9 Today!

Nine years ago today our two miracle babies were born. It is hard to believe it has been so long since that long awaited day. Where have the years gone?

Part of me wants to stop time's endless march and hang on tightly to these childhood years and all the joy that they bring. The boys still want cuddles, still say sweet innocent things, still give random kisses, still have their baths at night, still hold our hands and still cry when they hurt themselves.  They still need and want their Mum and Dad.  As parents we are still a big part of their world and although it may be a few years away yet I for one don't want that to change.

I remember when they started losing their baby teeth and how final it seemed.  Each report of a new wobbly tooth was met with genuine dismay.  Once those little gnashers were gone, there was no turning back.  The replacement of each tiny white morsel with a scarily large fang was irrefutable evidence that my boys are growing up.

Gone are these little fellas with their tiny white teeth

But today is not about the boys teeth or me and how much I don't want my boys to grow up.

No sirree - today is all about turning 9 and how exciting that can be - a snowy winter's day instead of a hot summer stinker, an indoor bowling party instead of splashing about in the pool, a new bunch of friends and two brand spanking new 5th generation iPods (weak smile about this present).

Happy Birthday to our beautiful beautiful boys.

Lucy Lou

I just got an email from Mum and an update on Lucy Lou.  

Apparently she recently turned her nose up at these - her special Chunkers treats.  And while we're on a "products with funny names" roll, perhaps she'd prefer a Jammie Dodger (ha ha).

Bernese mountain dog modelling bag of Chunkers  

You are a scallywag Lucy Lou and boy do we all miss you!

Our gorgeous, fussy little morsel!

Barcelona Day 6

Our last day in Barcelona and still recovering from yesterday's hiking effort we got off to a late start.  We indulged in a final churros and chocolate at a cafe on Passeig de Gracia opposite Gaudi's Casa Battlo.  It was a good spot for people watching and Emmy got into the swing of things....

Casa Battlo (looks a bit crooked to me) and Emmy people watching

Barcelona Day 5

Montserrat, with its unique rock formations, dramatic mountain monastery, and connection with the Catalan people and their struggles, is a popular day trip from Barcelona (30 miles away).

The Shrine of Our Lady Monastry at Montserrat

Montserrat has been Catalunya's most important pilgrimage site for a thousand years. Hymns explain how this "serrated mountain" was carved by little angels with golden saws. Geologists prefer to blame 10 million years of nature at work. While only 2,400 feet above sea level, the mountains seem higher as they rocket right up from the river valley.

The monastery is Benedictine. Its monks (around 80 today) wear the Benedictine rope belts with three knots (symbolizing the three rules of St. Benedict: poverty, chastity, and obedience). Since 1025, the slogan "ora et labora" (prayer and work) pretty much sums up life for a monk here on the serrated mountain.

Access to the monastery is via train and cable car, with the option of additional funicular train rides from the site of the monastery. Here’s the last stage of our trip up there...

Out voted on the cable car vs funicular decision!

 and our first look around the site…..

Look how steep that funicular on the left is.

and the monastery.......

Beautiful

We decided to go for a bit of a hike instead of catching the funicular further up the mountain. It was steep, really steep and even the kids stopped bounding around at one stage.

Good thing the railings are there.

The views were spectacular along the way…..

Spectacular

Lunch on top of the world

Wildlife included some birdies, some (not at all wild) cats and the absolute highlight – mountain goats, perched so very perilously on the rock face!

Such a friendly kitty cat, and those goats! Amazing!

One thousand, two hundred and ninety nine steps down and we're almost down......

View of the monastery on the way back.

Then back in Barcelona it was dinner time.  Another try with Spanish cuisine and no luck again!  Seafood paella and seafood fideua (similar dish to paella but made with noodles instead of rice) and both very very ordinary L  Good thing the location was such a winner J

Great location

Barcelona Day 4

Tibidabo is a mountain overlooking Barcelona.  Getting to Tibidabo is good fun and includes a metro ride, train trip, funicular and bus.  Ideally once at the top, you can take in spectacular views of the city, but today was misty.  Emmy was keen to try out the binoculars but you can see the "view" behind her!

The misty top of Tibidabo

On the way down we stopped at a little park....

Park and houses near Tibidabo

We didn't end up staying all that long at Tibidabo, so headed back into the city in search of Montjuic Park and this is what we found.....

Cactus garden at Parc Montjuic

Then it was back into the city for a bit of lunch.  Can you believe it but we went to an Italian cafe.  Barcelona is not cheap and eating out here is generally more expensive than in England. But not today. We managed to sneak in to Cafe Rossini just before their lunchtime special finished at 4:00pm. It included starter, main, dessert and a drink for €8.50, which compared to some of the prices we've seen and paid is excellent value.

Everything about Rossini's was good.  The service (the waiters are very impressive!), the wine, the food and the atmosphere.  Again the location was perfect, with the kids able to explore the courtyard between courses.

Plaça Reial and Rossini's

We all ate way to much so walked half of the way back to the apartment and I even took the stairs not the escalator in the metro J

Barcelona Day 3

Okay - remember I said yesterday was all about walking.  Forget that - TODAY was all about walking, much of which was in search of the elusive churros cafe!

Our day started off with a stroll to the magnificent, stupendous and utterly amazing Sagrada Familia,  the phenomenal masterpiece of architect Antoni Gaudi.  Construction of the cathedral started in 1882 and reflects Gaudi's passion for Gothic architecture and curvy Art Nouveau forms.  Gaudi never saw his project to fruition and at the time of his death in 1926 less than a quarter was finished.

Since then, ongoing construction of the cathedral has been intermittent and despite passing its midpoint in 2010 some of the project's greatest structural challenges remain.  Organisers are hopeful that the final stages of the project will be completed by 2026 - in time to mark the centennial of Gaudi's death.

I don't think my photos can possibly do this building justice, but they give a bit of an idea.


Our tour of the cathedral included a 50m trip up into one of the towers.  There was a sign saying not recommended for people that suffer from vertigo (that's me) but luckily there were no perspex floors and the narrow staircase was surrounded by thick stone walls with only the occasional window.  Ha!  I was as cool as a cucumber, perhaps I'm not afraid of heights after all J

Top left - view peeking out one of the tower windows.

Across the road from the Sagrada is a park and in that park was a man blowing giant bubbles and who can resist a giant bubble or two?

Bottom right - the bubble had just popped, it looks like some kind of time travel wormhole thingy.

And after Sagrada Familia it was off on a fruitless, or perhaps it should be churros-less search, those little bits of fried dough and Spanish hot chocolate just couldn't be found.  I'm pretty sure we were in the right place but just at the wrong time and instead of little shops and cafes lining all the streets, it was just a bunch of graffitied shutter doors. Boo Hiss!

By the time we conceded defeat (boo) it was lunchtime (yay) and we had fabbo pizza.  Not very Spanish but we all gave it the thumbs up.

After munching out it was off to Guell Parc, another masterpiece of Antoni Gaudi and built between 1900 and 1914.  It rates as one of the top attractions in Barcelona but I don't recall reading that it was on top of a hill!  And check out what I mean by hill!  That will have worked off a bit of pizza!

Thanks to the unique style of Gaudi this park is like no other and the crazy curves and angles were fascinating.  The kids had space to run and run they did!

Love Gaudi's work here.

and here

Okey dokey - how does he do it?  We went behind to look for sticks etc but nothing could be found to explain how this green smiley man could hold that pose non-stop for the 5 or so minutes that we pestered him for! The kids tried it and managed a wobbly few seconds.  He well and truly earns his euros!

Barcelona Day 2

Today was all about walking.  We wandered around the city, through the alleyways of the Gothic Quarter, down to the quay and the Colombus monument and along the shopping boulevards of Las Ramblas.

Bottom left - cakes made out of towels!

There were highlights galore, but the most memorable one for me, funnily enough, revolves around food.  In fact I'm feeling a bit like Edmund from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with his craving for turkish delight, only mine is for churros and chocolate, mmm mmmm.

Underneath that pile of cream is Steve's coffee

We sampled this at a tiny but very busy cafe tucked away in a skinny little lane in the Gothic Quarter.  Just about everyone seemed to be having churros and chocolate and not wanting to miss out on this apparent Barcelona favourite we followed suit.  YUMMO.  The chocolate was thick, dark and lightly spiced.  The churros were light and fluffy.  The two together were heaven.  As I said I've been having a few churros longings since, only trouble is finding cafes that sell them, oh we've searched and searched today, but no luck, which has only fuelled the craving!  And it's not just me, the kiddies and Steve are keen beans too.  Tomorrow is the day, will keep you posted!

Of course our churros were for morning tea which was way before midday, so obviously we were a bit peckish around lunchtime.  Only trouble is we sort of got lost (ask Steve!) and didn't end up eating until about 2:30pm.  Lunch today was decidedly better than dinner last night but perhaps the best bit of all was the location.  Nearly all of the streets in the main city area of Barcelona are laid out in a grid, with large courtyards sprinkled here and there. Within these courtyards are cafes, tapas bars, patisseries, restaurants, small super markets and ice creameries.  But the best feature (for us at least) are the kiddy playgrounds.  Both our lunch today and dinner last night were at outside tables overlooking the playground area and while the kids ran amok we ignored them and focussed on more important things like coffee and sangria while marvelling at the ingenuity of the Spanish when it comes to keeping kids out of parents hair!

The view from our table, note kids conveniently placed at their own table a few metres away J  

Re-fuelled and re-energised we hit the pavement again and were lucky enough to bump into a street parade.......


And then we stumbled across a beautiful market, full of fresh, vibrant produce, some still wiggling......

And then it was back to the apartment, knackered and ready for bed and lovely dreams of more churros and chocolate J