last day in Barcelona

We loved our week in the south of Spain, but were happy to still have 2 nights and 1 full day in Barcelona before departing back to the US. There is so much to see and do in Barcelona, it was good to be back! We stayed at the Hilton again and decided to take the double decker bus around once more to see the sights we missed the first time around. Being that this was our last full day in Spain I wanted to make sure we went out with a bang. We made made it a priority to eat yummy more traditional foods and just have fun. For lunch we went to a tapas bar in las Ramblas and had the hardest time narrowing down the tapas we wanted to eat...so we each got 6. I'm sure the waitor was thinking hmmm, 12 tapas for 2 people is slightly excessive, but that's what you do on your last day abroad! We loved hanging out in las Ramblas despite its somewhat risky reputation of being the pick pocket central.

Me and the kids in front of the Cathedral in Las Ramblas

Look at how crowded it is walking down Las Ramblas! Not only were there people everywhere but it was like a zoo! There were street vendors selling turtles, parakeets, lizards, fishes etc...Andrew of course thought it was fantastic. All I kept thinking was, this is the last day I have to push the double stroller in these type of crowds!

In Talia's world everything is explored via the mouth, even my hair, eww!

So after a long day of exploring Barcelona, and letting the kids take an afternoon nap, we hit the town again for some night time fun. We went out to eat at a restaurant known for their Paella which is a traditional Spanish dish consisting of rice and sea food or rice and chicken. We had so much fun at this restaurant because we had the best server. Once again the kids got special attention. Here is Andrew waiting for his food. I had to post this photo because I have a picture of myself at this age making the same face with water in my cheek.

Behind our table was some ham as you can see, I'm not sure whether it was Iberico or Serrano ham but that is some of the best ham in the world. It is very common to eat this in Spain especially in a sandwich.

Andrew of course didn't want paella and kept asking me for tomoatos so I asked the server if Andrew could get tomatos, he looked at me rather confused but said sure and brought out a full plate of tomatos and olives. FYI, olives are added to just about everything in Spain. We could have done without the olives but Andrew sure enjoyed the plate full of tomatos! I had to eat spaghetti bolognese, for some reason it tastes so much better in Europe than it does here and I could have eaten it every day.

Ahhh the delicious paella! It was so good, I had to make sure Andy tried some before leaving Spain. He loved it!

After we finished up dinner, Andrew wanted dessert of course, so we asked our server  what they had and he smiled, picked up Andrew out of of his seat (without asking us) and carried him to the back of the restaurant and into the kitchen to look in a freezer and pick out a dessert. Him and Andrew came back with ice cream and berries. The server told us that is what the "nino" wanted. Andrew was thrilled at the attention he got and couldn't believe  he got to go and pick out his own dessert. It really made for a perfect "last night" in Barcelona. Like I have said in so many of these posts, we got such special treatment because of the kids...who would have thought.

We finished up our dinner just in time to make it to a flamenco show near the restaurant. I told Andy there were a few things he needed to experience in Spain, like eating Paella and Flamenco dancing. We were a little weary of having the kids with us but Andrew really took to all the stomping they do with their feet,  the guitar and the dancing in general. He kept trying to rush the stage! We just told him to dance in the corner, and he did. The poor kid was dripping sweat by the time it was over. I wish we would have gotten pictures but it was so dark and it would have been rude to have our flash going during the performance. We managed to get a little video so at least we have that. The picture above is Andy and Andrew waiting for the show to start.

 I truly feel like we went out with a bang, the trip couldn't have gone more perfect and we were even able to make the most of our last day there. I could kiss my kids forever for behaving so well and making this trip enjoyable. It is by far the best thing we did in 2009!!! This will be a year and trip I remember forever. I feel so fortunate to have been able to go wtih my small family and experience such a great vacation. We did everything we wanted to on this trip and were not disappointed at all. So that's it....I'm done with our journey to Spain. Viva Espana!