Europe Week 1: Spain-Barcelona/Púbol
All of us were psyched to leave the coast near Peñiscola and head north. Our reservation at the timeshare was through Saturday, but we had already planned to leave on Friday to catch our ship that sailed Friday evening from Barcelona to Rome. However, when the lodging turned out to be so disappointing on the coast, plus Luis and I calculated the driving time for he and Tommy to get to the Dali castle museum in Púbol, we changed up our plans and left Peñiscola on Thursday morning instead.
We had a simple breakfast of bread, donuts and juice and then attacked the luggage with crazed intentions of getting all our items to fit inside again. Due to the beach towels and souvenirs we'd purchased, we needed another duffel bag, but just used the net laundry bags I'd brought along in the interim, since we hadn't seen a mall. It took a couple of hours to get everything sorted and then we headed out. We stopped the Beast at the gas station to fill up and I walked the kids over to BK to grab them some lunch before we started the 2.5hr drive.
While there, I noticed a mall across the parking lot, so once Luis was done with the van, he and I walked over there and picked up a duffel bag while the kids ate. Easy peasy. :-) And, we were off! I think it was around 12:30pm when we hit the road for real.
The toll systems in Spain are very pricey, and we'd been paying quite a bit since leaving Madrid to travel on the highways. From Madrid to the coast wasn't too bad, but once we hit the coast, we put probably 30EU into tolls going up and down to Peñiscola from Valencia then back down to Benicasim then back to Peñiscola. One leg that took about an hour was over 12EU alone. But, all that paled compared to the tolls as we neared Barcelona. Luis was my change preparer, while I drove. We must have gone through at least ten toll booths on the highway system surrounding Barcelona. The GPS was an utter necessity by this point, or we would never have found our hotel. As it was, we got within two blocks and the ongoing construction just confused us, so I had to drop Luis on a corner with a payphone so he could call and get directions from them in person. I drove around in a loop until he was ready to be picked up and then we navigated our way over the next 20 min to where we needed to be.
At this point, we split the family into two groups. I took the girls and all the luggage (so fun) and checked us into the new hotel, while Luis took the boys and the Beast and immediately headed up to the town of Púbol. Tommy's sole request while we were in Spain was to see the Dali castle museum there, so Luis hustled them up the coast to get there before it closed. It was another hour+ of driving for them, just to get there first. Luis and Tommy both described the town as very small, with literally nothing going on except the museum. They wandered through the museum and gardens, then picked up some great souvenirs and headed back down to the hotel in Barcelona to meet us for dinner around 8pm.
Meanwhile, I had gotten us all checked in and situated in the new place, with multiple trips up the elevator with all our things and the help of the poor front desk guy. Our room was really a converted flat, I think, with two bedrooms, full kitchen and huge bathroom. There was no pool offered, but I figured the kids had grown enough gills that week, and could deal with no pool in this place. The big plus was that it had artic blast air conditioning (wahoo!!). It had been days since we'd felt cool and comfortable in our lodging.
The girls had some down time and played on the balcony and in their room, and even sat through some BBC TV, just to hear the spoken English, I think. :-) After 45min, I got them ready to head out again and we went in search of a grocery store. I bought the fixings for a big breakfast and sandwiches, and we hauled everything back to the room. Once it was all stored, we headed out again to check out the sky cable car that went up to Montjuïc Castle.
To get there, we had to walk about eight blocks to the nearest Metro station, but after that it was really close...if you catch the right line transfer, that is. Which I didn't. And that cost us another 20 min to jump around the various lines to get us back to where we needed to be. The stifling heat of the station platforms was pretty intense, and we were really happy to get onto the trains, which were air conditioned.
After catching a weird transfer train that only ran every 30 min directly to the Montjuïc station, we finally made it out of the Metro, and walked up the hill to get our tickets for the Telefèric de Montjuïc, which was the cable car ride up the mountain. It was beautiful and well worth the walk/effort it took to get there. Luis had the camera with him, so I couldn't take any shots, but the vistas of the city and the harbor were truly stunning. The girls kept gasping and saying "How beautiful, Mama!". I could see La Sagrada Famila towering over everything around it in the distance and got even more excited for going there the next day (which had always been our plan for the one day we were going to spend in Barcelona). We got to the top and debated briefly whether we had the energy to go into the castle museum, but both girls vetoed the idea, so we just got back on the return ride and ooh'd and aah'd our way down again.
We reversed our trip to get back to the hotel, and once we were on surface streets again, we stopped for cream frappuccinos at Starbucks in the air conditioning. The heat was still atrocious and it zapped your energy fast. Once we got back to the apartment, we waited probably another 90 min before the boys showed up. The size of the Beast was not such a great plus in the city, because getting it in and out of underground parking garages was nerve wracking. Tommy and Ethan came up to the hotel room about 15 mins before Luis finally made it after getting the Beast parked.
Then it was time to find some food. The boys were ravenous, so we didn't walk far. Had a great meal with very friendly service just down the street from our hotel. Was the first time all week that the people talked and joked with us as we ordered our food. Gracie wasn't feeling well by this point, so I took her back to the room early and got her bathed and into bed with some prayers and kids meds I had with me. By later that night, Tommy would also be feeling lousy and begging to turn off the air conditioning. Did my best to make him comfortable with the kid meds and he finaly zonked out with extra blankets.
Friday morning, I fixed the big breakfast while Luis made sandwiches to keep with us in his backpack. We spent another little while repacking everything and getting it all either into the luggage or in a pile to be tossed, since we would be turning in the Beast today and lugging it all onto the ship with us.
We checked out and then started navigating over to La Sagrada Familia to get our tickets and start our tour. Had to find another parking garage over there and squeak into a spot, then walk to the cathedral and get in line for tickets. The line went pretty fast, but there was a McD's across the street from where we were waiting, and the kids wouldn't stop begging to go over there. I stayed firm, though, and told them no lunch until we were done with the tour.
The ongoing cathedral project from the famous architect, Antoni Gaudí, really and truly cannot be described properly with words...or even with pictures. His style of combining aspects of nature into his buildings is/was so profoundly beautiful, especially to see in a church setting. I was moved to tears three different times while walking around the grounds. Luis took oodles of pictures. The cathedral was started in 1882, and Gaudí died in 1926, but work has continued for over one hundred years. The current team is targeting completion in 2026, but nobody is sure that is possible at this point.
As we were chowing down on McD's afterwards, the kids all made a pact to bring Luis and I to return to see the cathedral when it is completely finished, and bring their own kids along. It was cool to hear their enthusiasm and utter dedication to making that happen. I hope they are able to follow through with that dream.
After lunch, we grabbed some more souvenirs and some gelato, then piled back into the Beast and headed down to the port to figure out if we could stow our luggage for the rest of the day and return the van. We were able to check in and get our boarding cards, but it turned out that there was no place to pay for our luggage to be stored, so we had to leave Tommy and all the luggage in a pile in the port waiting area. He was really miserable by this time with a bad cold, so we agreed he was the one to leave behind while Luis took the kids to the aquarium and I went to fill up the gas tank and then return the van.
I dropped Luis and the kids at the Columbus circle and they started walking to the Barcelona Aquarium. It took about 90min for me to find a gas station in the city, fill the tank, find the rental return location, clean out the van, complete the return paperwork, then walk to the nearest Metro and catch the right lines to get back down to the docks. The walk from the last station to the Aquarium was brutal in the heat. I got to the Aquarium and realized I'd have to wait for Luis and the kids at the exit, which happened to be in the visitor store. So, I shopped a bit for the kids to get them some things to remember their visit, and then sat and waited another 45min for them to be finished. Luis had stopped to get food for everyone in the restaurant upstairs, so it took a little bit longer.
We met up and started the trek back to the port on foot. After the long day, we were all pretty tuckered. Got back to Tommy, and he and I went to grab food in the nearby port restaurant because we were both starving. I had a roast chicken that was my second favorite meal in Spain, and he had some kind of pork dish.
It was pushing 8pm by this time, and the buses started loading to get all of the foot passengers out to the ship. We crammed into a bus filled completely with Italian people, and had a great time explaining that we were headed to Rome, then watching them all kiss their fingertips and raise their eyes to heaven while saying, "Ah, Roma!". They were so friendly. Such a change from the brush off we got from most of the Spaniards in Madrid and along the coast the past week. Luis and I took that as a fortuitous sign that our vacation enjoyment was about to ratchet up a notch. :-)
We were dropped at the bottom of the gang plank, and showed our boarding cards, then proceeded up the plank and up a couple of escalators on the ship, then another elevator up one more level to the deck our cabin was on. I had reserved us a junior suite, so that everybody could sleep in one room. It turned out that the kids were pretty cramped for the one night, with Gracie/Alanna sharing one twin bunk, and Ethan on pillows on the floor, but they survived. Luis and I had our own huge room with a porthole. But, of course, the kids staked a claim on the porthole immediately, so we didn't get much privacy!
At the port, we'd been told that the ship was trying to leave as quickly as possible because of the bad weather that was approaching, so we were a bit nervous about what we were getting ourselves into, but once we were settled into our room, we headed up to the top deck to say goodbye to Spain and get some snacks for the kids. Tommy was still feeling miserable, so he passed out with the younger kids pretty early and Luis/I weren't far behind. I remember the ship rolling and rocking throughout the night, but was able to sleep through most of it. We would spend the next entire day sailing across the Mediterranean, but I'll save that as part of the Italy travelog.
Next up...Rome!!
We had a simple breakfast of bread, donuts and juice and then attacked the luggage with crazed intentions of getting all our items to fit inside again. Due to the beach towels and souvenirs we'd purchased, we needed another duffel bag, but just used the net laundry bags I'd brought along in the interim, since we hadn't seen a mall. It took a couple of hours to get everything sorted and then we headed out. We stopped the Beast at the gas station to fill up and I walked the kids over to BK to grab them some lunch before we started the 2.5hr drive.
While there, I noticed a mall across the parking lot, so once Luis was done with the van, he and I walked over there and picked up a duffel bag while the kids ate. Easy peasy. :-) And, we were off! I think it was around 12:30pm when we hit the road for real.
The toll systems in Spain are very pricey, and we'd been paying quite a bit since leaving Madrid to travel on the highways. From Madrid to the coast wasn't too bad, but once we hit the coast, we put probably 30EU into tolls going up and down to Peñiscola from Valencia then back down to Benicasim then back to Peñiscola. One leg that took about an hour was over 12EU alone. But, all that paled compared to the tolls as we neared Barcelona. Luis was my change preparer, while I drove. We must have gone through at least ten toll booths on the highway system surrounding Barcelona. The GPS was an utter necessity by this point, or we would never have found our hotel. As it was, we got within two blocks and the ongoing construction just confused us, so I had to drop Luis on a corner with a payphone so he could call and get directions from them in person. I drove around in a loop until he was ready to be picked up and then we navigated our way over the next 20 min to where we needed to be.
At this point, we split the family into two groups. I took the girls and all the luggage (so fun) and checked us into the new hotel, while Luis took the boys and the Beast and immediately headed up to the town of Púbol. Tommy's sole request while we were in Spain was to see the Dali castle museum there, so Luis hustled them up the coast to get there before it closed. It was another hour+ of driving for them, just to get there first. Luis and Tommy both described the town as very small, with literally nothing going on except the museum. They wandered through the museum and gardens, then picked up some great souvenirs and headed back down to the hotel in Barcelona to meet us for dinner around 8pm.
Meanwhile, I had gotten us all checked in and situated in the new place, with multiple trips up the elevator with all our things and the help of the poor front desk guy. Our room was really a converted flat, I think, with two bedrooms, full kitchen and huge bathroom. There was no pool offered, but I figured the kids had grown enough gills that week, and could deal with no pool in this place. The big plus was that it had artic blast air conditioning (wahoo!!). It had been days since we'd felt cool and comfortable in our lodging.
The girls had some down time and played on the balcony and in their room, and even sat through some BBC TV, just to hear the spoken English, I think. :-) After 45min, I got them ready to head out again and we went in search of a grocery store. I bought the fixings for a big breakfast and sandwiches, and we hauled everything back to the room. Once it was all stored, we headed out again to check out the sky cable car that went up to Montjuïc Castle.
To get there, we had to walk about eight blocks to the nearest Metro station, but after that it was really close...if you catch the right line transfer, that is. Which I didn't. And that cost us another 20 min to jump around the various lines to get us back to where we needed to be. The stifling heat of the station platforms was pretty intense, and we were really happy to get onto the trains, which were air conditioned.
After catching a weird transfer train that only ran every 30 min directly to the Montjuïc station, we finally made it out of the Metro, and walked up the hill to get our tickets for the Telefèric de Montjuïc, which was the cable car ride up the mountain. It was beautiful and well worth the walk/effort it took to get there. Luis had the camera with him, so I couldn't take any shots, but the vistas of the city and the harbor were truly stunning. The girls kept gasping and saying "How beautiful, Mama!". I could see La Sagrada Famila towering over everything around it in the distance and got even more excited for going there the next day (which had always been our plan for the one day we were going to spend in Barcelona). We got to the top and debated briefly whether we had the energy to go into the castle museum, but both girls vetoed the idea, so we just got back on the return ride and ooh'd and aah'd our way down again.
We reversed our trip to get back to the hotel, and once we were on surface streets again, we stopped for cream frappuccinos at Starbucks in the air conditioning. The heat was still atrocious and it zapped your energy fast. Once we got back to the apartment, we waited probably another 90 min before the boys showed up. The size of the Beast was not such a great plus in the city, because getting it in and out of underground parking garages was nerve wracking. Tommy and Ethan came up to the hotel room about 15 mins before Luis finally made it after getting the Beast parked.
Then it was time to find some food. The boys were ravenous, so we didn't walk far. Had a great meal with very friendly service just down the street from our hotel. Was the first time all week that the people talked and joked with us as we ordered our food. Gracie wasn't feeling well by this point, so I took her back to the room early and got her bathed and into bed with some prayers and kids meds I had with me. By later that night, Tommy would also be feeling lousy and begging to turn off the air conditioning. Did my best to make him comfortable with the kid meds and he finaly zonked out with extra blankets.
Friday morning, I fixed the big breakfast while Luis made sandwiches to keep with us in his backpack. We spent another little while repacking everything and getting it all either into the luggage or in a pile to be tossed, since we would be turning in the Beast today and lugging it all onto the ship with us.
We checked out and then started navigating over to La Sagrada Familia to get our tickets and start our tour. Had to find another parking garage over there and squeak into a spot, then walk to the cathedral and get in line for tickets. The line went pretty fast, but there was a McD's across the street from where we were waiting, and the kids wouldn't stop begging to go over there. I stayed firm, though, and told them no lunch until we were done with the tour.
The ongoing cathedral project from the famous architect, Antoni Gaudí, really and truly cannot be described properly with words...or even with pictures. His style of combining aspects of nature into his buildings is/was so profoundly beautiful, especially to see in a church setting. I was moved to tears three different times while walking around the grounds. Luis took oodles of pictures. The cathedral was started in 1882, and Gaudí died in 1926, but work has continued for over one hundred years. The current team is targeting completion in 2026, but nobody is sure that is possible at this point.
As we were chowing down on McD's afterwards, the kids all made a pact to bring Luis and I to return to see the cathedral when it is completely finished, and bring their own kids along. It was cool to hear their enthusiasm and utter dedication to making that happen. I hope they are able to follow through with that dream.
After lunch, we grabbed some more souvenirs and some gelato, then piled back into the Beast and headed down to the port to figure out if we could stow our luggage for the rest of the day and return the van. We were able to check in and get our boarding cards, but it turned out that there was no place to pay for our luggage to be stored, so we had to leave Tommy and all the luggage in a pile in the port waiting area. He was really miserable by this time with a bad cold, so we agreed he was the one to leave behind while Luis took the kids to the aquarium and I went to fill up the gas tank and then return the van.
I dropped Luis and the kids at the Columbus circle and they started walking to the Barcelona Aquarium. It took about 90min for me to find a gas station in the city, fill the tank, find the rental return location, clean out the van, complete the return paperwork, then walk to the nearest Metro and catch the right lines to get back down to the docks. The walk from the last station to the Aquarium was brutal in the heat. I got to the Aquarium and realized I'd have to wait for Luis and the kids at the exit, which happened to be in the visitor store. So, I shopped a bit for the kids to get them some things to remember their visit, and then sat and waited another 45min for them to be finished. Luis had stopped to get food for everyone in the restaurant upstairs, so it took a little bit longer.
We met up and started the trek back to the port on foot. After the long day, we were all pretty tuckered. Got back to Tommy, and he and I went to grab food in the nearby port restaurant because we were both starving. I had a roast chicken that was my second favorite meal in Spain, and he had some kind of pork dish.
It was pushing 8pm by this time, and the buses started loading to get all of the foot passengers out to the ship. We crammed into a bus filled completely with Italian people, and had a great time explaining that we were headed to Rome, then watching them all kiss their fingertips and raise their eyes to heaven while saying, "Ah, Roma!". They were so friendly. Such a change from the brush off we got from most of the Spaniards in Madrid and along the coast the past week. Luis and I took that as a fortuitous sign that our vacation enjoyment was about to ratchet up a notch. :-)
We were dropped at the bottom of the gang plank, and showed our boarding cards, then proceeded up the plank and up a couple of escalators on the ship, then another elevator up one more level to the deck our cabin was on. I had reserved us a junior suite, so that everybody could sleep in one room. It turned out that the kids were pretty cramped for the one night, with Gracie/Alanna sharing one twin bunk, and Ethan on pillows on the floor, but they survived. Luis and I had our own huge room with a porthole. But, of course, the kids staked a claim on the porthole immediately, so we didn't get much privacy!
At the port, we'd been told that the ship was trying to leave as quickly as possible because of the bad weather that was approaching, so we were a bit nervous about what we were getting ourselves into, but once we were settled into our room, we headed up to the top deck to say goodbye to Spain and get some snacks for the kids. Tommy was still feeling miserable, so he passed out with the younger kids pretty early and Luis/I weren't far behind. I remember the ship rolling and rocking throughout the night, but was able to sleep through most of it. We would spend the next entire day sailing across the Mediterranean, but I'll save that as part of the Italy travelog.
Next up...Rome!!