They’re swimming!!!

 

It feels like forever but these kids are back in the water!!! Club Natación Riba-Roja has been so welcoming to the girls…and Lord knows the coach David has answered all of my questions so patiently. This felt normal!!!

Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to go be spectators. Leahs first meet was on the 16th. They separated the kids by age group. And they were only allowed to swim two events…and they were required to swim the 200 Free (libre) so that only left one other event. She chose the 100 mariposa…fly!! 

I was able to watch the meet on YouTube. The starts were a bit rough, they didn’t have much for starting blocks and she said she couldn’t hear the whistle to start, but her form looked good.  Her free was 2:26 and her fly was 1:18, and of course it was meters not yards. She had fun and got to know some other teammates so it was a success!

Today Hattie and Kiersten got their chance in Xirivella. It was only 15 minutes away so Mitch dropped them off and then came home to watch. The Grandparents all watched on YouTube too so that was fun. This meet they were only allowed to swim the freestyle or backstroke (espalda). And one of the strangest things for us was that Hatties age swims 75…we’ve never seen that before! She looked really strong on her freestyle, never really died out like some of the others on her last 25. She’s definitely building endurance. Her back stroke start was rough but otherwise she looked really solid. We never got her times but with 75’s it doesn’t really matter! Even weirder than the 75’s was the relays…they used kickboards!!! Leah and I were watching them on the TV we laughed out loud and couldn’t believe what we were seeing. It was strange, for sure. 

Kiersten swam the 100 free and the 100 back and she was on fire! She was so far ahead of the other swimmer and finished first in both her heats. Her 100 free time was 1:20 and her 100 back was 1:25 which is close to a Spanish state time…or at least we think. Breaststroke is still her favorite so she’s looking forward to a meet where she can show’em what she’s got! I hope we get to watch some in person this year. Definitely spring/summer when they’re outside.

Picasso

 We started off our last day in Barcelona at the Pablo Picasso Museum. We needed a slow down after the last two days of go-go-go! It was really interesting. I had no idea he did jewelry and pottery. Hattie thought some of his work was very inappropriate…the ladies needed clothes! 

We learned some interesting facts about growing up In Barcelona and studying in Madrid and Paris. In the 1970’s he had his nephew photograph much of his work so he could decide what to donate to the city of Barcelona. It was interesting to see how many pencil/ink sketches that were saved. His oil paintings were beautiful and so different than the Picasso that we think of when we hear his name. I liked that some of his pieces had a QR code that linked them to music pieces on YouTube. https://youtu.be/S-nouGVybM8

As we continued through the museum we bagan to see more color. We learned about his “blue period” following the suicide of a friend. We saw very detailed pieces he competed as a teenager. One of the exhibits we enjoyed the most was “pigeons”, it consisted of several paintings he created from Sept. 6-14, 1957 while taking a break from another project. The girls each got a print to take home as a souvenir.

After we left the museum we wakes the streets of Barvelina back towards our Airbnb. We stopped at a cafe for some amazing little pastries and fresh squeezed orange juice. When we arrived back at the parking garage the machine for payment had a note on it that it wasn’t working. After ten minutes of trying to figure out how to get out a resident arrived. He was so kind…he went to his car and had us follow him out. At least we got free parking!!! Trying to get out of the city was a bit problematic. It’s a Spanish holiday so many streets were blocked off by police for what we are guessing was a parade. We didn’t stick around to see. We’re ready to get home to our pups who were well taken care of! 

Park Güell

 Park Güell, oh my it was quite a hike to Park Güell but this beautiful place was designed by Güell and the famous architect Gaudí…we had to see it. The girls really enjoyed seeing Gaudí’s mosaic style of artwork. And I really loved the viaducts.

The park was built from 1900 to 1914 and was officially opened as a public park in 1926. In 1984, UNESCO declared the park a World Heritage Site under "Works of Antoni Gaudí”. We were totally tourist snapping lots of pictures! 

Hattie loved the mosaic decorated houses. She said they looked like Gingerbread. I just loved that a nice gentleman offered to take a picture of the whole family. I also really loved that we got a cab going back to our AirBnB…because 26,000 steps by 8pm!!!