The alarm rang at 5:45 and by 7:15 we were on a high speed train from Paris to Barcelona. We had 4 reserved seats with a table between us on the upper deck of a train, which sped along at 295 km/hour through the French countryside. The scene changed dramatically once we were outside of Paris – fields of sunflowers, farms, lots of goats grazing, small villages. Damian slept through the first few hours of scenery. One we reached southern France, the landscape changed again: still plenty of farms, but the homes were whitewashed with terra cotta roofs and the occasional palm tree.

A quick taxi ride from Barcelona Sants train station to our modern apartment on the 7th floor of a building on the same block as Casa Batllo, one of the famous Gaudi works in Barcelona, and Casa Amatiler, a building designed by one of Gaudis contemporaries. The apartment is modern — all white, every convenience, the kids have their own beds and were excited to unpack their belongings for the next 6 days.

We walked around the neighborhood, went to Lefties (owned by Zara), and Paul already made friends with the guys selling jamon down the street. They weren’t just selling jamon — there were 8 kinds of jamon, all with their hoofs in tact, being carved for samples and purchase. D and Paul are in pig heaven.

After a brief siesta, we went to a restaurant called Catalana for dinner. The line was out the door. We ate delicious tapas for dinner:

• A pitcher of the best sangria I’ve ever had,
• Miss M ordered mini hot dogs with cheese and caramelized onion,
• D ordered a mini croissant with cured ham, lettuce ham tomato and cheese on a mini baguette,
• Paul ordered blistered peppers, patatas bravas (first pic) montadito with four cheeses (first pic) and a flauta with Iberian ham and cheese.
• And I ordered berberechos Gallegos a la plancha (razor clams that were so tender), filetes of sardines a la plancha (sardine filets with veggies), and patatas d’olot con salsa de foie (potatoes with foie gras).
• We ordered a small tapas dessert too! (Last pic)

The kids tried EVERYTHING that we ordered. Miss M wasn’t a fan, but D enjoyed sampling everything. He said it would be very hard to be a waiter here because he’d want to eat everything before he brought it to the table. And he also requested returning to the restaurant for our last night in Barcelona. I think we have created a tapas fan!