Sunny Spain

Jim had Monday, March 6th off for Carnival so we decided to take advantage of holiday by going to Barcelona.

This was Jim’s first time to Barcelona and Spain for that matter. I had been to Barcelona but it was back in 1993 when I did a semester of college in Seville. I loved Barcelona the first time I saw it and I loved it just as much this time.

Sabine slept the whole flight so that part of the trip was easy. We had bought a bottle of wine in duty free just in case it was a nightmare and we needed some vino once we arrived.

While the subway system is pretty easy to navigate in Barcelona, it is not stroller or roller bag friendly so the trip to our rented apartment was accompanied by lots of swearing on Jim’s part.

I had booked a two bedroom apartment (everyone sleeps better if Sabine has her own room) in the El Born district. El Born (a.k.a. La Ribera) is known for its winding pedestrian streets that are littered with restaurants, bars and boutiques. The area is a perfect home base for exploring Barcelona.

The check in to our apartment that evening was almost comical. As we approached the apartment, a guy speed walking past us, shouted “Habitat Apartments” over his shoulder as he continued walking. It took me a few moments to realize what he said and that he was talking to us. When I said, “Yes”, he didn’t even slow down or turn around but continued his speed walking to the apartment.

The guy went through the check in so quickly that we assumed he was either really late for another check-in or was taking speed. He was so frantic that he almost left without taking our money. Of course, Jim being Mr. Ethical, reminded him.

The apartment was disappointingly dingy but I hadn’t been expecting too much. From the pictures online, the apartment looked basic. However, the pictures must have been old because the place was a lot more run down. We have had the worst luck lately with deceiving photos in holiday apartments.

That night Jim ran out to get some pizza slices to enjoy along with our duty free wine while I got Sabine to bed.

The next morning, Sabine obviously didn’t get the memo that nobody gets going until after 10:00 in Spain because she was up at her usual – 5:15.

Our plan for the first day was to wander through El Born, Barrio Gothic and the long pedestrian street known as Las Ramblas. We were lucky enough to have sunny skies and 60 degree weather.

We first visited the Santa Maria del Mar cathedral that was just around the corner from our apartment. I quickly realized that I had brought the wrong camera lens with me and much to Jim’s chagrin, I ran back to get a different lens for the day.

Our next stop was the main Cathedral in the Barrio Gothic. It was under construction as many old churches are so the pictures weren’t all that great.

As we explored the Barrio Gothic, we found a little bakery on Ferran a few blocks off of Las Ramblas. We had the best croissants we’ve ever eaten and we found ourselves going back in to the bakery three times to get more croissants and bread. The name of the bakery was El Fornet and we went back every day to get a post breakfast croissant and to pick up great bocadillos (sandwiches) for the road.

After gorging ourselves on croissants, we stumbled across Plaça Reial: a pretty little plaza lined with cafes and palm trees. On that day, there was an antique coin and stamp market in the middle of the square as well as a photo shoot. We stopped for a quick espresso before continuing on to explore Las Ramblas.

Las Ramblas looked a lot like Cours Mirabeau in Aix-en-Provence. It is a wide tree lined street with a large pedestrian walkway in the middle. There were some vendors selling leather goods, jewelry and artwork near the end closest to the water. After I made a few purchases, we headed to the Columbus monument to check out the harbor.

We walked back up Las Ramblas to look for a spot for lunch. Luckily Sabine had fallen asleep so we figured we might actually get a long relaxing lunch. Since it was only 12:30, we found a restaurant named Arcano that was completely empty in the Barrio Gothic. They had a three course meal for only 15 euro that included a glass of wine. We enjoyed a great lunch of pumpkin walnut risotto and Thai Dorado. Sabine didn’t wake up until we were finishing our coffees. The wait staff was nice enough to cut up a bowl of fruit for Sabine and we had saved some of our lentil soup appetizer for her.

After lunch, we decided Sabine needed to get some exercise so we headed to the Parc de la Ciutadella which was on the other side of El Born. The day was perfect for relaxing in the park and lots of other families had that same idea.

We stopped at two different playgrounds to let Sabine play before walking up the Arc de Triomf to stop for an almond magnum bar.

We headed back to the apartment hoping Sabine would take her second nap. The nap didn’t happen but we all rested for a bit.

Once it was dark, we went for a walk hoping Sabine would fall asleep in the stroller so we could enjoy some tapas for dinner. After about 5 laps of the El Born neighborhood, we were about to give up. Just as we were headed to the grocery store to pick up a pizza, she fell asleep.

On our many laps around the neighborhood, I had scouted out an upscale tapas restaurant that looked like it wasn’t too busy and was roomy enough for a stroller. The restaurant was Lonjas de Tapas and had outstanding tapas. It was by far the best tapas I’ve ever had. We got a plate of grilled calamari with garlic and parsley which was amazing.

Jim and I fell in love with Spanish wines on this trip. Whatever we ordered was excellent. Even the house reds by the glass were great and cheap (always a winning combo).

Our second day in Barcelona was our Gaudi day meaning we were going to go see most of the modernist Gaudi buildings. Gaudi’s most famous work is La Sagrada Familia which was started in the late 1800s and is still under construction. Jim’s running joke for the day was that every time he saw a building designed by Antoni Gaudi he would say, “Wow that building is really gaudy.” It seemed to entertain him to no end. He even laughed at the joke again, when he read through my blog.

After our daily stop at el Fornet to get our croissant and sandwich fix, we stopped at the market, Mercat de la Boquieria.

We got a coffee at a stand since Sabine wasn’t sleeping so a sit down coffee wasn’t going to be very relaxing. I had to take a picture of this poor pig below. It was bad enough that he was killed but then they irreverently put a baseball hat on him.

We decided against taking public transportation up to La Sagrada Familia and walked up Passeig Gracia to see some of Gaudi’s other buildings as well as some other modernist architecture.

Passeig Gracia was a gorgeous tree lined avenida with high end shops and ornate lampposts. We both decided that we could very happily live in Barcelona while walking down this street.

We stopped at the ubiquitous Desigual to do a little shopping and stopped for a coffee/ bathroom break.

We decided against going into Casa Batillo or Casa Mila as Sabine was awake and a bit antsy. Seeing the outside architecture was enough for both of us.

Between Casa Mila and La Sagrada Familia, we found a playground and let Sabine play for a while before finding a tourist trap hole in the wall near the church to give Sabine some lunch. She wasn’t very interested in the ham and cheese sandwich we ordered for her and I don’t blame her.

Instead of waiting in a long line to see La Sagrada Familia and the construction zone that it continues to be, we played in the playground right in front of the church.

Since Jim and I hadn’t had lunch at the restaurant near La Sagrada Familia, we found a great tapas place on the way home on Ramblas Catalunya. Again we had a server who was so friendly and nice to Sabine even though it wasn’t really a kid’s restaurant.

About 2 blocks before we got back to the apartment, Sabine fell asleep and we were “forced” to stop at a restaurant for a few glasses of wine while she slept.

We were so tired from walking all day that Jim and I decided it would be a frozen pizza night back at the apartment. Neither of us had the energy to walk around for 40 minutes trying to get Sabine to sleep so we could have dinner.

We didn’t really have a plan for our last day in town. We made a stop at our favorite bakery and then did a little shopping.

We enjoyed the tapas so much at Lonjas de Tapas that we stopped at their sister restaurant near the Picasso museum. Sabine was awake for this lunch but she did pretty well. She tried a bunch of our tapas including calamari, octopus and beef tenderloin with foie gras (sorry, Stacy). She only really liked the foie gras and tenderloin.

After lunch we went back to the Cuitella park so Sabine could play before we had to get on the plane to go home. After 90 minutes of playing on the swings and slide, we headed back to El Borne to wander around so that Sabine could take another nap.

To end our marvelous mini vacation, we stopped at Cellar de Tapas for some vino and our last plate of Patatas Bravas.

On our way back to the apartment to pick up our luggage I felt something hit my head. I didn't realize that it was actually bird poop until we got to the airport. Jim said that it was a sign of good luck. If you consider having a screaming, wriggly baby on a two hour flight good luck, then the old wives tale is true.

I’ve decided never to try saving a few euros by taking a later flight. I thought that because it was a late flight, Sabine would sleep. Unfortunately there was no sleep and we just ended up with a tired and very cranky toddler. However, three or four hours of pain was well worth the amazing time we had in Barcelona.

Liège Market

On a dreary Sunday in Bonn, we decided last minute to drive to Belgium and hit the Liège market. Some friends of ours go there pretty regularly and recommended it. I think for them it is an opportunity to speak French and do some shopping on a Sunday.

Jim had been suggesting a day trip to Liège for the last year. My trepidation regarding a visit to Liège was based largely on the fact that my father went to Liege for work. Since he was an industrial appraiser, he usually visited heavily industrialized cities which tended not to be very scenic unless of course you consider smokestacks to be good scenery.

However, the idea of going to one of the largest markets in Belgium and eating some good French food won me over.

We got a later start than planned so by the time we arrived both Jim and Sabine were ravenous and we needed to find a place to eat pronto. We picked the first place that looked like it had enough space for us and the stroller. Ross and Myriam came to meet us at the restaurant. Lunch was really tasty but the service was very slow. By the time we were done with lunch, the market was closing up.

I wasn’t planning to buy anything so it didn’t really bother me. Plus it was so cold and blustery that day that sitting in a warm restaurant was preferable to wandering around the market in my opinion.

After speeding through what was left of the market, we stopped at a park to let the kids play before getting back in the car to head back to Bonn.

Sabine loves to spin. I, however, started to get sick after about 10 minutes of spinning.

All in all, it was a pretty ok way to spend a Sunday but I'd rather go back when the weather is better. Maybe the city won't look so dreary if the sun is out. The city seemed to lack a lot of charm. Here's Ross, Eloise and I posing in front of a scrap metal barge.

The next time I find myself complaining about the dreary weather in Bonn, I’ll have to remember that it could be worse; we could be living in Belgium

A nice little weekend trip - Wuerzberg

After being back from the States for a few weeks, I started to get the urge to get outta Dodge. Not that Bonn isn’t nice but our weekends all look the same. I go grocery shopping and run other errands child free on Saturdays and Jim goes for a long bike ride on Sunday. So we decided to go to Wuerzburg for Valentine’s Day weekend. That way, we both can say that the trip is our present to each other and the fact that we didn’t get each other anything (not even cards) won’t seem so lame.

Wuerzburg had been on our list to see for a while. We had driven by the town on numerous trips down to Munich. We even stopped for dinner once on our drive back from Rothenburg with my mom and sister.

We left Friday night close to Sabine’s bedtime so she slept the entire way down to Wuerzburg. We stayed at Hotel Alter Kranen (Old Crane) which was a nice family run hotel that had the advantage of providing a free breakfast and had available parking. It was located along the River Main (pronounced like “mine”) and was named after the old crane that was located next to the river. The crane was originally constructed to lift large crates of Franconian wines onto boats and was human powered. The friendly lady at breakfast told us how the men would power the crane like hamsters on a wheel. She seemed to take great pleasure in comparing the men to hamsters - some marital discord perhaps?

First on our agenda was the Residenz Palace. It was billed as the Franconian Versailles. We had hoped to complete the tour while Sabine slept but the Residenz didn’t allow strollers. We decided that waking a sleeping baby to go into a museum was a bad idea so we decided to return when she woke up and catch the 3:00 English tour.

In the meantime, we stopped for some cappuccinos and did some shopping. Every time Jim and I shop together, he has the best luck finding things whereas I seem to have some really bad shopping mojo when I’m with him. This trip he found two really great jackets that were both on sale and my lone purchase of the trip was a box of tampons.

Our next stop was the old bridge to check out the views of the Marienberg Fortress on the hill across the river from Wuerzburg. The Fortress was the original home of the Prince-Bishops before they moved into town and began living in the Residenz.

We noticed that there was a nice restaurant in a converted mill on the bridge called Alte Mainmühle. We made a reservation for lunch and took Sabine back to the hotel to give her some freedom from the stroller for about 40 minutes before we had to be back at the restaurant.

Lunch was very good. I can definitely recommend this restaurant to anyone visiting Wuerzberg. It would be a great place to have lunch in the summer as they have a deck overlooking the river and the Marienberg Fortress. Sabine did pretty well at the restaurant and she seemed to really enjoy my whitefish with lentils and balsamic reduction (too much actually, I didn’t like having to share so much of my delicious lunch).

After lunch we headed back to the Residenz for our tour. Thankfully the museum had strollers that you could use in place of your stroller so we weren’t forced to try to hold a wriggling 14 month old while walking through the Residenz.

According to the tour the palace is famous for two reasons. First it contains the largest fresco in Europe. It was painted by Giovanni Tiepolo so the Residenz is a popular tourist stop for Italians. They are generally not too happy that he happened to paint his largest fresco in Wuerzberg and not in Italy somewhere. He apparently finished the fresco in record time, allegedly because he thought it was too cold, dark and gray in Germany and wanted to get back to his sun-kissed homeland.

The second reason that the Residenz is well known is the fact that it was the first building that Johann Balthasar Neumann ever built. He was actually never trained as an architect but it was his hobby. His work was criticized by other architects who claimed that his domes would never last. However, the domed sections of the building were the only ones to survive the WWII bombs and the remainder of the Residenz had to be reconstructed. The cost of one of the more elaborate rooms was 3 million euro.

Unfortunately, they didn't allow pictures so I didn't get any good photos of the Residenz. Wikipedia has a few pictures of the Residenz if you are interested to see what it looks like.

After our tour we wandered around the gardens and then went in search of wine. If we were going to have to be back in the hotel room at Sabine’s bedtime, we figured we might as well enjoy a bottle of wine in our hotel bed while watching a DVD on our computer.

We found a great little winebar/ shop right on the old bridge cleverly called Main Wein (pronounced Mine Vine in German) after the Main River. We sampled a few red wines while Sabine slept and bought a few Franconian reds to take with us.

We didn't want to press our luck after having a nice lunch so for dinner we were looking for something fast. We stumbled across a Pakistani place that had a buffet and decided that would be our best option. Like her father, Sabine is a big fan of tandoori chicken.

Although we had planned to drink wine and watch a DVD in the room, by the time we got Sabine to bed we were tired ourselves so we just went to bed extremely early.

The next morning was quite foggy and a bit rainy. We went out for a coffee to see if it would clear up before we headed up to the Marienburg fortress. We considered walking up to the fortress but fast way up had stairs. The meandering route through the vinyards was a 3 hour round trip and would have been nice on a beautiful day but the weather was cold and drizzly.

We decided to check out the area around the University and look for a restaurant for lunch. As it was Sunday, all the shops were closed and the area around the University was quite dead. We ended up finding a great playground for Sabine to play on for a while before lunch.

We had a relaxing lunch at a little Italian place where the Italian waiters and other guests all fawned over Sabine before driving up to the Marienberg Fortress.

The Fortress has been converted into two separate museums. We simply walked around the fortress and took in the great views of Wuerzberg while Sabine ran around tiring herself out before the 2 hour drive back home.

Wuerzberg was a great little town. Of course we found ourselves saying that it would be so much prettier in the summer. Why is it that we always take these small trips during the dead of winter?

I think the Residenz was the highlight of the city for both Jim and me but Sabine was more excited by the shower in the hotel room. Her favorite game was climbing into the shower and being separated from us by the glass shower doors.