Barcelona was one of the main stops on our tour of Spain, and we enjoyed a six-day stay in this lovely city on the Mediterranean that is the capital of Catalonia. We rented a nice big apartment in the Gothic Quarter, site of some of the original settlements of Barcelona over two thousand years ago, and launched into our by-now-usual routine of sightseeing via long stroller rides, making friends at playgrounds, and eating at outdoor cafes on squares where the girls could run around.

One fun thing we did, thanks to Grandma Judy’s babysitting generosity, was go on a tour of the city on Segways, the geeky two-wheeled one-person electric vehicles. Turns out they are actually perfect for tour groups, as you can move around quickly but everyone regardless of fitness level can keep up. We had a great guide, Edgar, who among other things taught us a few local traditions including the centuries-old Catalan addition to traditional nativity scenes. He also helped clear up a mystery from one day in San Sebastián, where we saw groups of people in white clothes with bright red scarves gathered in squares piling up on top of each other while crowds cheered.  Turns out that was the day when two of Spain’s biggest soccer rivals, Real Madrid and Futbol Club Barcelona, played each other.  Fans of the Barcelona team showed support for their team — and some Catalan cultural pride — by demonstrating the Catalan tradition of forming human towers.

Other highlights included:

• going to Sunday mass in a 600+ year old church
• wandering endlessly with our double-stroller through the narrow alleyways of the old city
• seeing some works of Antoni Gaudí, a modernist architect from Barcelona, including a huge funky cathedral called Sagrada Família and the Parc Güell
• stuffing into lots of taxis as we cruised around town
• having dinner with a few of the local Catalan Wikipedians
• celebrating our fifth wedding anniversary at a fancy restaurant
• as usual, visiting lots of parks and playgrounds including the Parc de la Ciutadella
• watching Juliet walk all the way down the hallway of our apartment, while Claire giggles her encouragement (see video in slideshow)
• spending a few dozen hours on the internet and phone trying to sort out our travel plans in the wake of the volcanic ash cloud closing airports all over Europe.

Click on picture below for a slideshow.

After San Sebastián we had a break from the big cities with a roadtrip through the Pyrenees. Our first day we headed from from San Sebastián‎ to Aínsa. Aínsa is a small town in the center of the Spanish Pyrenees which has an old quarter that dates back about 1000 years. It was incredibly charming, cute, and quiet, plus served as a great base for exploration of the Pyrenees.  We stayed in a little hotel built into the walls of the old city which was restored a few years ago in a style we loved, perfectly blending clean contemporary glass, steel and wood within its centuries-old stone structure. We spent a day driving around the sights of the local Pyrenees, including to the beautiful Spanish Parque Nacional de Ordesa y Monte Perdido, up to the French border at the Col du Pourtalet (one of the classic mountain passes of the Tour de France), and back to Aínsa through a far more narrow, windy, and adventurous road than we had planned.  After two lovely nights in Aínsa, we drove from Aínsa to Barcelona thru the little country of Andorra.

Click on the picture of the view through our bedroom window in Aínsa for a slideshow including the old city, throwing snowballs atop the Col du Pourtalet, driving through the Pyrenees including on some small roads shared with lots of cows, our GPS as we crossed the prime meridian, and a detail I particularly liked at our hotel.

After Madrid, we headed north for three days in San Sebastián‎, a resort town on the Atlantic coast of Spain just across the border from Biarritz.  We rented a nice apartment in the center of town, near the beach and just 10 minutes walk to the old city. This is the region of the Basque people, whose language is quite different from Spanish and whose food is magnificent especially pintxos, a version of tapas that is just 2-3 bites each serving. Our highlight restaurant was Zeruko, which had the most amazing pintxos with many layers of texture (e.g. a crunchy potato-chip like cup holding savory spiced meat with a creamy soft-fried quail egg on top). We also had a fun evening with the girls at a place called Sidreria Calonge up on a ridge overlooking the Atlantic with a local social buzz, a room full of massive casks of mildly alcoholic apple cider, and humongous tasty steaks served saignant.

Click on the picture of Claire on the merry-go-round for a slideshow including the beach, the girls enjoying a children’s park right in front of the town hall, and a beautiful and surreal amusement park perched atop Monte Igueldo in the city.