*BARCELONA*

We arrived in Barcelona on Saturday afternoon after a long flight and lay-over in Amsterdam. The weather was so beautiful, mid-80's with a great ocean breeze. Since James and I had not slept in over 24 hours, we were dragging a little, but managed to take a long walk around Placa de Catalunya and Las Ramblas (basically the city center). The next day was spent on the "hop on/hop off" bus, and saw tons of great sites. Sagrada Familia, Park Guell and many other beautiful pieces of architecture were on the route. I think my favorite part of Barcelona was the architecture, Gaudi's buildings are so amazing, the word 'creative' doesn't even begin to describe his mind.

Sunday evening we had to leave for the cruise, but we returned the next week once the cruise was over, to fly back home. Once we were back we stayed in a really great hotel, Casa Camper. They are based off of the European shoe brand; Camper. The hotel is very small, but the service was great and the design kept me thinking. On our last night we went to Picasso's old stomping ground: 4 Gats. The atmosphere was really cool and vintage, but the food lacked. There were sketches of Picasso's all over, even the plates were small drawings.

In short: I realllllly liked Barcelona. Maybe is was the familiarity of the Spanish language or the mix of modern and historical architecture, but it really made my heart smile. It was hard to leave.

A great view of the mountains behind.

The view from our hotel room.

Gaudi's Sagrada Familia

Placa de Catalunya

4 Gats