Stuff I Like: What a long great trip it's been

Thursday, June 18, 2015

What a long great trip it's been

Hola from Barcelona! This trip has been amazing so far - it feels like we've done so much and been gone for so long and yet we still have 2 nights in Barcelona and 1 in Dublin before heading home.

We started our trip in Granada (southern Spain / Andalucía), which was a really nice, laid-back introduction to Spain. The star of the show was definitely the Alhambra, an enormous, elaborate, part Islamic, part Christian palace complex overlooking the city. We toured the Alhambra for close to 3 hours before poor Jason started feeling sick and had to go out of commission for almost a day. But he didn't miss too much, just one hike and one dinner. The food in Granada was excellent and the restaurants all stuck to the free tapas with every drink rule, so we were able to go out for much less than we would have spent in Chicago.

Next up was Madrid, a totally different type of city. Very urban and busy, but so much fun. Our big touristy adventure was a trip to the Reina Sofía museum, which was filled with contemporary Spanish art by Picasso, Miró, and Dalí. We had rooftop drinks at a couple of really cool bars with nice views of the city and went tapas bar hopping at night in the La Latina neighborhood (crazy with bachelor parties) and then along the Calle de Jesus, where we had our first taste of the fabulous little green peppers with sea salt, Pimientos de Padrón. Yum.

After Madrid, we spent one night in Barcelona, our favorite city by far. Everyone just seems so relaxed and happy here. We are in an awesome neighborhood, El Born, which is filled with shops and pintxos restaurants. We walked through the Gothic neighborhood and along the touristy stretch Las Ramblas, but didn't get to hang out for too long before taking our side trip up the coast to the delightfully weird Dalí museum in Figueres and 2 days at a breach resort in Platja d'Aro. After all the traveling and sightseeing, it was so nice to just relax by the pool!

Now we're back in Barcelona and getting ready for our last couple days of vacation. We plan to eat as many tapas and pintxos as we can handle and also see a couple of the major Gaudí sights, La Sagrada Família and the Park Güell. After that, we'll have 24 hours in Dublin to drink Guiness and feel Irish and then we'll be back home to see our girl, who we miss desperately. It's been fun. Here are a few of the highlights (in no particular order)...