The Log Dog Blog

Friday, March 30, 2018

Spring Break 2018: Day 7

After our epic day of sightseeing yesterday, we decided to have a bit of a lazy day today! We slept in until almost noon, so we didn't really get the day started until about 1:00 pm, but we did wake up to learn that the Leafs had clinched a playoff spot, which was fabulous news!

the shirt I wore today, because you've
"gotta support the team"

We spent the entire afternoon exploring, and it was very apparent that it was a holiday because everywhere we went was rather busy compared with yesterday. In our wanderings, we discovered more beautiful buildings and architecture. I know I gushed about Barcelona in my post yesterday, but seriously…it is stunning. And as you can see from the photos, we enjoyed another gorgeous day in terms of weather!

We also came across this little hole-in-the-wall place where we stopped for lunch and the fries there were amazing! This is probably one of my favorite things about traveling – strolling around and happening upon places that are not necessarily found in a guide book. The more we travel, the more we find ourselves straying from the beaten path, and frankly, it's awesome. Of course we try to hit the highlights of any city we visit, but we also love finding things we hadn't planned on finding.

We took a funicular up to a park that overlooks the city and spent time walking around and admiring the view. There weren't many people there, which was a nice change from the hustle and bustle of the city we encountered earlier in the afternoon!

On the metro back to our hotel, we had two dogs in the car we were in…one was just lazing about next to his owner, but perked up and turned around when the second dog got on at a stop. So cute!

And speaking of cute dogs, I FaceTimed with Ginny again! It made my night!

Read about the other days of our trip:

Spring Break 2018: Day 1

Spring Break 2018: Day 2

Spring Break 2018: Day 3

Spring Break 2018: Day 4

Spring Break 2018: Day 5

Spring Break 2018: Day 6

Spring Break 2018: Day 8

Spring Break 2018: Day 9

Happy Tails to you!

Thursday, March 29, 2018

Spring Break 2018: Day 6

We woke up to this view from our window. All the heart eyes! All of them!

And then this was our day…10.9 miles of walking; 25,937 steps; and 27 floors! It is no wonder we are extremely tired tonight! However, all of it was completely fabulous!

After spending just one full day here, it is safe to say that I love Barcelona! I am pleasantly surprised at how much I love it! I had some reservations after visiting Rome, but the two cities are so different! Barcelona is clean and well-kept, I feel very safe here, the public transit system is awesome, and there aren't armed guards in the train stations and at tourist sites, which WAS the case in Rome, which added to my discomfort there. It's a similar situation to the trip we took last June to Copenhagen and Prague. I'm so glad we went to Copenhagen first, because I ended up loving Prague so much that if we'd gone there first, I am pretty sure I would have been rather disappointed in Copenhagen. Instead, I liked Copenhagen, but loved Prague. With this trip, I liked Rome, but I love Barcelona! If we'd gone to Barcelona first, I have no doubt I would have strongly disliked Rome.

As you can see from the photos, Barcelona is beautiful. I have no doubt C got tired of me saying, "It's so beautiful here!" which I'm sure I said a hundred times! We accomplished a lot today – I pared down my photos from over 600 to only 70 for this post!

Some of the highlights included Basilica de la Segrada Familia, Biblioteca de Catalunya, Park Guell, and Magic Fountain, just to name a few. As we were wandering through the city, I could have taken photos of almost every building because the architecture is fantastic here! We also had amazing weather, which helps when you are exploring!

Our Hotel

The Mediterranean Sea - just steps from our hotel!

I approve of this metro station name!
#mathnerd

And this one!

This metro station has a piano in it that everyone is welcome to play!
We did stop to listen to a very talented young girl
on our way back through the same station.
She was performing a seriously difficult piece from memory
and it was wonderful!

Spotted in a bookstore!
#dachshundsfollowus

You can get macarons at McDonald's here!

What did I tell you?!?

Macaron ice cream sandwiches!

A couple of funny things did happen. At one point I was trying to get a photo from the ground of a cute alleyway, and a pigeon wandered into the frame. Not a big deal; I thought it was amusing and I posted it in my IG story. Then later in the evening, we were at Park Guell and I was trying to take the same type of photo from the ground, and another pigeon wandered into the frame! Apparently my amateur photography is appealing to pigeons!