Month of fun and visitors!

Cheers!  Been a few weeks since we wrote our last blog: a month exactly.  No excuses, but the number of visitors kept us busy with entertaining, enjoying great company and more Spanish wine.

After our trip to San Sebastian and after Cathy’s parents left, the next weekend we went to Barcelona to pick up my mom, who came for a month-long visit.  We spent a wonderful weekend in Barcelona, with the weather being just spectacular.  We showed my mom around town (by the way: driving in Barcelona is very, very easy, one of the best big cities to deal with traffic): Parc Guell (Gaudi), Sagrada Familia Basilica (which is still being built 100 years later after being started), La Rambla (the big walking plaza with merchants, cafes and pedestrians), excellent places to eat, one of which we stopped at and had a wonderful Catalan meal.  After lunch, back onto La Rambla, where the girls got their charcoal portraits done by artists.

That night, taking advantage of our new Lithuanian baby sitter, Cathy and I went out to La Flauta, a very popular restaurant for dinner.  After about a 1.5 hour wait, we got in about 11pm and had a great meal.  The best part was when we got the bill, with my 100 Euros in hand, I thought they made an error when they charged us only 37E!  Inexpensive and great (included a good bottle of Navarra wine).  http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g187497-d787824-Reviews-La_Flauta-Barcelona_Catalonia.html

Our Barcelona trip lasted 2 days and absolutely the top experience was La Sagrada Familia Basilica (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia)  which was concecrated in 2010 when the Pope visited the city.  I was at the Sagrada Familia 2 years ago, when things inside were still obfuscated by the construction scaffolding.  This time, when we walked in, I had shivers going down my skin.  The spectacle of the church is indescribable.  To think that Gaudi, who lived at the turn of the century, could have imagined all this is to believe that he was truly inspired.  It was a jaw-dropping experience, of engineering and spiritual marvel.  By far the most inspiring and impressive building we have ever visited.  (See some pictures on our blog!)  On the way back to Zaragoza, we stopped at a medieval town of Mont Blanc, which was celebrating an annual medieval festivals.  Fashioned with real knights, medieval market and a wine tasting, we had a grand time spending a few hours and then having a picnic in a field by a winery.

Then back to Zaragoza, where my mom spent a nice and relaxing month with us and the girls.  Of course, she can never sit still so our place was spotless and we got an opportunity to go out without kids a few times.

In the meantime, our Montpelier apartment turned temporarily into a 4 star all-inclusive resort: we had several visits from our friends from Canada, Chad and Brit, who are on a whirlwind tour of Europe for 4 months.  When they first came and outlined their plans, it was not initially clear if they were competing for the Guinness world book of records title for the most time spent on trains during the 4 months or of the record was going to be the most places visited.  I myself was a bit dizzy just imagining the amount of sensory input.  After a few relaxing days in Zaragoza, then a trip to Portugal and then back to Zaragoza, they decided to slow down a bit and try and enjoy a fewer less places and experience more of the feeling.  They are great guys and I now call them our “adopted” family, as we are their emergency landing strip in Europe…

Our other friend Adrieane came to visit us from the UK, where she is studying in Reading.  She is from Victoria, Canada, but while on her studies, she decided to pay us a visit, which we enjoyed very much.  She is studying food safety, and we had a few interesting chats about the origin of our nice steaks J

In between all this, we joined a community event where about 400 people kayaked 10 kilometers down the river Ebro.  It was spectacular: did not take much effort, as the river naturally takes you down.  The vistas of the city and the enjoyment of a sunny day on the river were very memorable.  Again: a few pics if you click on the picture above. 

Then, in between Chad and Brit’s visits, we had our wonderful Irish friends (Gwen and Monty) come to stay with us while they were doing their own Spanish excursion.  After a weekend with us, they went to visit Catalan Pyrenees and now they are back in Zaragoza.  They had excellent weather and fab time and last night we watched the European football final at Wembley: Barcelona vs. Manchester.  I had to wear my Barca jersey, and we WON!!!  Ole ole ole ole….. (Sorry Barry, next time)

One last bit.  Yesterday, Tessa had a school gymnastics performance with her Infantil class.  They were all dressed in special outfits and did surprisingly complex routines for the parents.  Tessa, in comparison to her being shy and self-conscious just a few months ago, was super happy and proud of her performance.  Was a very nice experience (some pics above).  They even got medals!

After the performance, we were invited to the school club, where we had some food, wine and a huge paella!  We stayed at the school till about 7pm, having some beers, gin and tonics.  Who said schools were boring?  A great group of parents.  Afterwards we collected Grace from a play date she went to and went home to watch the football final.  Life is getting very full again, what a difference from just a few months ago.

P.s.  They are filling our pool, so soon the pool parties will start.  Can’t wait.  Have you booked your tip to visit us yet?  We have some availability, but book early!

[To see pictures, click on the title picture to go to the gallery of the Blog pictures]