Barcelona & Gaudi

On our second day in Barcelona, we took a not-very-quick bus to get a look at the landscape. Sophie took lots of pictures along the way so you can get a sense of the city here.

After a nice mediterranean-style lunch, we went to La Sagrada Familia, a church which has been under construction since 1882 and fully funded by private donations (including the admission charges from 2.5 million visitors each year). The primary vision behind the church was Antoni Gaudi who spent a lifetime on the design and construction until he died in a tragic tram accident. It is a marvel of architecture and artisanry and so unexpected in every corner that you can sit and look at it for hours (which we did). We are struck by the ongoing 123-year commitment to this project. La Sagrada Familia is scheduled for completion around 2030. A video about the church is below.

Just to get the wiggles out of our bodies before dinner, we went to the local square to kick the soccer ball around. Pretty much everyone there wanted to help keep the ball inbounds. Then, we had a short walk and a great dinner at Bar Lobo which features Japanese-inspired tapas. Yum, yum, yum, says Sophie. Adios, Barcelona.

My daughters have deposition skills

So, I dodged the "Mommy, why don't we do more church things?" question at Notre Dame. (Having rarely stepped foot in a church except for weddings and funerals while growing up, I happily cede this area to Ed). But, as my daughters' captive audience, you had to know there were going to be some tough questions on this tour. And, lo and behold, they have better deposition skills than me.

Let me share two scenes:

Scene 1

"Mommy," Anna began, looking up at me while we were getting ready to brush teeth, "I don't understand how a baby gets in a woman's tummy. I mean, how does it get inside?" (She points to her belly for emphasis.)

Oh, sure it seems crazy now, but at the moment, discussing the miracle of in vitro fertilization seemed like a good path. I could talk about science and test tubes.

"But, Mommy," Sophie interrupted my medical miracle lecture, "how do most people have babies, like, without test tubes?"

So, the woman has an egg and the man has a seed.... "And, how do they get the egg and the seed together to make a baby, then?"

You get the drift, right? Be wary of all conversations that start when you brush your teeth.

Scene 2

Anna has a very loose tooth and we are anticipating a visit from the Tooth Fairy. Ever since Sophie's first tooth fell out, the Tooth Fairy has always left a present and a note for every tooth lost. The Tooth Fairy did the same thing for me when I was a child. Back in those days, the Tooth Fairy typed out her notes on a Smith-Corona typewriter that had the same typeface as my dad's. These days, she has taken to the more personal note in a cleanly printed hand.

"Well," I said, having given Anna's tooth a little nudge after gelato, "the Tooth Fairy is going to have to find us on the road."

"The Tooth Fairy is here, Mommy," said Anna. "You're the Tooth Fairy."

"No way," I demur. "I don't have time to be flying around the world, putting presents under kids' pillows. I already have a full time job."

"Oh, yes, you are!" Sophie chimes in. "We have evidence. I woke up one morning and my tooth was still under my pillow. Then, I saw you come into my room and I pretended to be asleep and you put something under my pillow! And, I found one of my teeth in a box in your office. And," she grinned with the coup de grace, "your handwriting is exactly like the Tooth Fairy's."

I could feel the heat of the white light. What's next, waterboarding?

"I'm her assistant from time to time?" Aaghh, I am soooo weak.

Grazie = gracias

After almost 13 hours of travel - including one badly missed connection in Rome - we were happy to find ourselves in lovely Barcelona. We are staying in a pretty apartment on Ronda de la Universitat, close - but not too close - to La Rambla and the rest of the old city.

We started our first day with Barcelona's cutting-edge art scene. The Museu d'Art Contemporani had some really provocative (Mommy's word) and weird (Sophie & Anna's word) art. The exhibit on art and political engagement was pretty cool, but pieces like the collection of beetles and the video of a man pacing and screaming "Nooooooo!" were hard to understand. Which is to say, we didn't like them much.

From MACBA, we walked down La Rambla and took our time visiting all the open-air pet stores. (How many times will we ask Mommy for a bunny before she gives in? We haven't reached it yet.) The girls enjoyed the street performers pretending to be statues, but weren't interested in getting too close.

In the middle of Barri Gotic, we found Museu Picasso which boasts the world's largest collection of the artist's early works. The jewel of this collection is a salon devoted to Picasso's Las Meninas series, a group of 58 works reinterpreting Velazquez's masterpiece. It is one of the best curated collections we've seen.

We were given a great recommendation for lunch and had a fabulous meal at Bestiari. Ed had a dish of seared tuna that was breathtaking. We didn't stay for dessert, though. Why? Because Museu de la Xocolata is right across the street! Who would build a whole museum devoted to chocolate, you might ask? The Provincial Guild of Pastry-Makers of Barcelona, that's who. And thank goodness. Where else can you find a complete chocolate diorama of Bambi and the Passion of Christ? And the tickets are bars of dark chocolate! The girls were in hog heaven. Finally, some art that made sense.

Beautiful Calabria

We said good-bye to Rome and arrived in Calabria -- where Real Italy lives according to our friend, Al, whom we trust in all matters. Of course, he was right. Calabria does not have all the glamour of Venice or Rome, but it has lovely people, wonderful food (Cipolla Rossa!), long white sandy beaches and the bluest of blue seas. We drove down the coast to a small resort in Capo Vaticano. During our week in Calabria, we never saw another American. We did spent lots of time with Grandma and Daddy.

Here's our schedule:

* Some time in the morning: wake up and go downstairs for breakfast

* Later, swim in the pool: swim races, practicing backstroke, diving for stones, floating on rafts

* When the sun gets really, really hot: take a break and have lunch by the pool

* While lunch digests: read in the shade

* Later, go to the beach: sand castles, wave jumping, paddle boating

* Optional: skirmish on the soccer field or swing on the play structure

* When exhausted and sufficiently sandy: meander to room and take a nap

* Post-nap: dinner and lots of dessert

Rinse and repeat.

It was a wonderful week (but the lack of internet access just about drove Ed off the edge). Here are our pics - the paddle boat (with a slide!) on the Tyrrhenian Sea was the highlight of the trip!

Hurry, Daddy!

Capo Vaticano awaits and so do we!!!!!

And now back to our scheduled program

Pretend for a moment that we had internet access for the last week and that we were blogging to you live from Rome....

Our last full day in Rome was busy, exhausting and wonderful. We started our day early and had an art lesson at the Castel Sant'Angelo with Tim Allen, an American artist living and teaching in Rome. Tim patiently taught us about perspective, shadow and light, and how to make really good mistakes with hard pastels and erasers. With a view of St. Peter's Basilica on one side and the Bell of the Misericordia on the other, we did our best (see us posed with our masterpieces below).

What a great way to really see Rome! Thanks, Tim!

After a morning of art, we ambled through the heat to Campo dei Fiori. We then spent the next 2 1/2 hours touring a slice of Rome with Alan Epstein. Alan knew all the interesting things about Rome -- how it was built, and why, and where to find little gems of history among the city streets. Here are some of the most interesting things we learned:

* The original Roman aqueducts still feed Rome and come up through water spouts around the city. It is not only drinkable, but wonderfully cool and refreshing. (We were wrong about the water in the Barccacia! It really is sweet!) Anna drank and splashed in it multiple times.

* Mussolini not only gets credit for making the trains run on time, but also for archeological excavations throughout Rome. There's a wonderful excavacation site in the middle of the city which also serves as a sanctuary for abandoned cats. Sophie was very concerned about some of these lost cats.

* Romulus and Remus were the fabled twins destined to found Rome. To decide which one should rule, they each stood on opposite hills across the Tiber River and waited for a sign from the gods. A circle of 5 birds flew over Remus and he declared himself the chosen ruler. But then, a dozen birds flew over Romulus. This obviously posed a problem since they hadn't decided whether being first was more important than being popular. Romulus just went over and killed Remus and ended the argument, which, as Alan says, is why having a contract in the beginning would really have been more prudent. (Alan is not a lawyer and perhaps hasn't seen the cost of litigation.)

* Fifteenth century signs carved into marble around the inner city declare littering illegal and subject to fines and imprisonment. You are not only responsible for yourself, but for the actions of your family or employees. Furthermore, you have no right to face your accuser and he gets a cut of the fines you paid. Suddenly, all of Mommy's interactions with Italian prosecutors makes so much more sense.

(Authors' note: To the extent any of the above is wrong, that's the fault of our bad memory - not Alan's knowledge! We had a terrific walkabout.)

Whew! We're hot, sweaty, slightly stinky and our feet hurt. Here's a link to our final Rome pics. Arrivederci, Roma!

Yeah! Grandma's here!

Yesterday was our first full day in Rome with Grandma and, boy, was it full. We traveled across the heart of Rome, through 2 museums, 4 Metro stations, 3 cafes and a colosseum. And did we mention it was 92 degrees? Yes, it was a double gelato day.

The heat has made us a little bit lazy, so on Wednesday we only stopped to see the Capuchin Cemetery, where the Capuchin order of Franciscans buried 4,000 of their brothers. Except that they didn't quite bury them -- instead, they made them into wall decorations. (You kind of have to see it to believe it, so do check out the link and definitely watch the video taken by a surreptitious YouTuber.) It was creepy, but at least it was cool inside. We waited until later in the evening to play some soccer in the gardens and then walk down to the Piazza di Spagna to sit by the sunken Barcaccia ("bad boat") fountain. Because the fountain is fed by the ancient Aqua Virgo it's supposed to have the sweetest water in Rome and lots of people stopped to drink from it. We are not entirely convinced of the cleanliness of the water, but it was a great people-watching scene.

Then, yesterday, we set off on an ambitious agenda. We walked down Via Veneto to Piazza Barbarini. We went in search of the Galleria Nazionale d'Art Antica which is a remarkable collection housed in the Barbarini's family palace. It took a long time to find the entrance, so we stopped for a gelato on the way. The highlight of the Gallery is the ceiling which was painted to honor Pope Urban VIII (who lived in the palazzo). We lay down on the couches and stared at the ceiling for a long time.

After a break to eat and enjoy air conditioning in a little cafe, we went down into the Metro and headed to the Museo Nazionale Romano-Palazzo Massimo. There are remarkable restored frescoes from the first century and two floors of sculptures (all close enough to touch - but we didn't). After more eating and air conditioning, we took Metro to our final destination for the day: the Colosseo. This was the only place that allowed us to use our camera, so see our pictures here. (Travel tip: if you come to Rome, buy the Roma Pass which gives you open access to all public transportation for 3 days, free admission to two museums and lets you jump the line at the Colosseum (which is worth the 20 Euros alone)). There is a special exhibit about Vespasian who initiated the Colosseo, including models of the original building and archeological pieces found on the grounds. The inside of the colosseum is nearly bare now because later generations of Italians ripped out the seats and everything else that could be taken in order to build other parts of the city.

Nearly 2 millennium of history in a single day! It's a wonder we didn't melt or faint from exhaustion. Good street maps of Rome are essential -- we used a bad one for the first half of the day and finding the museums was like a treasure hunt from hell. Luckily, Grandma was here to keep our tempers from boiling over.

We are going to take a break for dinner before posting about today's adventures.

Well, what are we doing here anyway?

So, to take a step back, it is fair to ask why we are on this adventure. It started several months ago after I'd done a series of business trips in a row. I'd brought home as many snow globes as I could find to make up for my absence and soothe my conscience.

On an ordinary morning, I was leaving the house to go to work and Anna grabbed me by the legs and cried, "Please, Mommy, don't go to work today. Stay home with me." My heart sinks to my stomache again when I remember it.

I have to fix this, I thought to myself. This is the ball that I can't drop under any circumstances. And so began the planning of our adventure.

Today, the girls and I are sitting in our Via Veneto apartment. Sophie is absorbed in the second book of The Five Ancestors. Anna has already performed a play for us and just settled into her Frieda Kahlo coloring book. Grandma arrived today (Yeah! More on Grandma in the next post) and is resting in the next room. One thing I've noticed over the last week is that the girls really like -- maybe even need -- some down time every day.

Sure, magnificent works of art and historical monuments are cool. But, sitting quietly in a park (or an apartment) and reading and chatting is nice too. These are the times we talk to each other, rather than about something else. We have read two novels together so far (thank you, Kindle) over melting gelatos, melt-in-your-mouth confit de canard, while sitting on long train rides and in the shade of olive trees. (We strongly recommend The Five Ancestors by Jeff Stone, The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan and The Fairy Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley.) We have played infinite rounds of "Guess the Movie" and "Follow the Word." We just bought a soccer ball and are planning to take it to the Borghese Gardens later.

Sophie can get lost in a book and will breathe the life of the characters for days after she finishes. Anna loves puzzles of any type -- word finds, number stories -- her mind gets more restful as she puts things into their proper place. They laugh and perform most freely in the comfort of our own room. The girls negotiate each others' strengths and weaknesses with compassion and expertise (and probably mine, as well). I surely knew these things before we left on vacation. I just didn't get hours at a time to appreciate them. That's what we're doing here.

Sophie said to me the other day (over amaretto gelato), "Mommy, you're different here." I asked her if she could describe how, but she wasn't able to quite put it in words. It's different in a good way, we think. We may have to wait a bit longer (and after several more gelatos) to figure out exactly what she means.

Veni, vidi Venice

Buon giorno from Venice! It took us a while to find a spot with Internet access...Italy is on the slow track to joining the digital economy. We have had a wonderful 3 days in Venice staying in the Dorsoduro district. We unanimously believe that the best thing we did here was eat gelato at least twice a day. Our strongest recommendation is for Gelateria Nico's lemon and peach gelato. We spent a lot of time reading in the courtyard of our hotel (except that Mommy kept falling asleep in the big comfy couches) and listening to the multiple church bells around us every hour.

We did get around a bit. For us, Venice was about modern art. We didn't do any churches or the traditional art museums. We did see Peggy Guggenheim's home and her wonderful contemporary art collection. Anna saw a whole room of Jackson Pollacks. We left notes with good wishes on the olive tree by Peggy's (and her 14 dogs') grave site in her back yard. This is also the year of the Biennale in Venice. We saw a really amazing show of men and women artists from Arabia which was quite close to our hotel.

There was a lot of walking about and hopping on bridges and statutes. We went hunting for the various lions in the city (winged lions are the symbol of Venice). The girls climbed on one of these lion statutes, but Anna - while sliding off its wing - took a tumble. That even beat falling up an escalator. But she's fine. :) We don't climb on lions anymore.

Yesterday, we took a gondola ride and saw the homes of Vivaldi, Casanova and Marco Polo. Sophie put her hands in the canal, even though we're not sure what lives down there. The gondolier says that the canals are between 6 and 20 feet deep. Wow! The gondolas have comfy seats and, interestingly, the left side is always slightly longer than the right side in order to help the gondolier steer.

We're off to catch our train. When we have our own internet access point, we'll upload some more pictures. Ciao!

** UPDATE

The eagle eye of my former colleague, Michael, found the embarrassing typo in my post (but did he find the other?). My initial instinct was to correct it, but on reflection, it is so indicative of the wiring in my brain that is is worth keeping in memoriam. It is also a cautionary tale about blogging in a rush to catch a train.

Here are Sophie & Anna's pics from Venice, including the vicious lion. Also see the big smiles from the girls when we spent a lazy afternoon playing in the Giardini Pubblici (above).

Au revoir, Paris!

And so, we say au revoir to lovely Paris. We visited the Louvre today. The girls took fabulous pictures which we'll upload as soon as possible. After the Louvre, we walked to Ile St. Louis to have Berthillon ice cream with Uncle Mike and Auntie Laurie! So nice to see family while on vacation.

Check out the video and 2009's newest talk show stars. Whose children am I traveling with? One of them has a Texan drawl....

We're not sure of our internet connectivity at the next stop. Hopefully, we'll be saying buongiorno to you soon!

** UPDATE

It took us a while to get to a good internet connection. The girls' Louvre photos are here. We did a brisk walk-through (2 1/2 hours) since we're going to return with Grandpa. The girls loved the 16th and 17th century sculptures -- the era of Michelangelo -- and particularly Cupid & Psyche by Canova. We saw the famed Mona Lisa which was mostly impressive because of the crowd she attracts. Best part of the day? Aside from the Berthillon ice cream, we love chasing pigeons.

Quick takes

We had such a long day yesterday that we went straight to sleep without a post.

Here's the thumbnail: We took the Metro to the Champs-Elysees and saw the Arc de Triomphe, had lunch at Laduree and then took a look at the Tour Eiffel. The girls documented it in a slideshow. The slideshow does not include a couple of injuries. Nicole fell down the stairs in the apartment and has a large gash and bruise on her back (she's fine, just sore). Anna fell up the Metro escalator at the Champs-Elysees and we had to clean up the blood with a nice bottle of Vittel water (she's also fine; we just carry bandaids with us now). Injured and exhausted, we went home, gathered our dirty laundry and spent a couple hours at the laundromat, reading The Lightening Thief while our clothes got clean. We agree that we've surely gotten all major ouchies for the trip out of the way and can proceed in safety.

An aside on blogging and parenting

Ok, while the girls are still asleep, here's a view into our creative process:

We come home every day and look at our collection of photos and videos (no vids posted yet, but stay tuned) and talk about what we think is interesting. Although I do the actual typing, the girls have strong views on the content of the posts. They like me to write, and then read back to them, and write some more, and read back again (hence, we do multiple drafts). They laugh and improvise a lot as we write. In fact, the girls sometimes dictate the text. The description about the trauma of a piece of dirt flying into Sophie's eye (below) is largely her voice.

We write in the spirit of telling our best friends what we've been up to all day. In fact, the girls are starting to take pictures and think about our activities in terms of what is "blogworthy," which creates a new dimension to our days. They don't know exactly who has been invited to visit the blog, but they definitely assume that only people they know (and who know them) are the readers. I have a similar view since, really, who else would care? On the other hand, I realize we're publishing to the world and think about things like, "who else might be reading this?" and "how long should I let the blog persist after we come home?"

Ok, there's our moment of geeky mommyhood for the day.

Two vignettes on hanging with the girls:

* Anna has had a rough time with the jet lag and generally wakes up around 3 am (but goes back down after a couple hours). Once she's up, she'll sit cross legged on the mattress over me and just watches me trying to keep sleeping. That lasts for about 5 minutes. Then she starts very gently tracing my facial featues with her finger, which is like having a hummingbird dance on your face. That's another 5 minutes. Now, she's ready to talk. My sleeping habits remain, just as when she was an infant, tied to hers.

* Sophie is fascinated and horrified by the gypsies who beg on the streets and in the subways. She is vigilant about making sure that I keep my backpack locked and safe from theivery. Her insight is that the gypsies have a tactical flaw. "Mommy," she says, "why do gypsies dress like gypsies? They would have a better chance of stealing if the didn't look like gypsies." And after some more concentrated thought on this problem. "They should save up their money to buy clothes that look like other people and then we wouldn't know they were gypsies and be afraid of them."

Ah, I hear them waking up. We'll be back.

What is with this rain?

Not that it really matters if we're going to be lollygagging around the flat all morning, beaten down by jet lag. But it rained a lot again today. Anna took a beautiful picture of this Sun God statute by Niki de Saint Phalle at the Stravinsky Fountain. We have been hoping for some sun all day.

We started the day by getting up at a leisurely pace (which means really really slow - except for Sophie, who read her book for 2 hours waiting for Mom and Anna). We walked to the market down the street and bought the sweetest imaginable strawberries and raspberries, as well as some scrumptious pastries from the boulangerie.

After brunch and another nap, we took a nice walk to Notre Dame (in the rain). It was very crowded but very beautiful. Sophie really enjoyed the choir singing. Anna was very impressed by the Crown of Thorns thought to be worn by Christ (which is encased in gold and jewels). While Mom stumbled through a description of the life of Jesus, Sophie asked the insightful question, "Why don't we do more church things?" The answer is so complex that Mom made the executive decision to try and address it later on.

After Notre Dame, we took a break in front of the Pompidou and the Sun God. That's when Sophie (whose stye has been healing nicely, thank you) had a piece of dirt fly into her eye. Through teary eyes, she finished off the chocolate mousse. We tried everything to clean her eye, including pouring a bottle of Evian on it. Finally, there was nothing to do but take it out with our bare hands! Mom had this particular honor. We are all better now. Much better.

For a visual play-by-play, you can see a slideshow of the girls' pictures here. Take a look at the last picture closely. We found the street named for Nicolas Flamel on the way home. (Do you know who that is??? Don't you read Harry Potter? Well, hurry up!)

Au revoir til tomorrow.

Up, up and away

"Let yourself go. Pull out from the depths those thoughts that you do not understand, and spread them out in the sunlight and know the meaning of them."

-- Mr. Emerson to Lucy Honeychurch, A Room with a View

The girls and I have started an extraordinary adventure. Now 24 hours into it, we have had few blips -- although Sophie just developed a stye which is uncomfortable for her and we hope it will go away in the next few days.

There are two rules on this trip. First, we all have to look out for each other so that nobody gets lost. Based on this rule, we hold hands almost everywhere. Second, there is absolutely no whining. If you have an urge to whine, then you must ask for a snuggle instead. This rule is working surprisingly well so far.

We had a very nice flight from LAX to Paris (and we watched two movies, says Sophie). We are staying in an apartment in the 6th Arrondisement which was built in 1610! That's even before Marie Antoinette had her head cut off!! We're on the French 5th floor, which is the American 6th floor and it's way, way, way, way, way up at the top of the building. But it is very comfortable and charming in a French sort of way. There is a bidet in the bathroom. Anna thought that it might be a special bathtub for babies. In any event, we are all very clear that it is not a toilet. There also is boiling hot water that comes out of the tap, so you have to remember that "C" stands for "chaud" and not "cold" or else you'll get burned.

The girls are learning some French already. "Chaud," "froid," "merci," "bonjour." Sophie and Anna's favorite word (so far) is "voila." We have just returned from a short walk on the Seine at dusk. We passed le Palais de Justice and le Conciergerie (where Marie Antoinette waited to get her head chopped off -- we are absolutely fascinated by this piece of French history) and we caught a glimpse of Notre Dame. But it really started to downpour on us (very unusual in Paris). "Big bummer," say the girls. So, we ended our walk with a nice dinner. We'll upload more photos when we figure out how to plug in the girls' cameras. Oh, and "bonsoir!"