Safe & sound

I'm so glad we all arrived home safe and sound!  I hope everyone had a great time, I know I did.  We still have most of out summer ahead of us so I know I am heading back to Madrid tonight for the rest of my summer and I know you guys have amazing plans as well.

Thank you for helping this trip be an enjoyable one with no issues whatsoever.  Later in the summer I will try to post some pictures of the trip, but I'll let you know when they're ready.

Have a great summer!

(My favorite picture from when we met with Paula and Natalia in Madrid, Global citizens... International connections... Bilingualism... Building bridges & Breaking borders   España   USA)

~Señorita Beheler

Figueras and Tossa del mar

Today was an amazing day to get outside Barcelona and see what real Cataluña looks like. 

We left at 8am and went straight to Figueras to go to the Dalí museum that he created for himself.  Let's just say that I for one was completely blown away.  Even though some of his better paintings weren't there, it was overwhelmed with so much talent in one space.

We then spent the afternoon at Tossa del mar, a smaller beach with rocky sand and perfect blue green water.  Salima and Taira had an amazing lunch from what they told me.  This beach was mch more appealing than Barcelona beach because 1) there weren't any pickpockets that we saw 2)not so many tourists 3) way less crowded.  Alberto was right when he told us we should wait to go to the beach until today.

We then had out last dinner as a big group and while we had originally planned to see the Magic Fountains, we decided against it because we have to wake at 3am tomorrow to go to the airport. That will be our perfect excuse to come back to Barcelona :)

Tomorrow will, therefore, be a busy one.  We have to change planes in Charles de Gaulle in Paris and from what I just checked out on weather.com, there shouldn't be any thunderstorms out to get us when we arrive.  We plan on smooth flying to Dulles arriving at 1:35 as planned.  Just follow the "arrivals" signs and park accordingly and meet us by the doors where we'll come out after customs.

See you soon! 

~Señorita Beheler

Exploring Barcelona a little more...

I am so glad that we decided to do the 2-day extension in Barcelona.  This morning, some of our group left to go home, after only having been in Barcelona just one day!  I am grateful that we got to spend an entire free day today in Barcelona and tomorrow we get to go to Figueras.

Sometimes when we have such extensive amounts of free time, it's easy to run out of things to do and to get bored, but not for us!  The same night we arrived to Barcelona all 3 of us sat down and decided exactly what activities we would possibly like to do during our free time in Barcelona.  That's how we were able to have such a rewarding and busy day today.

We started off the morning by waking up at 7:30pm, like normal, and planning to leave at 9am for our day.  We decided to go by La Boquería market on La Rambla street.  There were so many foods for us to see and lots of strange fish and candies for sale!  I decided to have a glass of Horchata, a famous milk-based drink from Valencia, and Salima got some fruit.

Afterwards, we went about walking about La Rambla and went to Carrefour, a French grocery store, to buy some lunch items to later make a picnic with.  After that, we went down to the Christopher Columbus statue and saw the sea.  We then took the metro to the Palace of María Cristina and went walking around taking pictures of Montjüic until we eventually walked around to Poble Espanyol, a small replic of a Spanish village that contains several different types of architecture styles in Spain.  It was interesting to see all together like that as one village.

After we finished that, we went down to the Plaza de toros that has been transformed into an indoor mall since Bullfighting has been banned in Cataluña.  It was so weird to think that the same mall floors that we were walking one were once used by bulls and toreros and matadores!

Finally, we came back to the hotel for dinner and after dinner we went to see the Sagrada Familia by night, and what a sight it was!

Looking forward to tomorrow and the Dalí museum and beach in Figueras!!

~Señorita Beheler

Barcelona!

How great it is to be in Barcelona!

We walked about 8-9 miles today and it was well worth it.  We started off with seeing some major attractions in Barcelona; Montjüic, La Sagrada familia, la Casa de Antoni Gaudí and la Rambla.  We also had a nice tour by Alberto through the Gothic neighborhood part of Barcelona.  We were able to have a real "Menú del día" as well in a restaurant I knew from before.

During free time, we helped Salima find a store to get a jersey and then entered La Casa Batlló, another amazing piece by Gaudí.  While the entrance was expensive, it was well worth it to see this house on the inside.  I wish I could live there!

We continued walking down El paseo de Gracia, famous for it's expensive shops, and we tried to see La Pedrera, or La Casa Milá, another work by Gaudí but it's covered in scaffolding.  We then stopped in La Casa del Libro where I bought a recipe book that Alberto calls "the Bible of the Spanish kitchen".  I'm looking forward to trying some new recipes!

Lastly we had dinner at Fresco, a buffet.  We giggled and laughed about the amount of ways the recipe book had to cook and egg and then we headed back to the hotel where we watched the USA Belgium game with the others in our group.

Looking forward to tomorrow, our last real day in Barcelona since the day after we will go to Figueras.

Until next time!

 

See our whole group below...

~Señorita Beheler