August 2nd:
Lucy and her dad drove us this morning to the Hamburg
airport, where we briefly met up with Kati, another exchange student that
stayed with us for a few weeks back in 2020.
We then caught our two and a half hour flight from Hamburg to Bilbao,
Spain. Once we landed we met Benat and
his parents Julen and Idoia and his brother Markel. They drove us into downtown Bilbao where we went
to the soccer stadium and had lunch at a cool restaurant with an amazing view
of the soccer field.
 |
| Boarding our plane to Bilbao |
 |
| Lunch with Benat and his family |
From there we walked with
them over to the famous Guggenheim Museum.
We spent some time looking at the artwork, most of which is very modern
and interesting, to say the least.
Afterward we continued walking along the river with Benat and his family
and visited the old part of the city. We
then drove to their house in Galdakao, where we ate pizza and talked for some
time.
 |
| Walking with Benat and Markel |
 |
| Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao |
 |
| Inside the Guggenheim |
 |
| Guggenheim Museum |
 |
| Bilbao |
 |
| Exploring Bilbao with Benat's family |
 |
| Benat's house |
August 3rd:
We woke up and drove out to the ocean and climbed to the top
a large hill right next to the ocean. It
was a sheer drop right to the ocean.
There were gorgeous views all around.
We then made our way over to the top of another hill and then hiked back
over to Elantxobe, which is a small village built on a steep hillside next to
the ocean where Benat’s family has a beach house. This would be our place for the next couple
of days.
 |
| Hiking with Benat's family |
 |
| View of the ocean |
 |
| Hiking with Benat |
 |
| Elantxobe |
Benat’s family then treated us to large seafood lunch. The girls were a little leery about eating
octopus, but Jacob really enjoyed it. We
then went down to the marina, where Benat and the kids jumped off of the docks
into the water. The girls went out in
the water in a little kayak, while Benat, his dad Julen, Jacob, Becky and I put
on wetsuits, fins and snorkels and went out spearfishing with spearguns. Unfortunately the visibility wasn’t great and
we didn’t see a lot of fish, so we didn’t get to shoot anything. It was still a lot of fun!
In the evening we had a great dinner back at the beach house
and played some card games. At night
Becky, Jacob, Elise and Markel walked down to the docks to watch Benat fish for
octopus.
 |
| Seafood lunch |
 |
| Getting ready to go spearfishing |
 |
| The view from the beach house |
 |
| Playing card games with Markel |
 |
| Elantxobe at night |
 |
| Watching Benat fish for octopus |
August 4th:
This morning Julen drove us over Becky, the girls, and
I over to Bermeo (Jacob wasn’t feeling well and stayed back at the beach house)
to go visit Urtzi and his family. Urtzi
was an exchange student back in 2021-22 that stayed with us for a few
weeks. We first walked around the port
area, then went to a club that Urtzi’s dad belongs to for lunch. Urtzi and his mom and dad then took us for a
walk along the beautiful coast to a secluded beach.
 |
| Bermeo with Urtzi |
 |
| Bermeo |
From there we walked past Urtzi’s school and then drove up into the mountains to his grandma’s cabin. There we met his grandma and other family members. We had a great tuna soup made by his grandma for a late lunch out on the patio. Urtzi and his family then took us for a scenic walk around the area with great views all around. Afterward we came back and relaxed and talked at the cabin. Urtzi’s family then drove us over to the coast, where we stopped at a few locations to admire the beautiful view during sunset. Urtzi’s dad then drove us back to Elantxobe, where we made our back to Benat’s family’s beach house and had a late dinner with them.
 |
| Walking with Urtzi's family |
 |
| Urtzi and some of his family |
 |
| Urtzi's grandma's cabin |
 |
| Urtzi and his mom and dad and cousin |
August 5th:
We walked with Benat and his family over to Laga beach where
we met Benat’s grandma and her sister for breakfast. We then spent most of the day relaxing and
playing on the beach. The water was warm,
so we played in the waves. Julen took
Elise out and tried to teach her how to surf.
It was a lot harder than she thought.
Most of us got sunburned, but had a good time at the beach. We were tired and took the bus back to
Elantxobe, where we had dinner and relaxed.
 |
| Bus on a turntable in Elantxobe |
 |
| Laga Beach with Benat's family and grandma |
August 6th:
We packed our bags and then we headed out for a long hike that Benat wanted to take us on. The trail was up through some amazing countryside, but it was very foggy and hard to see much. All along the trail there were cows, horses, and sheep that had bells on. Even though you couldn’t see them, you could here the clanking of the bells all around you. We stopped at a water spot for lunch. Both of the girls were tired, so they stopped here and waited for us as we hiked to the top of the mountain. There was a large tower on the top and several horses were grazing on the grass around us. The fog and clouds slowly lifted, so we started to get a better view of the surrounding area.
 |
| Starting our hike |
 |
| At the top of the mountain |
Once we were rested, we made our way back down, picked up
the girls and continued our hike. We
stopped for lunch alongside a beautiful farm house surrounded by horses and
cows and large trees. The fog kept
rolling in and out around us, which made the whole setting very surreal. During the last part of the hike most of the
fog disappeared, so we were able to get a glimpse of the beautiful mountains
surrounding us. At last we made it back to the cars. The hike ended up being around 10 miles. After
the hike we went to Benat’s grandma’s house.
She made us a delicious dinner and was very grateful that we took care
of Benat for a year. We ended the day back at Benat’s house, where we finished
packing our bags and went to bed tired.
August 7th:
Julen and Idoia drove us to the Bilbao airport early this morning so we could board our quick, one hour flight to Barcelona. Once we arrived in Barcelona, we took the metro into the center of the city and found the hostel we were staying at and dropped off our bags. We quickly learned that Barcelona was way hotter than the other places we had visited on our trip. Our hostel was right in the city center, which made it very convenient to walk to many of the famous sites. After grabbing a bite to eat at KFC (very exotic), we made our way to the Gothic quarter and looked at the Barcelona Cathedral and some other beautiful buildings. Next we went to the Picasso museum. Most of the artwork there was donated to the city of Barcelona by Picasso. Most of it was some of his earlier works.
 |
| Barcelona Cathedral |
 |
| Picasso self portrait |
 |
| Picasso Museum |
 |
| Gothic Quarter, Barcelona |
 |
| Columbus Monument |
We then went over the La Rambla, which is a very beautiful
and famous tree-lined street. We walked
back toward our hostel and stopped by Casa Batllo, a famous apartment building
designed by Gaudi. It was pretty expensive
to tour the inside, but we were satisfied just looking at the façade.
In the late afternoon we took the metro out to Park Guell,
a famous park and houses designed by Gaudi.
We were glad that we booked our entry tickets in advance. While we were going through the gate the
security guards were telling people that tickets were sold out until next
week! Many of the houses and structures
look like they came from a Dr. Seuss book.
Many were covered in beautiful tiles and twisted in various shapes. We tried to rest in the shade as much as
possible since it was still very hot outside and there were a ton of people in
the park.
 |
| Casa Batllo by Gaudi |
 |
| Park Guell |
 |
| Park Guell |
 |
| Park Guell |
For dinner we took the metro and walked down to the port and beach area. We grabbed some food and had dinner along the beach. We ended the day walking by Casa Batllo one more time at night (it was only a block from our hostel).
 |
| Casa Batllo at night |
August 8th:
We rode the metro this morning over to the world famous
Sagrada Familia cathedral. Fortunately
we booked our tour of Sagrada Familia about two months out. Even getting to Sagrada Familia at 9am, the
place was already busy. The cathedral
was just as impressive in person as I imagined it would be. There are so many details on the façade, and
each detail is symbolic in some way.
They are constantly working on the cathedral, with new additions or
towers going up all of the time. We
entered through the Nativity façade.
 |
| Sagrada Familia |
 |
| Sagrada Familia |
 |
| Nativity Facade |
The interior is amazing! The columns resemble trees and the light coming through the stained glass almost makes it feel like you are standing in a giant forest. We spent time walking through the cathedral and listening to our audio guide. Once we were finished inside, we exited through the Passion façade and admired the details on that side of the cathedral. The statues and carvings are very sharp and rigid on the Passion façade. After that we made our way to the museum located under the cathedral. It did a really good job describing how Gaudi designed the cathedral and how some of the elements of the cathedral couldn’t be built until now, since the technology to build those parts of the cathedral didn’t really exist in Gaudi’s day.
 |
| Passion Facade |
In the late afternoon we walked back down to the Barcelona
cathedral to see if we could get in for free (we were told that you could go in
for free after 5:30pm to worship). Nope,
they were still trying to get you to buy tickets, which seemed a little steep
to go in the cathedral. We walked back over
to La Rambla looking for a place to eat, but ended up back at our hostel, which
had a restaurant that had some pretty good pizza. We then walked back to Placa Catalunya, where
Elise got a chance to show off some of her piano skills on a public piano in
the plaza. By this time the kids were
tired, so we dropped them back off at the hostel, while Becky and I took the
metro back over to Sagrada Familia to see it all lit up at night. We finally made it back to the hostel around
11pm and were exhausted!
 |
| La Rambla |
 |
| Food Market |
 |
Royal Palace, steps where Columbus first came back to the old world
 | | Sagrada Familia at night |
|
August 9th:
We got a very early 3am early start so we could walk and
catch a bus to the Barcelona airport. After
a quick, two-hour flight to Frankfurt, Germany and a two-hour layover, we
boarded our 10-hour flight back to Seattle.
Thankfully the flight was pretty much uneventful.
No comments:
Post a Comment