Since arriving in Barcelona we’ve been laying pretty low. Ryan came down with a bit of a cold right before we got here and the bus ride made it even worse, so the first afternoon we were here we just relaxed, napped, and got him some medicine.

The next morning we set out to see Sagrada Familia, but found that they were already sold out of tickets for the day so we booked some for the following day. Luckily for us, we are staying two blocks from it, so we got to see the outside every morning and afternoon when we walked past it! It is seriously amazing. Without being able to go inside that day we made a new plan and headed towards a park Ryan found on the map so we could just enjoy the beautiful day without doing anything too strenuous since Ryan wasn’t feeling well.

Along the way we found the Arc de Triomf which was amazing to gaze at and found a huge fountain in the park as well. We didn’t realize what we had stumbled into. We spent a long time at the park enjoying the day and people watching and talking about all the adventures that we’ve had over the past ten weeks!

We finally left the park when we started to get hungry, heading to a nearby cafe Ryan had found on Yelp called Alsur Cafe. When we got there, we accidentially came in through the side-door, but quickly got seated. We were both really surprised with how amazing the food was – Becca got an avocado toast, and Ryan got a skillet with pulled pork, salsa, avocado and an amazing chipotle aioli. We also got some great drinks, a Rooibos Chai Tea Latte and a Cortado, all for €20! It was a great meal that left us stuffed as we made our way back to the Airbnb, laying low for the rest of the day.

The next morning, we left for Park Güell, wanting to get out and do something before our timeslot at Sagrada Familia. We were on our way there when we spotted another really cool looking museum, detouring to stop and admire it. We then slowly made our way to Park Güell, as it was a fairly constant incline on the way there. We finally made it to the end, only to be met with tons of tourists filling the park.

We were glad that we went to the park despite deciding beforehand that we wouldn’t go into the paid area. The park itself was really neat and there was much more than we expected that we could see for free! We explored the interesting architecture spread throughout the park until the number of people became too overwhelming and we headed back towards our airbnb.

We stopped for sandwiches at a place called Toast Amore on the way back and were surprised to receive huge toasted sandwiches the size of our faces. They were super tasty, but Becca felt stuffed for the rest of the evening from eating too much. Here is a photo with Ryan’s face for scale.

It wasn’t too long before we walked over to our neighbor, Sagrada Familia, for a visit. We had heard from many people that there was nothing quite like it, but we had no idea until we stepped foot inside. We were stunned by the beauty and interesting aspects and quirks of the building. Light was streaming in the mutlicolored windows and dancing on the floor and we stood completely amazed taking it all in.

We spent about an hour and a half both walking around, and also just sitting and talking and staring at the building. It was a nice place to be, so why head back to our airbnb when we could be surrounded by the beautiful interior? When we finally decided to leave we struggled to find the exit, but managed to get out.

We stopped by a grocery store before heading back to the airbnb (even this proved to be a challenge as it was a Sunday and all of the stores were closed). We grabbed some easy food and headed home, watching some of a movie called Kubo before heading to sleep.

The next day we decided we wanted to go to Mercat La Boqueria for lunch, so we set out for that part of town early. We arrived to the market ready to find some food for lunch, but were met with a difficult challenge. The market wasn’t set up super well for lunch, as the food options consisted of cones of meat, very expensive seafood dishes, and various candies – leaving us a little dissatisfied with our choices.

So we decided to set out for greener pastures and found a great cheap place for food… another Alsur Cafe! However, don’t be alarmed, they were actually quite different in the foods they offered, and we got some great brunch. Becca got an egg, mushroom and corn scramble and Ryan got a maple-chicken-bacon-pancake! They were wonderful and allowed us to use up the last of our cash!

After lunch we headed to another park Ryan found (Ryan LOVES suggesting parks whenever we are brainstorming) which we saw online that had a succulent garden so we set out on a 30 minute walk. The walk turned into a hike when we realized that the park was directly up. We walked up so many stairs! We finally found a nice spot in the shade with a view out over all of Barcelona and weren’t so sad about the hike up anymore. We got out our books and read for an hour or so, stopping intermittantly to enjoy the views and watch the gondala go by over our heads.

We set out again to look for this succulent garden (spoiler we never found it) and wandered around finding ourselves back at the places we’d already been to until we decided it was time to give up and head back. We pulled up maps and saw that it would be 1 hour and 8 minutes to walk back. It was a long and very sweaty walk, but we made it – stopping to grab some food from the store on the way.

We got back just in time to check in for our flight (how is it already time to go home!?) and then spent the evening packing for the last time and getting everything ready to go. It really is bittersweet to leave, we’ve had so many amazing adventures and are heartbroken to go, but are so looking forwards to getting home and seeing all of you people we love!

We woke up early this morning to take the metro to the airport leaving with extra time because Ryan’s mobile boarding pass wasn’t working- citing that we needed to have his passport checked at the airport. Unfortunately this was for our second leg – from Heathrow to Seattle, so we wanted to try and get it sorted at the Barcelona airport before we left as we likely wouldn’t be able to find someone to print him a boarding pass once we were at Heathrow since we would just be switching terminals.

We arrived at the airport and a very kind woman helped us to get all of our boarding passes in order. We went though security and everything took way less time than we had allotted for, so we relaxed for an hour or so before the flight.

We were the first people in line for the plane…. in boarding group 5 (Of 5), but made it on the plane with our luggage easily.

The flight was really easy- a quick 1.5 hour hop to London Heathrow and we got in a bit early. We took the shuttle to terminal 5 and we could see the restaurant we had been dreaming of eating at- Wagamama! (we were super hungry by this point). However Ryan’s bag was pulled for an extra search behind 7 or 8 other bags and we had to wait for 45 minutes before they finally searched it and we were on our way. We did get to watch a lot of silly people have their bags opened to find loose liquids instead of putting them in the required bags! One woman had 25+ liquids which they made her pick and choose from to take on the flight and another woman had a chobani yogurt that they made her eat in front of everyone without any utensils. It was pretty funny.

We just finished up a great lunch at Heathrow and are waiting for our gate to come up for our last flight home!

Thanks for sticking with us all this time and reading about our ups and downs through these past ten weeks! We will have a few more posts, but it does feel like a bit of an ending! Wish us luck for our long day of travel! Just one more flight stands between us and Seattle!