A Spa in Girona

We are only spending 1 night in Girona to be closer to the airport for our flight tomorrow. 

Andrew and I got to the hotel and realized that again we are going to be out of place... we are staying in a 4 star.

Since we had most of the day at the hotel we decided to use their gym and then their swimming pool/spa. We used the outdoor swimming pool and splashed around... acting like children. Then I was getting a bit cold so we decided to go into the 'spa', which was a fancy indoor swimming pool. There was a couple reading on the benches in the 'spa', so we were trying to be quiet. We got into the hot tub and Andrew's eyes lit up; he saw buttons. Of course he had to press them, and all of a sudden the jets are blasting noisily from above and below water, and water is spraying everywhere. This is about the time when I noticed that there are signs on the wall asking us to 'please keep the silence'. We almost died laughing. The jets were making so much noise and we were laughing so hard as Andrew tried to turn them off with no luck. Finally he turned them off and the room returned to silence. Then we get in the pool and guess what, there are more buttons, each under strange contraptions hanging over the water. Andrew pressed a button below a faucet that looks like a shower, and the NOISY streams of high pressure water that shot out almost knocked him out. He turned those off after a laughing fit and frantic button pressing before we went to the other end of the pool to to sit in water massage chairs. A lady then came in after we had been in the chairs for a while and I guess she was just as curious as Andrew because she got into the pool and started pressing buttons. She isn't as lucky as Andrew though, because when she pressed the 'shower' button the high pressure water shot her right in the face. Andrew and I both burst into laughter and unfortunately our laughter was louder than the water shooting at the lady, because she heard us.  We left after this thinking that somebody was going to ask us where our parents were.

Tomorrow we are off to Groningen, Netherlands.

Buildings & Beaches in Barcelona

We loved Barcelona!!! August 29, when we got in we went to see some of its famous architecture (designed by Gaudi).

Here is the Sagrada Familia, a catholic church. I really liked this church because it had a Christmas tree made out of stone in between the big 4 pillars.

From the other side.

La Pedrera.

Casa Batllo and Casa Amatller.

August 30 and 31, we spent our days on the beach. Barcelona had really great beaches and lucky for us we spent several days on them.

September 1, we went to a city park. We found the most beautiful fountain... too bad there is a greaser in the middle of the picture!

After walking through the park we laid on the beach for a couple hours.

Barcelona was a great vacation from our vacation. We enjoyed our time on the beach, but we are ready to go back to Northern Europe after a one night stay in Girona.

Madrid

We didn't originally plan on going to Spain, but because of the problems in Greece, we changed our minds.

August 25 we walked around the neighborhood surrounding our hotel. We saw kids skateboarding and biking, a soccer game and the royal palace.

August 26 we saw a temple that Egypt gifted to Spain, and was moved block by block.

Next, we went wandering around the city center. It was strange though, because the streets were empty. It must have been because of the heat... it was over 40 degrees. 

August 27 we went to Seville for a day trip. It was gorgeous! We started off wandering around in the city center. 

We escaped to a city garden for some much needed shade.

Then we went to see the bull ring (bull fighting arena).

August 27 we went to Madrid's biggest city parks. It was beautiful.

It was very difficult leaving our air conditioned room because it has been so hot. But, we are now off to Barcelona and looking forward to beach hopping.

Poop, Hotels & Language Difficulties

I forgot to mention that in Rome, while we were sitting in St. Peter's Square, Andrew was pooped on by a bird... must be a sign from God, a bad sign. It was his first time being pooped on (Jenna this will probably make you feel better because I know you have been pooped on multiple times... and thought it was normal). I have yet to be pooped on, but I think my time will come considering how much I am bugging Andrew about it.

We have had some good luck with booking hotels and hostels and some really really bad luck. I thought that I would share pictures of our places in Bergamo and here in Madrid, where we have had really good luck.

This is our hotel in Bergamo. When we got there we realized that it was a 4 star hotel. Andrew and I looked like misfits with our backpacks on and looking disgusting because of the long walk to the hotel. Oh well, they still let us check in.

Here in Madrid we have a kitchenette in our hotel. We are really excited to be able to actually cook food. Hostels usually have kitchens but we have been avoiding them because they are usually pretty gross.

This is the rest of the room in Madrid.

We were so excited about our kitchen that we raced to the grocery store and bought pizzas. We thought that we would fry them in frying pans, which is what we do when we don't have an oven and surprisingly, they usually turn out pretty good

This time we had a problem though. When we got home from our shopping trip and Andrew unwrapped the pizzas, we found out that the dough was raw and that they needed to be cooked in an oven... which we don't have (only a stove and a microwave). On the package it said 'concinada...' meaning we need to cook the pizza. Instead of giving up we decided to cook the pizzas in the microwave and then fry them. This is how they turned out.

They were actually pretty tasty. I guess my theory worked: add enough cheese to anything and it will taste good.

Now that we have eaten we are on our way out to see Madrid.

PS- It was the Alexander triplets birthday yesterday. Happy birthday boys, we miss you.