​Roses?  Books?  Perhaps a little wine too, over a lingering lunch?
Yes, please!

​If you've ever considered coming to Barcelona (arguably the most romantic city in the world) I highly recommend visiting during La Diada de Sant Jordi.  Your heart will melt with the beauty of it all.

According to tradition, Sant Jordi slew a dragon to save a princess.  From the dragon's blood, a rose bush bloomed!  Sant Jordi plucked one of those special red roses and gave it to the princess.  

It just so happens that Sant Jordi (St. George) is the patron saint of Catalunya.  Every year on April 23rd the entire state celebrates his mythical victory warmly.  

And so, it has long been customary for the men of Catalunya to give the special ladies in their lives red roses each year on La Diada de Sant Jordi.
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With the merging of Sant Jordi and El Día Internacional Del Libro, the city of Barcelona itself becomes almost a romance novel itself on April 23rd!  ​

There are festivals in many barrios, including book signings by famous Spanish and Latin authors... beergarten parties... craftspeople selling wares covered in handmade roses... private (closed) city buildings open for free to the public... book stalls open all over the Barcelona... and a sea of red roses.  You can also enjoy special musical performances, dramatic re-enactments and much more.

Everywhere you look, people are celebrating. As we got into our elevator to head downstairs we encountered a family on their way up to visit our neighbors.  The woman was carrying a beautiful handmade cake covered in roses made of pinkish red icing.  Her husband was carrying six individually wrapped long-stemmed red roses, presumably to give to their family members or friends.  The children each carried small roses and the little girl also held a stuffed dragon!

"Feliz Diada de Sant Jordi!" we smiled at each other.

From the moment we left our building, our family could sense that there was something really different about the city.
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"Mom, I've already counted 13 rose stands and we've only walked four blocks!" The Scientist announced as we left our house and headed toward the metro.  Indeed, rose vendors and book sellers had cropped up overnight everywhere along the street.  They were parked on every single corner!

As the day wore on we encountered literally hundreds of rose stands and scores of book markets throughout the city!  The famous street of Las Ramblas was so crowded we could barely push our way through the sea of people engulfing (delighted) local book sellers.  

I loved that many of the stands were donating their proceeds to UNICEF and other humanitarian or environmental organizations.  Buying a red rose felt even better than normal because you knew that your money was benefiting a worthy cause.  ​
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It was such a feel-good day!  Between the bright sunshine and excellent weather, cheerful people milling the streets, and evidence of creativity and love brimming over from nearly every store, market and restaurant in El Raval and El Barri Gotic... Barcelona was out-of-this-world beautiful.  It exuded a special, extra kind of magic.
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Schools in Barcelona also celebrate La Diada de Sant Jordi.  They feted the holiday in style at our children's school with a poetry writing contest in four languages (English, Catalan, Spanish and Chinese) intended to honor Miguel de Cervantes.

Last Tuesday Señor Aventura and I received an urgent telephone call from their school requesting that we attend a special assembly the next day for Soccer Dude, as he had won an important award that would be presented in front of an audience. 

Little did we know how splendid and emotional the ceremony would be!  In celebration of Sant Jordi, pairs of older students (male and female) dressed in tuxedoes and fancy gowns descended the aisles of the auditorium carrying roses for the younger children.  ​

It felt and looked like an 'academy awards ceremony' for child authors!  The Catalan teenagers entered slowly in procession to a Coldplay song, sat patiently throughout the hour-long ceremony and bestowed roses, kisses, hugs and massive awards upon the younger students for their poetry and stories about friendship, love and Sant Jordi and the dragon.

The school requested that we leave the award a surprise, so our little man had no idea until the moment they announced his name that he had won first place for a poem he'd written in English about friendship and his best buddy Mini-Müller.  Wow, first place!  ​
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All in all, La Diada de Sant Jordi brought joy to our entire family.  Better than Valentine's day, Sant Jordi felt infused with romance for everyone ~ not just couples.  

​​"I wish you an amazing holiday of Sant Jordi," smiled the quirky, fabulous perfume maker who sold Little Angel and I tiny vials of 'rose' and 'dragon's blood' perfume along the cobblestone street. "May you have an adventure today that you never forget, treasure the petals of a beautiful rose, and also discover a very special book!"

Gliding through a city full of romantics, this holiday easily captured our hearts.
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​My heart had been set on spending the week of Semana Santa in Portugal, since the children would have 10 straight days of vacation.  I'd heard great things about Porto and the beaches in the south, and I've always wanted to see Lisbon!

Señor Aventura has done a lot of traveling lately though... some for business and some for pleasure.  Since January he's spent time in Tenerife, Mexico City, Mallorca and the United States.  For him the idea of doing something low key locally in Spain over Spring Break sounded a lot more appetizing.

We ended up finding a perfect compromise... five days on the Costa Brava and two in Valencia.  We decided that we'd devote each Costa Brava day to discovering a new town or village, to get to know the region well and discover where we might like to return in August when the weather here in Barcelona becomes stifling with heat and the entire local populace deserts the city for a month of vacation.

After doing some serious digging on AirBNB, we found a perfect little apartment for our springtime 'home base' near the beach in a Catalan town we'd never heard of, Tamariu.  

"Oh, it's perfect!  You will love it!" my friend Viva assured me when I described our plans.

"That's a great village with a nice beach, your family will have a wonderful time," my friend Guillermo assured me when I talked with him about it at the gym.  

"I think we got lucky and picked a great spot!" I confided in my husband over lunch.  "My Catalan friends really love Tamariu!"

"My friend Hugo is going to the Costa Brava with his family for Semana Santa too!" The Scientist told us later.  "His family has a house there!"

Excitedly, we began to gather items for our beach vacation.  We went to our favorite inexpensive sporting goods store in Barcelona, Decathlon, where we stocked up on beach essentials... goggles, Spring wetsuits, bathing suits, beach shoes.  We also picked up some jeans and shorts for our Little Angel, who is growing like a house on fire.  (Every three months = new clothes... because the old ones are now too small!)

Señor Aventura got Chico Suave the car washed and gassed up, ready for adventure.  

We'd just had the blessing of hosting our dear friends from California in Barcelona for a week... and one day after they left, we departed the city too!  

The timing of our Spring Break trip was perfect... Soccer Dude was heartbroken to see his best friend Mini-Müller head back to the United States.  They won't see each other again until November.  So, leaving Barcelona one day later for an adventure of our own was fairly perfect and helped put his head back into a positive, joyful state.  ​

Everything for us along this trip was a brand new discovery... but the directions to Tamariu were easy to follow and we had no trouble finding the sleepy little village which is located at the base of lovely coastal mountains.  We were surprised and delighted to discover how tiny it was, just six little streets with a handful of hotels, apartment buildings and restaurants nestled in the sheltered spot between the mountains.  ​

Tamariu is set in a beautiful tree-lined cove.  It's populated with mainly-white buildings and looks out toward the vast blue Mediterranean.  A single sailboat was anchored near the shore, and from time to time we would see someone on a stand-up paddle board or swimming with a buoy toward the horizon.

We get the impression that it is the kind of village that blossoms in springtime and fully comes into its own in the summer, winding down in the autumn and closing almost entirely in the wintertime.  The apartment we stayed in was affiliated with a local waterfront hotel, and we saw from their advertisement that rooms are available at the hotel essentially from late February to early November.  
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After enjoying an essentially perfect day on the Platja de Tamariu, we got ready for dinner.  Everyone was in a great mood, though very hungry.   
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The band's final song of the night was a sort of anthem, that nearly everyone in the restaurant appeared to know.  The clientele, which appeared to be primarily local Catalans in their fifties through seventies, sang along with the band and waved their green napkins to the beat of the music.  (You can listen to the music of Neus Mar here.)

As our younger kids finished their dessert and began to fall asleep at the table, their dad and I smiled at each other warmly across their slumbering heads and toasted with wine over Cuban-themed music to a great first day of vacation in Tamariu.  

​Our family's Costa Brava adventures were off to a very special start!

Up next... we'll share our challenging but fun family hike along stunning Costa Brava cliffs to eat lunch in a real-life ancient pirate's cove!  

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Montjuïc is a verdant, lush mountain rising dramatically from the Mediterranean Coast of Barcelona.  It towers over the sprawling city and provides sensational views in every direction!

A funicular ascends from sea level to take visitors to the top of its summit, which would be an especially great way to see the mountain if you are touring by foot.

We happened to be driving... so on the gray Friday afternoon when we collected our friends from the Barcelona airport we decided to drive them to their Pedralbes hotel via Montjuïc to give them a first glimpse of the city's complex beauty.  ​

Montjuïc is surely many things to many people.  

​In the summertime it hosts an outdoor movie festival from June through August.  Throughout the year its popular Palau Sant Jordi attracts hordes of visitors for indoor sporting events and big rock concerts, among other occasions.

This lovely mountain is also the perfect place to bring a picnic!  Are you an archery enthusiast?  If so, you can practice hitting paper targets on the side of the Castillo at the top of the mountain.

Montjuïc was the site of the Barcelona Olympic Park, first built in 1927 for the 1929 international exposition (EXPO).  A few years later, the new republic of Spain organized an 'alternative Olympics' to protest Hitler's pre-Berlin Olympics propaganda... but the alternate games were canceled 24 hours before the athletes were due to compete when Franco and the fascists and nationalists began their revolt against the Spanish republic, starting the Spanish Civil War.

The Olympic park was later completely remodeled in 1985 and inaugurated in 1989 to become the host of the 1992 Summer Olympic Games! 

No surprise then that our first stop on the mountain last Friday was the 1992 Olympic Stadium. Soccer Dude and Mini-Müller marveled at the architecture of its enormous open structure (and even more at its athletic field).  From there, we walked toward the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, to show our friends its magnificent facade. 

The major fútbol stadium in Barcelona is called Camp Nou, a fact well-known to anyone around the globe that follows the famous FC Barcelona fútbol team.  Over the last ten years, this special club (home to such world class players as Lionel Messi, Neymar Jr and Luis Suárez) has powerfully dominated the international scene and made the city of Barcelona synonymous with phenomenal fútbol!

FC Barcelona has made the most of this opportunity and offers to its fans the chance to tour the inside of Camp Nou via the "Camp Nou Experience".  Our boys were ecstatic about this opportunity, and though the price tag is a little high, it was worth it.

If you take this tour, you'll have the chance to see historical artifacts from FC Barcelona throughout the years, admire its massive wall of beautiful trophies, check out Lionel Messi's special golden boots and the team's gleaming Ballons D'Or while enjoying fantastic photos and videos about the players.  ​

Since they were staying with us in the quieter suburbs of Pedralbes and Sarriá, we wanted to show Mini-Müller and Amiga Simpática a different (fun, energetic) side of Barcelona.  On Monday evening we met up with them in Plaça Catalunya to walk together up the elegant boutique-lined Passeig de Gràcia heading toward incredibly charming Gràcia.

​We were especially excited for Mini-Müller and Soccer Dude to enjoy a pickup fútbol match in the Plaça de la Vila de Gràcia, home to the 33 meter high Torre del Reloj (bell tower).  ​

Before moving to Spain we'd visited and stayed in this particular plaça for a total of six weeks over the course of a few years. Its lovely square is the administrative center for the neighborhood of Gràcia, and on one side of it you can find the district's headquarters.

​The plaça itself is lined with shops, restaurants, bars and gelaterias.  Several of its restaurants set up outdoor seating, and our favorite of these has always been Nou Candachú.  We love to sit there for lunch or dinner while watching our children play fútbol with native Catalan children along with the children of other tourists who have stumbled upon this beautiful spot.

​On Tuesday while Mini-Müller attended school with Soccer Dude, Amiga Simpática and I treated ourself to tours of the Picasso Museum and La Sagrada Familia.  We had the best time!  

​The line for the Picasso Museum was very long (I recommend buying tickets in advance) but we finally made it into the lovely historical building and its permanent collection, managing to see every single painting, sketch and painted sculpture within a fairly short span of time.  

We were surprised and delighted to learn that, in addition to his blue and rose periods, Picasso had a pigeon period!  We loved the small collection of his paintings featuring pigeons!  

​My friend and I were having a very fun time viewing the art and taking photos when a guard asked us to put our cameras away. Whoops!  ​It was a great morning anyway.

Racing to La Sagrada Familia cathedral without a minute to spare, we made it on the dot of our 13:00 appointment and audio tour.

​Amiga Simpática and I spent a lovely hour+ listening to the comprehensive audio guide explaining the history of the church and its construction, with a focus on its chief architect and visionary, Antonio Gaudí.  

A UNESCO world heritage site, La Sagrada Familia is a colorful, other-worldly spin on the notion of a cathedral.  

Inspired by shapes and forms from nature, including trees and foliage, Gaudí began this famous project in the Eixample in 1882.  

Work has continued, even after his death, and its projected completion date will be 2026.  How incredible to work continuously on a building for over 140 years!  

Since Gaudí's death in 1926 several other architects and artists (including Josep M. Subirachs) have also made their mark on the impressive edifice, creating its splendid stained glass, beautiful bronze doors and more.  ​

A new set of bronze doors created by Gaudí enthusiast and talented Japanese sculptor Etsuro Sotoo has recently been installed at the Sagrada Familia.  (Sotoo has been collaborating on the construction of the cathedral since 1978!)

These new doors contain leaves, insects and flowers and give a decidedly abundant feeling to guests who walk through them. Tuesday was my first time seeing the new doors and I was fascinated by the insects within the leaves.

Construction on the Sagrada Familia is due to finish in just eight years... but tourists and native Catalans are likely to adore this impressive edifice for many centuries to come.  

​A magnificent work of engineering and imagination!

Still, we realized that it might help to invest in a few inexpensive rain ponchos at our favorite low-cost sporting goods store, Decathlon.  One poncho could make the difference between a fantastic night and a miserable, cold, damp one.  

On our way to Decathlon, Amiga Simpática and I took our boys through several beautiful and enjoyable outdoor locations... Parque Santa Amèlia, Parque de Pedralbes, and the gorgeous Monestir de Pedralbes.  The bright blue sky made a stunning complement to the blooming trees in the parks, and our boys spent many hours swinging, running around and kicking around la pelota.  ​

Every second of the journey to find rain ponchos was worth it!  At 19:30 we celebrated together at a sensational FC Barcelona game, enjoying Camp Nou this time as local enthusiasts!  The fútbol club was playing in fine form, with Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi scoring three goals, one of which was such an exciting 'Chileana' or bicycle-kick into the 'gol'! Final score, 3-0!  

​Despite a steady downpour during the game, the seven of us were warm and dry in our jackets and rain ponchos... with four children taking turns with the binoculars!  They discovered that Lionel Messi was wearing gold colored soccer boots for this game, which gave the entire evening yet another touch of magic. ​