Days 8, 9, and 10: Kinder Bueno, Fried Cuttlefish, and Paella

My apologies for the slow posting. There's been scant Internet. Here goes 3 days.

Day 8:

We spent the day in Florence with Chloe and her friend. Because of the number of things we were trying to see in our short stay there we didn't have time for good food. We did, however see Michaelangelo's David, which was pretty amazing and huge. After our day in Florence we took a flight to Barcelona where we got in late at night. On the plane Kim tried the European candy bar Kinder Bueno which she loved, so, in the absence of any good food, it was the days winner.

Day 9:

We spent our first day in Barcelona wandering the streets, eating tapas, and looking at the crazy architecture. We visited the Sagrada Familia, a huge and unfinished church created by Gaudi. It was full of color, light, and detail and I look forward to seeing what the finished product will look like in 20 years or so.

We also saw 2 museums: the Picasso museum where we got the chance to see Picasso's progression from a young talented and classical artist to the modern artist he is known as today and the chocolate museum where we saw chocolate sculptures, learned about the chocolate making process, and tried traditional Barcelona hot chocolate which was deliciously but overly rich.

We had tapas for both lunch and dinner. We tried a variety of small dishes including mushrooms, a goat cheese red pepper and eggplant dish, grilled cuttlefish, peppers filled with cod, gazpacho and calamari. Our favorite was the grilled cuttlefish.

Day 10:

We began a busy day in Barcelona rather late after staying up late for the festival of the patron saint of Barcelona. The festival includes shooting off fireworks (illegally by US standards), and Kim and I almost got blown up.

We woke up too late for breakfast, and grabbed an early lunch of more tapas in my case and grilled chicken in Kim's. Then we set off to see a variety of work by Gaudi.

We started at Park Guell, a park designed exclusively by Gaudi. It included great views in addition to the strange and fun architecture. In my opinion, it was somewhat reminiscent of Disneyland's Toon Town. We also visited 2 houses designed by Gaudi where we learned about how nature influenced his work and the tricks he used to improve ventilation and lighting in the house.

Finally we grabbed a dinner of paella, sangria, and salad before heading on our overnight bus in Madrid. The paella was delicious although I felt that it lacks in saffron.