Barcelona: Sequnda Parte

Last we had left, the group had just finished an incredible and looooong lunch at a small restaurant on Avenue Diagonal. Our apartment was only six or seven blocks away and it was decided we all needed a baby tiger snooze prior to going out for the evening.

Following naps, we all got dressed up for our "fancy" night out on the town. We kicked things off on the rooftop terrace with Cava (Spanish champagne), Brie, and crackers. I have to give props to my husband on this one. This was all his idea, my little host with most.

The sky looked gorgeous and provided the perfect backdrop. Just breathtaking.

The Ladies

Cheers to Barcelona!

Me and My Handsome Man

This is what my face looks like the majority of the time I'm around Jim - laughing; hands down the funniest person I know. There's no telling what he just said.

Me and my girl, Erica miss her :(

Unlike the Spanish who would prefer to have dinner closer to 11 pm or midnight, we were starving by 9 pm. We walked up (and down and back up again) the main street near our apartment before settling on a tapas restaurant with a pretty menu outside the door. I'm still not sure why we picked that place; we couldn't understand a single item on the menu and there was not a soul inside.

But we lucked out and hit the jackpot! It was fantastic! Since we couldn't read the menu at all, we simply walked up to the bar area where the tapas were displayed and just pointed at everything we wanted.

Before long our table was covered in plates. Our eyes were clearly larger than our stomachs but we just couldn't help ourselves. Delish!

The boys weren't about to leave a single tapas on that table no matter how full they were and before long they were suffering from a severe case of the tapas sweats.

"So full.....but can't stop."

After we rolled ourselves out of the restaurant, we had our sights set on La Terrazza - a schnazzy bar and night club on the rooftop of a tall building. We took the elevator to the top, made the rounds checking the place out before setting up shop near the pool. We sat there staring at each other for about 30 seconds before I blurted out "Lord Byron's anyone?" This was just not our scene. A little too "Dragonfly at Hotel Zaza" for us. People were there to see and be seen.

Erica and I had not chosen the proper footwear for a night of walking mile after mile (ok, it was probably only one mile total, but our feet really hurt) so we opted to take a cab....3 blocks. We slipped into some more comfortable shoes and met the group across the street at the infamous, Lord Byron.

We had the place practically to ourselves and spent the next few hours rockin' out to whatever music we wanted. Everything from Queen to Abba to Sublime. Oriel, our new friend and bartender had told us that the place wouldn't fill up until closer to 3:15 am. Sure enough, by 3:30 the place was packed, shoulder to shoulder.

As 6:00 am neared, Erica insisted we stay until then. We were the first in that night and we should be the last out. So we did.

Since we had really only visited a very small portion of the sights the day before, we managed to drag ourselves out of bed early enough to head over and catch the bus tour.

Back on the double-decker bus

With the exception of the Picasso Museum and the Las Ramblas outdoor market, we were able to see everything we had hoped to.

Jim provided the entertainment while visiting the Placa Catalunya...

When the bus stopped for a bit to "get back on schedule," it was just enough time for us Binghams to rest our eyes.

We had dinner that evening at another wonderful tapas restaurant near the Sagrada Familia. More food, more sangria, and a lot more laughs.

From here we ventured over to the Michael Collins Irish Pub just around the corner. Just when Brad and I were about to take a nap on the bar, we both caught a second wind and ended up having a blast.

And because it was now "tradition" we ended the night back at Lord Byron.

Before we knew it, our long weekend in Barcelona was coming to an end. I don't think we could have handled another night in that town. I had slept all of 10 hours....for the entire trip. Lunch, a little souvenir shopping and one last visit to the Sagrada Familia was all that took place on our final day. We said goodbye to Erica who left mid-afternoon and the rest of the group boarded our bus back to Girona shortly after.

Little did we know we had another long night ahead of us.

The only RyanAir flight back to Frankfurt Hahn didn't depart until 9:45 pm. This we were prepared for....what we were not prepared for was the pilot coming over the loud speaker just after we had boarded saying that due to a storm we would be sitting on the tarmac for another 2 and a half hours. Como say what?!

And that wasn't even the worst part. I could sit there and sleep for the next 2 and a half hours for all I cared EXCEPT that it was about 95 degrees on that plane! I kid you not, we had a plane full of people just sitting in their own sweat. It was awful.

Fortunately, we had Jim to keep us (and anybody within earshot) entertained for the duration of the waiting period.

Pilot: We're going to have to ask that all electronic devices including cell phones and iPods stay turned off while we're on the tarmac.

Jim: Yeah, that's NOT going to happen!

We arrived at Frankfurt Hahn just after 1:00 am and still had another hour to drive. Exhausting...but so worth it.

I could not have planned a better way to end our time in Europe. It had been a weekend packed full of great memories and a lot of laughs. Needless to say, we went out with a bang.

Labor Day Weekend - Barcelona Style

Back in July, Brad and I had some friends over for a barbecue. As we were sitting around the picnic table chatting, my dear friend Erica said "let's go to Barcelona for Labor Day."

Alright, why not? And in a matter of days we booked our tickets.

Flash-forward a few weeks and our already crazy group of four had grown to seven. I spent way too much time researching it (like I seem to do with all of our vacations) but I finally found us the perfect apartment for our weekend get-away. September 3rd could not have come fast enough.

Six of us boarded our 7:30 pm flight out of Frankfurt Hahn. Erica arrived earlier in the afternoon and was able to pick up our apartment keys and spend the rest of the day with friends. The thing about flying out of Frankfurt Hahn is, sure, you may pay all of 20 euros for your flight....but you never actually fly INTO the city. So after an hour long bus ride into Barcelona from Girona and another taxi to the apartment, we didn't arrive until just after 11:00 pm.

The six of us wandered around Carrer de Valencia in search of our apartment before realizing Erica wasn't even there. She was out to dinner with her friends (the Spanish eat VERY late) and the six of us were stuck with all of our bags and no place to go. Just across the street was a small bar that had a tiny "Open" sign above the front door. As we walked past, the place looked dark and there were only two gentlemen sitting inside. Ummm, looks a little sketchy....let's keep walking.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing in the next block or so looked at all appealing so we schlepped our bags back to the "sketchy" Lord Byron Bar. Little did we know but the majority of the laughs and great memories from this trip would happen right there at what soon became known as LBs.

It turned out to be the perfect way to kick off our Barcelona adventure. Good friends, great music, and a lot of laughs.

Let's meet the gang - (from left) Micah, Erica, Danielle, Chad (Micah's hubby), Jim, me and Brad

Here is Brad channeling his best Eddie Vedder with the air guitar. This would not be the last we would see of Mr. Vedder and it was certainly not the last we would see of LBs.

About 2:30 we called it a night and made the long trek (and by long I mean directly across the street) to the apartment. It was perfect!

The Bingham's Room

We woke up bright and early the following morning and enjoyed breakfast on our rooftop terrace. We had quite the view...

The plan was to spend the day sight-seeing and our first stop was the Sagrada Familia. If you can see past the numerous cranes, it is quite an impressive work of art. With a total of eighteen spindle-shaped spires and hundreds of thousands of sculptures throughout, it was easy to see why this was Gaudi's masterpiece. Unfortunately, the project isn't expected to be complete until at least 2026....only 144 years after the project got started and 100 years after Gaudi's death.

From here the group jumped on the Hop On/Hop Off bus tour and we headed towards my favorite part of Barcelona - The Park Güell.

The boys posing with a belly dancer

This was the best two euro we spent on the whole trip....it was beyond hot!

As you may remember, I was here back in January with my friend and colleague, Mandy. We practically had the place to ourselves and it was about 40 degrees cooler. And I don't remember the pigeons....

Within two minutes of stepping foot under the columned terrace area, Brad got pooped on. Now this is not uncommon for Brad. I've watched the boy get pooped on at least three, if not more times since I've known him. But this was bad. Real bad. And it landed on his head AND his shirt. After I was able to compose myself, I helped clean him up.....then laughed some more.

Again, we have some of the most interesting architecture. Think Candy Land meets Dr. Seuss.

Following our stroll through the park, we took the tour bus a few more stops to the Avenue Diagonal, one of Barcelona's more well known streets that is lined with shops and restaurants. It worked out that we paid for the two day bus tickets....because we were about to enjoy a three hour lunch which quickly ended our "sight-seeing day."

The menu included an assortment of paella dishes brought out in hot skillets. Let's just say I'm glad Brad and I decided NOT to share. It was wonderful!

And you can't have paella without sangria! Actually, you can't go to Barcelona without having sangria....lots of it.

The day could have ended there and I would have considered it a good marble day - but there was still so much in store.

However, for that part of the adventure, you will have to wait....

A Walk Through Montmartre

Our final day of sightseeing in Paris was spent walking through the Montmartre area. We found a recommended path to take through this hilltop village in our guide book and Brad did a lovely job playing the part of tour guide.

We took the metro from our hotel and started our journey in front of Moulin Rouge. Yes, Brad and I both took turns pretending to be cancan dancers...but we'll save those pictures for another day.

Just around the corner was the Cimetiere de Montmartre, a large cemetery with hundreds and hundreds of massive tombs. Honestly, we didn't know a single "famous" person that had been buried here but we found it interesting anyhow.

Along the way up the steep hill we passed one of the homes Van Gogh lived in for several years in the late 1880s. Thank you Fodor's Paris Guide Book, I would have missed this completely without you.

The streets continued to get steeper and steeper but it was so beautiful, we didn't seem to mind. I hope the parking break on these cars works better than on Brad's beater BMW; could be dangerous.

Another stop was in the Square Suzanne-Buisson where we found the statue of the third-century bishop, St. Denis. St. Denis was beheaded by the Romans and legend has it that he picked up his head and washed off the blood in the fountain right at this very spot. Thus the statue. A little strange, huh?

This is where guide books come in really handy. We were given directions that brought us up to the Sacre-Coeur basilica from the backside giving us an incredible view of the beautiful church. And we had the park to ourselves with the exception of a class of small children who appeared to be on a field trip. It was breathtaking.

When we walked around to the front side of the Sacre-Coeur basilica it was just swarming with people. This was to be expected as you have quite the panoramic view of Paris from the front steps of the church. We walked through admiring the many sculptures and mosaics; unfortunately, we were unable to take pictures inside.

From the top of the hill, we could see the Eiffel Tower off in the distance.

The afternoon was spent popping in and out of souvenir shops in the Place du Tertre. The square itself was filled with artists painting portraits of celebrities and willing tourists. As our self-made tour was coming to an end and it was time to make the trek back down the steep hill, we found ourselves in a small gallery. I had intended to do a little shopping in a unique store we had just passed but ended up going in the wrong door and before we knew it, we had picked out a beautiful painting by a local artist. It's my favorite souvenir from the trip.

Exhaustion was beginning to set in so we made our way back to the hotel. We ended the evening with a lovely dinner at a sushi restaurant followed by cappuccinos at a nearby cafe. It was the perfect end to a perfect day.

The following day we were catching our train back to Frankfurt at 1:00 pm so we spent the morning shopping. I was adamant that any clothing I bought in Paris could not come from a store I could go to in Germany or Dallas....I came up empty handed. Fortunately, I found a cute top at a little boutique in the massive train station....it will now be known as my Paris shirt.

And that was the end of our Parisian Adventure. We said "au revoir" to Paris.......and "hola!" to Barcelona!