Por fin, estamos en un país donde hablo el idioma. At last we are in a country in which I speak the language!

Only a fool would complain about traveling in Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland, and France, and I’m not complaining. But oh, what a relief to understand what people are saying and know that I can make myself understood! The woman who let us into the apartment rattled away en español, and I followed almost everything she said. I could ask for what I wanted in the little joint where we got lunch, though after reminding myself for three weeks to say “Merci,” not the “Gracias” that comes automatically to my lips, I’m having to un-remind myself.

We arrived in Barcelona five hours ago, and we will be here for less than 48 hours. All the trains from Arles to Madrid pass through Barcelona with a stopover of several hours, so we decided we couldn’t come to this marvelous city and just sit in the train station. Certainly not when Munchkin has never seen the city of Gaudí. She knows his architecture enough to know she wants to see it in person.

So we have tickets for a visit to Sagrada Familia tomorrow afternoon. (Park Guell would be even better, if it weren’t going to be 85°F.) Right now, Joy and Munchkin are visiting a couple of other Gaudí buildings. Tomorrow morning, we might visit the beach, or explore the Gothic Quarter, and tomorrow evening, we’re having dinner with a friend. Enough to have a taste of this city without trying to cram in more than can be enjoyably seen in two days.

Photo by David Salamanca on Unsplash