espana!

7 days in spain was just not enough. spring in spain is gorgeous. we spent 3 nights in madrid, took the fast train to barcelona, spent an afternoon in barcelona, then drove to the breathtaking costa brava, the town of begur, where we spent 4 nights. we WILL be going back... this was one of the most beautiful areas that brant and i have EVER seen. some trip high/lowlights include:

~ we read prior to our trip about muggings in both madrid and barcelona. REALLY common and one of the tactics was for the criminal to ask for the time while his sidekick takes the wallet and they bolt. well, we are traipsing through the madrid underground, get off at our stop, a sketchball approaches brant and asks for the time. i watch as an even sketchierball behind him watches from a short distance. i knew, and brant too, what they were up to. i glare at the accomplice, and brant, after giving the time, walks in a different direction from the two. they 100% were going to try and take brant's wallet, but thankfully brant was wearing cargo pants and had his wallet in a shin pocket. the accomplice couldn't find it.

~ after this incident, carried our stroller and two pieces of luggage up maybe 15,000 stairs in the madrid subway. we did this in paris too, but she was much lighter in the stroller then and we didn't have luggage too. what a workout.

~ at our first dinner in madrid, we were sitting on the terrace along the street and sat next to a group of british women that were having a REALLY good time. they started chatting with us and one of the drunk ladies said, "i had two little ones and know how it is trying to eat with them... i'll take the baby for a walk, so you two can eat." and off she goes pushing lela in her stroller down the sidestreet we were on. since all of her friends were right next to us, we were okay with it. a little. it was kindof weird. she came back after a few minutes and we could see her the whole time.

~ renting our little leon and exiting the parking garage in barcelona, our paid-for parking ticket wouldn't let us out, so we called for help, it now works, but the woman behind us has given us maybe 6 inches of space from our bumper to her headlights and with a manual on a 60 degree incline, ummm... not going to work. i tell brant what to say in spanish to the teller so he can shout it to the woman behind us and all brant does is look at the teller and say, "ella?" which means "she". anyway, i got out of the car and told her to go back, but there was a lineup of cars behind her too. oh my god. we have no choice. he switches gears and instantly floors it - we burn major rubber out of the garage and lela squeals with excitement... and off we go onto the streets of barcelona...

~ our lodging in begur was unreal. it was called hotel aguiaclara and it was the most eclectic, peaceful, little piece of heaven inn ever. we felt like we were in a friend's home. they had a delicious restaurant too AND gave us a baby intercom so we could put lela to sleep and go downstairs and have dinner/drinks for how ever long we desired... this made the trip. why doesn't EVERY small hotel do this? MADE the trip. we ate dinner there every night.

~ in begur, brant went to the little kitchen in our inn to make us some espresso. he put a little cup underneath the spout and began the process. obviously, he had no clue what he was doing (i wouldn't either), because the little cup filled up and it kept going, so he put another little cup underneath...still going, another little cup, i walk by and see a lineup of little cups on the counter and brant sweating bullets. i say, "why don't you just turn it off?" we enjoyed our cafe con leches after that... :)

~ lela ran out of diapers so brant went to the supermarket in town and got her some. unfortunately, you couldn't buy regular diapers in small packs, so he found a 12 pack of swim diapers. she didn't end up needing them until we just arrived back in germany, but what a disaster. every time she wore them she destroyed her whole outfit. completely useless. swim diapers serve no purpose - well, maybe for swimming?

~ brant got me a spa treatment at a really cool hotel near us in begur. when he and lela came to pick me up, from the outside, i look in the back seat, and ask, "where's lela?" brant says, "in the back!" i look in the back again, and see her entire car seat is tipped on its side... ahh! she was sound asleep, but what a scare. the seatbelt came loose on us. not funny.

~ we packed super light because we flew ryanair so we thought we'd just do laundry. in madrid, it was too expensive, so we ask our inn in begur to do it since we were down to the bare minimums. lela was wearing pjs all day and brant and i were wearing our swimsuits for underwear. we have them do it, buuuuuuuuuuuut we forgot to ask the price. when we checked out, um yeah, we could have paid to bring another suitcase for that price. oops.

~ tried to checkin 3.5 hours before our flight, nope - can't do that! not on ryanair. we end up paying over $100 since we didn't checkin more than 4 hours in advance. oops again.

despite our stupidity in many situations, BEST trip ever... costa brava will be seeing us again.

some photos: http://gallery.me.com/sbreilly