Flight to frankfurt was 8:30 in the morning, everyone got up ~4/4:30, finished our remaining pack up and took a cab to airport by 5:15 am. Everything went smooth for the most part and we were at our gates well in time.

While waiting at the airport, got some coffee & breakfast. Got to do FaceTime with sis and mom/dad. Everything went smooth with the flight, landed, went through a quick check of passports at the gate and were out with our carry-on for pickup. 

It was soooo good to see Tuli and Samarth!! Samarth was meeting sanjeev for the 1st time and Tuli was seeing him again since our marriage 15 years ago. Their home is just 10 mins away from the airport. As soon as we got home, Bono was so excited to see us and the kids absolutely loved him! R loved petting him and he loved it too!! Was meeting Riti for the first time and Chaiti since she was a baby.

Was soooo nice to hang out with all of them. Tuli has such a cute house, pics of the kiddos, family, friends everywhere. So warm and sweet. Riti had to give her room for our kiddos for the night. Both girls had to study for some exams coming up. They did hang out with us for a bit. Samarath made kadak chai, perfect after our flight.

We headed for a walk outside with Bono, so beautiful near their house. You walk across a bridge over the autobahn and its farms everywhere, bliss for Bono. Kids loved the walk, enjoyed holding on to Bono’s leash. The community has tiny parks for children on our way back, R played on a tire swing for a bit.

Got home and settled in for hot aloo parathas that Tuli warmed up. We seriously overate! We also sample Tuli’s daal, so yum! She has a special way of making it. It was good to eat hot Indian food after a week. We even started with some wine and whiskey. R settled in with some drawing and sketching and didn’t look like she would be game for going out of the house anymore. 

It worked out well, as we left her with both girls and headed to the Christmas market. The 4 adults along with Tanush headed out. It was super cold. I had no idea it could get this crowded but loved the holiday lights and spirit. We walked into a book store first where Tuli wanted to check gifts for the kiddos. There are no signs for English around here and simple things like finding a restroom would have been hard for me without Tuli.

We then went to an indoor store, a lot like Macy’s. Tuli bought an advent calendar for R and Tanush picked a 1500 piece puzzle as his gift, a scene of city in Spain. We then started walking to the heart of the Christmas market, wow super crowded. We first sample some mulled wine, hot and sweet. Felt quite warm and happy after that.

Next we tried some crepes with cheese and ham, a fried bread with cream cheese. Good food to go with the wine. Wrapped up with sampling food and headed back home. R had done well, Riti made some Maggie for her and she was happy with drawing and watching TV. Freshened up with shower and sat down to chat for some more time with alcohol and snacks. Was good to catch up on life during Covid, life in Germany etc.

Went to sleep and had to catch our flight the next day at 10 am. We had some garam chai at 6:30 in the morning and got to the airport by 8 am. Kiddos had some bread as well for very early breakfast.

All checks at the airport were smooth, boarded our flight by 10 am. Just before take off, we found out there was a technical issue. One thing led to another and we were sitting in the plane for 3 hrs without taking off. Thankfully it did take off and we reached SF at 2:45 pm instead of the original 12:30 pm. After take off everything was smooth, kids slept, watched movies etc. 

I finally watched Jordan peele’s “Us”, wasn’t as scary as I had thought but unexpected ending! I also watched “everything everywhere all at once” hilarious! Absolutely loved it 🤣

Phew! Took an Uber back to home sweet home. Ordered in dinner and everyone hit the bed early.

Got good rest, everyone got up around 9 am. Needed to get ready quickly as our drive for the days tour would be at our hotel at 10 am. He called sharp at 9:45 am for pickup. We had a day trip to Toledo which is 1 hr from Madrid. We didn’t get a chance to get breakfast and he told us we could do that 1st thing when we got to Toledo. Kiddos were ok, managed till then. 

Drive was nice and we didn’t hit much traffic. At Toledo we met our guide who would walk us around for the next 3 hrs, but first chocolate and churros! We tried porras instead with chocolate, which are thicker/bigger churros. We met a few desis from Kerala in the kitchen who didn’t know much English or Hindi 😄 our guide told us that 50% on the nuns in Toledo are from India, fun fact!

After our coffee, chocolate and churros (taste was very ok) we started with a drive around the city to get the context. Toledo was the capital city before Madrid, everything here is old in the order of thousands of years 😳 when our guide mentioned a new bridge, he meant something that was 700 years old. 

The drive was beautiful, he obviously knew the right spot for great pics, mentioned many airbnbs now available for great views of this historic city. We then got back to the main entrance to the city and started our waking tour from a central square that used to be a market. The nice thing about everything we saw in Spain was that even though it was 100 years old, everything is operational I.e. people live and work there, it is by no means abandoned and purely for tourists.

Our guide said what he does is generational, he lives in Toledo and his grandpa & dad were guides too. We walked his hotel that is managed by his family. The tour was nice, very typical stone cobbled streets, large cathedral, square with bishops home conveniently attached to cathedral, city hall etc. guide Javi was really good in talking about power dynamics between church and monarchy. Toledo even today houses the boss of all bosses bishop 🤷‍♀️ don’t know enough about this hierarchy to comment more. 

Javi walked us to an old well, that was discovered when the city tried to do some work for garbage disposal underground. It is now preserved and shows us what level the city used to be at. Fun time for R as we cooked up a story about dragon underground. 

We then walked into the church which was mesmerizing. While the churches are extravagant, the history is rich. He pointed so many influences over its construction and how typically a church is built over hundreds of years and passes from generation to generation who have different influences of the time. It had Roman, gothic, Arab influences in its construction. 

It was truly special, he pointed out interesting points around how one of them built something around light coming in through a window, its significance, the stained glass windows and the colorful light coming in.

We wanted to get lunch before heading back to Madrid, so that did shorten our walking tour. We are at a place that is supplied by nuns. The nun bake bread, traditional sweets and someone transports it here. This enabled them to earn money, the nuns do not leave the monastery. 

The food was very yum, we had some ham & cheese and chicken pies and the dessert was super yummy. We bought some marzipan which was not as sweet as the ones you get in the US. We got marzipan cake which was delicious. We wrapped up our tour though it felt quite short. I could have walked for longer. This tour guide was definitely about keeping time. 

When we started our drive back ~2 pm we definitely hit more traffic. Anyway we had good recommendations from Javi on what to do in Madrid. Once we reached the hotel, kiddos and sanjeev rested in the hotel while I shopped in Zara. Kiddos were happy to just watch some TV. 

Zara was amazing, how typical of me to demonstrate American consumerism on black Friday in Spain. I didn’t even know Zara was from Spain, the collector here is sooooo much better. After I finished and came back, of course dad also wanted to shop at Zara, and before you know it we again spend time at Zara shopping for kids as well. The prices are so much better than US! 

Finally started walking to a churro and chocolate shop that is been doing this from 1800’s, same family, same business!! This place had a long line, but totally worth it. The richness of the chocolate, soft and crispy churros were next level. I got an Irish coffee and they are not stingy with the alcohol, I couldn’t finish it even though it was so good. After this spot, we then walked to a nice market that was recommended for many food stalls. It was great holiday spirit and enclosed in glass on all 4 sides. Did a walk to check out all the stalls but decided to come back after walking a bit outside to build an appetite.

The walk was nice, surrounded by more souvenir shops and tiny art museums. We bought more souvenirs, jewellery and hung out at a tiny art museum. R did remarkably well through all this. As long as she’s dressed warm she’s happy. 

We then walked back to the food court place, was super crowded. I had some good wine, multiple tiny bites. Sanjeev and kiddos didn’t have much of an appetite but I made the most of it 😄

We walked back to the hotel, holiday lights everywhere, felt very lucky to experience it all. I don’t think we realized we would get to experience it when we planned the trip! 

Got back to hotel and packed for early checkout the next day. End of Spain trip, so amazing!!!

Got up early and everyone took a shower, ate some leftovers from the last couple days and took a cab to the train station. Traffic was heavy and took a decent amount of time to get to the train station.

At the train station we had to work with broken Spanish and their broken English, relying on hand gestures to figure out our way. All signs were in Spanish. Pretty much like an airport, there’s security etc and waiting at gate. Got in well in time and settled into our seats. Feels like a spacious aircraft, plenty space to keep all our luggage. They had coffee and breakfast service just like on flights, but more comfortable. Kiddos were glued to iPads for the 2.5 hr journey.

Countryside was nice, started to see the formality in the buildings as we approached Madrid. Made our way out of the train station and to the line for taxis. Was a 30 min ride to our hotel. 

Hotel looked really fancy, was super busy and checkin wasn’t until 3 pm. We were there by 12 pm. Zara was right next door, so we planned to spend some time there and head out to lunch and out sight seeing. Left our luggage at the front desk.

While we were at Zara we got a notification that our room was ready. So walked back to hotel to settle in. Room was very nice, fantastic view. I freshen up while kids were excited about sofa bed, they watched tv. There was light rain outside. After getting freshened up we headed out to a lunch place I had bookmarked from Yelp. When we got there it did not look great, only bar seating, didn’t seem suitable for kids.

Saw a decent sit down place opposite and went there. Food was very average, got American food like burgers, fries etc. then walked over to check out the royal palace. Massive and great views of the city. after that took a cab to try out the cable car ride to a park that gives good views of Madrid.

Our cab driver missed exits atleast 3 times, when we finally got there, there was nothing, looks like it was closed for rain? Communication was definitely challenging, sanjeev just adding “o” to every English word and the cab driver speaking Spanish louder when we didn’t understand. Once we confirmed cable car ride is closed, we asked him to drop us to retiro park. 

Rithvi took a nap with all the driving and was very cranky/cold when we got to the park. Had to hold our umbrellas because of the light drizzle. She and dad sat in one spot while tanush and I walked. Needed to use restroom and that was again a challenge figuring it out with no signs in English. Finally found a tiny toilet in the back of hotel and barely made it 🤦‍♀️

Asked sanjeev and R to join us for some churros and chocolate. R was feeling much better now, she had woken up from her nap. Then sat down for some chocolate and churros right near a lake, rain had come down and we enjoyed some hot coffee while kids enjoyed the churros and chocolate.

Walked more around the park, lovely place. Lots of joggers even though there was light rain. We then walked across to visit el prado art museum. Found out it was free all evenings from 6-8 pm and it was after 6 pm by now. Found a very large line but moved quickly. The museum is massive and it’s impossible to walk all of it as well as absorb every painting in there. I walked the most, tanush 2nd. Sanjeev and R sat down after some time and enjoyed the painting in that hall only.

Sanjeev’s colleague from Madrid recommended we try out a sky bar with a view of the city for dinner. Took a cab and mid way due to traffic and road closure the cab driver asked us to get down and walk. Fair to say I was very cranky to walk after all the walking at the museum. We found out today was the first day they had put up Christmas lights everywhere. It was like a mela. After much walking and crankiness from me, reached the place. Thankfully Sanjeev had made an online reservation. The view was very nice as was the decor of the place. The food to me again was just ok, nothing wow. Sky bar was quite close to hotel, but man, this city does not sleep. We were walking at 9:30 pm and everything was still open, including a nail salon with customers inside getting their nails done!!

We’re we’re quite tired, and everyone retired to bed. We used the blackout curtains and slept until 9 am next day.

Day 2 – felt much rested on this day, we had picked up apples and grapes from the previous day. Everyone had some fruit for breakfast and we planned to check out park guell before our tour at 11 am started.

We got delayed and couldn’t spend more than 30 mins at park guell. As Fred had mentioned, the place was super crowded. Walked around as best as we could, took in Gaudí’s work.

Let our guide for the day know we were running late. It was a wine and tapas tour where we would sample 4 restaurants in gothic quarter and born market. To our pleasant surprise, we thought it was a group tour but it ended up being a private tour 🎉

Natalie our guide was great! She’s originally from Brazil but born and brought up in Barcelona. Rithvi definitely liked her, she was great with kiddos. The time was perfect as we had an appetite to eat a lot. This was my favorite guided tour as I ate and drank really good stuff. It was hard to meet this standard. Natalie was also someone you could tell has a passion for food, she knows the details and what to appreciate, the specialty.

We started at the 1st place with cured meats and cheese. Omg so good, R cleaned the cheese and meat plate 😄 Natalie remarked that our kids definitely know what is good and have evolved tastes. She also talked about the skill of cutting the meat so thin you should be able to see the knife through it. The pork meat was cured for 25 days, the salt was perfect. Sanjeev had cured tuna and it was so good! The wine too, the blended red wine was so good too!!

Next stop was a place for pintxos, small pieces of bread with different toppings. This is a north Spain food. Very good again, the drink was apple cider. Sanjeev always had some cheese or fish options and they were really good too. 

Enjoyed walking all across the streets. Next stop was a place where we had cava via a pouron, something that is shared I.e. pouron is passed around for everyone to drink from. Food here was anchovies, simple and yum! 

We then walked to a sit down place, had tomato bread, Spanish tortillas, bravas, more red wine, don’t remember what else. It was really good! 

Natalie bid adieu to us at this point, she herself was recovering from jet lag flying in from Argentina. She gave us gelato and food recommendations. Tour finished at 2 pm, so we had plenty time but also had a dinner and flamenco show at 6:45 pm as well as early checkout next day to take the train to Madrid. 

We decided to check out the cable car ride to Montjuic. Had to walk quite a bit to the port/beaches to to the cable car ride. Beautiful day but feet were definitely killing me. Finally got to the place, bought tickets and got the tickets for Montjuic. Beautiful view of city & water. At the destination we could walk up to Montjuic but thankfully we talk a cab, it was an uphill walk.

Montjuic is an elevation point and fort used historically for any ships that might come to attack the city and has cannons all around to protect the city. It was a good walk and kids had a good time learning, huge square in the middle with a little cafe. R had a good time chasing pigeons. 

Before heading out we got some coffee and snacks. The trouble was there were no cabs around so we had to walk downhill until we found one. Thankfully found one and got back to the hotel without much time for packing for the next day, train at 8:30 am. Did our best, freshened up and headed for the show.

The dinner at Tablou Cordoble was buffet and very average IMO, I was spoilt from all the good food earlier. It was cold dinner. After a meh dinner we then headed to a separate section for the flamenco show. The performance was splendid! I don’t have words to describe it, the music, songs, 💃, such passion and soul! Fantastic!! 

Took the cab back home, wrapped up some more packing and cleaning up the apartment. Barely slept as we had to head out early for the train to Madrid.

Day 0 – took train to sf airport, smooth, got free checkin for additional bags, didn’t sleep in the entire 10 hr journey to Frankfurt, kids slept very little too.

Watched both downtown abbey movies and where the craw dads sing. DA was super funny ❤️ and wtcs is a very good movie!

3 hr layover in Frankfurt, tried to nap with no luck. Boarded flight to Barcelona and landed at 3:30 pm. Our ride to take us to apartment met us and we drove from the airport.

Loved the drive, got to see all the beautiful old buildings on the way. City doesn’t allow any updates to exterior but inside can be completely updated. Preserves the look of the city.

Got into our apartment, comfortable, 2 bed/1.5 bath with living room and kitchen. Sunset was at 5:30 pm, so got dark within no time of us getting to the apartment. Freshened up. Original plan was something else but since it was dark went with the hotel receptions recommendation to walk around, there was a light drizzle.

Walked around, took pics and took in the feel of the city, found a tapas place for dinner and walked up there. Love that the city is all for walking, huge sidewalks and so well lit!

Dinner place we had planned said they can’t take us and gave us another recommendation , sister restaurant right next door. Worked out well, not as crowded, went in ~7:30 pm which is very early for Spain, typically dinner is 9 pm.

Drinks and food were good but dessert was the best, matcha cheesecake and ginger dessert. Walked back to apartment and settled down for the night by 10 pm.

Day 1 – sleep was messed up for everybody, I got up at 2 am, R at 3, T at 5 and sanjeev overall not good sleep as R was up. Kids started complaining about being hungry by 5/6 am.

Sanjeev stepped out ~7 am, got coffee, chocolate milk and pastries. Bread is sooooo good here. Kids gobbled up food and chocolate milk, then started watching TV. Sanjeev went for a run, apartment was right behind the famous sagrada familia church.

Everyone got ready and headed out at 9 am. Plan was a walking tour including tour of park guell and sagrada familia, that starts at 11 am. We were 2 hrs early, so let the guide know and started walking around. The La Rambla is a huge sidewalk with road on either side for cars. It connects to the port so walked up to the port. Slightly windy day, we were a bit tired and cold. Discovered a stall selling tickets to see very old ships at the port.

Tanush absolutely loved it and learned about how people sailed across the world, what they ate, survived etc good way to spend time and then walked back to meet our guide for the day a few mins before 11. Fred was great, very good at helping us understand history and influences. Walked to a square where, I already forgot what he said about it. But beautiful square and today has a lot of Airbnb houses, great spot for it.

Mainly his story centered Guell family, extremely rich family that became wealthy as a cotton textile company imports from US. Then about Gaudi, artist who has built most of the buildings and sculptures in the city + the architect of the sagrada familia.

Fred walked us to the 1st home (or one of the homes) of the guell family, doesn’t look great from outside but his description was that it was massive, each room has a chimney and the terrace shows the different designs of the chimney. We then walked to the famous Mercado bouqeria , was so fun! Colorful stuff all around, fresh sea food! Sample a few empanadas at a couple stalls, very yum! Loved the hustle bustle all around.

We then walked into the gothic quarter, the oldest part of the city, the more you walk inside you are going back in time to the point where the Roman lived a 1000 years ago. The lovely part of Barcelona is he pointed out the influence of some many different empires over time starting with Roman’s, Visigoth’s, Arabs (800 years) and Christian’s. So great that they have discovered old ruins and preserved it.

Fred showed us the store with figurine of the boy with pants pulled down and his poop, perfect store for R to have good time. It’s a good luck sign, pooping fertilizes the soil and gives good harvest. This store extended it to have figurines of all the celebrities. Trumps was sold out, how accurate.

We enjoyed walking all over the gothic quarter, lovely buildings, stone cobbled streets. Fred showed us some churches, talked about historical significance, and then the last 3 columns preserved from the Roman era.

We then saw the cathedral, remnant of the wall surrounding the city and water ducts that carried water into the city from 11 kms away, fascinating to see all the remnants.

We then stopped for coffee at a shop that Picasso used to hang out at, fogatos (4 cats). The owner didn’t have a name for his eat/drink place saying 4 cats wouldn’t come here, so he named it 4 cats 😄 coffee was great! Kids had some chocolate milk.

Walked away from gothic quarter and passed the guell house with the depiction of George (knight?) driving a sword into the dragon, Gaudí”s creation and the story of the squabble between the neighbors to one up each other on how fancy their home is.

Next stop was lunch at 2 pm, tried some cava (Spanish white wine, made like champagne) and really yum. Food was good, tried Spanish tortilla for the first time, much thicker, like a very thick pancake.

R was quite cranky on this walking tour as she had not dressed warm enough and while it didn’t rain it was quite windy. She had also walked a lot, she had something to drink and went to sleep at the table. Enjoyed the food. We then took a cab to park guell. R was insisting to go back to the hotel to rest.

To her luck PG was closed as it was too windy, Fred gave us an overview from outside, got us updated admission tickets for next day. Park guell was guell family’s idea to have a community of wealthy houses in this area, designed by Gaudi. Idea never panned out, only 1 house built and repurposed as a public park later. The one is still occupied today, by a doctor.

Fred pointed out that getting a pic with no people around is impossible, so it being closed and getting a pic of the stairwell without people is rare.

We had admission tickets for sagrada familia at 5 pm and Fred came back with us to the apartment. R dressed warmly this time and around 4:30 pm we headed out. It was super convenient as we just walked 1 block. Fred gave us a historic background and the 1 hour tour was the audio tour. He bid his adieu to us.

He gave us a really good historical and current day political overview. French guy who has lived in Barcelona for 15-20 years, new dad. Talked about the language Catalonia, how Barcelona/state of Catalan are not happy about being part of Spain, Spanish is mandated for them. Would like to eventually be an independent country. Have their flag ready. Seemed to imply that it is more progressive compared to Spain and would prefer to be separated.

Sagrada familia is a marvel, construction has still not completed but started with the passion of Gaudi. Can see the work, faded where it started to the newer part, extremely massive and grand inside. described as a stone bible, 4 sides to depict the 4 phases of Jesus’s life. It’s very impressive but personally not something I can relate to I.e. why this much instead of doing the real good work to help your community. Why this superiority and promotion of a religion? Can’t appreciate beyond a point.

Before Fred left we asked him for recommendations for dinner and shopping. After the SG, took a taxi to born market for the shopping. Drivers go over the stone cobbled streets and are limited in how far they can go, definitely a city where residents walk everywhere.

Was productive, did some window shopping, bought a few tees. Then started to walk to the dinner place hotel Salamanca for paella. Quite a walk, restaurant is a family run place for a very long time and brings seafood from the south of Spain, salamanca.

The paella was next level, so good. Minimum order is for 2 people and quantity was more than that. Delicious!! Dessert was to die for too, there was stuff that was on the house, which was good as well as the tiramisu. If I visit again, i will come back here.

Took a cab back to hotel and this night everyone slept well. We were exhausted with the walking.

Before the trip, we found out that due to covid you now have to buy tickets online for entry into Yosemite park. It was sold out for the days we were there. Two days before the trip, we did get tickets and booked it for Wednesday. Started driving to Yosemite on Wednesday wondering wondering why the air quality was so bad! The park was open but the rangers said the air quality was bad due to a fire very close to the park. Got lunch in the valley, this area is so beautiful but we could barely see anything through the smoke. The ranger had said air quality was slightly better further north and that was true. The good part is we got to explore an area we had never driven through before. Made a note to come back in better times  and visit here first. Kids watched 2 movies back to back in the car 🤷‍♀️. All they had done was eat and sit in the car. When we got to the meadows further north we did a small hike with masks on. Kids finally had some fun even though there was smoke everywhere. Drove back and got to the cabin ~6 pm.

In conclusion, we escaped the eerie orange skies in the Bay Area but couldn’t escape the bad air quality or closures due to covid or fire risk.