June 23, 2017. Friday. Spain. For the first time in our entire time away from Rhode Island, we are sleeping with AC. Well, most of us, at least! I’m sitting in the hallway just outside the living room of our Air BnB flat in Barcelona in hopes of catching a few wafts of cool air. The four kids are all crammed into the living room (sofa bed + two mattresses on the floor), which has the AC. Jo and I are way down the hall with no AC, but that’s mostly fine. We’d open the windows instead, but it just happens to be the St. Joan Festival here in Barcelona, which is also known as the night of fire — meaning that super loud fireworks and M-80 type explosions are the norm. All. Night. Long. Music festival in Saint-Lo until 1 am; fireworks all night long in Barcelona. Because: why not?

Today was another fun day. We slept in just a bit in Toulouse. Our flat was in a totally residential but busy neighborhood, and with all the windows open, we got a lot of street noise all night long. Still, it cooled down nicely, so I think we all slept well. I got up early in search of my cafe au lait and baguettes and fruit for breakfast for us all. We somehow were in a bit of a food desert on the north side of Toulouse, however, so I only managed two baguettes and some other bakery treats. After eating and loading up, we headed to the center of town to see the Place du Capitole – the capitol building – and Point Neuf (which was, sadly, underwhelming). We made a quick grocery stop and were on the road: destination Barcelona, Spain, over the Pyrenees.

The Pyrenees were beautiful. We only saw snow on some very distant peaks, but we drove through several gorgeous valleys and next to towering mountains that had us all in awe. Some of the roads were so winding that we had to stop to give Helena and Harrison (in the back seat) some fresh air and stillness. There were moments that felt like our cross country trip last summer: towering granite walls that reminded us just a bit of Yosemite, and huge beautiful wide open valleys with mountains in the distance that reminded us of Yellowstone. At one point our usually-trust GPS system (a terrific app called Sygic that I have on my phone that doesn’t use any data) inexplicable took us off of the main road and down teeny tiny streets through a little mountain town that our van barely fit through! Still — all the more adventure.

We decided to not drive through Andorra, much to Eden’s dismay, I think. It seemed from the GPS app that there was a backup at the border, and since it is not part of the EU, the online reviews said it can be a pain and take a while. We didn’t really have any need to be there anyway, so we bypassed it. We were surprised, however, that there was no border crossing from France into Spain. Nothing. Not even a sign that said “Bienvenido a España.” But the architecture and feel of the villages changed right away into what seemed to be more typically Spanish. As we descended out of the mountains, it became more dry, and much hotter — in the 90s. With the orange tile roofs and dry mountainous landscape, it almost looked like southern California (or, vice versa, really!).

We arrived in Barcelona in late afternoon. After parking and settling into our downtown flat, we set out to explore the city a bit. We are staying really close to the Gothic Quarter and La Rambla, one of the main streets in the city that is a wide boulevard with a large pedestrian section in the middle with restaurants and shops. It was hot — in the 90s — so the kids wanted to head down to the long city beaches that only date back to the 1980s or so. So we packed or wore our swimming suits and took a leisurely 40 minute walk to the beach through the heart of the city, down La Ramba, past the towering statue of Columbus on the waterfront, through the lovely but semi-commercialized pedestrian zones by the marina, and finally emerged onto a wide but fairly thin beach packed with sunbathers (some more clothed than others, which the kids got a chuckle out of). The water was a bit chilly — 68 or 69 F, perhaps — but it felt refreshing to most of us.

Evenings at the beach in RI are one of our favorite summer activities at home, so it felt special to be able to recreate it here. Around 8 pm we packed up, even thought there was still plenty of light, and walked through the Gothic Quarter with its narrow streets and grabbed a yummy tapas dinner on La Rambla — the first for the kids (tapas, that is). My local beer came in a farcically huge wine glass. Hilarious but delicious. It was 9:30 or so before we really started eating, in true European fashion, I suppose.

The fireworks that began in early evening continue now, close to 1 am. But we are all so tired and grateful for AC that I think sleep has come quickly for everyone.

Peace.