Destination America!: Capital of Catalonia

We left Perigueux on a Saturday morning. Drove to Toulouse, dropped our rental and caught the train. Made it to Barcelona. Hopped on another train to the little town where our rental was located. Phew. Long day.

Pretty drive through France

Catching trains

Catching more trains

We stayed in Premia de Dalt, which is close to the beach. Our place was really nice and the town was small and quaint. We were on a big hill/mountain which took some coordinating to get up and down to the train station.

It's amazing to me how these imaginary lines (political boundaries) have such different cultures and ways of life on either side. It seems like after all of these years the language and cultures would start to blend. We were in a new place for sure. The first change I noticed was more hippies and graffiti. But after that initial observation was a new beautiful language, architecture, climate, etc.

While we were there we spent a Sunday out with Diego's aunt, uncle, two cousins and their families. We ate at an outdoor farm-like restaurant where there were bounce-houses and lots of space for kids to run around. We were baptized into the Spanish-way of eating. I lost count of how many courses came and went from the table, but everything was very good. Diego hadn't seen these family members in 16 years. It was a very nice visit.

Lunch with family

Girls with Tio Guido

Diego with his Tia Lala and Tio Guido

Paola, Patty, and Amy

Luna with a new friend

Spain is comprised of 17 different regions and this particular region is Catalonia. Barcelonia is the capital of Catalonia. We quickly realized that most people were not speaking Spanish. The language of this region is Catalan which seems to be heavily influenced by french, italian and spanish. Most people we met spoke both Catalan and Spanish, but the first language people go to, seemed to be Catalan. The flag below is flown all over this part of Spain as a symbol of the Catalan people who want to break free from Spain. It looks similar to the Cuban flag, as a reminder to Spain of the last Spanish colony that they lost.......I'm pretty sure that's what our tour guide said :)

Catalonia Independence Flag

We spent several days at the beach and the boobs were flying around in Spain too. I could write a whole blog about this, but I'll spare you. So, so interesting to me.

Premia de Mar beach

We took a walking tour through the Gothic part of the city and it was very good. These "free" tours we've been taking all over, are great. The design is based on the idea that if the tour is free then you pay via "tip" what you think the tour was worth. You give more power to the guide, incentive to do a great job and they keep most of the money they earn. I could go political again, but I won't :) Every guide we've had has been great. Most of them are history students. They're full of great information.
One thing I have loved about the tours, besides all the cool information, is how many places from all over the world our fellow tour-goers are from. On the tour in Barcelona we had people from Croatia, Dublin, Berlin, Portugal, North Carolina, Turkey, Australia, London, India, and a few others.) So cool to see all of us come together and tour the city.

Sofia participating in a history re-enactment on our tour.

Mercado de La Boqueria

Cathedral de Barcelona

The walls on the left show where to bombs in WWII hit the church.

Placeta del Pi

Roman columns found under the building structures in Barcelona.

Arc de Triomf

After a long day, we had dinner with a friend of Diego's, Gerardo. They grew up going to the same school...Franco Peruano.

We arrived back to our train station so late that the bus up the mountain to our apartment was no longer running. A local guy on his bike rode home and came back to drive us up in his car. Thank you ,Albert!

It was very hot in Barcelona and although it was tempting to spend all of our time at the beach we managed to make it back into the city, and see a few more sites

Palau Nacional

and stopped for a quick look at the 1992 Olympic stadiums. We left 7 hours later. They had a program called "Open Camp" where you can buy a wrist band and participate in the "Olympic Games." The girls loved it.