It’s been 2 days in Barcelona, and here are some random thoughts from two tiring but inspiring days in a city I am coming to love.

Day 1 was all about being reminded that I was definitely in Europe. The bus ride from the airport to the main plaza near my hotel was painless and a pleasure. The bus was clean and new and definitely kid friendly, in that the windows went all the way down so Arav could look out while sitting down the whole ride. There were grand plazas, fenced in by historic buildings on one side and great sidewalk cafes on the other, and there were grand avenues to walk down, admiring the sights and sounds of a grand European city.

Day 2 was all about Gaudi, the most honored of Spanish architects. We started the day in Parc Güell, a place for which the word “whimsical” would be an understatement. It’s like someone who grew up on a steady diet of Hans Christian Anderson went wild and started creating a fairy tale world in a park.

We then topped that by a visit to the world famous Sagrada Família, a cathedral unlike any other in Europe, whose unique shape and adornments are amazing to behold. The fact that it is still being constructed is ridculous in of itself.

A visit to the not-too-bad aquarium was added to the end to make the day a bit more palatable for the munchkin, who greatly enjoyed the excellent children’s play area at the end of his tour. And a fitting end to the bizarre and wonderous sights of the day was an all-dessert dinner at Espai Sucre, where our 3 and 5 course meals of all dessert based dishes was a true joy, and a fitting reward to 2 days of walking our soles thin.

I can’t look forward to what else Barcelona has to offer in the two more days I have here. I am going to keep uploading random photos from our trip to this tag on my flickr account. Check it out if you can.