Barcelona

For our anniversary weekend, Brian and I planned a trip to Barcelona! Originally, one of our friends from Pakistan, Mike, had asked us to meet him there - he had been to Barcelona several times and wanted to show us around. We invited another one of our friends, Christine, from Frankfurt to join us for the weekend so that we could enjoy a weekend of friends, fun, and delicious food. Unfortunately, at the last minute Mike had to cancel because of work, but Christine, Brian, and I went anyway for a great weekend!

To start, I would highly recommend Barcelona to anyone considering a visit to Europe. We just loved the city, the Spanish people, the food, and really everything about it! We concluded that it reminded us of a European, warmer-climate Chicago. It was lovely with a good mixture of park space, culture, beach, and fun city things to do!

Our first day in Barcelona was our anniversary! Normally Brian and I aren't into tours, but when we woke up on our first morning in Barcelona and saw how huge the city was, we figured a double-decker bus tour would be a great start to our vacation.


We were extremely pleased with our choice - the bus tour was a lot of fun and was really helpful in giving us ideas for the rest of our vacation. We rode around for most of the day, seeing the sights and enjoying the sun.

Cheesy tourists in Catalunya Plaza : )

For lunch, we got off of the bus at the beach. We were so excited to see the water! We enjoyed our first of many meals of sangria and paella, a delicious Spanish rice and seafood dish.

mmm...seafood!

Enjoying the view!

Admiring all of the sail boats

After lunch, we continued our bus tour to Tibidabo. Funny story - I was really excited to see Tibidabo because of a reference made to it in my favorite TV sitcom, Friends. Lame, I know, but it's the truth : ) I was expecting a mountain covered with a beautiful forest and great hiking with a cathedral at the top. You can imagine my disappointment when I found out that the hill is actually known for its somewhat trashy carnival at the top that surrounds the church. It was so weird! And it was actually pretty funny - it became our joke for the rest of the trip.

Cathedral at Tibidabo

Great view from Tibidabo

After we finished our bus tour, we were quite exhausted. We decided to go to the top of our hotel, watch the sunset, and enjoy a nice, relaxing happy hour. It was a great ending to the day!

View of the sunset from our hotel restaurant

We had a great view of the city after the sunset. Please note in the picture below: the glowing cathedral at the top of the hill in the distance is Tibidabo. You can see the reflection of light from it in the clouds!

The next day, we started off with a walk down La Rambla, a beautiful (although very tourist-y) tree-lined street with lots of shops and restaurants.


After a lot of walking, we decided to eat lunch near the beach again! We really couldn't get enough of the blue water and sky. Paella meal numero dos : )


People watching at the beach quickly became one of our favorite pastimes in Barcelona. If you enlarge the picture below, you'll see one of many hilarious scenes we found : ) (zoom it at your own risk!!)

That evening, we went to the Sagrada Família, definitely the strangest, most detailed, most interesting cathedral I've ever seen. It was was designed by Antoni Gaudí, Barcelona's famous architect. It has been under construction since 1883, and supposedly it will be completed this year!! There are many more pictures of the Sagrada Família and other Gaudí works at the bottom of this blog. Brian did a great job photographing them!

The next day we took a cable car to Montjuïc. Montjuïc is a hill where the 1992 Summer Olympics were held. On this hill, there are gorgeous gardens, a fort, and a great art museum. We started our Monjuïc tour at the fort, which had another great view of the city.

Green gardens surrounding Montjuïc fort

Brian operating one of the cannons

View from the fort

Next we walked through some lush gardens. They were so peaceful and very well-maintained. And, they inspired Brian to light up his pipe! What a nice walk for shmokin a pipe : )

The walk through the gardens led us to the Museum of National Art and Culture (MNAC), which sat on the hillside looking over the city. Another great view, of course!

Throughout our time in Barcelona, we noticed that Spain definitely has brighter colors in its architecture, both inside and outside the buildings. I really loved the contrast; it was a nice variation from Germany.

Example of the bright colors in the MNAC

At the end of our day, we tried to go to the Barca football (Barcelona soccer) game. I had read that games hardly ever sell out, so we didn't buy our tickets ahead of time. When we got to the ticket window, the cheapest tickets were 122 euro per person!! Yikes! We opted to go to the closest bar and watch the game with a lot of Barcelona fans. It was a fun night!


The next day was Easter Sunday! The day started out a little gloomy, so we went to brunch at a local cafe. When we finished, the sun had come out! We headed straight for Park Güell, which was also designed by Gaudí (the guy who designed the cathedral I mentioned earlier). It was a great day to go to the park because it was so warm outside and because it was fun to see all of the Spanish families picnicing on Easter Sunday. It brought back good memories of past Easters with my family. Park Güell is situated on yet another hill with yet another great view!


Every section of this park was just spectacular. There were all kinds of impressive things to see and there were gorgeous mosaics everywhere! Brian took some great photos of the park that are in the photos at the bottom of the blog.

Brian and me in the park (we don't know the couple in the bottom left corner, but they smiled for the picture! haha)

I bought a CD from this guy - great music!

Fun in the sun at the park made us wonder how the beach was looking on that lovely Easter Sunday, so we went straight there! We did some more people watching at the beach, and while we were enjoying the wide variety of people walking by, Brian noticed some clouds in the distance. We were getting hungry anyway, so we headed to a nearby restaurant. We were very lucky in our pick of restaurants - as soon as the storm set in, the restaurant rolled out some protective awnings. None of the other restaurants had them! So we sat outside and marveled at an awesome thunder storm! Great conversation, wine, seafood, and a seaside storm made for a perfect Easter dinner.

For our last day in Barcelona, we had a few goals: 1) Get some sun 2) Eat more paella 3) Eat at Farggi 4) More people watching and 5) Relax!

At our first stop, we accomplished 4 of our 5 goals : ) We found this great plaza that was full of paella, people, and sun.


Next stop, Farggi. Here's the story: I'm obsessed with ice cream, and I had noticed this one ice cream chain, Farggi, in lots of popular places in Barcelona. I just knew it had to be amazing. So after lunch, we finally made the stop. Oh my goodness, was it worth the wait! I had macadamia nut and Catalonian creme ice cream on a cone, and it was probably the best ice cream I've ever had. I'm just glad we waited till our last day to visit this shop, or else we would've eaten ice cream for every meal!

At Farggi, so excited about ice cream

We were walking off our ice cream (or trying to - haha!), and I just happened to notice a jewelry store that looked very familiar. Could it be?? Yes! It was the Spanish version of Sam Moon! For those of you who don't know about Sam Moon, it's a whole-sale jewelry store in Texas, and it has everything you could possibly want for the cheapest cost you'll find anywhere. They sell jewelry that Macy's and other department stores sell for next to nothing! I bought a couple of necklaces and a bracelet, and I was very excited about the find!


What did we do next? More people watching, of course! But this time we went to La Rambla, where we sat outside and enjoyed large cervezas and a nice evening.

And so, it was time for our last dinner in Barcelona. We decided to go to a steak restaurant recommended by our hotel. And we were very glad we did! They served delicious steaks on a hot stone so that you could cook them yourself! What a great end to our vacation!



Like I said earlier, we loved Barcelona! I think it took over as my favorite city we've visited so far! We loved it so much, that we took a ton of pictures. I wanted to capture them all in our travel blog-journal, but I didn't want it to be too overwhelming : ) This was the longest vacation we've taken, so I did my best to condense! For those of you still itching to see more of gorgeous Barcelona, Brian did a great job capturing a lot of the city in the pics below. Enjoy!

Casa Batlló by Gaudí

Casa Milà by Gaudí

Park Güell by Gaudí

Park Güell

Park Güell

Park Güell

Park Güell

Sagrada Família by Gaudí (cathedral)

Sagrada Família - enlarge this one - the style is unlike anything I've seen before
Sagrada Família

Inside the Sagrada Família

Inside the Sagrada Família - most scaffolding I've ever seen in one place!

In the park on Montjuïc

This giant ball looked like it was about to roll off the side of this building. And the copper fish next to it was very cool!

We loved how they did the glass on this building. Isn't it cool how the sky looks like it cuts through the building?? I also like how the tip of the triangle is suspended.

Ornate Spanish architecture

Cool tunnel

Pedestrian bridge leading out to Barcelona's equivalent of Navy Pier

I loved all of the balconies in Barcelona.

I want this office - it was the only one facing the water

New BMW Motorcycle!

I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of our family : ) It's a BMW R1200 GS Adventure, and it's going to be our new mode of transportation to cruise around Europe!

Our new wheels!

Since we arrived in Germany, Brian has been corresponding with the BMW Military Sales representative about purchasing this bike. He has done countless hours of research and preparation, and all of his hard work finally paid off on March 20 when we drove down to the BMW dealer to pick up his new motorcycle!

The dealer was in Kaiserslatern, which is about 1.5 hours away from Frankfurt. We drove the Honda so that Brian could follow me back on the bike. On the drive out, I was extremely excited and anxious about our new toy - you can only imagine how excited Brian was!

When we arrived, the completion of our purchase didn't take take long at all. It was obvious that Brian had done his homework! Our salesman, Uwe, walked us through some of the basics of the bike, and then it was time for the journey home!

Love at first sight : )

Going over the different features of the bike with Uwe

We're so excited!

Brian had packed all of his riding gear in the Honda, so after the purchase he got ready for his ride home in the parking lot. I told him I wished he had come to buy the bike wearing everything including his helmet. I thought that would have been hilarious : )

Gearing up for his first ride

First time on the bike - all smiles

The first ride!

Brian's first ride on the bike was the long drive back to Frankfurt. We had worked out a system ahead of time - if Brian flashed his brights at me that meant he needed to pull over for a break. I really expected that we would need to pull over during some part of the ride since it was so far, but Brian was a natural. When we arrived in Frankfurt, he wanted to ride more!

All we need now is the registration so that we can get license plates! We can't wait for our first weekend adventure!

Janet and Stefan's Visit

When I got home from the States, Janet and Stefan were in town! What a fun way to come home to Germany! They stayed with Brian and me for a week, and we had so much fun with them. Here are some of the highlights of their trip!

We took them on a walk through Frankfurt. Unfortunately another cold front had blown through, so it was really really cold, but at least it was sunny!

To warm up we stopped for coffee and tea. We were very excited to find a place that was open on Sunday!

One evening we tried out a new restaurant. It served the most delicious traditional German dishes I've had since we moved here! And the desserts were phenomenal - we had a cherry crepe and an apple pastry.

On Tuesday morning, we dropped Janet and Stefan off at the train station so that they could go to Hamburg to visit the Heinrichsin's! Brian and I really wish we could have joined them, but we unfortunately had to work. Janet and Stefan said that they had a really great visit! Thank you for hosting them, Jens and Barbara!

After Hamburg, Janet and Stefan took a train to Amsterdam to meet up with Brian and me. We hadn't been to Amsterdam yet, and so we were excited to explore a new city with the Rentsch's!

Check out all of the bikes! According to WikiTravel, Amsterdam has over 600,000 bicycles in the city!

We found a delicious chocolate shop that had all kinds of beautiful treats for Easter.

In a cute square while we were on our walking tour

Getting ready for spring! There were lots of flower shops on the walking tour

We stopped at a cute restaurant for delicious pancakes

I love this city! It's so beautiful with all of the canals!

On the walking tour

Part of the famous Red Light District

Enjoying the architecture and the sun

We took a tour of the Heineken brewery, which was very tasty AND informative

Is there any beer in there?

Very impressive!

Mmm...barley and water...the beginning ingredients for a tasty beer

The finished product!

Tap that

We went to a diamond museum and watched the pros do their work

We also went to the Van Gogh museum. I loved walking through it and learning a little bit about his life. The museum had really beautiful displays of his art!

After a fun time in Amsterdam, we drove back to Frankfurt for the evening. The next morning, we went to visit the Reiner's in Rottenburg!

Andrea cooked a wonderful lunch for all of us. Janet and Stefan had a great time catching up with more family. Thank you for hosting us, Reiner's!

The 500 year old building where Klaus works

We drove back from Rottenburg just in time for our dinner reservations at Kubu. Brian had planned a wonderful evening for my birthday!

After dinner, we went to the Jazzkeller for drinks and live jazz! I had been wanting to go to this jazz club for awhile, so it was so thoughtful of Bri to take us there for my birthday!

The setting was awesome - literally a cellar

The music was fantastic!

The morning after my birthday, Janet and Stefan flew back to Michigan. We were sad to see them go because we had such a great time! Thank you for visiting, Janet and Stefan!

A Visit to TEXAS!

I went back to the States for training for two weeks, so I had a weekend to kill in the good ol' USA! What did I do for my weekend of glorious American fun?? Went to Texas, of course! Because of my training schedule, I could only be home for Friday night and Saturday, but it was totally worth it!! My Mom, being the scheduling master that she is, was able to squeeze in a lot of fun things into that short time.

When I arrived on Friday night, we headed straight for Taco Bueno for fast food Mexican delicious-ness. Oh, how I love Bueno! When we got home, my favorite kind of cake was waiting for me - red velvet with cream cheese icing! My family has been going to the same bakery for red velvet cakes for at least 25 years, and we get the same cake for every birthday we celebrate. It is such a delicious tradition, and I was so excited to get to celebrate my birthday early with my family! Thanks, Mom!!


On Saturday morning, my mom, Kelly, and I went on a quick shopping spree in Kelly's new car! Notice how we are wearing t-shirts - I was SO happy to be in warmer weather!


To really take advantage of the gorgeous weather, we came home from shopping to enjoy an afternoon happy hour on our deck. I loved spending quality girl time with my mom and sister!



My dad and Kevin had baseball stuff to do all morning, so they met up with us at home and brought us Sonic burgers and cherry limeades for lunch - yum!

This is a bench my dad built in our backyard. It is so comfortable!

After lunch, we met up with my Aunt Debbie, Uncle Bruce, Cousin Lindsay, and her baby Noah at Kevin's baseball game. We had a great time watching Kev play and catching up with the fam!

Noah is getting so big! He's SO precious!!

Good game, Kev!

That evening, we met up with my dad's three sisters, Nita, Ann, and Sheryl. They live in West Texas but were in town for a garden show. I hadn't seen my aunts in almost three years, so it was fun to see them and catch up!

My dad and his sisters

We all went out to dinner at Papasitos for some delicious Mexican food and the world's best margaritas! I really miss having good Mexican food in Germany, so I couldn't get enough of it while I was home.


Then on Sunday morning, sadly, I had to fly back to Virginia. I had so much fun with my family and was thankful for the opportunity to see everyone. It really was the perfect weekend!