Our Trip to Spain! Part 2

Start with Part 1.

Friday:

We woke up in Madrid in our conveniently located Airbnb that was right in the middle of the of the busiest part of the city which was awesome! Close to food and all sorts of fun things. Madrid was beautiful- like a really classy version of New York City! (but no disrespect to NYC because I love it there so much too ha ha) It just had so much gorgeous architecture everywhere, it was amazing. We slept in that morning and then headed off to Retiro Park! It was a really cool looking park and it had this fun spot in the middle with a pond where you could rent a little boat! Obviously Kyler was all about that. :) After Retiro, we headed over to Madrid’s famous Museo del Prado. We were lucky to be able to get in for free from 6pm-8pm. We waited in a MASSIVE line, but it started moving pretty quickly so we were able to look around for an hour and half, which was a perfect amount for us.

Okay- lets talk about these CREEPY AS HECK “street performers.” They had these guys in Argentina too. These people will dress up as some type of statue and will have this tin sitting out for you to give them money because of how good they are at sitting perfectly still like a real statue for hours. But sometimes, if they notice you looking at them, they’ll look at you and follow you with their head and it’s just CREEPY. ha ha so I risked being found by this guy in order to document the strangeness.

Saturday:

We headed to Toledo, which was such an amazing city! If you’ve ever heard the phrase “Holy Toledo” it’s because there’s literally a holy city called Toledo in Spain ha ha It’s also where the musical “Man of La Macha” is based. it was basically a city within a giant castle which was really fun, and it had a big gorgeous cathedral as well as a monastery with some amazingly talented nuns! We really enjoyed our time there. It was wonderful. While there, in the late afternoon, I took a nap in the car while Kyler did a little bit of exploring on his own and then we were so desperate for delicious food we decided to buy some Dominos. ha ha We usually try hard not to buy American food in foreign countries, but we’d really had bad luck with the food in Spain thus far.

Tools used by these amazing nuns to make their crafts and tools that they sell!

yes- these nuns make knives and swords too ha ha they apparently made the swords/knives for the Lord of the Rings movies!

Sunday:

We took it easy this day and just headed to church which happened to be right by the Madrid Temple! Then we headed back and hung out at home for the rest of the day- we really needed a day of rest :)

Monday:

We left Madrid but first grabbed a delicious breakfast at Mimi’s Creperia! It felt heaven sent to have some delicious food again after our bad food streak while there ha ha Afterwards we headed up North but stopped in Segovia to see the Aqueducts and then to see the famous Alcazar of Segovia! A gorgeous princess castle for sure. Definitely one of my favorite spots! And because I had this pretty blue dress, we decided to do a little princess shoot while there- naturally. I felt a little silly with tourists everywhere but I’m so glad I just went for it anyway! Also- you better believe we listened to Ed Sheeran’s “castle on the hill” while we drove away ha ha After Segovia we headed up to our Airbnb in Deba, a really small town in the Basque Country. It was beautiful and rainy and stormy there- we stayed there for two nights.

You see all the Nutella behind us on the shelves? You just know this place is gonna be good ha ha

You can’t see it as well with our giant heads in the way, but behind us is how they often advertised their food ha ha there was also a giant suckling pig behind us too but we seem to be blocking it

some last shots of Madrid as we said goodbye

the aqueduct of Segovia

The Alcazar of Segovia!

our cute little airbnb

Read Part 3 next!

Our Trip to Spain! Part 1

Kyler and I had a great time exploring Spain last month! We went for our 7th wedding anniversary and left on Monday, January 14 and got back Friday, January 25! (12 days) Shout out to the Goodman’s for watching our kids for us at home! I honestly thought that amount of time for an International trip was perfect. It gave us a couple of days to get used to the time difference (Spain was 8 hours ahead for our normal Provo time) but still left us time to hit all of the sights we wanted to see as well as have some “take it easy” days which was awesome! I loved the flow of this trip and felt like it really helped me feel renewed and rejuvenated and ready to come back to mom life. :)

I think the only hard part about our trip was the food (more on that later,) but we did find some restaurant gems here and there that we’ll mention in case you ever find yourself there and want a good place to eat!

Monday/Tuesday:

Our flight left at 11am on Monday so we left home at 8:30. I didn’t sleep much the night before so I was pretty tired but jazzed to be going!  Our first flight was to NYC and was 4 1/2 hours long. We packed a bunch of snacks and then bought a sandwich to split for lunch on the plane. We had about an hour and a half layover in New York so we ate some delicious Shake Shack in the airport before we boarded our flight to Barcelona, which was 8 hours long. We flew Delta and they took amazing care of us! Our flight to Barcelona came with a free full dinner as well as a smaller, lighter meal and then the typical plane snacks of course. And I loved all of the fun shows and movies they provided too.

The world looked like it was on fire when we were landing in NY!

I’m unfortunately not the best sleeper on flights so I was up the entire time. After trying to sleep for 2 hours to no avail I decided to just give up and watch tv! When we landed it was Noon Barcelona time (but 4am Provo time) and I was SO TIRED since I’d been up for about 24 hours at this point. ha ha I could barely walk, I was so out of it.

We decided to rent a car because we thought it’d be easier to hit all of the places we wanted to see and so we wouldn’t have to lug our bags around. And thankfully our hotel said we could check in a couple hours early, huzzah! This girl needed a nap! I know all the rules about not napping when experiencing a time difference because it’ll throw you off, but I could barely keep my eyes open while walking so it was a very needed ha ha We grabbed a quick lunch by the hotel (pictured below) and then got a 4 hour nap! We missed our alarms and almost missed our ticket slot to see the famous Sagrada Familia cathedral, designed by Gaudi, but thankfully we were able to still make it! It was beautiful to see it during the sunset. Then we grabbed some dinner, got some gelato and went to bed.

Our quick lunch before a needed nap! Just a picture to show you of what was pretty typical for a lot of the shops and cafe’s to sell for lunch.

They just had two twin beds put together ha ha but oh well, it worked!

The Sagrada Familia- so beautiful! I wish my pictures (half from my phone, other half my camera) did it justice.

Wednesday:

The next morning we headed to Park Güell, also designed by Gaudi, and it was beautiful! There’s talk that they plan on making Gaudi a Saint because of his many beautiful and spiritual architectural designs. Park Güell was one of our favorite places I think. Before we got there we had a really yummy breakfast at a place called Terra Mia. (we definitely recommend them!) Park Güell was a beautiful and spacious park with gorgeous trees and beautiful Spanish buildings and fences. There were people playing Spanish music all throughout the park and it was just a really beautiful, calming scene.

Then we tried to find a beach after walking through Las Ramblas but we failed so we got some gelato and then headed to castle Montjuic! We were so dang tired still (we went to be early but then woke up after just 6 hours and couldn’t fall back asleep ha ha) so we took a little 20 minute nap, which turned into a 30 minute nap. Then we headed to the castle just as the sun was setting. We explored the inside a little and then had fun looking at the views outside on the top of the castle! Then we were able to walk through the Gothic Quarter a little at night fall and boy did it look spooky amazing!

These were little deep fried pieces of veggies, and although they weren’t healthy, they were delicious!

The guy in the background was KILLING it with his music

Can you spot the little parrot?

oh hi there’s a million of you now

Las Ramblas

More gelato- at our favorite place called Amorino! They had them in France too.

Thought this place we ate dinner at looked cute

Kyler’s dinner. ha ha ha he is braver than me!

Thursday:

On Wednesday we left Barcelona and drove to Valencia! Valencia is definitely one of my favorite places we visited for sure. It’s on the east coast of Spain. We drove through along the coast (tip- don’t do this ha ha we had to pay so much money in tolls! easily around $200) and it was really pretty to see all of these beach side cities and farm lands and plains. Plus, there are a few random castle fragments everywhere as you drive through out Spain, so that was pretty cool!

When we got to Valencia, we went to the beach and then ate at a restaurant called Casa Carmela, close to the beach. We had been having a hard time with the food thus far in Spain, so we thought we’d try to eat at one of their most expensive restaurants so we could really just see what Spanish food was like! Let’s just say.. it was an adventure there ha ha See the pictures below to find out why! No one can ever call me a picky eater after this!

After lunch, we went back to the beach and just had a blast taking pictures with my tripod. There was hardly anyone around, so we had the place to ourselves and we loved every minute. I’m lucky to have a husband who likes taking pictures almost more than I do! ha ha the pictures of me on Kyler’s shoulders were also taken with my tripod, and despite how some of them look- no one fell! I would stand up on this ledge thing, then Kyler would start the timer on the camera (my remote wouldn’t work as far as we needed it) and run over to me, I’d jump on his shoulders and then he’d run to the right spot so we’d fit in the pictures before the timer ended ha ha it was ridiculous but honestly so fun!

Then we drove around the city (they had adorable orange trees every where!), got some gelato and dinner and then headed to our Airbnb in Madrid! (PS- salad in Spain is not like salad in America! My dressing was literally just olive oil and Kyler’s salad dressing was just vinegar. ha ha ha spoiler alert- we didn’t finish eating them ha ha props to the spaniards who can handle those strong tastes and flavors like that! We are weak sauce in comparison for sure!) We drove a ton this day, but stopping in Valencia helped us split it up (and for real, we loved our time there) and we also really enjoyed listening to good music and talking with each other! Turns out drives aren’t stressful when you don’t have children with you ha ha

Our appetizer- baby shrimp

Next portion of the meal- baby fish.

Main course-Paella! Spain is famous for this meal. We had cheap paella in Barcelona that was gross, but this was actually really good! Those little sea creatures are shrimp and prawns.

In the rice there were pieces of shrimp, fish and apparently squid! ha ha it was delicious!

Glam shots by Kyler (please tell me you get this movie reference)

And then we got adventurous!

Thankfully no one was harmed in the taking of these pictures ha ha

Read Part 2 and Part 3 next!