The next morning we made our way to the train station. It was really pretty, and we were happy to find a Laudree store inside to get a few macarons for the ride.
It was about a 6 hour train ride from Paris to Barcelona. There was so much pretty scenery to enjoy along the way!
Finally we arrived in Barcelona; Ryan and I were very excited to head back to The Palace hotel. We love this place with its beautiful elegance!
We all piled in to bed to watch an episode of Only Murders in the Building.
We decided to try the rooftop restaurant that evening to keep things simple; we were a little surprised at how busy everything was given how late it was, but then we remembered that dinner is always a late affair in Spain. We enjoyed our time here.
Ryan and I took Lily the next morning to Parc Guell while we let Mia sleep in to catch up on some much-needed rest. We met Aline Spezia of the company Flytographer to take Lily's senior pictures around the park. This park was designed by Antoni Gaudi, and it showcases his interesting style. It integrates into nature so well, and we knew Lily's white dress would look beautiful all around it. Aline was absolutely amazing. She was super friendly and easy to work with. The park gets incredibly crowded, but she was able to position Lily and move herself around, so you can't see others in the pictures which was an incredible feat if you ask me. Aline did a fantastic job, and we are so thrilled with these pictures.
I made a whole other post of Aline's professional pictures, but I wanted to include a few here of her at work.
Somehow this face didn't make it into Aline's pics.
Look at this crowd near the exit! You'd never know it by the pictures though.
Here's some of the beauty we saw around the park.
After our 90 minute session with Aline, we went back to pick up Mia from the hotel and then walked across the street to a cafe to enjoy a delicious brunch. My avocado toast was yummy!
We had a tour of the Palau de la Musica Catalan in the afternoon. This is such a beautiful building! It was a really interesting tour, and it made me wish we could actually come here for a concert.
The stained glass centerpiece in the ceiling is stunningly beautiful. I could stare at it for quite awhile.
We headed back to the Palace after the tour to enjoy a wonderful afternoon tea. This is definitely a highlight for me!
We took a few pictures on some of the stairs since we were all dressed up.
The next morning we took a walking tour of Barcelona arranged through Viator. The architecture in this city is so fascinating and varied. It was a beautiful day for walking too. This was a fun time.
We stopped to eat at the Four Cats Cafe after our tour. This is where Picasso used to hang out and even had some early art shows in here. The girls had also read a book in Spanish class that mentioned this particular restaurant, and Mrs. Hanbury was quite interested in them seeing it. It was a great little tapas lunch spot.
We found our way to the Lego store as we meandered around. This is always a fun store to visit.
We spent one of our evenings at the beautiful Sagrada Familia. After nearly 100 years of construction, it's almost finished! Antoni Gaudi started this project, and it has just kept on going.
We intentionally timed our visit to get there a little bit before sunset, so the sun would be coming through the western stained glass windows. They were lit up and were so beautiful! I could spend hours in here just watching how the light changes throughout the day.
We enjoyed a good bit of shopping while we were here. One of my favorite places was Casa Amatller which is the home of a famous chocolate-producing family. They have a small store in the entryway, and that chocolate was fantastic! I was happy to buy several tins of this. We enjoyed wandering through many of the stores on the famous "Golden Mile," and the girls were able to find some good uses of their spending money.
We thoroughly enjoyed our time in this beautiful city!