Because it was late in the day, there were only a few seafood booths still open and the selection didn't look that great. In fact some of the salted fish looked down right disgusting. And that's saying something since the butchers shops were displaying skinned sheep's heads (eyes and all), stomachs, pigs hooves, and other unidentifiable pieces of flesh. Logically it seems like it should be as equally disgusting to eat an animals muscle as it would any other part of their body, but I can't seem to talk myself into believing that. We picked up parsley, potatoes, eggs (1 euro a dozen!), watermelon, cherries, onions, lemons, and green beans. Orrin purchased a very beautiful, very delicious kiwi smoothie juice drink. We strolled, or rambled, back to the apartment, and stopped at the super market and bought cereal, milk, mustard, rice, pasta, yogurt, and what I thought were capers. While Silas and Orrin waited for me on a bench outside they dug into the cherries. The interesting thing about the cherries was that they were all twins- each had a pit, sometimes a small cherry- growing alongside the main cherry.
Back at the apartment I started dinner of a potato salad nicoise with green beans and hard boiled eggs. I couldn't find exactly everything I needed so I had intended to use the capers to give the dish some interesting flavor. Instead I had purchased pickled green peppercorns.
Luckily I noticed their strange texture when I was chopping them and tasted one before throwing them in the salad. Orrin made a quick trip down the block and returned with a bottle of capers instead, saving dinner!
Meanwhile Silas and Ian made a pact of mischief to bind them together as brothers for the next week.
After dinner we headed down to the beach for a short stroll. Although it had been very hot during the day, once the sun went down it cooled off considerably and we all wore long sleeves. Back at the apartment the Dad's put the babies to bed after a tiring day, and the Mom's worked hard planning out the next days activities. Or maybe we just lounged around and read books and gossiped. Who can remember so long ago?
7. Today Orrin and I woke up at 6 am to dress and breakfast and finish packing. I pried Silas out of the cot set up on top of the twin bed in the third bedroom and we whispered "bye-bye" to cousin Ian still sleeping peacefully in his cot situated safely on the ground (space was very limited in this third bedroom). I slipped Silas out of his pj's, consisting of a t-shirt and diaper as it was too hot for anything else and into a onesie, overalls, socks, and shoes. Meanwhile, Silas downed a cup of milk while asking repeatedly to "die dow." Mom will appreciate his knowledge of grammar that he wants to lie down, not lay down. We peeked into Sonja and Ben's room and bid them farewell and safe journey back home. Then we hauled our backpacks and stroller down the marble staircase of the apartment building, through the iron front door, and out into the quiet early morning streets of Barcaloneta.
We walked quickly to the bus station to catch a bus to the Girona airport. We had no idea what time the buses actually departed so we left a good margin of time to catch one. Luckily, we just caught the 7:00 bus and arrived in at 8:30 for our 10:15 flight. Our big bag was 3 kg over the 15 kg limit so we had to shuffle a few heavier things into the small bag, shoes, liquids, a pair of jeans. Amazingly that got the bag down to 13 kg so we were good to go. While waiting for the airplane Silas fell down again. Apparently I had gotten him too excited for running with an enthusiastic "ready, set, go!" because the very second I set him down his little body tipped right over into the tile floor and he bloodied his lip for the second time on the trip. But, we also learned that the Girona airport is 40 years old this year, and that a plane named the "Costa Brava" with an interior designed by Salvador Dali was christened there in the 70's.
Silas slept for almost the entire flight, only waking up to be welcomed back to Ireland by cows grazing on one side of the runway and sheep on the other side. He then slept most of the 2 hour drive home from the airport, then grouched through a quick trip to the grocery store and fell asleep again on my lap at about 5. We unpacked a bit, admired the fire-tongue runner beans tendrilling up the lattice in the garden, the broad prickly radish leaves spread in neat rows, cursed the slugs that have eaten all but 4 of the bush baby green bean plants, and I gave Orrin a haircut. Silas grouched through a dinner we woke him up for and refused to eat anything, instead proclaiming it was time for a bath. He was sorely in need of a scrub, so Orrin gave him a quick bath and then began wailing only settling down when I suggested the crib. To which he said "Pease." Nestled into his pillow under the quilt made by his aunt he was asleep in 5 minutes. I guess a week of running around in the sun with his cousin really wore him out. That, or our house is really boring.
1. After spending the previous day freaking out about insufficient funds in our Irish bank account and locating and figuring out how to use our American ATM card, we had gone to bed early in preparation for the 3 am alarm to get us to Shannon airport in time for our 6:30 flight to Barcelona.
Somehow Silas had sensed that a trip was imminent and woke up with us bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to go. Needless to say he fell asleep again about 15 minutes into the journey. The flight went fine, we even arrived a bit early. We caught a bus from the airport in Girona to the bus station in Barcelona. We drove through a area of vineyards and I told Silas that is where grapes grew. In his typical fashion he simply responded "moe grape?" and "whe dey go?" after we had passed them.
We had arranged to meet Ben and Sonja at Ciutadella Park in front of La Cascada Fountain. We changed out of our Irish garb of sweaters and long sleeves into our Spanish garb of t-shirts and sunscreen while we waited and enjoyed the sunshine and gorgeous park. Just when we were contemplating heading for the apartment to meet the owner and get the keys, Ben, Sonja, and Ian stroll up to meet us! They looked pretty tired but seemed to be in good spirits. Ian seemed none the worse for wear for his trip across the Atlantic and climbed right up the stairs to the gazebo. Although he did smack his forehead on the wooden flooring upon reaching the summit.We walked fairly quickly towards the apartment, because I am always in horror of being late. You'd think Ireland would have mellowed me out a bit in this respect, and sad to say I think it has, but I still hate being late for things. Ben tried unsuccessfully to exchange some money, so I had to get some more to pay for the apartment. Did I mention how relieved I was that we had gotten the ATM/Bank stuff straightened out before the trip? I got a rude call from the apartment owner that we were late, as though it wasn't already a herculean effort to control my anxiety. When we did arrive, only 15 minutes later than planned, I found that she had left and another man met us and gave us the keys. There were two decent sized bedrooms and one tiny bedroom where we set up the cots for the babies. There was a large living room with a couch, some book shelves, and a TV at one end and a dining room table on the other end. Off the dining room end was a very tiny kitchen equipped with a refrigerator, stove, oven, microwave, coffeemaker, washing machine, and dishwasher. It also had the basics for dishes and silverware and pots and pans. It even had a decent chefs knife! Unlike some of the other places we stayed it didn't have any basic foodstuffs, like salt, oil, etc. The cleaning lady was still there, so we just got a rundown of things and left our bags and headed out for some lunch.
The apartment was on a fairly busy street and just a few blocks from the beach, so there were lots of restaurants in the area. We picked a place that had nice outdoor seats and we all ordered a big dish of seafood paella. I ordered some milk for Silas, which came hot with sugar. He wouldn't drink it. Instead, Silas and Ian ate grapes and toasted bread, then ran up and down the sidewalks while the four of us took turns eating rice studded with mussels, shrimp, and something that looked like giant crayfish.
After lunch, Sonja, Ben and Ian went back to the apartment to rest. Orrin, Silas, and I headed out to stock the kitchen. We had read about the great market just off the famous Las Ramblas Street so we decided to head there first. We took a gorgeous walk, that I had been too distracted to enjoy earlier, from the apartment past the Museum of Catalan History, past a harbor filled
with yachts simple and extravagant, pairs in rowing shells, sailboats big and small, and huge cruise ships. There was a cable car cutting across the sky, Roy Lichtenstein's comic book head sculpture, and a monumental column dedicated to Columbus (he's actually pointing toward Italy). We strolled down the busy pedestrian street filled with street performers, restaurant tables, flower stalls, caged birds and other small animals, and souvenir stands until we finally reached the market, La Boqueria Mercat. It was amazing and overwhelming. Filled with people, Orrin expertly navigated the sleeping Silas through the colorful stalls of vendors selling fresh herbs, chocolates, breads, sausages, and fruits and vegetables. Because it was late in the day, there were only a few seafood booths still open and the selection didn't look that great. In fact some of the salted fish looked down right disgusting. And that's saying something since the butchers shops were displaying skinned sheep's heads (eyes and all), stomachs, pigs hooves, and other unidentifiable pieces of flesh. Logically it seems like it should be as equally disgusting to eat an animals muscle as it would any other part of their body, but I can't seem to talk myself into believing that. We picked up parsley, potatoes, eggs (1 euro a dozen!), watermelon, cherries, onions, lemons, and green beans. Orrin purchased a very beautiful, very delicious kiwi smoothie juice drink. We strolled, or rambled, back to the apartment, and stopped at the super market and bought cereal, milk, mustard, rice, pasta, yogurt, and what I thought were capers. While Silas and Orrin waited for me on a bench outside they dug into the cherries. The interesting thing about the cherries was that they were all twins- each had a pit, sometimes a small cherry- growing alongside the main cherry.Back at the apartment I started dinner of a potato salad nicoise with green beans and hard boiled eggs. I couldn't find exactly everything I needed so I had intended to use the capers to give the dish some interesting flavor. Instead I had purchased pickled green peppercorns.
Luckily I noticed their strange texture when I was chopping them and tasted one before throwing them in the salad. Orrin made a quick trip down the block and returned with a bottle of capers instead, saving dinner!Meanwhile Silas and Ian made a pact of mischief to bind them together as brothers for the next week.
After dinner we headed down to the beach for a short stroll. Although it had been very hot during the day, once the sun went down it cooled off considerably and we all wore long sleeves. Back at the apartment the Dad's put the babies to bed after a tiring day, and the Mom's worked hard planning out the next days activities. Or maybe we just lounged around and read books and gossiped. Who can remember so long ago?
7. Today Orrin and I woke up at 6 am to dress and breakfast and finish packing. I pried Silas out of the cot set up on top of the twin bed in the third bedroom and we whispered "bye-bye" to cousin Ian still sleeping peacefully in his cot situated safely on the ground (space was very limited in this third bedroom). I slipped Silas out of his pj's, consisting of a t-shirt and diaper as it was too hot for anything else and into a onesie, overalls, socks, and shoes. Meanwhile, Silas downed a cup of milk while asking repeatedly to "die dow." Mom will appreciate his knowledge of grammar that he wants to lie down, not lay down. We peeked into Sonja and Ben's room and bid them farewell and safe journey back home. Then we hauled our backpacks and stroller down the marble staircase of the apartment building, through the iron front door, and out into the quiet early morning streets of Barcaloneta.
We walked quickly to the bus station to catch a bus to the Girona airport. We had no idea what time the buses actually departed so we left a good margin of time to catch one. Luckily, we just caught the 7:00 bus and arrived in at 8:30 for our 10:15 flight. Our big bag was 3 kg over the 15 kg limit so we had to shuffle a few heavier things into the small bag, shoes, liquids, a pair of jeans. Amazingly that got the bag down to 13 kg so we were good to go. While waiting for the airplane Silas fell down again. Apparently I had gotten him too excited for running with an enthusiastic "ready, set, go!" because the very second I set him down his little body tipped right over into the tile floor and he bloodied his lip for the second time on the trip. But, we also learned that the Girona airport is 40 years old this year, and that a plane named the "Costa Brava" with an interior designed by Salvador Dali was christened there in the 70's.
Silas slept for almost the entire flight, only waking up to be welcomed back to Ireland by cows grazing on one side of the runway and sheep on the other side. He then slept most of the 2 hour drive home from the airport, then grouched through a quick trip to the grocery store and fell asleep again on my lap at about 5. We unpacked a bit, admired the fire-tongue runner beans tendrilling up the lattice in the garden, the broad prickly radish leaves spread in neat rows, cursed the slugs that have eaten all but 4 of the bush baby green bean plants, and I gave Orrin a haircut. Silas grouched through a dinner we woke him up for and refused to eat anything, instead proclaiming it was time for a bath. He was sorely in need of a scrub, so Orrin gave him a quick bath and then began wailing only settling down when I suggested the crib. To which he said "Pease." Nestled into his pillow under the quilt made by his aunt he was asleep in 5 minutes. I guess a week of running around in the sun with his cousin really wore him out. That, or our house is really boring.
3 comments:
One note on the trip back. Silas was awake for the take off and landing and, even through this was his 19th trip (~50 flights!), this seemed to be the first time he realized we were leaving the ground and he was very concerned. Luckily Bridget and I could act totally normal and that kept him from screaming, but he was on extra high alert both leaving the ground and landing back on it. Very interesting development. We'll see what happens on our next flight.
Can't wait to see and hear about the rest of your Spanish adventure.
Of couse, I AM please that Silas uses good grammar, but his parents deserve the credit for that! It is interesting that the little traveler has just figured out that planes leave the ground - that is a big concept to grasp! He's a genius, as I've always said! Love you...
Those babies are absolutely gorgeous!
Love hearing about your travels.
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