Hi!
We had a busy day!
I got the girls up around 7, and because they had done most of their packing the day before, we were all ready to go to breakfast before 8. We had a quick breakfast at the hotel, and drove to the airport. Our flight was uneventful and short, just about half an hour in the air to Barcelona.
Jana had decided to go home with her mom for Saturday night, so her mom met us at the airport. She and her boyfriend very kindly drove us to our hotel, so we didn´t have to worry about how to make that journey happen! So nice of them! Ulrike and I talked about homeschooling and alternative schools all the way, and I look forward to having more opportunities to talk with her. Homeschooling is illegal in many European countries, as are alternative schools. Ulrike was saying the Spanish government wanted to know everything about the size of the classrooms and the size of the gym, but nothing about what was taught or how. Jana´s alternative school for elementary school had fifty kids and six teachers.
It´s been so cool watching Jana speak Spanish with the locals in Palma (and everyone asks her how it is that she speaks it so well), and then to see her speak German with her mom. What a lucky girl, growing up fluent in four languages! The official language of Spain, Catalan, is her fourth.)
We checked in, and the girls wanted to relax a bit and read. But I didn´t want to sit in our hotel room in this new city! So I dragged them out into the heat at about noon so we could walk around. We had some lunch and walked on La Rambla, which is probably the busiest street in the city, and the one our hotel is on. It was fascinating. Lots of artists wanting to draw you. People selling birds and turtles and rabbits. Handcrafted things. Lots of people dressed as very strange things, hoping you´ll drop coins in their can. Very fun to people watch!
Ulrike had said she´s had things stolen from her on La Rambla six times! And all the guidebooks say pick pockets are rampant here. So we´re being very careful. I´m not letting the girls carry a purse. I keep my money in a money belt under my shirt. And I´m carrying only my small camera, hidden by a backpack purse that I hold against the camera in front of me to hide it.
We had asked friends in Mallorca what to see, and one friend suggested Plaza del Rei. It was just blocks from our hotel, so after I let the girls rest in the air-conditioned room for an hour after lunch, we walked there.
WOW. When excavating to build new buildings in the early 1800s, Roman ruins were found. So they dug out a whole block of what used to Roman buildings, and built walkways, so you can walk around and listen to recordings about what you´re looking at. Absolutely incredible. When you take the elevator down, instead of showing floor numbers, the display goes from 2008 to -12 B.C. And it wasn´t all behind glass or too far to touch. We touched and took pictures of things people touched in -12 B.C. I just couldn´t get over it. The girls were amazed, too. We all want to learn more about the Roman empire now.
They had a complex sewer system. They had a bath house with spaces running beneath the baths where hot air was forced through to heat the rocks. They built huge clay pots where they stored a fermented sauce made from fish innards which was very popular and eaten with everything. They used various plants and other materials like iron oxide to dye clothes. They used urine to clean and bleach clothes. They had lots of different kinds of creams and materials for make-up. And a huge area was devoted to processing grapes and making wine. I just can´t describe how very interesting it all was. The girls eventually were ready to leave, but I just wanted to sit there and imagine what life must have been like at that time.
So we went back to our hotel room, which was SO wonderfully COOL from the AC that works really well. Our first AC in weeks. What a delight!! We rested and read for several hours.
Alaina had written a report about fun things to do in Barcelona, and one thing she´d found was a fountain called Font de Magica. She really wanted to see it at night. So we asked the guy at the hotel desk how to get there, and he said to take the Metro. I hadn´t even realized they have a tube system here! So we walked two blocks and got on the tube at about 9 p.m. It took us directly to Plaza Espana. When we walked up from the underground station, we saw the fountain in the distance. At 9:30, they start having light and music shows every half an hour. And was that ever worth seeing!
What an experience. There were thousands of people gathered in the huge area surrounding this awesome fountain. I´m not sure what the building in the background is, but we´ll learn more about it today. I want to see it in the daylight. It was very sad for me to only have my small camera. I might take the big one on Sunday if we go back.
The light and music show was incredible. Claire later said it was the most beautiful and moving thing she´s ever seen, and the highlight of her whole trip. They played the themes from ET, Gone with the Wind, Titanic, and Star Wars, to name a few (interestingly, all American movies!), and the fountain and lights changed and moved with the music. It was just gorgeous. We sat through the first show, and then relaxed there for five minutes or so until the next one started at ten. Then we watched that one, too. I could have stayed for hours, but we were all hungry.
So we took the tube back to La Rambla and found a quick dinner. By the time we got back to our hotel, it was after 11.
I can´t wait to see what Sunday has in store for us here!
Kathy