Barcelona Rewind

I have a few photo projects I'm hoping to complete pre-baby. One of them is labeling photos from our December trip to Munich and January trip to Barcelona. I pulled up the Barcelona pictures today, pulled out my trusty travel journal to jog my memory, and then flipped thru the journal over and over before realizing that I wrote nothing about Barcelona in it. Nothing at all. We went to Barcelona about two weeks after finding out we would have a child in a few months, and by the time that long weekend trip came about, I was in the throes of first trimester sleepiness. I slept for most of the trip. Nathan went out exploring on his own some. I managed to do a few walks with him in between napping. Then the morning sickness set in the day we left Barcelona, and I just neglected both the photos and the blogging. Rather than do a typical trip description, I'll just share several of the photos over the next two or three days.

Barcelona has amazing architecture

The Barcelona Cathedral has a beautiful cloister which also holds a pool with 13 geese. The geese are said to watch over the remains of a 3rd century, Christian girl, who, at age 13, was brought before the town's Consul. He was quite active in persecuting Christians, and the young girl, Eulalia, refused to recant her Christian faith. The Consul sentenced her to 13 tortures, including rolling her down a street in a barrel filled with broken glass and knives, and setting her on fire. She eventually died by either crucifixion or decapitation, depending on which story one reads. Her remains are in the crypt of the cathedral.

Barcelona has a huge, beautiful beach, and along the promenade, there were several sand castle artists who put real fire accents in their castles.

Our hotel was on the edge of one of the best markets we've ever seen, La Boqueria. Each stall was a riot of color, and one of the best things were these fruit juice stalls. One cup was only 1-2 euro and there were dozens of flavors of fruit juice mixtures. So yummy!