Travel with JoY

We’ve been in Barcelona (BCN) for two days now.   Since we live near the top attraction here, the Sagrada Familia, we visited that on the 26 th .   Sagrada Familia is the most spectacular cathedral we’ve ever seen; designed by the architect Antonio Gaudi, famous for his modernistic style in which he used many of the themes of nature in his design. For example, the main columns in the cathedral are essentially tree trunks in structure with a single pillar that branches out as it approaches the ceiling.   He’s also incorporated the design of palm leaves, seedpods, honeycomb, coral, and more in his designs. The cathedral is in its third century of construction   (begun in the late 1800’s) and continues with completely private and anonymous funds (mostly entry fees).   There was much construction in evidence.   We searched after that for a restaurant that we thought we had the address for, but to no avail.   We eventually settled for Bacab a tr...

We are in our apartment in Barcelona, the wifi works, yeah! We're starving so we are going to explore the offering in the neighborhood. Tibetan sounds interesting, although I have no idea what that consists of. We made really good connections getting here.  The Lufthansa flight from Newark to Frankfurt was nice.  They treated us in economy with some of the first class amenities.  Since the plane was half empty we had four seats to stretch out and lay down in.  Slept a bit. So we made seven transfers not counting the airport terminal shuttles from the time we left our home until this apartment. It's interesting to see the contrast between the German 'sensibility' vs the Spanish 'sentimiento'.  Spanish definitely more layed back but things are not as clean and well run either.  For example. Trying to buy a train pass at the airport for the city, the automatic machine wouldn't take a debit card, then it wouldn't take the credit card, then it wouldn...

Today's the day, can you tell we're excited?  Looking at the beautiful snowy landscape this morning, it looks so cozy and calming.  Browsing the internet for lodging in Valencia this morning, it also beautiful, bustling, ancient and stimulating.  Valencia is the city that Joaquim Sorrolla was from and their museum has opened a new Salon of his work.  If you need to reach us while in Spain, please email us at jaccola9@gmail.com.

We've been reading lots of blogs on Chowhound.com about all the great food, especially in Barcelona. Now it's about time to start packing.  I  am actually  planning on checking a bag so I won't have to pack as light as we usually do, a little carryon with a small backpack (for the tenor uke) or a duffelbag.  I'm going to a have real roller bag!! We went out and spent over $50 on Randy yesterday.  Must be pet owner guilt?  No actually we just know how much he likes warmth and since we'll keep the house cooler and he won't be sleeping with us, we got him a bed warmer.  His very own.

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The name of our blog uses the first letters of my name, Jean and Yata's, combined to create Joy....Jean or Yata!  We love to travel and will soon be going to Spain and possibly Portugal.  We leave January 24th. BTW if you know of someone who would love to take care of our super snuggly 13 year old cat for three weeks, please let us know.