Weekend Getaway: Tossa de Mar, Part 1

For Fernando's birthday back in January, Paloma and I decided to give Fernando a gift of experience versus things. Thus we planned a weekend stay at a quaint city about an hour and twenty minutes by bus from Barcelona. Said city is called Tossa de Mar, which is on the Costa Brava north of BCN. We were in this lovely little town two weekends ago since it was the only Saturday that I didn't have to work. Party on!

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Friday night. First stop: a nice little restaurant with a fireplace.

Making a toast.

Water drinking is an art. See, swirl, smell, sip, and swallow.

Ah, it was a good year, that water.

Saturday morning at the hotel. Rain. NOOOOO!!
We tried to venture out anyway. We headed toward the castle. Gray, wet, rainy, yuck.
Not fun.
The waves were strong.
Overblown umbrella. Hint, hint, go back to the hotel?
Killed two birds. Got a rain hat to protect my head, which also became my souvenir from Tossa de Mar. Little one unenthusiastically modeled it while staring at the puddles.
The tourist train was sadly empty.
We finally went back to the hotel. Paloma reorganized the bookshelf in the hotel common area.

I finally got to see a little bit of "I Am Sam". I cringed watching Sean Penn playing this character, which is the reason I never wanted to see the movie before.
My lovelies enjoyed it.
Ho hum. The iPhone lost its pizzazz too.
We made the best of it indoors. Part 2 post is much better!

Park Discovery

A few weeks ago, in trying to put a wide-eyed, sleep-deprived, about-to-snap toddler down for a nap, Fernando and I decided to take a stroll. The destination wasn't important, but the thought was "Just go!" So in taking her outside, we just kept walking...and walking...until we came to this park, Parc Clot.

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The ten acres cover a rectangle lined partially with the old brick arches left from the industrial buildings and turned into aqueducts.

A view of the Torre Agbar.A bronze sculpture sits inside a structure of the old factories.
Arches.
More arches.

A lovely piece of green to frolic on.
The park has a few playgrounds.
Older kids can have a ball jumping on these multi-level stones.

Wheeeeee.....

Our "please nap" plan worked, but someone was missing out.

These metal frames form a corridor...

...which also goes over a bridge...

...that has a view of the sunken basketball courts and open play area.Or you can just hang out on the steps and look cool and Euro.

This ended our weekend nicely.

I love running into a pleasant surprise :-)

The Aquarium Run Around

This week, Paloma and I met up with my friend Sophie and her son, Leone, at the L'aquarium of Barcelona. With a discount, it was 15 euros to enter and surprisingly it was quite busy on a Wednesday. This means that chasing a dodging toddler around while trying to take pictures in dimly lit lobbies was no easy feat. Anyway, on to the fish!

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Paloma observes the underside of a stingray.
Leone and Paloma stick their hands in these dark holes to guess what they were touching.She checks one more time to make sure she felt a bonnethead shark egg and not a crested bullhead shark egg.
My cautious girl. Petting the turtle with care.Running along an open aquarium.
There were all kinds of interesting new animals to point at.
Checking out the view of the port.

Taking a break.

On to more running along the submarine toward the cafeteria. Ahhh!

The animal sounds that Paloma makes are all in Spanish thanks to this thick book o' sounds that she wants read to her 23 times a day. "Croac-croac!"

Leone and Paloma step into a shark's mouth for a breather.

She had enough of this shark breath.

The seahorse was off limits. Oh well!

Playmobil Nerdiness

Last weekend, we attended the 9th Annual Playmobil Collector's Fair here in Barcelona with Pau and company. If it's a noun, Playmobil makes it. It's a whole other world out there..

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This is one of my favorite things to do here in Spain. Having a meal in the open air.

My love for open-air meals in a campsite. I can smell the sequoias.

Uh-oh. We've come across a hostile environment. An Indian vs. Cowboys battle about to take place.

The Indian tribe bands together for the grand attack.
I think this was a hospital.

Identifying cadavers. Hope this is the missing gal they're looking for.

They also had Playmobil diorama contests for attendees. Notice the one adult contestant on the right? No fair!

It's a mini Playmobil Fair!

Playmobils setting up their own dioramas.

A Playmobil admiring the mini Star Wars diorama.

This is what we looked like.

It's hard to get work done when you've got an audience staring at you.

This little canal scene of Amsterdam brought back memories from my trip there a few years ago.

Inside the building, pipe smokers enjoy some nice...whatever.

That's Van Gogh on the top floor. The lower floor makes me think it's the infamous red light district.

Recognize this famous movie scene?

Oompa loompa doompadee doo...

Willy Wonka and company watch Veruca Salt get dragged down a tube by the squirrels. Adiós, Veruca!

Their imagination is inspiring. Now on to make something crafty!