Semana Santa and Easter

Our Friends, Jose and Ana, at their apartment. Gabe met Jose on his Antarctic cruise 10 years ago! Jose and Ana and their son, Alvaro, have been to Indianapolis a few times. They stay at the Riley Towers and enjoy Midwestern living while Gabe and Jose do research.
The Children's procession

The end of the procession with a float carried by people underneath

Chelsea and Alex came to visit. They had just been to England, Barcelona and Madrid. We had fun listening to their adventures. We showed them the nice slow life of Salmanca and some of the processions. They took the kids running along the river.

The kids are so happy to have cousin Chelsea visiting!


Luckily the Easter Bunny found our apartment in Salamanca and brought chocolate for all..

Our Apartment

We thought you might like to see some pictures of our apartment in Salamanca.

Ella returning to our apartment from the plaza

Gabe at the front door of the apartment building--notice the #5

Our Kitchen and Kitchen Table



Living room/Homeschooling Room

Bedroom/Office

Ella's Room

Back in Salamanca

We have been back in Salamanca for over a week. We are really enjoying the view from our apartment and exploring Salamanca. Soon it will be Semana Santa--the holy week with processions with the different stations of the cross. We are currently studying Spanish history and the history of Semana Santa. Next week we will be going to Galicia to see Santiago del Compostela.

Barcelona

Plaza de Espana

Museo de Catalunya

Ella with a Barcelona look!

Circus in the old City

Chocolate Museum

White Gorilla in chocolate

Public Water Fountain and the Castle draw bridge

Peter







Gabe had a science panel meeting in Barcelona so the kids and I tagged along. We visited Barcelona 6 years ago when we were last on Sabbatical. We thought we had seen most of Barcelona last time, but left this time feeling we still have so much to see. We flew from Salamanca to Barcelona and took a bus to our hotel which was right near Plaza Catalunya. Our first night we ate at 4 Gats—Picasso’s old hang out. We had a great location and a room big enough for all of us and free breakfast.
The first day, Gabe was free so we all went to the Plaza Espana and the area around the Catalan museum. Gabe took the kids to the aquarium and I visited the Corte Ingles--which is one of the world’s largest department stores (so they say). Outside of our hotel was a pedestrian street that was lively with walkers, protestors and musicians.
The next morning the Barcelona marathon passed by our balcony, so we looked out in comfort at the sweating runners at about the half way point. We then went to the old city and saw an outdoor circus. Gabe then had to go to work. The kids and I visited the chocolate museum, where we saw a replica of the white gorilla in chocolate and many other amazing chocolate sculptures. The white gorilla died about a year ago, but we saw him last time—he was the only white gorilla in the world. Later we went to the Picasso museum.
On Monday, we got on a tour bus as the normal buses were on strike. We rode around on the top of an open air bus. We saw the works of Gaudi, Plazas, the soccer stadium, Montjuic, and many sites until we got off the bus and went to the zoo. The Barcelona Zoo is amazing because it seems at any moment you could plummet to your death or be eaten by animals. We had part of our lunch eaten by birds, but enjoyed all the animals.
We again rode on the top of the uncovered bus the next day in rain and wind. We went to the la Sagrada Familia (famous cathedral built by Antonio Gaudi), but it was so windy we couldn’t climb the stairs in the towers. We then went to the castle at Montjuic. The boys loved the military museum. We happily hailed a taxi due to the freezing wind.
The day we left we were able to go to the Salvador Dali museum which was small, but very impressive. Ella loved his horse drawings. Clay loved his ones of Dante’s Inferno. No home schooling during our stay in Barcelona, but I think we learned a lot.