Spain!

We just got back from an exhilarating and exhausting trip to Spain. When we decided to start trying for Baby #2, I realized that our globetrotting days would soon be over. (I had actually thought that was the case when we were pregnant with Jack, but then we took a wonderful trip to Italy with him when he was almost five months old. But I knew that there was no way I'd be brave enough to do it again with two little ones.) I have always wanted to go to Barcelona, and I figured there was no better place for our last hurrah as a family of three. We decided to tack on Madrid to the trip, because who knows when we'll have another chance to go again?

I have to admit that the trip did not get off to a very good start. Jack has recently shown an extreme sensitivity to noise, and he absolutely flipped out at how loud the airplane was on take-off. He was understandably terrified when we hit clear air turbulence. I personally don't love to fly under the best of circumstances, and traveling with a sensitive toddler while pregnant hardly qualifies. We were all completely drained by the time we arrived at our apartment in Barcelona. After such a long day of traveling, you can imagine how my heart sank when Jack told us, "I want to go home."

We spent five days in Barcelona. Our home base was a little apartment just off the main pedestrian thoroughfare, Las Ramblas. Day 1 was spent basically recovering from the flight. On Day 2, we visited Antoni Gaudi's unfinished church, the Sagrada Familia, and his Parc Guell. Little did we know before we arrived just what a big deal Gaudi is in Barcelona. His iconic architecture is well-known for emulating the curves and angles found in nature. We were lucky enough to see most of his major works in the city.

Gaudi's Sagrada Familia Church

Day 3, we went to Montjuic and visited the Catalan National Art Museum (known as the MNAC) and the Fundacio Joan Miro. The MNAC was great, but, in what was a sign of things to come, it was a little tough for Jack to stay quietly entertained in the art museum. The Joan Miro museum was tough for us all. Maybe we're just uncultured Americans, but it's pretty hard for me to really appreciate the full artistic value of a "landscape" that comprises a canvas painted white with a blue dot in the middle. We also went to the top of the Columbus Monument for a bird's-eye view of the city. Since I am terrified of heights, this was decidedly not my favorite part of the trip.

By Day 4, we were finally getting into the swing of things. We checked out Gaudi's Palau Guell (which unfortunately was under construction, so we were only able to see the basement), as well as the Barcelona Cathedral. Jack's favorite part of the Cathedral was counting the candles. He couldn't quite understand why we wouldn't let him blow them out. We visited the Picasso Museum, which is dedicated to Picasso's early works, before he invented cubism. It was a beautiful tour of his early artistic development. Jack fell in love with this painting, which won Picasso second prize at an art contest when he was 15. It's called "Science and Charity."


We also visited Gaudi's Casa Mila (also known as La Pedrera). By this time, Jack was so tuckered out from the day, that he fell asleep while Tom was carrying him. Poor Tom carried Jack for miles on this trip. Jack notoriously will not stay in a stroller, so we didn't even bother bringing one. But he also doesn't like to walk, so we knew that we were going to carry him for much of the trip. Unfortunately, it seems like he's gotten a little bit heavier in just the last few weeks. And since I'm already carrying one of our children, it fell to poor Tom to carry our other one.

Our last day in Barcelona was probably Jack's favorite one. We went to the Citadel Park and let him run around. He had a blast playing at this little playground we found. I know we probably should have incorporated more of these types of outings throughout the trip, but we have playgrounds in San Diego. It's hard to rationalize going all the way to Europe to hang out at a park.

Collage of Barcelona (clockwise from top left: Parc Guell, view from the MNAC, Casa Mila, and Fundacio Joan Miro)

The next day, we flew to Madrid. That afternoon, we headed over to the world-famous Prado. This museum was amazing, but the docents were surprisingly uptight. While we've encountered some museum officials who weren't overly thrilled with Jack's rambunctious behavior, they seemed at least to be understanding of it. To a person, the Prado docents were emphatically uncompromising. If Jack raised his voice a little, sat on the floor, touched a dividing rope, someone was there to tell us to make him stop.

The following day, we went to the Reina Sofia Museum, which is famous for being the home to Picasso's "Guernica."


The docents were a lot nicer at this one, but I think at this point, Jack had hit his limit on museums. But he ended up getting really interested in a study from "Guernica" of a hand holding the broken sword (located at the bottom of the picture). From that, it was really easy to make him appreciate the bigger "Guernica" painting. He also really liked a painting by Dali called "The Enigma of Hitler," which featured a telephone that had water dripping from one end. For the rest of the trip, he kept saying, "Remember when the telephone was broken? It had water coming out."


That afternoon we went to the Plaza Mayor, where Jack was thrilled to discover not one but two Pooh bears! He had actually seen one at the Puerta del Sol the night before too. That one totally wised us up to how these characters work in Madrid. While Jack was so excited to see him, Pooh was rubbing his fingers together at us to indicate that he wanted some money if he was expected to continue to pay attention to his littlest fan. It struck me as almost obscene, but I rationalized that at least it was cheaper than going to Disneyland. That Pooh gave Jack a green balloon, and when Jack saw the first Pooh at Plaza Mayor, he said to him (actually her), "Remember when you gave me the green balloon last night?" His own little Pooh bear came with us everywhere in Spain, as he does here at home. In fact, he joined us for ice cream and drinks on the square, and we all felt very continental.


Our last day in Spain, we went to the Royal Palace in the morning and then Retiro Park in the afternoon. Jack's favorite part of both the Palace and the Reina Sofia Museum was the elevators. Jack loved the park, though. They had a lot of great play structures that you don't normally see in the U.S.

The food in Spain was mostly pretty good. Since we are vegetarians, we were a little nervous about our options. Spain is pretty well known for its jamon (ham) and paella. But at any tapas place we went to, there was always tortilla espanola, a type of potato omelet, and we actually did find a couple of really nice vegetarian restaurants. Barcelona was a lot more Italian in its cuisine, which happily meant there were gelato places aplenty throughout the city. Jack had more than his fair share of ice cream, gelato, and hot chocolate on this trip. It was little bit of a bummer for me that I wasn't able to drink sangria while I was there, but they had surprisingly decent alcohol-free beer at most places, so I didn't feel too deprived.

The weather wasn't as cooperative as we had hoped. Whenever I pictured Barcelona, it was always sun-drenched, bordering on hot. Almost the entire time we were there, though, it either rained or threatened rain. We were caught in a thunderstorm our first day there. But thankfully, the rain in Spain came mainly at night, so even though it was wet and I wasn't able to wear my cute new dresses and sandals in Barcelona, it wasn't too bad. And it cleared up almost entirely by the time we were in Madrid.

I was pretty pleased with how well my high school Spanish held up, although it was helpful that most everyone we encountered also spoke English. But someone at Retiro Park actually came up to me to ask directions (because I look like I'm from there?? I don't know... (I realize this will only be funny to people who know what I look like)), and I was actually semi-able to tell them to her.

So all in all, it was a great trip. I'm so glad we went, but at the same time, I will say that it's going to be a long time before we do something like this again. I was completely unprepared for how homesick Jack would be. In retrospect, I realize that this is the first time since our Italy trip that he's been away from home for so long without other family members there to give him enough extra attention to make him feel comfortable without his familiar surroundings and toys. I had a new sympathy for how my own parents must have felt when my sister and I were so resentful on our family vacations growing up. But at the same time, I understand how hard this must have been for Jack. It wasn't exactly the most toddler-friendly vacation, and overall Jack was a trouper throughout.

Speaking of good babies, I am going to take the fact that my morning sickness disappeared just in time for this trip as a very good sign of this baby's temperament. I was tired the entire time, but I think most of that can be attributed as much to jetlag - Spain is nine hours ahead of us - as to anything else. My main complaint thus far is that my kidneys seem to be in overdrive right now. I had joked to someone that I didn't want to potty train Jack before the trip, because I didn't want to be running to the bathroom every 20 minutes. But it turns out I was pretty much doing that anyway! (Sorry, too much information, I know.)

Jack was absolutely ecstatic when we came home. The return flight was a lot better, whether because he was an old hand at it by then or because he knew he was finally going to be reunited with his beloved cash register and his less beloved cats. (They, by the way, were very happy to see Tom and me but seemed frankly dejected when they saw that we brought Jack back with us.) It was good to go, but it's also good to be back.

(A note on the photos: I had originally planned to include more, but the Blogger photo upload interface is pretty cumbersome, and I ran out of patience. Maybe I'll add more over the next few days if I get motivated.)