So the next few blogs are going to be post-dated a while. Sorry it has taken me so long to post these things.
We went to Spain over New Year's (Dec 27, 2009 - Jan 4, 2010), where we enjoyed the Spanish delicacy of Churros dipped in hot chocolate. But this isn't like Nestle Quick or even Stephen's Hot Cocoa. No, this is like hot chocolate pudding! Yum. Christian demonstrated that he could communicate some of his wants: like pointing at the hot chocolate and making the sign for "more" over and over and over.
Here are some highlights from the trip:
Madrid - Palacio Real
The Royal Palace of Spain. Pretty neat since it has been around since the Hapsburg dynasty ruled most of Europe. We waited in this line for about 2 hours - in the rain as you can see here. Then the audioguide broke on us 3 times. Oh, well.
Plaza de Toros de las Ventas – The most famous bullfighting ring in the world. It had a circus inside it while we were there since it is not bullfighting season. So we didn't get pictures of the entire inside, but it is an interesting place, especially since bullfighting is still so engrained in their culture.
We also hit the Prado museum. Sorry, we couldn't take pictures inside, and Christian wouldn't have stayed still long enough for us to get the camera out anyway.
Barcelona
Picasso museum - It's in this cool area of town with very narrow cobblestone streets. Cars aren't even allowed in the area.
Sagrada Familia – Awesome! Really neat, unfinished church by Gaudi. Still working on it. Everything has a purpose and meaning: from the height and number of the towers, to the different kinds of stone and the design of the columns, the different stained-glass windows, the height of the choir and ceiling, the animals on the nativity façade, the designs on the towers, the location, etc. The audioguide was very helpful. This was one of the most interesting things we saw on our trip and would totally recommend it to anyone visiting Barcelona.
Montserrat Monastery– forgot the camera. Very pretty. WAY TOO COLD! We were disappointed because it was too cold to hike around and the famous boys choir was on vacation. Did see the “Black Madonna.” Everyone was supposed to be silent/quiet. Christian wasn’t. We got some dirty looks from some old ladies.
1/2/10 – Catalan National Art Museum – some really neat stuff. Then I thought, “Wow, way back then (some of them were from the 12th and 13th centuries) people didn’t have their own copies of the Bible, and they listened to mass in Latin. These frescoes may be all that some of the people understood about God and the Bible. That’s pretty amazing.”
After this we felt like we had been on a Catholic pilgrimage: going to the Sagrada Familia cathedral, Montserrat monastery, seeing all the frescos and icons at the Catalan National Art Museum, even the Prado Museum had a lot of early Catholic art. But we aren’t Catholic. That was our foray into Spanish history and culture, which is very tied to their strong Catholic background.
Barcelona beach. Christina was determined that she would at least stick her toes in the Mediterranean Sea. Yes, it is January and yes, it is cold in Barcelona. But it is still warmer than Paris or Boston or Utah. Robert thought Christina was silly but decided to humor her. So we went down to the beach. Christian had a fabulous time. He loved eating rocks and sand (ick) when Mommy wasn’t looking. He wasn’t too sure about the water at first, but after a minute or so he LOVED it. He kept trying to get back toward the water – hence the very wet and dirty pants he has on.
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