Vegetarians Beware; Barcelona with Captain and Mr. Schlussel

I know I am behind on blogging but that's only because I've been busy entertaining my parents.  Okay, that's only partly true because I'm more backed up than that but let's go with that excuse. 

I met my parents in Barcelona last weekend. I arrived on Thursday night and met my parents at the hotel.  My mom booked the hotel, brought along Rick Steves in her pocketbook, and my parents had already prepurchased our shabbas tickets in advance.  Oh, the luxuries of traveling with family! 

After a weak dinner (there was very little we could eat), we attended a flamingo dance.  I felt so cultured watching a flamingo dance performance the day after I went to the Italian Opera!

We had a fabulous weekend, taking on Barcelona like only the Schlussels seem to enjoy.  At least 4 of us do anyway.  I'm not sure where Adam came from since he actually seems to enjoy relaxing... weird! We hit up all the "touristic" spots (as Europeans like to say) within 2 days since we planned to visit Ramban's house on Sunday, outside of Barcelona.

How ergonomic these benches feel! 

Barcelona is a very confusing city that isn't marked very well with signs.  So, Friday we got to know the Metro system very well and considered posting it on TripAdvisor as a top place to visit. After an early morning Run (running with my parents deserves a capital "R" for intensity), we explored Park Guell.  There, we saw Gaudi's house (an incredible architect, way ahead of his time, who single handedly built most of Barcelona's tourist economy), and Gaudi's ergonomic benches among other things.  The ergonomic benches were a highlight because of their beauty, practicality, and fun name! 

Collegiate Randomness with Spanish Guitars 

Next, we decided to take the metro to Palais Reial, the next touristic stop on the list in my mom's head, and the furthest stop along the metro line.  Well, we arrived and there were no signs pointing to any attractions.  But we had to go to the bathroom very badly (I probably drank 10x the amount of water traveling with mom and dad than I did in Paris) and we were ready for lunch so we found the nearest building... And it happened to be a university.  We walk in as if we belong and accomplish our first goal.  We got distracted by music and noise coming from down the hall so we followed the fun and found ourselves amongst a bunch of college students in medieval costume playing Spanish guitar music, dancing, and distributing sangria. 

We eventually found something to eat and made our way back on the metro to Montjuic.  Finding out way inside and up the mountain was a challenge aside from fighting the overwhelming exhaustion that comes with a Schlussel vacation.  We walked around enjoying some beautiful views, and eventually did visit the Miro Museum and the Catalonian National Art Museum.  Apparently, you are not allowed to bring water inside so I chugged a liter bottle of water and immediately had to use the bathroom again.  The metro and the bathroom were fighting tooth and nail for most visited destination. 

Next stop: a supermarket for Shabbas food! It seemed like we bought food for an army but we finished everything but a few coffee flavored sucking candies by the time Shabbat was over.  After our lovely Shabbat picnic in the hotel room, leaving much evidence behind, we promptly passed out at an embarrassingly early hour. 

Saturday morning, we went for run numero due (#2) along the Rambla and boardwalk before a day of touring. We saw Casa Mila, another Gaudian treasure! My dad insisted that we check out this disgusting mud museum because it was included in our museum ticket package.  My mother and I gave it a fair shot but ended up enjoying a beautiful picnic snack on a sunny, non-ergonomic bench.  Barcelona is the city for people-watching!

Next, we made our way to the Barri Gotic area, the historic center of Barcelona.  After winding down several narrow alleys, the streets would open up to a large placa and an enormous cathedral. This happened several times during our stroll to the Picasso Museum. 

Later, we walked to the beach and strolled around until we couldn't move another inch, at which point we collapsed horizontally on benches to recover enough strength to walk back. 

Saturday night, we went to the ONLY vegetarian restaurant in Barcelona (probably) that Stef Groner's friend hooked us up with.  Great meal. FINALLY!

Sunday was a more relaxing day since our plans to see Ramban's house in Gerona didn't work out because it was too risky to travel so far with our flight to Rome that evening.  We had already seen everything on our list so we just explored and people-watched and enjoyed a beautiful day in Barcelona.  We walked back through Barri Gotic, to the Olympic Village, along the beach, and through Ciutadella Park, where we couldn't tear our eyes away from the funniest dog in the world playing soccer.

Scheduled relaxing by the beach? Check. 

The Incredible Pup

Eventually, we had to part ways with Barcelona and head to the wonderful country with way better food - Italy, of course!

Adios Barcelona!