Roadtripping
While I like to think that our family has a relatively international flair, we are suckers for one deep American trait – the roadtrip. Long hours in a car aren’t something we dread. We enjoy it!
Roadtripping in Spain
Given that, we rented a car to travel from Bilbao to Barcelona. This was about a six hour drive, which is somewhere in the mid-range for us in a single day’s travel normally. From the relative greenery of Bilbao, it felt a lot like the transition to Eastern Oregon going over the Cascade Mountains as we moved into drier parts of Spain.
As usual in our family, Amber drove. We found that there were a lot of well stocked, nice rest stops along the way. We only had to pause at one for the kids to blow of steam from an argument and made good time. There was traffic coming into Barcelona late in the afternoon, but nothing too bad. The familiarity of the city helped in finding our way to the place we were staying downtown.
Favorites in BCN
The time in Barcelona was much less focused on sights and more on people. We caught up with so many of our friends, it was amazing. Asher in particular got to have sleepovers with his two besties who he’d been missing. They clicked just like no time had passed – Minecraft surpasses all boundaries of time and space. I also spent time with several former coworkers, some still with New Relic, others who had moved on like myself.
Asher at Dela Crem
Of course, we also made it a point to visit our favorite locations across the city. This meant multiple stops at places like Dela Crem – the best gelato in Barcelona, Vinitus for incredible tapas, even an evening at the Green Room, the “Irish” bar we often met friends at out in Poblenou.
Cora at Dela Crem
Less fun, we dropped into our old bank in Poblenou. We’d kept the account there with a little money in it, but when our phone numbers changed we lost access to log in. That could only be fixed in person. Oops! In classic Spanish-banking style, it only took two and a half hour of waiting to get it resolved. 😰
San Juan
We happened to be in town with friends across the holiday of San Juan. This celebration is made with fireworks and bonfires. Let me tell you, I thought Americans were nuts about fireworks but the Spanish put us to shame! The size of things folks are willing to set off in busy streets and beaches, the bonfires – with fireworks being thrown into them… it was loud, boisterous, and I’m sure injury-prone for some folks.
San Juan bonfire in the streets
Once dark finally settled, we stayed out in the streets for some hours, keeping a sensible distance from the most extreme while enjoying our own batch of sparkly mayhem.
Our San Juan contribution
Katana Experience
During an on-site in Barcelona I had been fortunate to attend, our manager Juanjo had planned an awesome activity – the Samurai Experience. Ever since doing that with my coworkers, I’d had it in mind for my son Asher, who is absolutely obsessed with swords.
Katana work takes focus
Things start with dressing in suitable outfits and learning about the history of samurai. Then you get to practice with wooden swords, nicely balanced and weighted like the real thing.
Amber showing how it’s done
At last, after all the preparations, you get to use the real katana. Those blades are amazingly intimidating! So sharp, you can really feel the danger holding them. We got to make cuts first on a foam pool noodle, then with a rolled bamboo mat.
Asher’s a natural
No huge surprise that Asher was the best of the crew. He didn’t want to leave.
Family war
After the slicing with real swords, we switched back to practice blades now buffered with foam and went to war with one another. Alliances were made and broken, but we all came out laughing, sweating, and not too bruised.
The family giving Asher his send-off
Sibling love (with katanas)
To Menorca
Our next stop after Barcelona was a trip to Menorca, one of the Balearic islands. And yes, that is Menorca, not Mallorca. A much chiller vibe, with less party and excessive resort culture.
We shared this stage of the trip with our dear friends Ben and Anna who live in Barcelona. We all got up early for the flight to the island. Once landed, we gathered our luggage and the rental car. After a lunch down the hill from our villa, Ben and I ended up hiking up the hill for reasons of vehicle and luggage space. This was soon regretted in the heat.
Still, the destination was worth the trek. The villa behind sliding gates had a large outdoor space with a pool, a huge porch, and lovely views of the sea.
View from our villa in Menorca
Even more exciting, we had a guest (or were guests of?) in the form of a turtle quickly nicknamed Tortie. The kids have a soft spot for our shelled friends, so tracking, feeding, and otherwise enjoying our reptile companion was a highlight of the time.
Our villa’s resident turtle, nicknamed ‘Tortie’
The villa had a barbecue area which Ben and I tried to use. We were a little shy on fuel and then the evening winds kicked up. We ended up finishing the chicken inside on the stove top. Meals were taken outdoors at a shaded table on the porch.
One of our main outings was to playa de Fornells, a beach with shallow warm water that was a pleasure to wade into. After much begging we also rented a paddleboard that Cora enjoyed taking out a rather long ways from shore. We drifted and watched her skitter across the smooth water.
Playa de Fornells
We largely cooked for ourselves at the villa, but one night took a reservation at Sa Punta, a restaurant in Es Castell that came highly recommended. It didn’t disappoint. Located on the narrow end of a spit of land out into surrounding bays, the views from the restaurant were awesome. Parking was tough, but Amber is my road warrior and got it done.
Night view from Sa Punta
The meal was fresh and exciting, with so much good seafood and everything perfectly prepared. We dressed up sharper than usual, and for the kids it was a higher class restaurant experience than they’d had in a long time… maybe ever.
Cora looking fabulous at Sa Punta
My ladies at Sa Punta
Good food, good friends at Sa Punta
Another highlight on the island was that it had a couple of prehistoric sites with structures called talaiot to visit. These large stones were stood up in the late second millennia BC, and we stomped around for quite a while in the heat viewing them.
Prehistoric (talaoit) monuments in Menorca
It’s humbling to see areas like this, ruins of a culture that I’d never even heard the name of before, but that have endured across so many years. We imagined what it was like to live on this island so long ago, when getting there wasn’t a quick airplane trip across the water, when subsisting in the arid climate must have been its own sort of struggle.
Underground at the talaoit site
Our final beach trip was to a location a bit more off the beaten track which turned out to be a lot more out of the way than expected. First the Google maps were kind of misleading, so we got turned around trying to find the access. Perhaps because of that mix-up, the path in was nearly a kilometer with a lot of hills, which wasn’t awesome with three of our party struggling with knee problems. After all that, the water was super wavy and clogged with so much seaweed that I was still finding it in my shorts days later. Guess not every beach is a winner.
That brought us to our final days on Menorca. We ended up flying out on June 29, our anniversary, for Lisbon. Packing and airports, always the best way to celebrate another year of wedded bliss!