Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

We just got back from an amazing 2 weeks in Spain! We flew into Barcelona for a few days, then flew down south to Malaga where we stayed in Marbella as a hub and ventured off from there. We also visited Morocco and Gibralar while down south just because it was so close. I will document this trip from start to finish so be prepared for multiple posts.

Let me back track a little bit with some background prior to this adventure. We bought tickets for Spain back in early May. I wanted to just go with Andy but he insisted that we take Andrew because this was to be a "family" trip, so I bought him a ticket and since Talia wasn't even 2 months old at the time I figured it would be best to leave her with my parents while we traveleld so far. With this being the plan I have been pumping milk for months now prepping for this trip so my mom would have it for her, then 3 weeks before departure I freaked out. How in the world was I going to leave my baby girl for 2 weeks??? I could hanlde one week, I think... but that would even be hard! What was I thinking when I booked this trip? I guess I wasn't thinking, I had just had a baby and my mind was not functioning properly yet. I told Andy for my peace of mind that I needed to get Talia's passport in order just incase we decided to bring her the day of the trip. He didn't think it was a good idea to bring her but knew that to satisfy my peace of mind we had better get the passport. We expidited everything and got the ball rolling. Four days before the trip the passport hadn't arrived so I started to panic big time. I called the passport agency and they couldn't tell me anything only that it was still being processed. I don't think I have ever been so frustrated, I called the passport customer service number a million times a day, and nothing. Out of desparation I called our Assemblyman who happens to be a good friend to see if he could get me a number directly to the Los Angeles passport agency, I figured it's all government related. I was hoping he would be able to since customer service couldn't do that; supposedly they don't even have that number...whatever. Anyhow, a few phone calls where made by his assistant and I'm not sure what went down but Talia's passport arrived less than 24 hours to departure. It was meant to be. So with that being said, we were off to Spain, all four of us.

The night before we left I couldn't sleep I was a nervous wreck! I have never had so much anxiety over a trip. So many thoughts ran through my head, how will the kids handle the extremely long flight? Will Andrew be a nightmare? What about the 9 hour time difference? What am I doing? Am I going to regret this for the rest of my life? You get the picture, thoughts along those lines. Lets just say it was all a waste of time on my end because the kids did AWESOME! Words can't even describe how good they did. They adjusted just fine to the time difference, no screaming or tantrums on the plane, just kids that were excited to be going on a trip and have both parents full attention. Andy and I couldn't believe it,our kids were better on this trip then they are at home. I know that Andrew will remember a lot of this trip because I still remember trips I took at his age believe it or not, plus he had so much fun. So there you have it, the background on the adventure I haven't even started talking about yet. I'm going to need to learn how to condense all of this so you will actually read it!

BARCELONA

Being the last ones off the plane after 13 hours of flying, 17.5 hours of actual traveling, we came across huge lines of people waiting to go through customs. The kids were dead and I got worried about how long this was going to take. Then a kind gentelmen in customs pointed to us and called us up to the front of the line, I looked behind me to make sure it was really us he was pointing at, and it was. Right then I knew Barcelona was going to be good to us. Little did I know that having kids in Spain = special treatment :)

We caught a taxi cab and off we were to the Hilton Barcelona to sleep. It was 8am in Spain, and 11 pm Vegas time so yes we were exhausted. But I was quickly overwhelmed by excitement rather than tiredness just by looking out the cab window and knowing that my little family was in Spain, all together in Spain for the next 2 weeks.

After checking into the hotel we crashed for a good 5 hours then woke up wanting to explore the surrounding area. The first place we hit was the King's old palace/gardens which is now a museum and park. The Museum was closed because we were there during "siesta" and in Spain that means from 2pm-5pm just about everything shuts down, but we didn't care because the grounds were beautiful so we walked around, let Andrew run loose and just enjoyed ourselves and kept talking about how we couldn't believe we were in Spain with our kids.

Running around the palace grounds with Andrew

Andrew got into the Museum but was quickly turned away as it was closed for "siesta."

The Palace

Andy insisted that I do this pose.

There was a park on one end of the palace and once Andrew discovered that he found it much more interesting than the palace and didn't want to leave.

Andy and Andrew enjoyed playing on some unusual park attractions like this circular thing that spinned. Something new at the park is always fun for the kids. Afterwards on our way back to the hotel Andy and I couldn't help but people watch.  Everyone smoking, wearing plain/normal clothes but cool/funky shoes,  several riding scooters/motorcyles, and tons riding bicycles, the kind that fold up really small. Since Andy enjoys cycling so much he couldn't stop pointing out bikes and wished he had his own there.
We ended our first night there at the grocery store buying water and some snacks for the kids. A small bottle of water in the hotel was $5.00 which had Andy in tears (he is such a "stein"). We knew the dollar was bad, but not that bad!!! There is just something wrong with exchanging 100 dollars and getting back 60 euros.  I would highly recommend traveling to Europe once this isn't the case.
In all, it was a great first day to the start of our vacation. We had one more day in Barcelona before flying down South to Malaga and we decided to take it easy since we were still tired from traveling so we hopped on a double decker bus that toured all over Barcelona and hung out and got off where we wanted to. It was great!

Even if you don't have an appreciation for architecture, you gain one seeing all of Antoni Guadi's works in Barcelona. Here is a picture of his famous "Sagrada Familia" which is just amazing. We went in but were unable to go up top because the lines were an hour+ long and with the kids we didn't even want to try.

me and the kids at Sagrada Familia

Andrew loved all the steps at Sagrada Familia, and listening to the man playing the guitar at the bottom of the steps, unfortunately I didn't get a picture.

Antoni Gaudi's Casa Batllo

I forgot to mention how excited Andrew was to sit up on top of the bus. He thought the plane ride was an adventure, he didn't realize it was going to be an adventure every day, I have never seen this kid so happy!

Next stop was Plaza Catalunya with all the pigeons. I stayed here back in 2002 and became quite familiar with the area so this was my time to play tour guide, too bad I couldn't get far past the pigeons. Andy and Andrew were in their element and wanted to spend time with these gross birds.

This pigeon had just landed on Andrew's shoulder and he jumped so it flew off

Andrew could have spent all day chasing these pigeons

Back on the double decker bus,  Talia decided to take a nap, she did so good and adapted the best way she could on this trip by taking cat naps here and there and not complaining.

We reserved a room with two beds and we were quickly reminded that we were in Europe since the two beds were twin sized beds! We ended up pushing them together to get more room and accomodate ourselves as seen in this photo. It worked out well and it was pretty comfortable which was what we were looking for. Believe it or not this hotel is considered a 5 star hotel. You definately wouldn't know that from looking at this small room but the service was exceptional.
Barcelona is to be continued since we had another full day in this magnificent city at the end of our trip with tons more photos.  This will do for now as it is an extremely long post.  Stay tuned for a whole lot more...