memories – The Good Stuff

New Christmas Traditions

February 16, 2020 Amanda

I’m circling back to the end of 2019 when I was home for Christmas. Earlier in the year during Thanksgiving my family shot clay pigeons and had so much fun that they decided to do it again on Christmas morning when I was home.

We had a great time doing something new all together, and after I spent a few minutes in the pen with the cows, I kept my camera out to get some fun candid shots of my family.

We decided after this pictures that this particular gun was a little to big for me…. I could barely hold it up correctly. But it does make a funny family photo with my sister and dad behind me 🙂

My sister and her boyfriend, and the best (funniest) photo of the day!

But Sawyer and Grammy had the most fun.

Travel Journal

Travel Journal: Doors of Spain

January 6, 2020January 13, 2020 Amanda

Every two years or so, my organization holds a World Staff Conference (WSC), bringing together staff from all of our 15 offices that are located around the world. Our most recent WSC was August 2019 in Barcelona, Spain! For this trip, I also brought along my mom for a vacation after the conference was done and my friend Jodi, who was also attending the conference as a consultant, also joined us for a few extra days. As usual with my travel journals I have split up my blog posts in a way that made most sense to this particular trip. Enjoy!

Catch up on my other posts about this trip here:
Intro – Barcelona, Spain
Girona, Catalonia, Spain
Pals and Calella de Palafrugell, Catalonia, Spain
Palau de la Musica and the Arc de Triomf
Basilica de la Sagrada Familia
Montjuic and the Olympic Park
Gothic Quarter and the Mercat de la Boqueria
Park Güell
Montserrat

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Hey friends, I’m back in the new year with the last couple of posts sharing about my trip to Spain. With the rush of the holidays and the end of the year, plus wanting to check out for a few of those days to relax, I decided not to push myself to try to get these posted any sooner 🙂

Last year, when I traveled to Italy my Mom and I were obsessed with all of the doors and she kept asking me to take pictures of them. I joked that I should do a “Doors of Italy” blog post and by end of the trip I had so many door pictures that I wanted to share that I had to. So, shortly after we arrived in Spain I knew I’d be doing another one.

I said it in my Doors of Italy post, but I think it bears repeating… I think a door says a lot about a home or a business. And like Italy, so many of the doors in Spain had so much character. It made me want to more about the people who chose them, and lived and worked behind them.

Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona, Spain
Barcelona, Spain
Barcelona, Spain Girona, Spain
Girona, Spain

Girona, Spain
Girona, Spain
Girona, Spain
Gothic Quarter, Barcelona, Spain

Near Jeon Leon Winery

Monserrat, Spain

Pals, Spain

Park Guell, Barcelona, Spain

Hope you enjoyed those! I’ll be back again soon with my post on Park Guell.

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And just for fun here are some of my other past Travel Journal posts:

Italy -Six Day Self-Guided Hike, Rome, Venice, Florence and More
Nashville, Tennessee – Girls Weekend
London, England
Estes Park, Colorado
Thailand and the Philippines
Tumon Bay, Guam
New York City – Girls Weekend
Lake Tahoe, Nevada
Antigua, Guatemala

Travel Journal

Travel Journal: Gothic Quarter and the Mercat de la Boqueria – Spain

December 9, 2019January 13, 2020 Amanda

Every two years or so, my organization holds a World Staff Conference (WSC), bringing together staff from all of our 15 offices that are located around the world. Our most recent WSC was this year in late August in Barcelona, Spain! For this trip, I also brought along my mom for a vacation after the conference was done and my friend Jodi, who was also attending the conference as a consultant, also joined us for a few extra days. As usual with my travel journals I have split up my blog posts in a way that made most sense to this particular trip. Enjoy!

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You can’t take a trip to Barcelona without taking a walk through the Gothic Quarter (Barri Gòtic), the narrow, Roman medieval streets that make up the heart of the old city that has been fused with modern architecture to create an unique setting to walk through. Personally, I love to see that charming fusion of the old and new culture together, and the creativity that it inspires. We didn’t spend as much time here as I would have liked as there was a lot of history (including the Picasso museum!) and fun places to eat and drink that we could have gotten into, but you can never get to everything in a single trip.

The Bishop’s Bridge (Pont del Bisbe) that connects the two buildings. Though it blends in with the architecture around it, I read somewhere that it was actually built in 1928.

I loved these streets lamps!

The Gothic Quarter is also home to the Barcelona Cathedral (Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia). It was constructed between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries.

I’ve mentioned before that I love going to markets in every country I visit and the Mercat de la Boqueria definitely did not disappoint! We loved it so much that we actually went twice. It was on my list of things to do, but Mom and I stumbled across on our first day after we arrived in Barcelona in the morning and couldn’t get into our hotel room for several hours. I knew that we had to come back when we had Jodi with us. She and I first met while working at Kansas Pork together so I knew that the foodie in her was going to love it.

I am fascinated by food culture, what items and practices are unique to each place I visit and what appears to transcend across several cultures. Markets are the best way to see this.

In a lot of the cases with cheese they had cute little animal figurines to quickly share what kind of cheese it came from.

Ok, on to the next! I’ll be back tomorrow to share my “Doors of Spain” post! Thanks for stopping by!

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And just for fun here are some of my other past Travel Journal posts:

Travel Journal

Travel Journal: Montjuic and the Olympic Park – Spain

December 8, 2019January 13, 2020 Amanda

Every two years or so, my organization holds a World Staff Conference (WSC), bringing together staff from all of our 15 offices that are located around the world. Our most recent WSC was this year in late August in Barcelona, Spain! For this trip, I also brought along my mom for a vacation after the conference was done and my friend Jodi, who was also attending the conference as a consultant, also joined us for a few extra days. As usual with my travel journals I have split up my blog posts in a way that made most sense to this particular trip. Enjoy!

Catch up on my other posts about this trip here:
Intro – Barcelona, Spain
Girona, Catalonia, Spain
Pals and Calella de Palafrugell, Catalonia, Spain
Palau de la Musica and the Arc de Triomf
Basilica de la Sagrada Familia
Gothic Quarter and the Mercat de la Boqueria
Doors of Spain
Park Güell
Montserrat

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Montjuic is prominent hill overlooking the Barcelona harbour, that has several points of interest including being home to the Olympic Park of the 1992 Summer Games. We went there once on a beautiful afternoon just to explore when Jodi was with us, and then Mom and I visited again on our last day when the Olympic Museum was open. Though we spent a good chunk of time there, we didn’t come close to covering the whole area or seeing everything there was to see.

This is the Catalonia National Art Museum (Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya) and was originally built to serve as the main pavilion for the 1929 International Fair. We opted to not go through the museum but it was still beautiful from the outside.

View of the city from the other direction.

Montjuic is also home to several botanical gardens and parks, so of course Mom and I, the horticulture and floral nerds couldn’t not stroll through a few of those. I loved that most of the plants, trees, etc., had little signs that told us what it was, its age and an interesting fact.

This is the plaza you see looking out from the Olympic Stadium, including the Torre Telefonica Communications Tower that was designed by a Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava to transmit the 92 games on TV.

I come from a big sports family so my Mom and I were pretty excited for this. The Barcelona Olympic Stadium (Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys) actually has a pretty interesting history. It was originally built in 1927 and was set to host the 1936 Games until they were canceled due to the Spanish Civil war. It was used for varies events and needs over the years, including hosting refugees, until it was renovated again in 1989 for the 1992 Summer Games.

Across the street from the Stadium leading up to the Museum are all of these plaques on the ground of the various torch bearers from 1992. Unfortunately, we were a bit underwhelmed by the Museum. It certainly did a great job of capturing the history of the 1992 games and did highlight the various sports events held at the Games and their evolution from the ancient games to the modern games. But it was pretty outdated. I think things were only updated up through the 2008 games in Beijing. But we still enjoyed it and were glad we circled back to visit it another day when it was closed the first time we walked by.

The main event of the day, and my main reason for wanting to visit Montjuic was to watch the Magic Fountain show on the Plaça Espanya. Several nights a week throughout the year there is a fountain water show with lots of colors, lights and all timed to music. It might be a little cheesy, but I really love this kind of stuff. We ended up getting there really early, because I was pretty HANGRY (owning this because Jodi and Mom deserve to be recognized for dealing with me) and everything nearby was closed for siesta. So, we ended up getting dinner at concessions stands that were right there at the fountains and just people watched for a while. But it was honestly a good thing we got there early because it got PACKED pretty early on.

Overall, Montjuic is a fun destination to explore while in Barcelona, especially if you want to get your steps in!

Alright, another one down. I’ll be back soon to cover our walk through the Gothic Quarter and visiting the Mercat de la Boqueria.

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And just for fun here are some of my other past Travel Journal posts:

Travel Journal

Travel Journal: Basilica de la Sagrada Familia – Spain

December 7, 2019January 13, 2020 Amanda

Every two years or so, my organization holds a World Staff Conference (WSC), bringing together staff from all of our 15 offices that are located around the world. Our most recent WSC was this year in late August in Barcelona, Spain! For this trip, I also brought along my mom for a vacation after the conference was done and my friend Jodi, who was also attending the conference as a consultant, also joined us for a few extra days. As usual with my travel journals I have split up my blog posts in a way that made most sense to this particular trip. Enjoy!

Catch up on my other posts about this trip here:
Intro – Barcelona, Spain
Girona, Catalonia, Spain
Pals and Calella de Palafrugell, Catalonia, Spain
Palau de la Musica and the Arc de Triomf
Montjuic and the Olympic Park
Gothic Quarter and the Mercat de la Boqueria
Doors of Spain
Park Güell
Montserrat

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I could recommend only one thing to do while in Barcelona, it would be to visit the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia. And most travel guides, blog, websites, etc., will agree with me. Regardless if you are not religious or into architecture, skipping it is a mistake because it has an incredible history and is beautiful.

The Sagrada Familia is an unfinished Roman Catholic minor basilica. Its construction start in 1882 and it is STILL not done. The original architect dropped out of the project shortly after it began due to differences with developers. He was replaced with Antoni Gaudi who proposed a new, grander design, which has been completed slowly section by section. For the last 12 years of his life, from 1914 to 1926, this was the only project he worked on. Unfortunately, he died in an accident in 1926. When he died, a close collaborator continued his work until 1938 when a fire destroyed the workshop along with all of Gaudi’s original plans, drawings and photos, as well as many scale plaster models. Since then, construction has never stopped and has continued to respect the original concept. As of now, it is set for completion in 2026. That was a very brief history lesson but you can read all about it here.

My pictures really don’t do it justice. I’ve always been fascinated with the amount of detail and meaning goes into famous and historic works of architecture, but this tops anything I’ve ever seen before. We bought our tickets ahead of time for a specific entrance time, which I highly recommend doing, because based on what I read the lines for tickets aren’t fun. We did a self-guided audio tour that took a little over an hour. It takes you around the outside and all through the main level inside section by section sharing the history of Gaudi’s vision, the meaning behind several details and more.

When I shared on my Instagram Stories, I had one friend comment that it was so cool to see it in present day because she had visited several years ago. It made me think a bit about how we normally view and experience historic places and items, and the fact that the Sagrada Familia is so unique in that it is both old and new. I would love to visit again when it is finally finished.

Even though it might be busier, I highly recommend that you visit in the afternoon. Its main stain glass windows are on the east and west sides of the building to best capture the strong morning and afternoon light, and the afternoon light is gorgeous. A friend and one of the farmers at the conference told me that when he first walked in he quickly turned around to watch the reaction on his wife’s face and he said that her jaw literally dropped. I laughed a bit at how dramatic his comments sounded, but friends… I walked in and my jaw dropped. And I teared up. It is that beautiful and honestly mesmerizing. I so wish that I could bottle up what that experience felt like. This place was so big and overwhelming, yet it also felt so peaceful in there. Gaudi took inspiration from patterns and shapes in nature, so his work contained no sharp lines or straight corners. The inside gave the illusion that you were under a tree canopy. This site does a good job of sharing more about Gaudi’s style and the design of the Sagrada Familia.

Again, there is no way that my pictures do it any justice.

Ok, I’ll be back again soon to share about our time at Montjuic and the Olympic Park. Cheers!

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And just for fun here are some of my other past Travel Journal posts:

Travel Journal

Travel Journal: Palau de la Musica Catalana and the Arc de Triomf – Spain

December 5, 2019January 13, 2020 Amanda

Every two years or so, my organization holds a World Staff Conference (WSC), bringing together staff from all of our 15 offices that are located around the world. Our most recent WSC was this year in late August in Barcelona, Spain! For this trip, I also brought along my mom for a vacation after the conference was done and my friend Jodi, who was also attending the conference as a consultant, also joined us for a few extra days. As usual with my travel journals I have split up my blog posts in a way that made most sense to this particular trip. Enjoy!

Catch up on my other posts about this trip here:
Intro – Barcelona, Spain
Girona, Catalonia, Spain
Pals and Calella de Palafrugell, Catalonia, Spain
Basilica de la Sagrada Familia
Montjuic and the Olympic Park
Gothic Quarter and the Mercat de la Boqueria
Doors of Spain
Park Güell
Montserrat

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When I travel I like to do a lot of research beforehand. I like to plan a very loose itinerary that basically includes anything that is a must-schedule in advance experience and then a list of all the other things we are interested in doing with any important info about cost, business hours, tips and tricks, helpful weblinks, location, etc. Then we can choose what we want to do the day of or night before on any given day of the trip. This my way of “going with the flow” but also honoring my Type A personality, because it takes the stress or anxiety out of travel. Organization and efficiency are my love language people.

When I was searching through Pinterest for ideas for Spain, the Palau de la Musica Catalana was one of the top things I saw, as many dub it one of the most “Instagrammable Places in Barcelona.” So obviously we had to go!

Palau de la Musica Catalana

But seriously, look how pretty and unique it is!!!

The Palau de la Musica Catalana is a concert hall built between 1905 and 1908 by the modernist architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner as a home for the Orfeó Català (choirs). The indoor hall, which includes the balcony and colonnade that you see here in the picture is the Sala Lluís Millet (Lluís Millet Hall), and is often used for intermissions.

When visiting, you can join a guided tour and go the route we did and go through it self-guided. I believe both options are 20 euros.

I might have went for my Instagram photo of the columns but the inside was STUNNING. Pictures really don’t do the colors and amount of detail any justice.

I would put the Palau de la Musica on a must-see list when visiting Barcelona. Regardless if art, architecture or music aren’t your top interests its too beautiful to skip.

Arc de Triomf

The Arc de Triomf (Acro de Triunfo) was built by architect Josep Vilaseca i Casanovas as the main access gate for the 1888 Barcelona World Fair. We passed under it on our way to the waterfront for dinner one evening, which also took us through the Parc de la Ciutadella (a park). It was a beautiful evening and with lots of street entertainers, it was just fun to people watch.

Alright, I’ll be back tomorrow with more color and beautiful architecture with my post on the La Sagrada Familia.

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And just for fun here are some of my other past Travel Journal posts:

Travel Journal

Travel Journal: Pals and Calella de Palafrugell, Catalonia, Spain

December 4, 2019January 13, 2020 Amanda

Every two years or so, my organization holds a World Staff Conference (WSC), bringing together staff from all of our 15 offices that are located around the world. Our most recent WSC was this year in late August in Barcelona, Spain! For this trip, I also brought along my mom for a vacation after the conference was done and my friend Jodi, who was also attending the conference as a consultant, also joined us for a few extra days. As usual with my travel journals I have split up my blog posts in a way that made most sense to this particular trip. Enjoy!

Catch up on my other posts about this trip here:
Intro – Barcelona, Spain
Girona, Catalonia, Spain
Palau de la Musica and the Arc de Triomf
Basilica de la Sagrada Familia
Montjuic and the Olympic Park
Gothic Quarter and the Mercat de la Boqueria
Doors of Spain
Park Güell
Montserrat

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Yesterday, I shared about the first half of our day excursion out of Barcelona on a tour booked through Viator (more on why I highly recommend using this to book tours in yesterday’s post!) , and today I’m back with the second half of that long, but fun day.

Leaving Girona, we headed east to Pals, a hilltop village on the Costa Brava that has preserved most of it historical features and is an official Site of Historical Interest. We didn’t have that much time on this stop and I was getting a head cold and this part of the day is probably when I felt my worst, which was a little disappointing because I could have wandered through this little town for hours. As you can see from the pictures this little town is incredibly picturesque and adorable!

Next we headed southeast to the coastal town of Calella de Palafrugell, which is still part of the Costa Brava region, and originally an ancient fishing village. First we ate at the Restaurante la Vela and then were given a few hours of free time to explore on our own. We chose to spend our time on the beach and eating gelato. Mom and I are mountain girls at heart, but Jodi grew up in Florida and is a true beach girl so I know this part was one of her favorites parts of the whole trip. From what I read about the area both before and after our visit, many agree that among the various destinations on the Costa Brava, this is the one most frequented by Spaniards on vacation vs. tourists. Regardless, after a busy and heavy walking morning, it was nice to relax a bit in the sun and the water was pretty warm and clear!

OK, that’s a wrap for today. I’ll be back tomorrow with my post on our visit to the Palau de la Musica and walking past the Arc de Triomf.

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And just for fun here are some of my other past Travel Journal posts:

Travel Journal

Travel Journal: Girona, Catalonia, Spain

December 3, 2019January 13, 2020 Amanda

Every two years or so, my organization holds a World Staff Conference (WSC), bringing together staff from all of our 15 offices that are located around the world. Our most recent WSC was this year in late August in Barcelona, Spain! For this trip, I also brought along my mom for a vacation after the conference was done and my friend Jodi, who was also attending the conference as a consultant, also joined us for a few extra days. As usual with my travel journals I have split up my blog posts in a way that made most sense to this particular trip. Enjoy!

Catch up on my other posts about this trip here:
Intro – Barcelona, Spain
Pals and Calella de Palafrugell, Catalonia, Spain
Palau de la Musica and the Arc de Triomf
Basilica de la Sagrada Familia
Montjuic and the Olympic Park
Gothic Quarter and the Mercat de la Boqueria
Doors of Spain
Park Güell
Montserrat

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Since we decided that we were flying in and out of Barcelona and had plenty on our to-do list there, we decided to not travel elsewhere in Spain or Europe overnight. But I knew I wanted to get out of the city at least once and booking this day trip allowed us to do that! I have used Viator for booking tours/excursions in three countries now and highly recommend utilizing it when trip planning! This full-day trip included being picked up and dropped off right at the front door of our VRBO, transportation in a passenger van, a personal tour guide for our small group (the three of us plus five other people) and a meal at a restaurant where reservations were made for us in advance. Going this route allowed us to pack a lot more in to a single day and not deal with the stress of figuring out all of the logistics, meaning we probably did things that we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to. Plus our tour guide was very knowledgeable and you could tell that he genuinely enjoyed his job. I unfortunately had a head cold forming on this day, so I thought our tour guide was a little annoying and over the top, but Jodi and Mom thought that he was great.

Our first stop for the day was in Girona, which was a little over an hour drive from Barcelona in the Catalonia region. Personally, I was really invested in getting to Girona on our trip because several scenes throughout Game of Thrones Season 6 were filmed here, including the exteriors of the Sept of Baelor, and parts of Kings Landing, Old Town and Bravos. When I was looking up tour options, there were several that focused exclusively on Game of Thrones, but since Mom and Jodi hadn’t watched it and I wanted more than just that, this was a great option for us.

It was a beautiful morning there for us and relatively pretty quiet and not crowded.

The River Onyar

Right as you cross the river and into the historic part of the city, there is this pillar with a lioness at the top (if you ask me it looks like a sloth). The legend is that if you visit Girona, you have to kiss the bottom if you what to visit again. No one who knows me should be surprised that I was not a fan of playing along, but Mom took one for the team.

The Girona Cathedral was used for the closeup exteriors for the Sept of Baelor in Season 6. So think about when Margery is about to do her walk of atonement and Jamie rides his horse up the stairs. I’ve always been super interested in behind the scenes stuff from television and movies that I watch so this was pretty cool.

This is the view looking the other direction from the steps. In Game of Thrones it is not a a small enclosed court yard but instead opens up to space for a large crowd and a view of the sea. Technology is pretty cool.

Girona Cathedral facade

Side entrance of the Girona Cathedral.

Backside of the Girona Cathedral.

The Passeig de la Muralla is a medieval wall with walkways along the eastern border of the city that also has amazing views. We didn’t walk along the walk but we did pop up on top one of the towers to catch the view.

The Girona Cathedral was the only specific set from Game of Thrones that the tour guide pointed out and spent time talking about. Before the tour I looked up what some of the other specific locations were and I am pretty sure that this staircase above is from the opening scene in Season 6 where Arya is blind and begging. Other than that I don’t think we walked by any others that were distinct enough to spot without the dressings of a set.

Its Jewish Quarter, is known as one of the best preserved in the world. The area, “El Call,” is a maze of several narrow, cobblestone walkways and staircases.

Neoclassical building facade in the Placa de la Independencia, a 19th century square in the Mercadal district.

OK, that’s a wrap for today. I’ll be back tomorrow with Part Two of this fun day trip.

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And just for fun here are some of my other past Travel Journal posts: