Holiday in Spain

A few days before Christmas, as described in my previous post, I flew to Barcelona to meet my mom and Becky in Barcelona. After a rocky start, things got a lot easier, and we had a wonderful trip. We were in Barcelona until the 28th of December, when we drove to the Costa Brava where we stayed until New Years Day.

Barcelona was a place I had been excited to see, and had only heard great things. It lived up to the expectation, and although we didn't get to any museums, we pretty much covered the city during the time we were there. After finally meeting up on Christmas Eve and having a great Christmas Eve dinner at Botafumeiro, we went to an evening mass at the "Catedral Basílica de Barcelona." We spent one day in Barcelona seeing all things Gaudi, we walked along the waterfront, and found time to walk La Rambla and the Gothic district before leaving.

View from Park Güell

Park Güell

La Sagrada Familia

La Sagrada Familia

Patchwork wall

Roman burial site / road under Barcelona

On one of our last days in Barcelona, my mom saw a postcard with an albino gorilla from the zoo in Barcelona. She said that was the one thing she regretted not seeing while there.

After Barcelona, my mom, Becky, and I headed North to the Costa Brava in our rented car. With Becky at the wheel, my mom navigating (yikes), and me in the back, we managed to make it there without getting too lost. We stayed in a town called Sant Feliu de Guixols, right on the water. During our time there we also drove to several of the other little towns along the Costa Brava. We saw lots of great places and ate fantastic seafood. 

View from our apartment in St Feliu de Guixols

Only in Spain

Sa Tuna, Costa Brava

Sa Tuna, Costa Brava

Clear water

Weird wall art

Cadaqués in the distance

Cadaqués

Cat standoff

Because our return trip was on New Years Day, it was a very mild New Years Eve. We did, however, do the Spanish tradition of eating 12 grapes as a countdown into the new year, for good luck. 

It was a great trip, and I was sad to leave Spain, which just gets better the more I see of it. Now I'm back in the Netherlands awaiting Dustin's visit- he arrives on Wednesday. I'll show him around the Netherlands after a short trip to Belgium, and after he leaves I will be going HOME! It seems crazy that the time has finally come, but after four months here I am really ready.