March 27-29
They made it!!! Michael and I did the long drive back to Barcelona on Tuesday morning to meet Andy, Betsy and Johnny at the airport. We were sleepy time, but we got this nice sunrise:
This was definitely a hurry up to wait moment. The hour or so that we waited for them to come out from customs and baggage took FOREVER!!! But they finally made it out and everyone was super pumped… especially Johnny. No pictures of the welcome, but we got a picture of wonky Andy:
OK – into the car and off to San Sebastián! This was about 7 hours in the car, broken up by a stop at Conde de los Andes which is a winery that is built on top of caves that have been used for making and storing wine since the 15th century (although the wine back in the 15th century wasn’t anything like what it is now). Johnny loves old vines and bottles of wine that are as big as he is:
So we headed into the caves, which were super chilly. Sorry for some of the slightly blurry pictures. It was super dark down there.
There were three highlights of the tour.
1. That we were actually on it and that the entire group was in Spain and together.
2. The caves had massive rooms filled with unlabeled bottles. Our guides took us into one and actually opened a bottle in there for us. It was a 2005 grand reserve and it was delicious. That said – the beautiful setting and the excitement of them opening an old bottle from their collection definitely added to the taste.
3. Ernest Hemingway had visited the caves in the 1950’s. So they dedicated a small portion of the caves to him and some other guy (sorry I don’t remember and the google machine won’t tell me who he is). You can see they put some wine glasses, one of his novels (in Spanish) and some great chairs to enjoy the space. Being a fan of Hemingway, it was cool to me to be reminded of his love for Spain and to geek out a bit about him.
Looks like Johnny’s first chapter book is going to be The Sun Also Rises:
Let’s take this opportunity to note how after two days stuck in Newark with an ear infection and a fever, followed by a red eye flight, followed by being put immediately into a car to drive for 4.5 hours and then another 2ish…. Johnny is killing it.
Another thing that I wanted to mention is that the woman who led this tour was extremely complementary of the French and how it was the French that pushed the Spanish to make great wine. When the phylloxera epidemic hit French vineyards in the mid 1800s, the French had to go to Spain to buy their grapes. With nothing else to do, many French winemakers came to Spain with all of their expertise and methods and built major infrastructure to support wine making, in the French style. Another thing that Michael and I had learned the day before at Contino was that when phylloxera hit Spain by the end of the 1900s, Spain recovered by taking old vines from the United States and grafting their varietals onto the rootstock. He was excited to tell us that our country is responsible for his vines. I thought that was cool. Especially since google just told me that is how French vineyards were saved as well since apparently US vine species have evolved to have several natural defenses against phylloxera. However, I would be shocked for a fancy pants French vineyard to be as excited to show off their US roots.
Some tastings, some running around, and then onward to San Sebastián. It may not be clear from the video, but Johnny LOVED this.
https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/img_8388.movSan Sebastián!!! We are excited to be here. Or if nothing else, we are excited to not have to drive or fly anywhere for the next couple of days!! After parking and getting settled into the AirBNB, the girls and Johnny hung out with a bottle of wine and the boys went out to find food. They hit up a number of tapas places before bringing us some burgers home. I’d like to say that Betsy and I were sad to have missed the glorious food posted below, but I assure you we were just pumped to be in sweats and relaxing with Johnny.
That night, Johnny slept something crazy like 12 hours, (BOOM!) and woke up ready to see the sights!
Just the guys checking out a restaurant…
And the guys walking on the beach…
And Johnny wishing the sun would come out so he could take off his hat!!!
But then it did warm up a bit and we found a great cafe to drink some espressos while Johnny got to run around the plaza. His favorite thing? To stare at all the dogs and birds (conveniently all called “ball” by Johnny). Here Johnny is hanging out with the birds and his Spanish friend:
https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/img_1516.trim_.movSecond favorite? To push a chair into empty space. Tell me this doesn’t look like an art installation. We’ll call it “Child in Chair”.
Next off to eat something… because clearly we haven’t had enough to eat since arriving. We popped into a restaurant called Ibea that Michael found great reviews for online. We were a little nervous taking Johnny in because it was a bit fancier and SUPER QUIET, but the food was amazing, Johnny slept for half of lunch and we had a great meal. Plus the owners were really sweet with him.
When in Spain, you learn how to drink out of a wine glass. It’s just water! Don’t worry! No vino blanco for Johnny for a few years. In addition to drinking out of a wine glass, Johnny also tried chorizo (which he loved) and woke up in time to eat a tiny bit of the steak pictured above (which he loved). That said, both were some of the best meat all of us had ever eaten, so the bar may have been raised a bit high on what he believes chorizo and steak should taste like. Johnny also loves super crusty bread – both to eat and to throw on the floor. To balance out all of this super rich food, we ordered the mixed vegetables which were served in a pool of delicious butter. Super healthy.
After lunch we needed to walk around a bit, so we did that… and wandered around the city for a bit before we happened upon this craft beer shop.
The interesting thing about this place is that they have taps that fill up plastic bottles (similar to how a place in the US would fill up glass growlers) and also you can’t drink there. You can drink directly outside on the bench, but not inside the store because they don’t have a permit. So we ordered a few bottles, the owner gave us a few glasses to borrow and we sat outside on the bench. The beers were great, the fresh sea air was great and Johnny was great.
So you get the gist of our time in San Sebastián – lots of walking around, lots of eating and drinking. But we also had some time to teach Johnny some new skills. Like this… Aunt Jane taught Johnny how to cheers:
https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/img_8479.movIt is these types of skills that are really going to take this kid far.
The next morning, we had just a few hours in San Sebastián before it was time to head back to Barcelona. Since it was Holy Thursday, it was time to visit three churches, a family tradition where you visit three separate churches on Holy Thursday to pray for three separate things, one prayer for the world, one prayer for another person and one prayer for yourself. It is symbolic of the three times that the apostles fell asleep while Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. We stopped into two churches in San Sebastián and then one church later that night when we got to Barcelona.
Our first stop was a real treat as the choir was practicing for their Easter Sunday concert. Amazing.
https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/img_8490.trim_.movThis is actually a good time to mention the difference between Holy Week in Spain verses Holy Week in the US. A lot of stores were closed in Spain the ENTIRE week leading up to Easter. Everywhere we went things were closed without any note or mention. Also, can you imagine having a choir practice on a Thursday mid morning? No one in the US would be able to attend – they all have to work! It is definitely a different approach to living. And I won’t say that the Spanish are more religious. A tour guide that we had in Spain noted that only 17% of people in Barcelona are practicing Catholics. I am not sure what that percentage is in the US, but that was shocking to me considering how everything shut down for the WEEK of Easter. Moving on.
The second church was a bit less eventful, but still overwhelmingly beautiful:
After one more breakfast of croissants and espresso, it was time to leave San Sebastián. We definitely didn’t have enough time there, but Johnny had to go explore a new city! One of the cool things about the otherwise boring drive from San Sebastián to Barcelona is that you cross the Greenwich Meridian which is 0 degrees longitude.
Once we arrived in Barcelona, we settled into another AirBNB and headed out to see what we could see. First stop was La Rambla – a very famous street in Barcelona where Johnny got to hang out with a submarine.
We did some wandering around, grabbed dinner and then popped into our last church for the evening, Basilica de Santa Maria del Pi:
Although this church was beautiful, I think what will be most prevalent in our memory of that church stop was the musician in the courtyard right outside playing No Woman No Cry and Redemption Song. Strange and super funny as we were trying to have a moment of silence, but also oddly appropriate as we approach Good Friday. Feel free to google those lyrics.