Hola

Buenos Dias de Barcelona!!!! Hello from sunny or rather mostly cloudy Barcelona. It has been beautiful and warm though. We got here on Sunday and spent the day walking around, finding our hotel, sitting comfortably on the beach and eating some paella. (Spanish rice dish). I really thought I liked this but found it kind of bland.

Monday was a lovely day. We knew we needed a lot of relaxation so after having the breakfast buffet, we scheduled some massages and took full advantage of the hotel spa. They have a few different hot tubs as well as a hammam (turkish sauna) and a regular sauna and some nice showers that spray out some minerals and other things that are good for your skin. After that we went out to grab some food and then went to the Barcelona aquarium. It´s the largest in Europe, but definitely not as big or as cool as Shedds. But it did have this awesome 75m tank that you go under a tunnel in. There were lots of cool sharks, sting rays and this weird 2d fish. We also liked the penguins. The aquarium is down near the harbor so there were lots of boats and you can see all the cruise ships coming and going. One cruise ship was delayed and so all the people were staying at our hotel. The craziest part was seeing all of their luggage piled up when they finally left. It was a lot of crabby tourists. I am now trying to convince Matt we need to go on a Mediterranean cruise for spring break, Greece, Italy and Turkey....

Tuesday we were lazy again and just spent the morning sleeping and having a late breakfast. We went to see the Sagrada Familia, The Sacred Family. An AMAZING church that Gaudi spent 43 years working on. It´s still under construction and won´t be done for 30 years.!!!! It´s is so intracate. There are currently 8 spires and 10 more to be built. One face is the birth of Christ the other is the death. The carvings are so cool. Can´t wait to post pictures.
We also went and saw Casa Mila, apartments that Gaudi made. The roof was the coolest part. All the smoke stacks and water coolers were made into art. It was really cool. We walked around the rest of the afternoon and then came back to partake in a Siesta, keeping with Spanish tradition and all. We had a 10:00 dinner and then came back and went to sleep.

Today we just decided we needed to walk around and explore. We found Las Ramblas, touristy shops, street performers and lots of good food. We ended up at the Ciutadella Park and had a coffee overlooking the beautiful Cascade Fountain. After that we wondered over to the Picasso Museum. We liked it but were a bit disappointed because all his most famous works are at other mesuems. After that we went to the Santa Maria del Mar, a church that if it were built one meter higher would crumble because it would be structurally unsound. We then went and watched the sunset over the back of the city. Sadly it doesn´t set over the water. But it was still big and pink and orange. We got a nice photo. I then realized I was missing our Barcelona book. We retraced our steps and luckily found it back in the church. This is a funny story worth mentioning because our ¨Barcelona Book¨ is about 10 pages ripped out of a big Europe Travel book. Matt stapled the pages together and we have been using it to have a small map and know about some tourist attractions. If it was lost it really wouldn´t be a big deal. Except, this morning I wrote down our reservation number for a dinner we´re going to tomorrow. I was crazy about getting it back but Matt didn´t care. I was much happier once we found it. :)

We went down and walked along the beach for a bit and stuck our feet it. It was cooler today but hopefully it sounds like we may get a beach day on Friday. We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant near the Olympic Harbor. It is a really popular area, but it was funny cause we went to dinner at 7:30 and NOONE was there. It was because it was too early. When we left people were just starting to come out for dinner. Guess we just aren´t the partying type. Maybe tomorrow or Friday we´ll stay out a bit later.

Well that´s all for now! Please prayer for my sister tonight as she is traveling to Ghana, my cousin Shawna who is worried about her baby. And Matt´s side of the family! We´re all praying for you back home and counting the days until Christmas. We can´t believe at the end of this trip we are going back to Maastricht and not coming home. We miss and love you all!!!!!!