Welcome to Barcelona, Spain

We arrived in Barcelona yesterday after a quick, short flight from Portugal. Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain, with a population of about 5 million in the greater metropolitan area. It sits right along the Mediterranean coast, so we will get to enjoy both beach and city life during our time here. Barcelona is described as an extremely walkable, vibrant, and visually stunning city. It already feels like a great place to end our year of adventures!

Early Morning Flight

Our flight leaving Portugal was super early, which is my least favorite time to fly. It’s always hard to sleep the night before, and I hate the rushed feeling of getting out the door. You’d think that at this point in the year I would no longer feel anxious before we fly. I felt especially anxious for this flight and I’m pretty sure that this being our last stop contributed to the emotions.

Getting through the airport was extremely quick and easy. I enjoyed a big coffee while we waited to board the plane (the way they spelled my name made me smile). We got a small piece of chocolate on the plane and I loved the message. How fitting for our year of adventure!

It’s never dull sitting next to these two!

Navigating a New Train System

We had to navigate the train system to get to our Airbnb. A taxi would have been an easier option, but we will use the train system for transportation while we are here so we decided to just figure it out from day one. We got transit cards that will allow us to ride anywhere within Zone 1, which covers most of the area within Barcelona that we want to explore. We had to wait about 30 minutes for our first train, but we have become very good at waiting.

After the train, we had to transfer to the metro and ride the subway for a few stops before walking to our Airbnb. Overall, the train system was pretty easy to navigate even with our lack of sleep. Kudos to Alexis for finding the right subway platform (we were a little lost for a bit). As we were riding the subway, we talked about how it was very different from our experience on the trains in Japan. In Japan, there is a screen showing what stops are coming up and everything is clean and quiet. Here, we had to watch out the window to see what station we were approaching and there was a guy playing a guitar/harmonica contraption for money.

Our Last Home Away From Home

As we exited the subway station and looked around, Alexis leaned over to me and sang the line “A whole new world!” from Aladdin. It fit the scene perfectly. We were immediately greeted by beautiful buildings that felt a step above the architecture in Portugal, and unlike anything we’ve seen so far this year.

Our Airbnb is on the top floor of a beautiful building, and ranks up there as one of the best places we’ve stayed this year. The minute we walked in it felt clean, spacious, and well taken care of. It has all the little touches I would add if I had an Airbnb.

There are a lot of stairs to climb each time we go out, but we don’t mind. It has beautiful wooden archways and exposed beams throughout, giving it so much character. The couch is big enough to fit all of us and so very comfortable! We’ve had some nasty and uncomfortable furniture at times this year. It has the exposed brick we love and a winding staircase up to the loft that the kids share.

First Glimpses of Barcelona: Sidewalks, Sunshine, and the Sea

We spent a good part of today walking around our neighborhood.The sidewalks here are expansive and great for walking. Alexis was excited it was flat. We enjoyed taking in all the beautiful buildings and getting gelato at a place right by our condo.

We made our way to Barceloneta Beach and walked along the beachfront promenade. It is an extremely busy area, but also very beautiful! We were harassed by vendors wanting us to buy things and I saw our first topless sunbather (we had already warned the kids about this).

We have slowly adjusted our schedules over the last month so we can take full advantage of the lifestyle here in Spain. Eating dinner at 9pm feels very strange to me, but it will be fun to embrace life here. The kids love the late bedtime and sleeping in. We are all excited for the adventures waiting for us in Spain, soaking up every moment of this final stop!