First few days in Barcelona

So, we had landed in Paris and the most challenging part was behind us, or so we thought! In reality, that was true, but the last hours of our trip were pretty rough in their own right. We were just so tired by that point.

We got off the plane, and, guided by some advice from my parents, who had done the same thing the day before, we started looking for the gate for our last flight to Barcelona. It was in terminal 2F, which was right next to the terminal we were in. Easy, right? There was supposed to be a shuttle between the terminals, so we started following the signs to 2F while looking for the shuttle. We followed the signs religiously until suddenly our passports were being stamped, which seemed strange, since we weren't supposed to be going through customs until Barcelona, and then suddenly we were outside the airport. As in, in the place where people we waiting to greet international travelers. As in, outside of security. Ack!!

We regrouped, because we had no other choice, and walked through an eternal maze of corridors toward security. We got there and started through the line, but were stopped by a guard who motioned at our tiny umbrella stroller, which had been cheap but a crucial part of our plan to survive walking though Europe, and indicated that we couldn't bring it through. It was, he said, simply too big to fit onto the small intra-Europe flights in this terminal. After some hemming and hawing, we finally just ditched it and left it behind. We had to laugh, or maybe cry, when we got to our gate and found that we were getting onto a regular sized jumbo jet, with plenty of room for strollers!

We were all majorly cranky, hungry, and tired by the time we made it to the gate. Luckily, we had enough time for food, so we wolfed down some sandwiches and some fabulous French espresso, along with some yogurt for the girls and nothing for Mateo, who was losing it but refusing to eat anything.

The flight to Barcelona, once we finally got on it, was uneventful and proved me in thinking that we couldn't handle even one more minute of flying. We made it! We touched down in Spain, found our way to our bags, and located my parents outside the baggage claim with great relief! It was so good to see them after such a long journey. Two days, 14 hours of flying, not enough sleeping, but we had done it!

We got into two taxis and within about 20 minutes, we were checking into our room at the hotel. We had gotten our second winds by that point, so we tried to go to the rooftop pool, but it was crowded and there was no place to sit down, so we went back to our room and ordered room service.

It was then that Mateo showed us how truly tired he was. True to form, the kid who has never acted drowsy in his entire life was not sleepy. No, he was crazed. Practically hysterical. Jumping on the beds, getting loud and crazy, and unable to listen to any words about calming down.

Finally, mercifully, Sacha got all the kids into the bath, and then into bed, where the big kids passed out literally as soon as their heads hit the pillow. Turns out, all we needed was 14 hours in the air to land us the easiest bedtime ever!

Rosie was eventually convinced to sleep and Sacha and I weren't far behind. We should have been set for the night, right? We were all so exhausted that we should have slept for a long time.

In fact, no, our experience of jet lag was just beginning. The kids, all of them, were up and raring to go at 3:30 am. They were hungry and ready to get going! This was when I began to experience something akin to despair.

However, again, there was nothing to be done but to keep going, so Sacha and I took an hour at a time and pretty soon two hours had gone by and, miracle of miracles, Mateo was rubbing his eyes. I decided it was now or never, so I announced that we were taking a nap and the lights were going off. Thank God, it must have been some sort of divine intervention, the kids fell back asleep. We all passed out and woke up to find that it was 10:45 am! We had slept for five more hours!

Breakfast was closing at 11 am, so Mateo and I hustled down to eat, leaving the girls to snooze a bit longer. Having delicious Spanish coffee, good food, and good company put me on a high that lasted for the rest of the day. We had a truly magical first day in Barcelona. We walked to the harbor, visited a restored Spanish galleon ship, went on a merry go round, went to a huge aquarium, consumed lots of caffeine, walked back to the hotel, went out for an earlyish dinner at a nearby tapas place (the kids were losing it by this point, but held on for a delicious ice cream dessert after a very mediocre dinner) and went back to the hotel, where we all crashed for the night. Or, did we?

No, Rosa and Mateo had other plans. They both slept for about an hour and then woke up at 11 pm, raring to go. Again, cue the despair! I had wondered, before our trip, what our experience of jet lag would be, and, it turns out, ours involves wakeful children in the middle of the night.

Three hours later, at 2 am, after copious pacing around the hotel room with Rosie in the Ergo, she finally fell asleep. Mateo eventually followed suit, and their parents collapsed again. Again, we slept late and got up on Tuesday morning just in time for breakfast. We had another good day, although we were VERY tired and it was hot.

We visited Parque Guell, a Gaudi creation that is neat and also extremely popular. We ended up with a tour by a guy named Killian who was half Irish and half Chilean. We explored for quite awhile, until the heat finally did us in, at which point we returned to the hotel and stayed in the air conditioning for the rest of the afternoon.

We rallied at some point to go to a cafe down the street for ice cream, where Rosie continued her trend of eating everything in sight, polishing off my mom's entire ice cream sundae!

After another hour or so of down time, we rallied again for dinner at another, much better tapas place, where we ate an incredible quantity of food and drink and polished off four big desserts. Mateo was captivated by the cartoons on the tv, Tali was asleep on Sacha's lap, and Rosie was eating everything she could reach, so we actually had a pretty peaceful dinner!

And, to top it off, we finally had a night in which most of us actually slept! Rosie was still up for a few hours in the middle, but Sacha was in charge of her instead of me and she is much better at sleeping through interruptions than I am. Mateo, likewise, woke up when Rosie did, but was amenable to being cuddled in the dark and eventually fell back asleep. Again we awoke on Wednesday morning (today) late and got to breakfast around 10. This morning was much better, although Sacha and I still felt pretty wiped out from everything.

Today, Wednesday, we decided to hit the Barcelona Zoo, which was both fun and shady, which was welcome because it was, again, very hot. We saw an incredible dolphin show, a terrible sea lion show, and lots of other cool animals. Mateo expressed great concern over the "escaped" peacocks we saw wandering around and wanted to report them to the authorities! Rosie napped briefly in her stroller, although she was roasting hot and didn't snooze for too long. Around 3 pm, we had had enough of the heat, so we taxied back to our hotel and had some rest time.

Now, Sacha and my mom and the kids are playing at the park around the corner and I have been taking some time to write the longest blog entry ever!

A few final things - it has been wonderful traveling with my parents. We have all been having fun experiencing new things together and reminiscing about trips we took when I and my siblings were younger. We are in Barcelona until Friday morning, when we will need to mobilize early to catch a train to Les Baux, a place in the French countryside where we will stay for a few days and meet up with my sister. We are hoping to do lots of playing in the pool, eating, and checking out the goats that are supposed to be on the hotel's property.

Then, we will be off to Paris for a week of exploring and visiting fancy restaurants with my parents. Our kids will get to experience having French babysitters (well, just one if all goes according to plan) in the evenings. they will actually also have a Spanish babysitter tonight and tomorrow night, as the adults go out for a couple of late Spanish dinners.

We can't believe how lucky we are to be on this trip! We are hoping that the jet lag situation will continue to improve and that we will be able to be at least somewhat well-rested for most of trip...at least until we return to the States and do the whole thing in reverse!

Oh, and we have a stroller again, rented from the hotel. We are very happy to have wheels again to help with the kid schlepping!

More in a few days....


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