On Sunday, we awoke to help the kids find (and open) their Easter baskets... they sure are impressed that the Easter Bunny and Santa seem to find them in all corners of the earth. After an Easter breakfast of Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts (the latter is a rare find for us here), we headed over to the Barri Gottic area of Barcelona, where we walked the streets while they were still quiet.
We then had a (self-set-up) Easter Egg Hunt right in front of the Cathedral. The kids were very excited - and even helped each other find their eggs, hidden in the trees and masonry of the cathedral.
And then we celebrated Easter services in the Cathedral, which was breathtakingly beautiful. Unfortunately, by the end of the service, our kids were wiped out, so we were unable to stay to watch the dances and processions following the service. Instead, we took them back to nap -while Teri stayed with them, and Jay and I toured the Picasso Museum. We had a really nice time having a "grownup afternoon," and enjoyed the museum considerably. The temporary exhibition was a selection of Picasso's own collection of other artists - which was as interesting to us as the permanent collection of Picasso's works.
On Sunday afternoon, the tour guide (me) led a forced march up to the top of Montjuic, the mountain above Barcelona. Jack was wiped out - and we probably should have let him rest - but I thought the kids would love seeing the castle at the top of Barcelona. I was wrong! Tired kids don't like seeing anything - and so although everyone enjoyed the trip up to the mountain (train, funicular and gondola), our little ones were ready to turn around when we got to the top. Too bad - but the views were amazing, and reminded us that Barcelona is a really large city... from our earlier vantage points, it was easy to forget that, as we found everything so accessible via walking.
That night, Jay and I went to another tapas restaurant - and our meal was even better than the previous night. We are absolutely hooked on the idea that we can order 6-8 things - and not have to choose just one thing... All restaurants should be like that. :) We also celebrated our official one-year anniversary in Europe - the kids and I arrived on March 24th - hard to believe it has already (and only!) been one year.
We spent Monday morning on La Rambla for one last time - visiting all of Jack's favorite street vendors and selecting souvenirs for the kids. It was a good thing we came back one last time - finally, in the last few minutes, Kate decided there was one street performer she was not terrified of - and she got out of the stroller to take a picture with the "knight" pictured below.
Our trip home was relatively uneventful - although we returned to a snowstorm in Zurich! Brrr... we were grateful for the few days of warmer weather, and happy to snuggle in our house for a few days.
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