Last month the Swiss Misses decided to ditch the cold and the snow and catch some Mediterranean sun in Barcelona. A budget-airline flight from Geneva brought them there in a little over an hour. To ensure the necessarily level of service, the Swiss Misses brought along their able and adventurous babysitter, Stephanie. The Little Women also brought along their parents (to help Jonathan and Jenelle feel needed).

Barcelona to Subway Passengers in Wheelchairs (or with Strollers, or Crutches, or Luggage): Drop Dead

Upon arriving in Barcelona, the Little Women and their attendants soon learned that navigating the subway stations with anything on wheels is frustrating, at best. Even when there’s an elevator (if you can find it) that you can use (if it’s in service), that doesn’t mean there won’t be other stairways later on in the station.¹ As a result, traveling from the airport to the vacation apartment took longer than traveling from Switzerland to Spain.

Barcelona: This Is Not Your Father’s Architecture

The city being known for its Modernisme architecture, the first thing the Little Women wanted to see was the Sagrada Familia church, which has been under construction since 1882. The Swiss Misses quickly realized that this was unlike any other church they had ever visited (and they’ve visited many). After all, how many churches feature a tree with birds, fruit-like mosaic sculptures, and a magic square with a constant of 33? (And that’s just the outside of the building.)

The interior of the church has stained-glass windows that paint the walls with color.  The pillars resemble large trees.

The Little Women also visited Park Güell, which was designed by the main architect of the Sagrada Familia. However, since there was no playground, the Little Women decided that it couldn’t be a real “park.”

Later in the week, they visited Europe’s largest aquarium, which had a tunnel that let visitors walk through a large fish tank. This gave Clara and Nicolyn the chance to check out the many sharks in the tank and pick out their favorites.

Barcelona: In Spain, But Not of Spain

Barcelona, being the first city of Catalonia, seems to consider itself separate from the rest of Spain in some ways. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t see the rest of Spain in Barcelona! The Little Women visited Poble Espanyol, Barcelona’s open-air museum featuring reconstructed versions of buildings from all over the country. Although not as authentic as something like Ballenberg in Switzerland, it was still a fun time.

Barcelona to People Who Get Hungry Before 8PM: Drop Dead

Eventually, the Swiss Misses grew weary of sightseeing, so they stayed at the vacation apartment with Stephanie. They sent Jonathan and Jenelle outside so that the parents would be out of their hair. ²

Condemned to wander the streets of one of Europe’s biggest tourist destinations without their children, Jenelle and Jonathan visited the Picasso Museum, which showed early works from the artist’s life. Jonathan learned that Pablo started out producing more traditional work, and that cubism actually wasn’t an attempt to mask the artist’s lack of drawing ability.

They also checked out some Roman ruins, visited Barcelona’s cathedral, and saw some other Modernisme buildings. One of these was Palau Güell, a mansion that Antoni Gaudi (of Sagrada Familia fame) designed for the wealthy industrialist Mr. Güell.³

The only wrinkle in Jenelle and Jonathan’s time on the town (aside from getting the wrong train to visit a nearby city) was when they decided to have dinner one day at 5:30. It turned out that while you can eat lunch in Barcelona until 4 or 5, finding a traditional Catalan restaurant that will serve you dinner before 8 is apparently impossible.

The readers of this blog may be asking themselves, “What do Barcelonans do on a Saturday evening before the restaurants open?” Thanks to their careful research, Jonathan and Jenelle can answer this question: The locals attend public demonstrations. After resigning themselves to returning to the vacation apartment for dinner, Jenelle and Jonathan came across (in this order and in the space of 10 minutes):

• a parade of people beating drums and/or wearing chicken costumes;
• a religious procession coming out of a church; and
• two demonstrations in front of government buildings.

Hopefully none of the demonstrations ran into each other — that could have turned messy.

1. This explains why “subway riding” was an event at the Paralympic Games held here in 1992.
2. Speaking of hair, Jenelle and Stephanie went to an English-speaking hair salon. The hairdresser thought that Jenelle was Stephanie’s 22-year-old sister.
3. “Wealthy” is a little misleading. He was actually incredibly, fantastically wealthy. By one count, his fortune was worth 70 billion Euros in today’s currency, which would make him one of the 25 richest people in history.