Meanderings

Good weather has officially arrived in Barcelona and Lily has spent four days at the beach this week. On Wednesday I took her to Bareloneta in the city for an afternoon. On the way we bought new sandals (Zara kids - how posh!) and a sun hat. On Thursday we took a train from the station next to our house to Casteldefells, 30 minutes to the south. Very few people were there so we had a zen day on a vast silent beach. On Saturday afternoon we all met with Georgia and Mircea (our Romanian former flatmates) and went to Sitges where we picniced and dug deep holes in the sand to bury Lily in. And today, we spent part of our paseo de domingo on Barceloneta.

A typical family thing here is to go out wandering and lazing on a Sunday, often dressed up a little more than on a weekday. Meander to the park, read the paper, let the kids play, get a coffee, maybe lunch, walk more, end up at the seaside if you're lucky. Go home for dinner then sleep soundly.

Today we enjoyed one of our longest and most classic paseos, Starting out at the top of Passeig de Gracia and walking to the central Plaza Catalunya looking for a toy shop we never found with Oli and Lily kicking a little football around the whole way. The football had earlier fallen onto the metro tracks after the train had dropped us off and a guy had jumped down onto the tracks for it. Stopped in the plaza so Lily and Oli could chase the numerous pigeons, watched some boy catching pigeons while a man asked me to go to a bar with him. Moved on down the Rambla along which Oli grabbed a Mcburger (!) and met Timo and Eddie at the bottom of the Rambla in the guiri bar for roast and football. All wandered along the port to the beach, lay on the beach while Lil and I chased waves and smashed sandstones. Headed back to the center and caught a metro home for pizza and pineapple.

Oli's brother Dave and his girlfriend Laura will be with us for a week as of Tuesday. Looking forward to it.



Some videos to come shortly.