Barcelona Pictures

I haven't loaded any pictures from Barcelona and, as we spent another day at the beach without much to report, today is a good day to load all of the pictures.  Before I get to the pictures, I'd like to share one interesting fact about Barcelona.  Reading signs and menus I was surprised at the spelling of some familiar words and at the number of words that were unfamiliar to me.  Then we ate at a restaurant that had three languages on the menu - one I didn't recognize, Spanish and English, with the one I didn't recognize in the prominent position and font.  I asked the waiter and he said that, by law, all communication must first be provided in Catalan, the local language.  That was new to me.

Now, the pictures...

The first set tells a story of frustration.  As I mentioned in a prior post, the cabin was small.  Thankfully, there was an overhead shelf where we could place our luggage.  I put the three largest pieces up there, and they were a tight fit.  On my first trip to the dining car, my niece tried without success to remove her luggage from the compartment.  She was using all her strength and even put one foot on the wall in her futile attempt to gain access to her belongings.  After retrieving me from the car, I simply face the other direction, pushed up, and pulled it easily out.  My niece was not amused.

This is how my kids were sleeping until they put the beds down.

One of the nice thing about Barcelona is there are parks everywhere.  Each beach has a jungle-gym for climbing, and every few blocks - at least near the beach - has a park.  We've made use of most of them.

My niece said she needs to GAIN fifteen pounds on this trip.  As evidenced by this time on the see-saw, we're doing our best to help her attain her goal.

When I was in High School, my mom's parents took a trip to Hawaii and brought me back a nylon cap.  The visor was flimsy and quickly damaged, so I cut it off and made it into a skull cap.  I never saw a store selling a similar hat, so it was always my unique fashion statement.  In college, on my final spring break, I lost it on a cruise ship.  In Spain, I finally found a close approximation.  I know, I look like a fisherman.

Everyone in the family has their special beach attire.  Because my son is able to crawl, curious about everything, and puts he can touch in his mouth, we brought a kiddie pool for him to sit in while at the beach.  Then we realized he is big enough to reach over the side and grab sand, that he then wants to put in his mouth.

A few pictures from our long walk to the aquarium.  You can see the blending of the old with the new.

Beaches, Blight and Bad Weather

The bad weather has followed us from Paris.  Monday began with bright, sunny skies, but, after having not slept much on Saturday, we overslept on Monday and didn't make it to the beach until nearly 11 AM.  Shortly after we arrived, clouds covered the sun and warm changed to cool.  We had a few drops of rain, but nothing torrential enough to force us from our comfortable beach chairs.  Our perseverance paid off with about an hour of sun, before more clouds found their way overhead.

We gave up on the beach at 3PM and had our early dinner at a restaurant in a nearby mall.  We started our meal outside, but the clouds that caused us to leave the beach decided they would also provide rain, and we had to move inside.  On a positive note, we discovered the laundromat we needed a few doors down from where we enjoyed sangrias and spinach salads.  We closed out our Monday in the hotel hot tub and steam room.

Tuesday brought more rain.  According to the weather report, we would have rain all day Tuesday, sun on Wednesday, overcast skies on Thursday, and sun for our last day on Friday.  We decided rainy weather created an ideal opportunity to do our laundry.  I took our daughter and son to the Barcelona aquarium while my wife and niece did laundry and had drinks and appetizers at the restaurant from the prior day.

I spent the morning looking over a Google map of Barcelona and thought I had figured out how to get from the hotel to the aquarium.  An hour later, I realized three things:  1)  I was lost, 2)  No one in Barcelona knows where the aquarium is, 3)  I should probably buy a map.  I did eventually find the aquarium, and my son and daughter both enjoyed looking at the fishes.  I would not recommend the aquarium to adults, however, or even for older children.  It wasn't that impressive.

We left the aquarium shortly before 2 PM and had rejoined my wife and niece at the restaurant by 2:15 (the aquarium isn't that far if you don't get lost).  We went on a hunt for a Burger King rumored to be in the vicinity.  I swore I had seen one on our walk back.  After walking all the way to the aquarium and back again, we never did find it and settled on a local restaurant near the beach.

After three days in Barcelona I think it feels a lot like a post-Katrina New Orleans.  Many of the buildings in the city are abandoned and in disrepair.  Though Barcelona and Paris are roughly the same age, Barcelona exhibits none of the old world charm that Paris has in abundance.  There are a smattering of old buildings, but most were designed by Gaudi in the late 19th century.  Barcelona received a facelift for the 1992 summer Olympics and it needs to revisit the plastic surgeon today.

All day, even during periods of what should be a rush hour, the streets are empty.  Even with bad weather, I was surprised to find the largest local beach completely empty.  Many of the shops (including the Burger King in the mall) are either closed or no longer doing business.  I know Spain has one of the highest unemployment rates in Europe, but I thought a major tourist destination like Barcelona would be a little more vibrant.  I think Barcelona is a seasonal version of Las Vegas and Orlando.  Both of those cities have relatively small local populations (roughly 500,000) but have roughly 4 million people in the city at any time thanks to tourism.  I asked a local shopkeeper why Barcelona was so empty and she told me it doesn't pick up until July.

The overwhelming benefit to this is it feels like we have the city to ourselves.  Not a bad feeling.

Au Revoir Paris, Hola Barcelona!

Well, we have made it to Barcelona!  I am WAY excited.  This is my first time in southern Europe.

We spent our last day in Paris oversleeping and nearly missing breakfast, killing time by visiting a mall where I watched the kids in the play area while my wife and niece went shopping (which, for clarity, is different than "buying"), and then taking a van to the train station.  Our train left Paris at 8:30 PM.  The taxi company wanted to pick us up from the hotel at 7:30.  I asked them to make it 7:00 and, when we were still in the car at 8:00, was glad I asked them to make it earlier.

We checked in for our passage and lugged our baggage to our specific coach.  That's when I first discovered that traveling by train was not a good idea.  Four people, five bags and a stroller make for very tight quarters on a train.  The stroller almost didn't fit.  I had to use force to get it through the hallway and into our room.  Once in the room, there was no place to put the stroller that allowed us to put down all four beds, so we had to get by with three.

Sleep did not come easy if you were over the age of three.  My son slept soundly from the moment we put him down to the moment he awoke in the morning. My daughter slept fine until she wet the bed she was sharing with my niece and my niece pushed her out of the top bunk in her sleep.  She hit the floor in a loud crash, waking myself and my wife, but not my niece.  My wife slept in spurts, a few minutes at a time.  I abandoned the clan and spent my time discussing molecular engineering, biochemistry, and philosophy with a few Canadians and a metal fabrication owner from Boston who drank more screwdrivers in the course of three hours than the Russians made in all of Communism.  When I finally went back to our cabin, I found sleep difficult myself because the room was too hot.

We arrived in Barcelona at 8:30 AM, everyone exhausted, everyone needing a shower and hopped into two separate cabs to our hotel.  As we experienced in Paris, our room in Barcelona was not available when we arrived at 9 AM and we had to wait until 2 PM to check in.  Unlike Paris, however, this hotel had a shower we could use.  Of course, this is Spain, and the changing room and (only) shower were both co-ed.  The shower also did not have any hot water.

We ate breakfast at the hotel buffet and took a walk across the street to the beach.  There are four beaches in Barcelona, each separated by a small pier.  They are all clean, sandy, have a gentle surf and plenty of amenities.  They are all connected by one long promenade with the beach on one side, and a variety of parks and Olympic facilities on the other side.  The string of four beaches is a little over 4 km in length.

We started at the southern most beach, called Barceloneta, and walked north past Icaria, Mar Bella and Nova Mar Bella, then turned south and walked back.  All of the beaches of Spain are considered clothing optional, but in Barcelona Mar Bella and Nova Mar Bella are the unofficial 'nudist' beaches.  On all of the beaches you'll find adults and children in various degrees of undress.

On the walk south, we stopped for a few moments at one of the parks to rest.  This proved to be a mistake as we were all too tired to stay awake if we weren't moving.  We relocated to a beach side restaurant for drinks while we waited for the room to become available.  At 2 PM, we checked in to the hotel, and checked out of the world of the conscious.  After a two hour nap, we woke, went to dinner, and returned to the hotel for baths and to put the kids to bed.

In one day, I've noticed a few major differences from Paris:

1)  Barcelona is quiet.  We picked a good city to be the relaxing portion of our vacation.  Granted, we arrived on a Sunday in a very Catholic nation, but the streets were empty.  Even the beaches were pretty empty.

2)  Our hotel is in a good location.  The places we wanted to visit with the kids while in Barcelona are all walking distance from our hotel.  The zoo, the Guadi park and architectural buildings are all within two miles of our hotel.

3)  Everything is cheaper.  The food, the drinks, the transportation are all half the price of everything in Paris.  We had tapas for dinner tonight and the total cost for a meal that stuffed all of us to the brink was half what a collection of snacks would have cost us in Paris.  I'm still reeling from the costs of Paris, so this is a welcome change.

4)  They are more accommodating of tourists.  Tourism, last time I checked, was Spain's top industry.  The people of Barcelona know this, and welcome tourists with open arms.  They speak English freely and do it well.  Unlike Paris where, when I asked a waitress if we could speak in English, was told "in France, we speak French".

5)  My Spanish is pretty good.  On the train, I had two choices to converse with our steward - Spanish or French.  My Spanish is mucho mejor than my French, so I chose that.  We were able to communicate easily.  I may have to buy a phrase book for Italy, though.  I don't think Italians are particularly known for speaking English to tourists.

A Disney Birthday

Friday our daughter turned four. That meant Thursday night, after she was asleep, my wife, my niece and I stayed up blowing up balloons, wrapping presents, and decorating our room for her birthday surprise when she awoke. She was very surprised, and very happy, when she woke in the morning, and we spent the time before breakfast opening gifts.

After breakfast, we made our final visit to Disney. Our daughter wore her new birthday dress and new, sparkling "wizard of oz" birthday ruby slippers. My wife had arranged (by insisting I make reservations - in February) for us to have lunch with the Disney Princesses as a birthday treat. So after riding all the rides we had missed on our first day, and revisiting the favorites, we lunched at 3:30. We took pictures with all of the princesses and finished the meal with a birthday cake and several other desserts.

Tomorrow we will leave Paris. Unless our children or my wife express an interest in returning later in life, this will probably be my last personal visit to Paris - maybe for a 50th wedding anniversary. I will remember Paris as cool, wet, hectic, tiring, and beautiful. After such a long, hard, tiring week in Paris, we are all looking forward to a week of nothing to do but sit on the beach in Barcelona. We all need it.

Sacre Coeur, Eiffel Tower, Hotel d'Invalides

Thursday we made another trip into Paris with plans to meet my longtime friend for lunch. My prior two visits to Paris, I stayed in his flat - once while he himself was in Arizona getting married to my former employer - so I could not visit Paris without at least having lunch or a drink. We arranged to meet at 2 PM. Our days have been ending and starting later and later. The sun sets so late here - at least relative to Jakarta - that we feel like we are in the land of perpetual sun. It is up when we go to bed, and it is up when we awake. Everywhere else we have lived or visited in the last fourteen months - Jakarta, Singapore, Bali - is so close to the equator that the sun rises at 6 AM and sets at 6 PM. The constant daylight in Paris has our biological rhythms confused. Instead of being ready for breakfast at 7 and ready to leave at 8, we eat breakfast at 8:30 and leave by 9:30, which means we arrive in Paris quite late around 11 AM.

After buying two umbrellas and a rain poncho for our daughter, we started our rain-filled day at my favorite spot in Paris - Montmartre, where you'll find the Basilica Sacre Couer (Basilica of the Sacred Heart). It is the highest spot in Paris and has one of the most beautiful pieces of architecture, in my opinion, anywhere in the world. I don't know what it was about religious orders in the pre-Enlightenment age, but they sure built some elaborate places of worship (see Borobudur and Prambanan for Buddhist and Hindu examples). To get to the basilica, you have to climb several flights of stairs. A tiring proposition when you are walking solo. A full challenge when you are pushing a stroller, and trying to stay dry.

Eight years ago, this is where I proposed to my wife. We took a picture of the result of that question in the same spot as the proposal.

We left the Sacre Coeur around 12:30 and walked through the adjoining village of shops and local artisans. The small streetscapes around Montmartre represent what people who visit Paris fall in love with. You feel like you have just walked back in time to the Renaissance, yet can find all the comforts of the modern era. My wife bought herself a scarf. We laughed when she read the tag. Seems she came all the way to Paris to buy a scarf made in Indonesia.

At the base of the hill is Paris' red light district, and the Moulin Rouge, made famous by the movie starring my favorite actress, Nicole Kidman. There was also a street with the same name as my daughter.

We ate lunch with my friend in a small cafe by the Eiffel Tower. After lunch, the rain had stopped so we took a brief walk by Paris' most famous tourist attraction, and stopped at playground in the nearby park so our daughter could have some play time after walking so much. We knew she needed it when she asked, after spending so many days just walking around the streets, "what do we keep looking for?"

Leaving the Eiffel Tower, we walked the few blocks to the Hotel d'Invalides, where there is a military museum and Napoleon's tomb. The tomb is nothing much to look at, but the building itself is remarkable. In fact, much of Paris is just remarkable to regard. On my first trip to Paris, which I did by myself when I had very little spending money, I spent the entire 10 days just walking the city admiring the buildings (save for a few visits to some museums).

Our original plan was to walk from Hotel d'Invalides to the Luxembourg Gardens, but the rain returned while our niece was viewing Napoleon's tomb, so we decided to just return to the hotel instead.

Thoughts about Paris

My prior two trips to Paris occurred in early September. Both times, the weather was cool. On the second trip, I had to buy a jacket it was so cold. Visiting in June, I expected warmer weather. Sadly, except for our first day, the weather has been overcast, cool and/or rainy. The forecast for the next few days is not much different. I only hope that Friday, our daughter's birthday, is warm and sunny so she can enjoy Disney.

Having been here for four days, I have decided I made a mistake with my selection of hotels. Though there have been some issues with the hotel, those have not been a factor in that determination. They've done everything in their power to compensate for the initial problems. The issue is the hotel's location relative to the majority of our other locations. It is a ten minute bus ride to Disney. It is a one hour transit via bus and train to Paris. We'll do two days in Disney, six days in Paris - you can see my error. The end result is paying a lot for subway passes, and adding the stress of traveling long distances via train with two children under four. The days are more stressful than they should be. I think my niece will think twice about taking a major vacation before her kids are over the age of 4 when she has her own family.

After three days of busy activity, we took today off, to a degree. Packing three weeks of clothes would have been just as challenging as packing three weeks of baby food. Instead, we packed just over a week's worth of clothes, intending to do laundry two or three times while we were here. Today was laundry day. We had the option of using the laundry service at the hotel. Something about paying $13 to wash a single shirt did not sit well with me. Four days worth of clothes would have cost around $300 at those prices. Instead, my wife, our son and I took a bus to a nearby village that had a laundromat while our daughter stayed at the hotel to go swimming with our niece. Unfortunately, we had no idea where it was. We exited at a stop that looked promising and asked the first person we met if they knew where to find one. They looked at us very confused. I later realized I was saying "leve vetements" instead of "lave vetements". The latter means to "wash clothes"; the former, loosely translated, means "remove your clothes" (literally, "lift your clothes").

Once she realized I was asking where we could wash clothes, and not asking her to disrobe in the middle of the street (though, these are the French, she may have just done what I was asking if I persisted), she pointed us towards the town center, but said she wasn't sure. On the way there, we encountered an older woman exiting her car. We went through the same exercise with her (with me still not realizing I was saying "leve" instead of "lave"), and she offered to drive us. We climbed in the back of the car and she took us to the village only to discover there was no laundromat - it had moved. She then took us to the next village, parked, and walked us to a dry cleaner to ask if they did laundry. They said they did but that there was a laundromat on the other side of town. She then walked us to the other side of town until we found the laundromat. I offered to pay her for her time and her gas, but she refused. We thanked her profusely, and then did our laundry for $20 instead of $300. Travel time and wash time consumed four hours of our day.

After laundry, we hopped back on the park shuttle and ate lunch at Planet Hollywood in Disney Village. Paris has proven quite expensive. I'm very thankful that the buffet breakfast is included in the price of the room, and that we have decided to only eat two, large meals each day - breakfast, and then a 3PM lunch/dinner. If we are hungry at other times, we'll have small snacks like fruit or trail mix. Were we to eat, and pay for, three meals a day, food would far exceed the cost of the hotel.

Before today, we all shared a similar thought that I'm sure others have thought before us: "France would be great if it weren't for the French". I would now amend this to "France would be great if it weren't for the workers in the tourist industry". We have found transit workers to be surly, museum workers to be haughty and rude, and even the front desk at our own hotel to appear exasperated at simple requests. On my third trip to Paris, the city has lost its charm. I would still recommend it to people who have never visited and who love art. For anyone who likes friendly service and fair prices, well, pick another city.

Disney and Versailles

We arrived at Disney around 9 AM. After standing in line to buy tickets and then standing in line to enter the park we were on Disney's Main Street USA at 9:45 AM. This proved to be just in time to wait for them to open the rest of the park at 10 AM to those of us who did not buy a special "advanced pass". I later learned that DisneyLand Paris is open from 10 AM to 7 PM. Nine hours. They charge $6 an hour to play in their park. For us, it was more like $8 an hour because We left the park for two hours to eat lunch in Disney Village so we could have something other than a $9 hamburger.

DisneyLand Paris feels like a Lite version of the parks in Orlando and Los Angeles. The Jungle Boat ride, Toon Town, and many of the features like the 4-D movies and the animatronic bears are missing from the Paris version. Instead, Paris has a few walk-through activities like: Aladdin's Adventure - dioramas of the Aladdin movie; Alice's (of Wonderland) Labyrinth - a collection of hedge mazes with the various characters; and Adventure Isle - various settings based on the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. They also had a pirate-themed play area for toddlers to climb and run.

As for rides, everyone, including my son, rode Pirates of the Caribbean, Peter Pan's Flight, The Voyages of Pinnochio (which appears to have replaced Mr. Toad's wild ride), It's A Small World, and Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast - a ride that has you shooting attacking robots with a laser mounted on your car and scoring points (my niece and I tied). My daughter liked Small World and Peter Pan best. When we return on Friday, we will have to repeat those. Other than the Laser Blast, we intentionally did not spend any time in Tomorrowland so we will have new attractions when we return for our daughter's birthday.

After Disney, we put the kids to bed and left them with our niece while my wife and I went out...to the grocery store. We did not pack three weeks of baby food, diapers, etc., intending to buy what we needed instead. Part of this was to save packing space. Part of this was finally having an opportunity to buy baby supplies in a Western country. And buy we did! In Jakarta, we're lucky to find a check-out aisle sized area with baby food, supplies, etc. This grocery store had three full aisles! My wife was in motherhood heaven.

To get to the store, we took the shuttle to Disney, then the train one stop, and walked about a block to the store. Required about fifteen minutes. To get back to the hotel, we just needed to repeat the process, and that took just sixty minutes. We spent forty of that waiting for the train to take us one stop to Disney. My wife and I did not get to bed until midnight, knowing we would be woken at 6 AM the following morning by a hungry baby.

The next day, we went to Versailles. I've been to Paris three times. I've visited Versailles each time. I love the ornate splendor and attention to artistic detail the various kings, architects and designers have put into each and every room throughout its history. The manicured garden is a thing of wonder. It is my second favorite place in Paris (we will visit my favorite place on Thursday).

To get to Versailles, we took the shuttle to Disney, and boarded the train into Paris. We switched trains at Chatelet de Halles, and switched trains again at St Michel. Ninety minutes later the train pulled into Versailles Rive Gauche station. A short walk had us gazing upon the enormous castle walls and guardian statues. The line was horrible. After standing in line for thirty minutes, a person I had previously spoken to to ask for directions to the toilet took that moment to notice that we had a stroller and advised us that we could purchase tickets at a store up the street and not have to stand in line - same price. We left the line and walked to the store. Ten minutes later, we were standing in line to enter the castle. Probably saved us at least forty minutes.

As always, Versailles was amazing. Unfortunately, other events of the day is what we will remember most. The first was the "poop explosion" my son had at breakfast, covering his entire back and much of his stroller. That was a warning shot of events to come. In the castle, in which we could not bring the stroller so one of us always had to hold him, he spit up multiple times. Finally, after feeding him his dinner, he regurgitated his recently consumed spinach all over himself, his mother, and the booth. I'm sure the hotel bar was happy to see us leave. The travel time spent on trains was especially grueling. The metro stations are not stroller friendly, and I found myself carrying the stroller up and down flights of stairs. At times, we also had to collapse it completely because there was no passage. By the end of the day, we were truly exhausted - mentally and physically.

Hardship is how memories are made and bonds are formed. If the worst of our vacation is fatigue from walking and mental stress from a demanding baby, we've done alright. Because along with all the stress, are moments of levity. On Tuesday, we had two. The first occurred in Versailles. My daughter had urgent bathroom issues every hour or so. When we started our tour, she kept asking to see the bedrooms of the king and queen. Fifteen minutes into the tour, she started informing us she needed to use the toilet. We told her she would have to wait until the end of the tour. Shortly thereafter, she stopped asking to see the bedrooms and started asking if she could see the king's toilets. The second happened at lunch. We stopped at a bar (which we had thought was a cafe) and had panini and wine. I think we would all agree that dehydration, fatigue, empty stomachs and two glasses of red wine make for a very quick buzz. Conversation became a little more challenging. When we spoke of Barcelona, and the drinks we wanted when we were there, my wife asked "Is there Spain in Tequila?" Of course, in our inebriated state, this caused an eruption of laughter and a burst of badly needed energy.