KATIE IN SWANSEA: April 2008

Barcelona - I Could Live Here Too!!!

The sun, the beach, the food!!!! Barcelona was amazing!!!

This is La Sagrada Familia - a Cathedral that Gaudi started building shortly before he died. It is still under construction, and from the looks of it, it will be for a while.

The cathedral looks like a sand castle ornately decorated with Catholic images of biblical scenes.

Here we are outside La Sagrada Familia!!

Irati restaurant was recommended by Chris' friend Toby. It was a really cool concept - you get one plate and pick from different bites and keep the toothpicks. At the end of the meal, the cashiers count the toothpicks, ask you how many beers you had, and charge you accordingly. Yummy and inexpensive!!!! We had two meals here in 3 days!!

An homage a la toothpicks for Toby!!!

Two super cute old men in a plaza on Las Ramblas. The one on the left spent about an hour feeding the pigeons before joining this "daper" gentleman dressed in full suit and tie.

We headed up to the Olympic Park where this old castle has been transformed into a historical art museum. One thing I loved most about Spain was the laid-back culture. In every park we went to, we saw people just hanging about and relaxing, like this cute couple in front of the fountain.
From the museum, we headed up escalators to the Olympic Stadium.

A view of the museum from the back

The grounds of the Olympic Park. There was a futbol game going on at the time we were here and we jumped at the chance to go. We bought tickets from this older man and his son, and after leading us around nearly the entire stadium, we entered and found our seats....

You couldn't get much closer than where we sat!! It was such a cool experience! The game we saw was Espanyol versus Racing Club - not the most prestigious teams, but they definitely had some good fans. We supported Espanyol (the home team) but unfortunately they lost. The fans weren't too happy with them, but in an amazing show of sportsmanship, the home team fans cheered the opposing players off the field at the end of the game. Dodger fans could learn something from this!!!

Just a couple of futbol fans!!

Post office!!!

What the Barcelona mail carriers used back in the day. Whatcha think, Dad??

Kitty outside Parc Guell!!! Chris was appalled that I even pet this "dirty thing!" She was sooo cuuuuuttttte!!!

We went to Parc Guell, the garden museum that was home to the artist Gaudi. It was high atop Barcelona city, and we caught some amazing views!!

Our hotel was located at about the center of this pic, a couple blocks from the ocean!!!

The mixture of rock and floral was so nice

An illuminated door by Gaudi

Gaudi's room

Inside the rock awning outside Gaudi's house.

Can you imagine this as your backyard??

Parc Guell is famous for the mosaics

At 9:00pm, after a very long day walking around Barcelona, we boarded our overnight train to Paris. Here's are first class private cabin!!

Even after all our experience with train travel, Chris and I were shocked at how bumpy this ride was!!! While brushing my teeth and washing my face before bed, Chris literally had to keep a hand on me so I wouldn't fall over. And the bunk bed situation....I had top bunk!! It came equipped with a seatbelt!! 'Nough said!! We didn't get much sleep on this 12-hour journey and arrived in Paris a bit cranky. But at least we can say we did it!! Kinda like the Florence scooter experience!!

Florence - Churches, Bridges, and Scooters!!

In Florence, we stayed right outside the Uffizi museum and within walking distance of the Duomo, shown above. Florence was a beautiful, old city with lots of history and an enviable amount of art.

This was inside the Bautista next to the Duomo. A less expensive and equally beautiful building. The artwork in here is a unique blend of Catholic design and Muslim geometrical patterns.

Our first night in Florence, we had an amazing dinner with lots of wine. Chris became increasingly flirtatious, especially when he stumbled upon this beauty!!

The travellers!!

This is the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge. Rumour has it that it is the only bridge that survived WWII because Hitler thought it was too beautiful to bomb.

Attempting to discover some of the less travelled tourist spots, Chris and I went to Santa Croce, an old church that houses the tombs of many famous Italians, including Galileo and Michaelangelo.

Wall after wall of beautiful frescoes in amazing condition!

Here's a polyptych from the Byzantine era. Gold leaf halos are common from this period, as well as the stacking of angels - just a few things I remember from Art History class at PCC.

A beautiful Della Robia in a historical museum in Santa Croce.

The Santa Croce - it was such a beautiful day!! There were artists throughout this courtyard with their sketchpads, documenting this historic place.

It was such a nice day that Chris and I decided to tour the city via scooter! Here's the brave driver getting ready to embark on the scariest ride of his life!! Note the smile - it's the last one you'll see!!!!

Once we got out of the city, we stopped at the Michaelangelo Piazza with this breathtaking view of Florence.

I was on the back of the scooter smiling and feeling carefree. Chris was driving the scooter holding the handles so tight his hands were getting cramped. He was a little nervous!!!

The ride got a little easier once we made it to the outskirts of Florence where we found small, country roads like this one. There were no cars, too, so Chris was feeling much more comfortable.

Here's a quick video from the scooter ride!!! Hee hee!!

Venice - No Bikes or Cars Allowed!!!

We arrived in Venice for a 2-night stay. Spent most of the time wandering through the maze of streets, getting more or less lost.

We had amazing weather when we were there. A nice change from being FREEEEEEZZZZING in Munich!!
We had this great idea to get some wine, mozzarella and proscuitto and have a picnic outside. It didn't work out so well. We spent about 30 minutes trying to find somewhere to have this "picnic," during which time I was becoming increasingly hungry (read: cranky). While we had the wine corked at the deli, we couldn't get the cork out!!! Once we pushed the cork in (with a battery some my camera, which fell into the bottle!), we had no glasses and kept passing the bottle back and forth between swigs! And eating fresh mozzarella can be a messy sort, especially with no cutlery or napkins. The prosciutto was probably the only easy part of it all. But, it was a nice experience. (One we probably won't try to repeat without proper planning!)

I know I'm gonna get flack for this, but look how cute these kitties are!!!! This is their makeshift home outside a church. Don't know who feeds them, but believe me, they are not starved!!

Nice hotel, ya? (Not ours, but I thought it was pretty!)

Chris contemplating the meaning of life...or his next meal...I can't remember!

Taxi anyone???

We took a sunset "cruise" by hopping on one of the boats and just touring the island. Beautiful!!

Nice face, Chris!

This was around the small island of Murano, where the famous blown glass is made.

We found this GREAT restaurant in Venice that had only 6 tables and was run by two Italian women. While we waited for table, we were given free glasses of red wine. Then, upon being seated, the waitress came over to take our orders. No menus, simply a choice of pasta, pizza, or lasagne and red or white house wine. It was such a good meal for a good price!! A great change from our first dinner in Venice during which we were suckered into ordering the most expensive fish in Venice, a seemingly amazing steal at 5 Euros! Oh, but that's 5 euros per 100 grams - our fish was 2.1 kilograms!!!!!!