Spring Break in Spain!

Barceloneta beach

 

We just got back from a ten day trip to Spain, where we enjoyed the sights, sunshine, sand-and let's be honest- I drank a lot of sangria!

 

 

My husband gets to travel to northern Spain a couple of times a year for work, but it had been 15 years since I had last visited!  My sister studied for a year in Madrid, and I knew after visiting her back then that a vacation in Spain would definitely be in our travel plans while we get to live in Europe.  My husband was also looking forward to seeing Spain from a tourist's perspective instead of as a business traveler (he usually only gets to see airports and factories when he travels for work).

in the Gothic Quarter

We decided to spend half our time in Barcelona, and the other half in Sevilla.  Of course, these two cities are quite far from each other, so we took the high-speed train to get back and forth.  Since moving to Germany, we have been a little intimidated by the train system, but it is something we would like to take advantage of since we don't have the opportunity in the USA.  Taking the train was great, and a much better experience than flying in an airplane.  It gave us the opportunity to see a lot of the countryside, which we would have missed if we had travelled by plane.

Bike tour

Bike tour stop at an old bull fighting ring

On our first day we took a bike tour with Fat Tire Bike Tours, which was a great way to see all the main sights and get some information about the city.  For some reason, we don't often go on tours when we travel, but whenever we do, we always have a great time.  

While in Barcelona, we also visited the amazing La Sagrada Familia church, Parc Guell, wandered around the gothic quarter, played at the beach, went to the Picasso Museum, and ate a lot of tapas.  Luckily, the weather was wonderful while we were in Spain, with highs between 60-70F, and barely a drop of rain to be seen.

Checking out Gaudi architecture

I think we all agreed that our favorite thing we did was sit on the beach a couple of times.  The kids did so great on this trip, with all the walking and sightseeing, and it was great when we could let them run around and just play.  It wasn't quite warm enough to be perfect beach weather, but that didn't slow them down a bit.   

Parc Guell

I was really nervous about this trip, and I can't believe how much research I did to prepare. 
I took three years of Spanish in high school, but 20 years later I have seemingly retained none of it!  Luckily, almost everyone in Barcelona spoke English, but we struggled much more in Sevilla, where hardly anyone spoke English.  I actually realized how much German I have learned in the last 18 months, because every time I tried to say something in Spanish, it came out in German.

Since this post is running long, I will share more photos from Sevilla in the next post...