Thursday, October 24, 2019

Herbstmesse - Take 3

This is our third fall here in Basel, and that means it is our third fall festival.  It is a favorite of our whole family - rides, food, festivities - it really is a fun time.



I love the food more than anything else.  They serve things that only come out during these festivals.  One of my favorites is the fondue dog - fondue cheese inside homemade bread.  I could eat this every day.



Another is the fried apples.  YUM.



Of course -the kids love the rides.  Between going to the festival with us and then going with their friends, I think they got their fill.





Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Barcelona, Spain - Day 5

Today was our last day in Barcelona.  We had a late flight, so we had the whole day to explore.  We started our day at Guell Park, which is another Gaudi masterpiece.  There are two sections to this park - the part where you have to pay and have a timed ticket to enter, and then the free part behind it.  The ticketed part of the park we have decided wasn't really worth it - we enjoyed the free part much more.  If you are on a time crunch, or if you just don't want to spend money on one more overly crowded tourist attraction - we highly recommend the free part of this park.  It has beautiful views and open spaces, and we found it more spectacular.  







































After lunch we took the fenicular up to Montjuic park to see the views from that mountain top and also to visit the Olympic Village.  Barcelona held the summer olympics in 1992 and there is now a museum (Which we recommend visiting and the cost is minimal) and many of the stadiums still standing.  It is a beautiful park.





Inside the museum they had an Olympic torch from almost every year




We walked down the mountain and found this incredibly large art museum that we (meaning Mat and I) wish we had time to go inside and explore.  It was massive.  The foundatins outside of the museume were gorgeous.  We couldn't get close to the biggest one because they were filming an upcoming BBC show around the fountain.  The kids enjoyed watching the filming




Our last stop was the Barcelona Arena.  It was built in 1889 and was originally used as a bull fighting ring.  It was also used as a concert hall in the later 1900s.  The arena finally closed for good in the 1970s and fell into disrepair.  Only the outside remains - it was refurbished and saved, but not inside is a huge mall.  You can go up to the top floor and get a 360 view of the city (free and outside).  It was a cool place to end our day before heading back to the airport