Day 7---7/31

Goodbye to Venice!!!

Our day started bright and early! We took a bus (didn't miss it! WOW, we're finally getting the hang of this travel thing!!!) to the airport where we boarded a flight to Barcelona, Spain.

I texted my brother Steve when we arrived and was lucky enough to catch he and his family at the airport. It was slick, our 2 families shared 3 cabs instead of 4 to get to our hotel.

Once we got to our hotel, we realized we were all starving (shocking, I know) and so we walked a block down to our neighborhood's "rambla" the street with all the restaurants on it. The kids all ordered pork or chicken sandwiches and the 4 adults shared a massive platter of paella. It was really good....but even better was the gazpacho that we started our meal with. MMmmmmm. YUM!

After lunch we went back to the hotel and were able to find my other brother, Tom and my mom and dad. We all hooked up for a walk down to the beach. The kids were so excited to swim in the ocean!!! I had kind of forgotten about the toplessness here....but it didn't take me long to remember. :) There were boobs of every size, shape and age flopping all around. Boobs playing paddle board, boobs swimming, boobs sleeping, boobs changing diapers, geriatric boobs and FINALLY a pair of halfway decent boobs. :) We had fun laughing about the boobs...and then when I took off MY top everyone laughed at me.

OK KIDDING! I didn't take off my top!!! :) Hahaha....gotcha! :)

On our walk back from the beach, we stopped for ice cream (yes, I know....I'm eating a LOT of ice cream....and yes, I know....I should probably stop that) before going back to our hotel to decide what to do about dinner.

Troy had a friend that told him about La Rambla deep in the heart of Barcelona; it's a street filled with musicians, street performers and FOOOOOD! Our family of 5 decided to head there. We took the subway and we were amazed at how easy it was to find. Once there, we enjoyed wandering and people watching. We found a restaurant that had an amazing selection of tapas so we stopped. I had a sangria and Troy had a beer. And then....the food started coming!!! We must have had close to 20 different items...and most of them were AMAZING! One of the funniest parts were what looked like whole fried minnows...of course, we all ate them...AND, they were GOOD. And then we heard diners at the table next to us ask about them and the server said they basically WERE minnows and that you shouldn't eat the head....ooops. :)

After the tapas, we took the subway back to the hotel and CRASHED. Tomorrow afternoon we board the ship for our cruise!

Word on the street is that internet on board the ship is something like $35/hour so unless I find an internet cafe ON LAND, you may not hear from me again for a few days.

Our itinerary is this:
8/1--depart
8/2--at sea
8/3--Naples
8/4--Rome
8/5--Livorno (Pisa)
8/6--Nice, France
8/7--Provence
8/8--Back to Barcelona

Another adventure awaits!!!

:)