Train in Spain

We traveled from Barcelona to Madrid by high speed train. We were all excited. The kids love trains.

The boys spent the entire ride looking out the windows and tracking us on the map. They were fascinated by how fast we were going.

The girls get motion sick. We spent the entire ride much like this.

Upon arrival we walked out and found this giant baby head. She was feeling better on steady ground and was more than willing to pose for a photo. He just wanted to stick his hand up the baby's nose. Yeah, he's 4.

There are turtles in the station. We watched them for quite awhile.

Casa Batllo

When we travel some stops are for the kids - see last Friday's post about the dragon playground. This was one of my suggestions. If you like unique architecture or hate straight lines/walls, this is the place to be.

The outside of the house really stands out.

From the inside looking out. We have so many photos that just didn't turn out right. In a picture, our brains assume thing are straight lines and when you can't see the depth this house loses much of it's charm.

Even the back patio when confined by straight walls due to neighbors has rounded edges and things coming out.

Walking down the hallway listening to the audio tour.

From the roof you can see how every element possible is made round, curved, or mosaic-ed, often all three.

This is still a house people live in so there are parts close to the public. There are just so many amazing details from the elevator, the door knobs, even the laundry room, that I can't include here. It was well worth the price of admission and the wait to get in. It also offered a change in perspective for our kids. They started drawing houses with round walls, mentioning architectural features they had never noticed before, etc. I love when we travel and it expands their minds to things they had never even known they might be interested in.

Lunchbox Giveaway

Just in time for school I'm giving away a set of 2 colorful lunchboxes. These are divided into three sections and you can choose if you want to use all 3, less than 3, or just the outside part of the box. I simplify lunches by packing a fruit, a vegetable, and an entree. Many people create cute foods (just search bento and you will be amazed), but I don't have time for that.






a Rafflecopter giveaway

Dragon Playground

Urban playgrounds often become predictable. This wasn't true in Barcelona. This awesome sculpture/play structure was surrounded by concrete and one of the coolest things ever.

Sweet Daughter is posing on the bench/dragon's tongue. Sweet Son is running into it's mouth/up the stairs.

What's at the top of the stairs? The slide down the tail. This is a huge slide - easily more than 2 stories. Luckily it was morning and not too hot because I imagine this could burn fairly quickly. 

This sculpture looks cool no matter what angle you are going for, but none of them are easily captured by camera. This is what the kids did when we told them to act like a dragon for the photo.