We've had a head cold/fever/cough thing floating through the house. Never the less we were determined to go see something this weekend. We found ourselves heading to Montjuic. It's a large area of Barcelona on a Mont that has many attractions, ie, gardens, fountains, museums and the Olympic Stadium. Saturday we went to the Castill.
Wikipedia has this to say about Montjuic.
Barcelona's Montjuïc is a broad shallow hill with a relatively flat top overlooking the harbour, to the southeast of the city centre. The eastern side of the hill is almost a sheer cliff, giving it a commanding view over the city's harbour immediately below. The top of the hill (a height of 173 metres) was the site of several fortifications, the latest of which (the Castell de Montjuïc) remains today. The fortress largely dates from the 17th century, with 18th century additions. In 1842 the garrison (loyal to the Madrid government) shelled parts of the city following disturbances. It served as a prison, often holding political prisoners, until the time of General Franco. The castle was the site of numerous executions. In 1897 an incident popularly known as Els processos de Montjuïc prompted the execution of anarchist supporters, which in turn lead to a severe repression of the workers' struggle for their rights. On different occasions during the Spanish Civil War, both Nationalists and Republicans were executed there, each at the time when the site was held by their opponents. The Catalan nationalist leader Lluís Companys i Jover was also executed there in 1940, having been extradited to the Franco government by the Nazis.
I just liked the idea that it was a castle. Jessica was just there this past week when her class went to the MNAC museum. Apparently they stopped and had a quick walk around the castle first. She really enjoyed the cannons and wanted me to get a picture of her with one of them.
The entrance way.
The view from the wall toward the port.
Another view of the front of the castle.
A better view of the garden which used to be some sort of moat.
The entrance and walkway. I wasn't loving walking over the bridge. I'm pretty proud of myself my fear of heights was severely tested at several points on Saturday. I'm still alive...so that's good.lol
The kids looking over the side wall.
Joe being grumpy. We never did figure out why.
The view out toward Barcelona. I think the city looks like crushed seashells from up there. It's really an amazing view.
The Sagrada Familia is off to the far right in the picture.
Right at the base of the mountain...somewhere is the neighborhood that the kids school is in. When you look up from the school you see the large antenae thing that is ontop the mountain.
One of the wells on the property.
More of the city toward the port. This is the section that Nick works in.
The family walking... Andrea was behind me. She was coming down with the sickness as the day progressed.
There is an aerial cableway...cable cars.lol that can take you up and down the mountain. There is another set that can take you from the port but it seems to me that those take you much higher. I was not getting on those but the kids wanted to take the cars down the mountain. Nick took the puppies with him and I jumped in with the kids...and held on tight.
View from the cable car.
In the middle of the picture is a very long slide that we found on our way up the mountain. The kids had a lot of fun sliding down it.
After we stopped at a mall in the city to get McDonalds for lunch. We park by the beach here because it's free and easy to get there. Plus, there is usually a nice view to end the day.
I'm not sure what it is here but most nights the sunsets have a milky glow to them. It's very soft and very pretty. Almost like an impressionistic painting of a sunset over the water...of course the sun is setting behind us but still...the colors are pretty.
Sunday we went to see Twilight because dispite Andrea not feeling well she wasn't going to make it through another day without seeing it. The movie opened on Friday and she had called me from school to see if she could take the metro with her friends to the theater. This isn't unusual here. Kids around the age of 12, 13 are given a lot of freedom. I'm not there yet. So, I said no. But we took the train, and metro to the movie so that we could see how she would do it in the future. It's not terribly hard. We'll see.
The view from the wall toward the port.
Another view of the front of the castle.
A better view of the garden which used to be some sort of moat.
The entrance and walkway. I wasn't loving walking over the bridge. I'm pretty proud of myself my fear of heights was severely tested at several points on Saturday. I'm still alive...so that's good.lol
The kids looking over the side wall.
Joe being grumpy. We never did figure out why.
The view out toward Barcelona. I think the city looks like crushed seashells from up there. It's really an amazing view.
The Sagrada Familia is off to the far right in the picture.
Right at the base of the mountain...somewhere is the neighborhood that the kids school is in. When you look up from the school you see the large antenae thing that is ontop the mountain.
One of the wells on the property.
More of the city toward the port. This is the section that Nick works in.
The family walking... Andrea was behind me. She was coming down with the sickness as the day progressed.
There is an aerial cableway...cable cars.lol that can take you up and down the mountain. There is another set that can take you from the port but it seems to me that those take you much higher. I was not getting on those but the kids wanted to take the cars down the mountain. Nick took the puppies with him and I jumped in with the kids...and held on tight.
View from the cable car.
In the middle of the picture is a very long slide that we found on our way up the mountain. The kids had a lot of fun sliding down it.
After we stopped at a mall in the city to get McDonalds for lunch. We park by the beach here because it's free and easy to get there. Plus, there is usually a nice view to end the day.
I'm not sure what it is here but most nights the sunsets have a milky glow to them. It's very soft and very pretty. Almost like an impressionistic painting of a sunset over the water...of course the sun is setting behind us but still...the colors are pretty.
Sunday we went to see Twilight because dispite Andrea not feeling well she wasn't going to make it through another day without seeing it. The movie opened on Friday and she had called me from school to see if she could take the metro with her friends to the theater. This isn't unusual here. Kids around the age of 12, 13 are given a lot of freedom. I'm not there yet. So, I said no. But we took the train, and metro to the movie so that we could see how she would do it in the future. It's not terribly hard. We'll see.
We spent yesterday watching Christmas movies and relaxing. I came down with the bug and spent most of the day in bed. The kids all seem to have a residual cough but they were well enough to go to school.
We've got 2 more weeks until we get to see everyone again. We're super excited about it.
Love you all
~Bren
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