Adios Barcelona. Bonjour France. Written July 26 Posted August 25

We had the most wonderful time in Barcelona.  We went to the Joan Miro museum, the Picasso museum, the Olympic museum and Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia. We ate paella on the beach with my cousin, swam in the Mediterranean, enjoyed tapas every night and even took in the national ballet of Spain performance at the Teatre Licieu. We became experts of the Metro, are gelato twice and desserts more. Our favorite breakfast was at the Merkat Boqueria yesterday when we bought cheese, bread and fruit. My cousin, Josh, walked us all around the city from the Gothic neighborhood to the Born to our home base at Paseif de Gracia to the Magic Fountain at night. We even made a friend from Brooklyn who referred to us as "warm" in her blog. It was so hard to say "Adios" and hope it is just "Until we meet  again." 

After a day of traveling on the train, we have arrived at my aunt's house about 20 minutes from Brive. It is indescribably beautiful here. We enjoyed our first home cooked meal in many days and are now ready to relax a bit and get to know the French countryside with family before moving on to our last stop of this excellent, unforgettable trip.

The Metro

Joan Miro Museum

Also at the Joan Miro Museum

Testing our jumps at the Olympic Museum

An exhibit on the role of sports in comics/graphic novels 

One of our beloved authors in Spanish. I was bummed I couldn't find Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library OR The Crossover. 

Here are a few more we found:

In Lagleygeolle at my Aunt's house!  The view from Tari's window.

Another view out of Tari's window.  Photo credits to Tari.

Zooming in from Tari's window.  Ahhh...the beautiful French countryside.  Does it get any better than this?

The Leaping Librarian on Holiday Part 1

Hola! 

Greetings from Barcelona! 

I have been saving to take my daughter on a trip to Europe (originally it was just Paris) since I read an article in our local paper when she was 4 years old. Now she is 12 and we made it! 

We arrived yesterday and put in a full day. We are staying at Hotel Praktik Bakery. Yes! That means there is a full fledged bakery when you walk in! We tried it for lunch and it was quite yummy! Here I am:

To push through our jet lag, we took the hop on hop off tour bus which we didn't really just stayed out on. It was a great way to see the WHOLE city and learn some interesting facts, too. I had out the route map, circled where we want to explore more and even jotted down some notes. I found out the Barcelona Futbol Club was founded in 1899 and the stadium can hold 100,000 people. There are more than 100km cycle lanes here and more mopeds are registered here per capita than any other city in Europe. You see them everywhere! It's really cool to see the women ride them!  We need to  get to the Jardins because all the gardens are names after poets who wrote in Catalan. 

Speaking of poets, we got off the bus a little and explored the Barri Gotic neighborhood and stopped by the Museu de la Xocolata. Delish! Your entry ticket is a dark chocolate bar! Too bad we can't bring home any souvenirs from there. 

And why did I say, "Speaking of poets?" because I'm crazy and bought an extra copy of "The Crossover" with me and will be posing with it throughout. Here I am with it in front of a chocolate Louis Armstrong: 

  

Not only am I a leaping librarian, but I am crazy, too! 

We saw some great views of the city from our bus:

 

Tari has a real camera with a great eye for photography and is taking much better pictures than these with people's feet and heads in the way! 

Later, on real Barcelona dinner time at 10:30, we enjoyed a delicious meal of tapas here, recommended my cousin, Josh, who lives in Barcelona. We can't wait to see him tomorrow! 

Stay tuned for more leaps today! 

Adios!