October | 2012 | A Daily Dose of Europe

We woke up in Barcelona on the Monday morning to what looked to be a smog filled sky. Turns out the winds had shifted and were blowing the smoke from the fires around Girona into town.

We made our way to the busiest breakfast buffet EVER and began our day. The plan was to head out on the street tram and head to the Barcelona Zoo – the last stop on the tram line. The day was predicted to hot and muggy, so being in the shade, under trees, in the zoo, seemed to be a good option for the kiddies and I. Not to mention that the kiddies have been so SUPER excited by zoos in Europe, and all the animals that call them home.

The Barcelona zoo is MASSIVE. So much so, that the brochure gives you routes for half the zoo one day the other half the next. This freaked me out a bit not knowing what I was getting my self into since we were only doing the one day! However once we entered and made our route, I knew we would see all that we wanted to see and it wouldn’t take us 2 days!

Syd slept through a big part of the zoo in the stroller which gave Brodie and I some time to look at and chat about the animals we were seeing. His highlights were of course the Orangutans, but he was also super excited to be seeing Owls, and learning about Bats. The only big cat we saw on this day was the Cheetah, and much to Brodie’s dismay was just laying in the shade under a tree.

We stopped for lunch which turned out to be a bit of a gong show…. it took way to long for what it was. It however turned out to be a nice reprieve from the bombardment of animal questions that was being thrown at me from the little man. After we left our rest stop, we saw the line up for the dolphin show. It took some convincing, but the kiddies decided that they wanted to wait in line for he show. It was about a 45 minute wait, but as the show began Brodie turned to me and proclaimed “This is the best show…. EVER”. Both kiddies were enthralled by the 2 dolphins being put through their routine. The whole show was done in Spanish so while we couldn’t understand a thing that was being said, but with all the jumps, and the splashes…. well the kiddies were throughly entertained and LOVED it!

After our full day at the Zoo we decided to head back to the hotel and hit the outdoor pool. It was here that Brodie made fast friends with Ryan…… a boy on vacation from his life in Geneva. The pool at the hotel was funny that there was no shallow end……it was the same depth end to end. There was a really shallow kiddies pool, but everyone wanted to be in the deep pool given that is was warmer than the shallow kiddie pool (weird). After about 2 hours of endless diving with Ryan, and seeing who could hold their breath the longest, it was time to call it a day and get cleaned up for dinner. Brodie and Ryan made plans for a “pool meet-up” for the following day.

Tuesday in Barcelona saw us purchase a 2 day pass, and hop “on”, the Aqua coloured “hop on hop off” busses for a tour around town. Our destination was Mount Tibidabo, to take in the views of the city and the amusement park at the top. It was a hot and sunny day, and with no clouds in sight, I forgot the most important thing in the hotel room….. the kids hats! Uuugghhhhh….. no hats meant that with my über sensitive boy, who still had his heat rash, we were sitting in the lower, covered (but air-conditioned) part of the bus. We missed seeing a lot of the amazing architecture that first day, but we did hop “off” the bus at the astonishingly beautiful Sagrada Familia.

The Sagrada Familia is one of Barcelona’s most famous Antoni Gaudi architectural landmarks. With that being said…. most famous or not….. I knew that the kiddies would never make it through a walk through of the building so we ended up just walking around it, taking a bazillion pictures and, commenting on just how beautiful it truly is. Not to mention just how long it is taking to build….Hello…… it began in 1882!

Now sometimes hopping “off” the “hop on hop off” busses isn’t the best idea….. we lined up for about 35 minutes waiting to get back “on” a bus to take us to the Mount Tibidabo stop. It was at this stop that we would then hop on the Tramvia Blau tram, which would take us to the Peu de Funicular, which would then take us to the top of Mount Tibidabo. Yes…….. it was a crazy day of transit!

The kids were having a blast, but were happy to finally get to the top of the mountain. The views of Barcelona were absolutely stunning! We honestly could see forever! The amusement park was closed, but there was a carousel ride that was operating and a place to buy coffee and have a snack! We would have stayed longer had the amusement park been open, but the kids were happy to ride in circles on the carousel overlooking Barcelona, and that was good enough for me! We eventually made our way back to the bottom of the tram line and decided that we would take the metro back to the hotel. The metro was pretty easy to navigate without any major problems until we got back to our stop…… now to decide which exit to take. Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe… Yeah, we picked the wrong exit….. placing us farther from the hotel than needed… oh well, next time we would know!

It had been a long day to get back where we started from, so it was time to just chill. Brodie was anxious to get to the pool and connected with Ryan…. they did have a plan for a “pool meet up” after all.

Cooling off in the pool, after taking in a lot of amazing Barcelona sites was the best way to end our busy day! Oh my……thank goodness for our awesome pool!

Enjoy Your Daily Dose

Xox