Happy 4th from Barcelona!

We arrived in Munich safely on July 4th and were immediately confronted with all the different cultures. It was amazing the number of languages we heard in that airport. I asked Clare about it and she said it was too overwhelming. I also couldn't believe how much the airport was like a mall in the U.S. We were only in Munich for about an hour. Fortunately, unlike at Dulles, the passport check line was nonexistent. (I truly believe the TSA people are purposefully slow when checking your documents.) Unfortunately, I didn't notice until we landed that all our boarding passes for the next leg of our trip had us all separated. I spent a little while with a very helpful German lady fixing the seats. (No bread for me, Dad.)

The kids and I fell asleep as the plane to Barcelona was gaining altitude. Tom, on the other hand, said he watched as we passed over the Alps - a pretty amazing scene, according to him. He was sitting separately from us or I'm sure he would have woken us up (probably not!)

Arrival in Barcelona went very smoothly. Clare had been worried the entire time that our luggage would be lost and she would only have 2 shirts to wear the whole trip. (Good grief, she sounds like her Grandma Linda!) Hers was the last one to arrive on the baggage claim belt. :)

We grabbed a taxi and headed for the city. I got to sit in front with the crazy driver. I do love European taxi drivers! Not! There were a couple of times I was sure we would crash. He was nice, though, and pointed out some of the major attractions along the way. Our hotel, Hotel Sant Agusti, is about 1 block from La Rambla (the main strip in Barcelona) and next to La Boqueria (the farmer's market.) I thought it would be good to quickly go to the market and grab a sandwich or whatever and then head to the beach. You'd think I was leading sheep to slaughter. Though I don't have much of a problem walking through crowds and seeing strange items for sale at a meat and produce market (I think it's because I lived in Asia as a little kid), the rest of my family can get easily overwhelmed. We saw a lot of dead things, too (the skinned rabbit was the worst for me.) After figuring out we weren't going to be able to sit and eat here, we grabbed some grub and found a relatively quiet place on La Rambla to stand and eat. I had falafel sandwich that was to die for!

We then caught a bus to the beach. (Why can't the U.S. have public transportation like Europe??) What an "interesting" sight (as Clare would say!) To say the least, I was feeling VERY overdressed in my one piece suit. The kids went down to the water to catch some waves and weren't there 5 minutes when they came back. Daniel said he didn't want to go in the water - it was gross. Clare said he was disturbed by all the topless women (there were definitely a few.) He finally was persuaded to go back in. I was uncomfortable enough (and I'm not a sunbather anymore) that I went exploring. The area we were in, Barceloneta, was filled with many restaurants. There is a great bike path along the beach. It felt like Venice Beach in California.

By the time I wandered back (after about 20 minutes), they were done with swimming and Tom was dressed and ready to go (he's always afraid he's going to burn.) We decided to go ahead and eat dinner at a restaurant by the beach. It was 3 p.m. and we all wanted was to go back to the hotel and crash, but needed to eat something first. We got the seafood paella - very messy, but good. Tom and I had a beer - probably not the smartest thing for me as I almost fell asleep standing on the bus back to the hotel.

After a few showers and cleaning up the sand pile Daniel spilled from his suit, we all crashed at about 6 p.m. I woke up around 9 p.m. and thought I'd finish blogging for the day. It's now 10:30 p.m. and I need to get back to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be fun-filled!