"Three Days in Rome"

Wait, isn’t that a Sheryl Crow song “Three Days in Rome”?  I meant, “Three Days in Barcelona”… excuse me, Bar-the-lona.  Once again, little A and I tagged along on one of G’s business trips for the adventure.  George and I have experienced Barcelona many times before and LOVE it there, but Alexa has never been to Spain… so off we went.  Alexa is becoming a super star road trip queen.  6+ hours in the car and barely a peep.  I wonder how many times she can watch “Finding Nemo”, “Happy Feet”, “Barney”, “Dora” and “Go Diego Go” before she has a mental breakdown… or before I have one.  Day one, while G was working at MB92, Alexa and I decided to explore the Barcelona Aquarium.  Now, anyone who knows me knows I do not agree with any animal “parks” used for human entertainment.  Zoos, animal circuses, and marine style parks with Orcas and Dolphins included, but rescue/rehabilitation animal parks and open water aquariums do seem okay to me.  I mean, in open water access aquariums on the coast the fish and sharks have the freedom to leave the aquarium if they so choose to, right?  Well, sadly, Alexa and I discovered most, if not all, of the Barcelona aquarium tanks are enclosed and quite small and none of the fish are there due to rescue and rehabilitation efforts.  And worst of all, they have a small enclosure with Humbolt penguins.  They might not be the exact same penguins we’ve been watching over and over in Happy Feet, the Emperor and Adelie penguins, but to us PENGUINS ARE PENGUINS!  SENTIENT ANIMALS WITH FEELINGS AND THEY BELONG IN THE WILD WITH THEIR FAMILIES!  At least they had some animal-free educational attractions for the kids as well.

After our L’aquarium experience, we cautiously absorbed entertainment of Las Ramblas, ate tapas and paella, played in the Olympic Park, enjoyed the Magic Fountain of Montjuic, chased pigeons, visited Gaudi’s Cathedral, Mommy experienced some inspiring moments at the Museu Nacional D'art de Catalunya, and we took the open-top tour bus all around the city.

Oddly enough, in the land of “good coffee”, Starbucks litters the streets of Barcelona.  I considered getting a venti half calf soy latte or a venti decaf iced soy latte or even going crazy and getting a frapaccino, but ultimately I avoided the temptation to cave into my state-side addiction.

The trip home was uneventful except for our mid trip petrol, toilet and food stop.  We somehow wound up inside of a “McDeath” aka McDonnalds.  I have to admit, I honestly haven’t stepped foot inside a McDonnalds in so many years I have no idea when the last time was.  Easily over 12 years ago, so I really don’t have anything to compare this experience with, but when did McDeath start doing everything on computers?  You walk in and instead of ordering your food from a counter person, you go to a computer booth set up in the center of the restaurant like the e-ticket machines at the airport, stick in your credit card and punch in your own order.  Not that it is a bad thing, just something else new to experience.  While G waited for our nasty so called food, Alexa and I decided to play in the germ infested play area.  There were no slides, no obstacle coarse, no basket of balls to slide into like I remembered from my childhood.  Instead there was a cartoon about chickens in French playing and a game where you had to match the animal with the “food” humans use the animal for.  I have to admit, it was disturbing.  We left with our pile of greasy pomme frites and 10 day old sliced apples and grapes and jumped back into the car to drive the last three hours back to Juan les Pin.