Ah, so we've been home for months now and I've really been neglecting finishing up our travel blog. I'm going to regret this in the future, as my memory has already started to fail me. The best thing about blogging (for me) is being able to go back years later and re-read the post and re-live the experiences all over again. It's the perfect journal. So let me see if I can recap our last day in Barcelona and our journey home before the memories are way too faint to document... (get ready, it's a long one with lots of pictures).
We started off our last day of travel by going back to the Sagrada Família. Miguel and I biked there the previous day on our Fire Tire Bike tour, but only got to see the outside of it. Luckily, we purchased time-specific tickets online and didn't have to stand in line when we got there.
The outside is obviously very polarizing. Personally, it's not my favorite look from afar - especially from the Eastern entrance. I never liked the way it looked even when I studied it in school. To me it looks like stalagmites from far away and in most photographs.
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| The only photo we took of us in front of the church was for our pregnancy announcement.. oops! |
However, once you approach the building and get close, you can start to decipher the individual carvings and sculptures and can begin to appreciate it for the detailed and incredible art that it truly is. The eastern side tells the story of Christ from the beginning... the annunciation, nativity, shepherds, flight into Egypt, Christ at the temple, etc.
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| Detail on the doors |
I have been to cathedrals and basilicas all around Europe... but y'all, the Sagrada Família is by far my favorite I've ever visited! I was not prepared to be absolutely gobsmacked. The light.... the light!! (I have NOT edited the following photos in anyway... and they do not even begin to do it any justice!) The colors and light were absolutely magical. Light poured through the colored glass and filled the space with glorious hues. Colors reflected off of almost every surface.
Once I could tear my eyes away from the amazing colors and light, I started to take in the rest of the space. Gaudí designed the space to look like trees and branches... so when you looked it it felt like you were under the canopy of some great, fantasy forest.
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| I did not take this photograph... I'm borrowing it from here. |
Most cathedrals are likely just as tall in the nave, but something about this space felt even taller! It was quite impressive. Afterward, my neck was once again strained from looking up.
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| See the trees? |
There was also this strange crucifix... so yeah. That was interesting.
After about an hour, my neck needed a break, so we headed out to our next adventure. Miguel had really wanted to take in a fútbol game while we were overseas, but the dates just didn't line up. So we opted for the next best thing, which was a tour of Camp Nou (the home field of FC Barcelona). Incidentally, Camp Nou is the most visited "museum" in Barcelona.
The tour was self-guided and fairly crowded, but expansive. We got to see numerous trophies, pretend to be on the press line step and repeat, see the locker room, and go out onto the field.
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| Locker Room |
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| Locker Room |
Uh... we got a little lost on the way to the park. Getting off at the wrong metro stop will do that. Oops! We walked for a bit and tried to figure out where we were, but the locals didn't seem to know how to help us. Luckily we ended up finding a cab! Thank God because we were 'close', but the walk would have been too far and a very steep walk. Neither of us were feeling that as I was still in my first trimester and always tired and Miguel was sick.
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| Lost... |
I had read that the park was a free attraction and since we were at the very end of our trip, free sounded really great to us! We really enjoyed the beautiful views of the city in the distance and the organic design of Gaudí's work intertwined with the nature.
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| Sagrada Família in the distance |
Walking through the park was quite a workout... steep, steep steps everywhere.
Eventually we made it to the good stuff, the textbook stuff, and whomp whomp you had to purchase a ticket to get into that part of the park. It apparently was a bit controversial and locals posted signs around the park explaining that the fought the city on the matter as they wanted it to remain a free, public space. I honestly would have considered paying for a ticket, but we would have had to walk all the way back down to purchase one. Instead, we admired as much as we could from the free part of the park and grabbed a bite to eat from little booth.
It was late afternoon by the time we left the park and we were both pretty exhausted. Unfortunately, we had a bit of a hard time finding our way back to the metro and got lost again... which involved even more steep stairs.
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| Miguel was thrilled to be lost again and really wanted to pose for my picture... haha |
Eventually we made our way back down to the city and to the market La Boqueria. La Boqueria is a large, public market off of Las Ramblas which offers a vast variety of goods.
Miguel and I walked around for a bit and snacked on some fresh fruit, nuts, and Miguel tried some fresh oysters.
We bought some food for dinner and brought it back to the patio at our hostel. Miguel and I enjoyed an early, casual dinner snacking on our market treats and then headed to bed. I think it may have still been light outside when we climbed into bed.
Thursday morning we woke up both feeling pretty sleepy and ready to head home. Our flight from Barcelona to Paris was short, quick and pretty flying over mountains.
We had a quick layover in Paris and were luckily able to upgrade our seats. And this time they were muchhhhh better than our first flight to Germany. We got a whole row to ourselves on the upper deck. I would buy these tickets over and over again. I wish they had an upper deck on each flight! It wasn't crowded and the flight attendants were happy and kind, we had plenty of leg room and even a little extra storage compartment. I know they weren't fancy, first class seats, but honestly, after the flight from Atlanta to Paris I felt like these seats were the cream of the crop!
The flight went very smoothly with no turbulence (answered prayers!! Thank you, Jesus!)! Nothing is better than seeing the little map screen show the plane over the states once again! Especially when you arrive over thirty minutes early!!
Unfortunately, what really, really sucks is when you're 30 minutes early and the Atlanta airport is too busy to let you land early and so they make you do multiple, large circles over Macon... SOOO close, yet SOOOO far away!
Once we finally landed we still had to go through customs and then catch our flight back home to Savannah. However, we had a bit of a snag in customs when Miguel's custom documentation kept printing out with a large, black X on it. Haha! Thankfully, we just had to answer a few more detailed questions and then were on our way!
And that's that. We had an amazing adventure and I am so glad I got to make these memories with my favorite person. Plus, it was officially our first vacation as a family of three!!
