We just came back from a week in Barcelona with, you guessed it, the kids. Ever since I saw photographs of Gaudi's buildings (like the Sagrada Familija, Parc Guell and the Casa Batllo above), Barcelona has been on my list of must-sees, which is sort of a good thing and sort of a bad thing if you are traveling with small children. As many of you know all too well, kids (especially 2-year-old boys) don't exactly like to wait in line or look at buildings, which is a problem if Mom has come to the city to do exactly that. I should have re-read my post about visiting Rome last year before we left and reminded myself that the key to successful big-city traveling with kids is to lower your expectations. You will not, I repeat, will not, get to take your Lonely Planet and make check marks next to every museum and architectural gem. You will, however, begin to see bus rides as a highlight of the day (especially in Barcelona with their terrific bus system) ...
... eat way too many sweet things to appease the feet of tired children (this shot is from La Pallaresa and those mugs are filled with melted chocolate below all that whip cream and you are encouraged to dip the deep-fried churros in said chocolate. My kind of place) ...
...and do many kid-centered things that you would other wise never have dreamed of doing. Like rent those goofy-looking family bikes and pedaling along the beachfront on a gorgeous New Year's Day (note that shortly after this picture was taken Julian fell in the cold ocean and cried the rest of the morning about having "owie sand" in his pants because I forgot to bring him a change of clothes):
You might also go to the zoo and see the dolphin show, which turns out to be fantastic, ...
... watch the kids run like caged animals finally released from their captors around pedestrian placas, ...
... spend way too much time at playgrounds wondering if you really spent all that money to push swings 1000 miles from home, and do drive-by viewings of the buildings and monuments you wanted to see as your kids yell "Mama, that dog is peeing!!" and talk about dogs and pee for the rest of the afternoon.And those are all wonderful and valid ways of experiencing a city, even if they are the antithesis of how you used to approach traveling. Plus, when you travel with your kids and your husband you get to spend your days with the most loving, interesting, funny and sweet people in the world. And having traveling companions like that is pretty darned great, whether you see the Miro museum or not.
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1 comment:
I can relate to this post, Nevada, it is how I felt when we were in Paris with Miles last year. I knew ahead of time that there would be no late nights at bistro's drinking wine with my husband, no calm walking through museums arguing over Picasso's finest art period or waking up late and eating whatever the bakery had left after the early birds took all the good stuff. Rather, we were the early birds. I liked it though. I enjoyed seeing Paris through a kids eye and that meant going to parks that I never would have gone to otherwise, dinosaur museums that I could have cared less about 10 years ago, etc. Your trip sounds like fun and one thing that never changed with me when I had a child and traveling - chocolate. We always find time for copious amounts of chocolate. Looks like you did too!
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