Barcelona, Day 2 - Beach & Park

Our second day in Barcelona was spent wandering - mostly toward the beach and the park - and drinking lots of Sangria.  We got a good feel for the city on our first day and set up some tours for the end of the week.  We started to head south stopping at the Church of Santa Maria del Mar. 

We didn't go in today as we were hungry and there was a line but we planned on coming back.  After lunch full of tapas and Sangria, we continued wandering around town and towards the ocean.

The beach in Barcelona was packed to say the least.  Much like the beaches in NY. But it was near beautiful architechture...

and delicious sangria!

After the beach we started to walk back closer to our hotel. Chris loves parks so when we came across one, we had to walk through it on our way.  It was huge and was full of people enjoying the beautiful day.

Statue at the entrance

Another statue at the entrance

Entrance Gate

After our long day of walking, we were ready for some real Spanish food.  Not tapas but paella!  SO delicious and instantly a new favorite food for Kate.

Finished pan of paella

Barcelona, Day 1 - Kate's Birthday

Getting from Salcedo, Italy to Barcelona, Spain was quite the event.  Two trains and a bus to Milan airport and then we took the metro from the Barcelona airport into the city where we walked around in the heat trying to find our hotel. Needless to say, when we arrived all we were interested in was some food, a shower and getting to bed.

Our first full day in Barcelona was Kate's birthday.  Traveling the world in two months, carrying your luggage on your back does not leave room for party clothes or even nice clothes.  Kate really wanted to get dressed up and go out on the town.  So instead of jumping into touring the city, we spent the day shopping!  We didn't buy much and Kate was able to find cute yet inexpensive stores to shop at (very H&M style).  The main purchases we (or really Kate) was hunting for to help her feel more like a lady then a world-wide traveler: heels and perfume.  And as Kate knows, no shopping experience is complete without a wonderful lunch outside - tapas, champagne and cava sangria.... in Barcelona.  Perfect birthday day. 

Kate's birthday shoes that we searched all day for

That night, Chris took Kate to a Flamenco show - a traditional Spanish dance.  A mix of salsa and Riverdance.  The theater was the Palau de la Musica and it was beautiful.  We weren't allowed to take pictures during the show but we did take plenty of the theater.  If you're interested, here's the website of the show we saw: http://www.grangalaflamenco.com/

Waiting for the show to start

After the show, we went out to dinner at a nice, trendy restaurant, the Gastronomia at the Ohla Hotel.  After some amazing food and wine, we ventured back to our hotel for a Cava nightcap.

If the wine is good, you have to take a picture to remember it by

Italy - Milan & Sarcedo

When you travel for two months, it's natural to get a bit homesick.  You miss certain foods, hearing English spoken and being around friends and family.  Luckily enough for us, we were able to take in all of those things during our time in Italy.  Chris is half Italian on his mother's side and still has some family in Sarcedo, Italy -- A small village near of Vicenza (and a short distance from Verona).  His cousin, Giancarlo lives in Salcedo with his wife, Lena, and two sons, Marco and Pierro.  Chris has stayed with the family twice before on trips to Italy but hadn't seen them in about 8 years. Marco has even stayed in our apartment in NY with his friend Frediano but, unfortunately, we missed them as we had left NYC to be with our families in Texas for Christmas.

We flew into Milan late on a Friday night and Marco was kind enough to pick us up at the airport.  It's so nice being greeted at a foreign airport by a friendly face!  To thank us for staying in our NY apartment, Marco and Frediano took us out to an Argentinian steakhouse.  We ALL ordered the steak fillet.  It was delicious and satisfied our steak craving (we hadn't had any the whole trip).  It was such a nice meal and both Marco and Frediano are fluent English so the conversation was easy and fun. 

Thanks guys for the dinner and hospitality!

Marco, Chris and Frediano at Frediano's apartment after dinner

Since Sarcedo is a three hour drive from Milan, we decided to make the drive Saturday morning. Luckily, Giancarlo works in Milan during the week and has an apartment there; so Marco, Chris and Kate were able to stay there for the night.  Before leaving Saturday morning, we did ask Marco to stop by the post office to mail some souvenirs home to Texas and NY.   Thank God he was there!  The post office employees did not speak much English so we really needed Marco there to translate. 

On the way to Sarcedo we stopped at what we would call a "truck stop" in the states to grab snacks for the drive.  As you might expect in Italy, the store had a cafe where many people had stopped to have "a cafe". 

Chris's family owns and runs a small vineyard on the same property that they live on. They grow various kinds of grapes (Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay), and then contribute their grapes to a winery consortium that all the local farmers belong to.

Pulling up to Giancarlo and Lena's house on the vineyard was like a movie for Kate, who had never seen it before.  It was a large country house on the top of a hill with a quaint vineyard in front...  Very picturesque. Here's a few pictures of the family house and vineyard:

View from the room Chris and Kate stayed in

Chris and Kate in the vineyards

Soon to be Chardonnay

Old vines

View from the front porch looking out into the vineyard.  We had breakfast on the porch one day, seriously - what a view!

We spent a relaxing weekend enjoying the delicious lunches prepared by Lena (who made the best gnocchi we have ever had... and three different kinds of it... for our first meal at their home), visiting a remarkable local art show with Marco and his friends, seeing the extended family, and eating Italian pizza as many times as we possibly could (which is never enough). 

We felt so at home in Italy with the family that we completely forgot to take more pictures!  We regret our negligence for not capturing even a single picture of us with Giancarlo and Lena, but are confident we will have more opportunities in the future.

A huge 'thank you' to Marco who drove us around all weekend, made sure we were comfortable, and provided us with every convenience we could ask for.  We could not have felt more welcomed or taken care of, and we can never thank Giancarlo and Lena enough for their hospitality.

After our wonderful weekend, we packed our bags, said our goodbyes, and boarded a train from Thienne to Milan to catch a flight to our next destination:  Barcelona, Spain.