Barcelona, Spain

Our next stop, after a sea day, was Barcelona, Spain. When we first arrived, Barcelona looked super small — from the Port. But when we got on to the Hop On/Hop Off bus, I figured out it was much bigger than I thought!

We first stopped to get a snack and mom figured out the Picasso Museum was nearby. So we started walking there. On the way, I saw some cool grafitti pictures on roll-up doors. I liked this one of a dog the best!

When we got to the Museum it was closed! We figured out it was St. John the Baptist Day — a national holiday. That’s why so many shops were closed. Mom was sad to miss the Museum.

We got back on the bus to check out the Cathedral — which is a church. It was very huge and I’ve never seen a church just like that before. The church had carvings and was a very strange shape. There is only one church like this in the world so it is very special. They aren’t finished building it either.

After the cathedral, we got back on the bus and went through the city. We stopped and had lunch and then started walking around. We decided to catch a taxi to get back to the huge statue of Christopher Columbus. There were some shops along the water there and I bought a swimming dinosaur’s tooth. Dad let’s me keep his coins, and in Europe there are coins that are worth 1 whole Euro and 2 whole Euros — not just coins like our coins. I love dinosaurs and sharks.

And that was our day in Barcelona!

[Dad’s note: I had tried to contact three jiu jitsu academies prior to our trip to set up some training for Eli. It’s been a week since he’s trained and that’s a long time for Eli. Initially, it seemed promising that we’d be able to connect with one of the gyms. But, after the first contact, I was having trouble confirming a time. Now I realize that the only day we were available was a national holiday – so training wasn’t going to be possible. Why they couldn’t just tell me that I dint know. But, gyms get back to people! Hopefully, we can get connect with a gym in Marseille or Genoa in a few days.]