Kings In Spain: Twins in Spain!

Calcotada!!! Our poor friends were picked up at the airport at noon on Saturday February 16th after having flown all night and carried off directly to Milmanda Castle for a traditional Catalan calcotada and 30th birthday party for our friend Sarah Andrews (who coincidentally went to UNC and was in Chapel Hill as an undergraduate while I was there in graduate school!) I met her Christmas carolling in our town, small world! Anyway, they cook these onions over an open fire pit, and then you peel off the black part and dip them in this amazing sauce and eat them as Becky is doing here. It was a great cultural experience!

We lost Luke at the Castle numerous times only to find him on the tractors (New Holland tractors, by the way).

Twins and Mike "illegally" eating the dessert bread before we were supposed to. I figured we could claim ignorance and jetlag.

A shot at the castle with the nice view in the background. The entire visit they were trying to make me look shorter than them. :)

Day #2: We walked into the beach from our house, and then spend some time walking around Sitges. Here's a shot in front of our favorite church. Late in the afternoon we stopped at Cafe Mont Roig for some yummy warm chocolate drinks and lunch.

Day #3: We left on a 2-day tour of the Costa Brava. Unfortunately we did not have the best weather, but we still had a great time! This was our first stop at Tossa de Mar, we had lunch outside at a little cafe by the sea.

Here is a great shot of Luke with his favorite hat, and the beautiful old town area in the background. It had great winding roads and many nooks and crannies to peak in. We actually spent quite a bit of time walking around here.

I went to Messiah College with Becky and Patience, here is Becky with her husband Mike.

Here is Patience with her husband Steve.

And even one of us!

Here's an attempt at a family photo, I guess we can't expect everyone to be smiling nicely. :)

The kids loved exploring this area along the sea.

Here is Patience and the view down a side street of quaint homes.

And Becky hanging out in the wall.

The view of Tossa de Mar as we were continuing on our route. The next portion of the drive was very scenic, but we had cloudy/drizzly weather. We made another stop later on in search of ice cream, which we never found. We ended that night in a cute little town called Llafranch, but we got there after dark and left in the morning so I didn't really get any great shots there. Our hotel was right along the sea, and we could hear the waves all night long, it was a great find.

Day #4: We then continued on to La Bisbal d'Emporda and followed the instructions in the guide book to find the castle in this town. What we didn't know was that this medieval castle had been renovated into a gorgeous hotel and restaurant. We spent quite a while walking around the castle grounds and even peeked into some rooms. It was so beautiful, and Brian and I are hoping to stay there when we go on a trip for our 10th anniversary.

Our next stop was the medieval town of Girona. Here is a picture of the famous cathedral of Girona. We had a very nice time walking around the old cobblestone streets and exploring.

We found a great little local restaurant to have the "menu del dia", which is a 3 course meal with a couple choices for each course, at a fixed price. The kids enjoyed their spaghetti. :)

And Steve enjoyed his crayfish!! Yuck!

Here is a view of the river which separates the old town Girona from the newer part of town.

Day #5: We drove out over the hills from our town to the Penedes region, and toured the Codorniu winery which is famous for their cava (which is like champagne, but apparently you can't call anything champagne that doesn't come from France, so they call it cava). Part of the tour included a train ride through the caves where millions of bottles of cava are aging. The boys loved that!

Anna Codorniu was one of the early heiresses of the winery.

Jackson and his blankie.

We also toured the Torres Winery this day, and this is a picture of one of the vineyards by the winery. Both of the tours were very well done and we enjoyed learning all about the wine-making and cava-making. That night the twins dragged me down the street to the gym for a "body pump" class. Well, it didn't really compare to what THEY teach in their hard-core gym, but it gave me a pretty good work-out. :) This day was also Mike's birthday so we had a fun birthday dinner for him afterward.

Day #6: Barcelona! We decided to do a one-day tour of the city and just hit the highlights of what we thought would interest them. We rode into Barcelona by train, and did the rest of the tour by metro and walking. It was a great way to see the city, but we walked a ton. Luckily Brian and the kids stayed home this day. Here is a shot on our way up to Montjuic in front of the National Museum of Art.

From there we walked up to the Olympic Ring, and saw the stadium and went through the Olympic Museum. We then continued on to the cable car at Miramar Gardens that goes out over the sea to Barceloneta. Here is a shot waiting for the cable car.

We got off the cable car at Barceloneta and they all wanted to at least touch the Mediterranean Sea.

We then walked toward the El Born district, and saw the Santa Maria del Mar cathedral...

and found the restaurant Sagardi that had been recommended to us for tapas. We REALLY enjoyed this stop. You go in, help yourself to whatever you want to eat, sit outside or anywhere, and then pay when you're finished based on the number of toothpicks on your plate. We loved it! The food was excellent.

We then continued on to Barri Gotic and passed this cool street by the cathedral with a bridge that connects the cathedral to some of the government buildings in Barri Gothic.

We then walked along La Rambla for a bit, and came to La Boqueria market. I hadn't been here before, and we all enjoyed the very colorful displays.

At precisely 5pm we went to Petrixol street and found the highly recommended shop for xocolate suizo amb xurros...yum yum!! This street seems very dark and dreary until this time, and then comes alive and is so cute!

After our snack we went through the cathedral, and headed back home. I hadn't been inside the cathedral before, and it was very beautiful.

Here's Patience reading a book to Jackson. Our kids really got attached to the twins and Mike (aka Birthday Boy) and Steve (aka Stinky Stink). I'm not sure where the Stinky Stink came from, but he's still a nightly topic of conversation at the dinner table!! Even when we look at our pictures from their time here, the kids say "Stinky Stink took that one, Stinky Stink did this, Stinky Stink did that." It's hysterical! We had such a fun time with them here!! Once again Brian was the supreme chef and made us great dishes of paella, steak, homemade potato chips, and all other sorts of creations. We all had a very fun week!!