Barcelona - Day One

The children in Belgium get a week off to celebrate Carnival, which is usually the week leading up to Ash Wednesday and Lent.  So since Grace had time off from school, we decided to take a trip...our first intercontinental Europe flight....to Barcelona!  None of us had ever been to Spain, so we were super excited.  Most people actually go skiing this week, but we were craving warmer temps and sunshine, and we had heard so many great things about Barcelona.

We were pretty hesitant about flying with two little girls very far.  And skeptical of our airline choice, Ryan Air.  They are comparable to Southwest Airlines in the US.  No frills, you pay for everything extra, no assigned seat....but very cheap fares.  It also flies out of the airport that is about 45 minutes from our house, as opposed to the one that is about 15-20 minutes away.

But it worked out perfectly.  We had no issues with either of our flights. 

We got to Spain around noon on Thursday, February 14th and immediately saw lots of sunshine, palm trees and people wearing short sleeves!  We needed to kill time until we could check in at our apartment, so we grabbed some lunch at the airport before catching the shuttle into town.  We had a little bit of trouble finding the office where we were supposed to check in.  So the girls and I camped out on a bench in the sun, while Matt searched.  Audrey luckily took a snooze.  It was nice to just sit in the sun!

We are really into using apartments instead of hotels now.  It's usually about the same price, or cheaper, and you get so much more space.  Which is really nice since we don't want to go to bed at night when the girls need to.  Our apartment in Barcelona was THREE bedrooms, two bathrooms, a sitting area and kitchen.  It was perfect!

After we got settled, we went out for a walk to view some of the Gaudi architecture that Barcelona is famous for.

Just a short sight seeing adventure, before finding some yummy Tapas for dinner.

Here are all the pictures from Day One.  Not very many.....mostly the girls with their Valentine's Day balloons.  Day One Barcelona