Wow! Where to begin...We had an amazing week with Beth, Brian, Cormac, and Brennan, who came all the way from Superior to spend spring break in France and Spain with us. Team Q arrived in Toulouse on Sunday, March 25th. They spent two nights here in an Airbnb about a 5 min. walk away from our apartment. We had so much fun showing them all around Toulouse - taking them to our favorite parks, markets, shops, walks through the city, and restaurants.
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| Sante!!! Lunch at Place St. George |
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| Chocaltines and Almond croissants to start the day |
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| St. Aubin Market |
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| Park on The Garonne |
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| Girls catching up! |
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Monkeying around on the walk along the Garonne
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| The FIRST Salut of many! Kids played at the park while we enjoyed our refreshments ;) |
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| Cuties! |
Dinner night one at our house - roasted veggies from the market, cheese from the fromagerie, wine from the cave, sausages from the boucharie, and bread from the boulangerie - WELCOME to FRANCE
Day 2 - Toulouse
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We had to take Beth shopping! She did good!
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| Kids playing at St. George while we finished lunch |
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| Lunch at St. George |
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| Kid's Pizza! |
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| You can't come to Toulouse without riding the carousel |
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| Maggie facetiming Avery on her bday - SURPRISE - We're meeting Avery and Jodee in Paris!!! |
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| Adult Dinner #1 at Meet the Meat |
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Who's ready to eat...
This drunk guy was a lot of fun - he came up to us outside the restaurant and had lots of "mother f*****'s" to say. He was trying to get Brian to call his friend and see where he was. The interaction was hilarious 😂
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| La Maison |
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Apres dinner drinks at La Maison - cutest, coziest bar ever! We found a new fav. place in Toulouse
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| They ordered a "Negroni" and got a "Peroni" |
After two days in Toulouse, we drove in two cars to Spain! I was really excited to get back to Spain and speak Spanish, but it was hard to make the switch from French! I take that as a good sign that we have really started to improve our French skills since first arriving in February. When we arrived in France, we couldn't stop speaking Spanish to people here, and then the same thing happened in Spain, but with French.
While it was really fun to be in Spain, I remembered how the food wasn't always my favorite, and there's just no comparison to the French baked goods. Try finding a comparable baguette in Spain; I dare you - C'est impossible!
The first stop in Spain was Figueres for the Dali Museum - something that I've always wanted to do. I have vivid memories of standing in the train station in Barcelona 20+ years ago and wishing/wondering if I could make the train to Figureres and back in time to see Dali's museum before we had to depart for Sevilla.
The museum is a mixture of paintings, sketches, and art installations. It's really impressive and would have been fun to spend a little more time gawking and admiring the different works of art if we didn't have kids tugging at our sleeves to keep moving. We got stuck in a downpour and thunderstorm after the musuem and had to bolt to our lunch destination.
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| Entering the Dali Museum |
After lunch, we headed to Begur and THE MOST BEAUTIFUL part of the trip and maybe one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to. Our house was located in the hills on the coast between Begur and the small beach town of Sal Tuna. Our host had sent us tons of great recommendations for restaurants, hikes and activities in the area. You could easily spend a week here!
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This mountain is known as the pregnant lady and the castle is the nipple on her boob!
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Backing into our gated paradise
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First views of the casa
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Too excited not to swim - but damn, it's cold!
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Main living area
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Game time - Skyjo
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| Dinner by the cozy fire - salad with Brian's special fried eggs |
The next two days were spent with morning coffee by the pool, cold plunges, hikes, beach time, great meals, more pool time, and cozy fires at night.
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| Sup |
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| Pool deck at the casa |
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| I could get used to this.... |
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| Thinking about getting ready to take a dip |
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| 1...2...3...Cold plunge! |
Time to go explore! First, we walked down hill to Sal Tuna, a quintessential beach cove, about a 20 min. walk from our casa. We found a place for breakfast at Hostal Sal Tuna, which powered us up for the hike we were taking.
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And pinxos for everyone
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| Magical view from Cap Sa Sal Restaurant |
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Adult dinner #2
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Paella Time
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B & B
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The inside of Cap Sa Sal - too cold to sit outside
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| ...and a movie |
On Friday, we (reluctantly) packed up from the Begur house and headed to Barcelona. We parked our rental car in Girona and took the train to Barcelona. (about 40 min). Beth and the kids took the train with us; Brian returned their car in Barcelona, at the airport, then met us at the Airbnb. Friday, happened to be good Friday, so shops were closed but we did find a place for lunch and the supermarket was open. We found lunch at a Mexican place around the corner from our Airbnb and then ventured to Barrio Gotic.
I wanted to recreate a picture of Jay and I on the steps of the Gothic Cathedral that we took way back when in 2003. Since it was good Friday, the church steps were packed and they were finishing up a sermon or the end of a parade from Semana Santa. It didn't quite have the same relaxing feel as I remember it, but it was fun to retrace our steps. Some pushy clowns gave the kids sword balloons and then demanded money from us-another anecdote for Finn to add to his list of why he doesn't like big cities.
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Barcelona, here we come!
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| First glimpses of the Sagrada Familia |
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| Playing in the bubbles |
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| Lunch at a Mexicain joint near airbnb |
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| Birthday cheers numero uno! |
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The last time we were here together, we were 20 years old. Jay came to Spain for his Spring Break to visit me in Spain. I remember us saying we have to come back someday as it gets more complete...and he we are!
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| In front of the Cathedral in Barri Gotic - retaking a photo we took 22 years ago! |
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| Arc de Triumph - Barcelona style |
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| Cuties |
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| Spring in Barca! |
Friday night we had adult dinner #3 at Gigi Von Tapas. It was a great bday dinner, and such a fun time. The setting was perfect; we were on a street right outside a bullfighting coliseum. We had some great people watching and the wait staff was really fun and friendly. And, as a bonus we walked by the Sagrada lit up at night - it's just stunning!
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| Sagrada lit up at night |
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| A sight to behold! |
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| Happy birthday to me - olives and gin and tapas and wine |
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| Soaking up all the good sauce in the mussels |
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| Pan con tomate - rub the grilled bread with garlic and tomato |
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Post dinner walk home ;)
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Can't get enough of this beauty!
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Barcelona Day 2: Park Guell was the first stop on our list today. We had an 11am entrance time and were able to walk to the park from our Airbnb. The park has the greatest views of Barcelona and the ocean, and it really gives you a different perspective on the layout of the city.
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| City walking to Park Guell |
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| Tiny cafe to go |
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| Welcome to Park Guell - so amazing |
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| Views and views from Park Guell |
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| Overlooking Barcelona from the Park |
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| Quesenberrys |
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| Sagrada view from the park |
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| Cutest girls in the park :) |
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| Girl with book on bench |
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| Foot-sket ball - a new game invented by the boys |
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| Tibidabo in the distance |
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| More views from the park - so many pretty hillsides around |
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| Views for days |
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| Las Tres Cruces in the park |
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| Adults ventured off a little bit while kids played in the park |
Final pictures of Park Guell - We walked to the top and then went back down and out the main gates. AS you get down towards that entrance/exit you find all the intrinsic mosaic work of Gaudi. It's all so different and interesting - a must see for anyone visiting Barcelona!
After Park Guell, we headed back into town to meet up with Jay's recent postdoc hire, Mattia, and his girlfriend, Carla, for lunch. Mattia is waiting on a visa to come to Colorado to work, but he has started working for Jay's lab remotely. Mattia happens to live in Barcelona with Carla; it was the first time Jay had met him in person!
The first restaurant we went to had a 40 minute wait, so Carla (the native Barcelonian) took charge and took us to one of her favorite, traditional Spanish restaurants. She basically did all the ordering and we were along for the experience - it was really, really fun and a highlight of our trip!
While at lunch, around 3:00pm, I got a text that said our guide was ready for us to go into The Sagrada Famila. This was a surprise, because I thought our entrance time was at 4:30. It turns out that what I thought was the entrance time was actually the end time of our tour. We had to try and abruptly pay for lunch and say good bye to Mattia and Carla to make the tour. We took taxis and found our guide outside the church, but it was too late and the tickets wouldn't let us in anymore. I was disappointed, but I guess we'll just have to go back again sometime.
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The wind picked up, so I had to layer up in Finn's sweatshirt.
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| Caro and Katie, this one's for you - JAMON! |
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| So many architecturally unique apartment buildings throughout the city |
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| Street perform had Brennan feeling curious |
More city walking...
And, finally, lunch! Croquetas, Spanish Tortillas, Calamaries, and fried fish. These croquetas where mushroom, spinach, cod, jamon, and squid ink (or as Carla said the wife of the octopus, but we took it as squid ink).
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| Sagrada familia up close |
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| Go Barcelona! |
Saturday night we hugged our friends goodbye, since they had to sneak out at 5:00am for the airport and their long haul back home. It was just the best time being with friends; showing them where we have been living and then experiencing new parts of Spain together was truly special. There were lots of laughs and adventures - we are so thankful for our time together with the Quesenberry's!
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| Views from our balcony |
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| Brennan watching TV with my creeping in the background on the balcony |
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Chill time at the airbnb
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Our family departed Sunday morning at a much more reasonable time from Barcelona. We trained back to Girona, and spent sometime walking around the medieval city where Game of Thrones was filmed. After that, it was just under a 3 hour car ride back to Toulouse where we ended, as Beth put it, "The trip of a lifetime!"
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| The streets of Braavos - GOT |
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| The steps of The Great Sept of Baelor - GOT |
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| Reenactment of Game of Thrones |
I can’t get enough of these…. I’m going to publish your blog into a book myself!! WE MADE THE BLOG!!!
ReplyDeleteLove you all . Can’t wait to see and hear about your upcoming adventures 😘