Day 2: Birds, Fish and Gnomes (Oh My!)

Gnew Gnoah Gnome goes to Paris.

Gnew Gnoah Gnome stowed away in our luggage for a free trip to Paris over the weekend. Amazing how he always seems to sneak in at the last minute. Gnome's sure are sneak little garden creatures!!

Gnew Gnoah was mesmerized by the Eiffel Tower. We thought we'd never be able to pry him away from the side of the Seine!

However, the promise of a cafe au lait and pain au chocolat did the trick. Now that is one happy, flower toting gnome!

Gnew Gnoah was less than thrilled with our photography tricks! All he wanted was to relax and take in the Parisian atmosphere in peace...

Chris shared in that hope... They both got their wish as we relaxed in the Tuileries Garden around one of the round fountains/ponds.

With only 35 hours in the City of Love, we had to cut our sight seeing short... we had a bike race to watch ;-)

El nostre viatge a Barcelona!

After spending the last several bank holidays in London and listening to all our friends talk about their trips to Poland, Egypt, Croatia... we decided that we had to get out of London! A quick visit to http://www.sidestep.com/ and http://www.tripadvisor.com/ and we were booked on a July 4th flight to Barcelona for a 3 day weekend! As many of you know, I usually spend weeks and weeks planning trips. I study maps, read as many guide books as I can find, search endlessly on the Internet for tips and ideas... I am a control freak! However, this trip snuck up on me and a little to no planning had been done. I was surprisingly calm about this... stop laughing Kirk and Nicholas... I really was calm! Calm enough that we went out to dinner with a few friends on Friday night and didn't get home until close to 10 pm! By the time we packed, it was midnight and we had to get up at 4 am to catch our flight! Around 6:30 am, we bought a guide book at the airport and by 10 am we were sipping cafe con leches in 90% humidity... loving every minute of it!!!

Sit back and enjoy a photo tour of Barcelona Kipphut style!!!

An alley in Old Town, around La Rambla

Barcelona has a thing for street lamps... I took about 60 pictures of them during the trip and they are all rather unique and different.

I think that Barcelona is Spanish for 'City of Fountains'... and yes, I took a million pictures of them, too!


Get used to this picture... Chris, by a fountain, looking at the guide book, trying to figure out where we are and/or where we are going!

Gargoyles at The Cathedral of Santa Eulalia. We stumbled upon the courtyard while we were wondering through Old Town.

I had no idea what an amazing place the Cathedral was... the archways and carvings were great but once we were inside the courtyard, we discovered a little piece of heaven!

Pictures can not do it justice...

There were birds chirping, the sound of palm fronds blowing in the breeze and the soothing tinkle of the water fountains... I could have stayed forever!

Gnew Gnoah Gnome (aka Gnewa) was also happy to be there...

I wanna go back...

A close up of one of three fountains in the courtyard...

This fountain was surrounded by 13 white geese... They were beautiful from a few yards back but up close they were disgusting... I guess even a piece of heaven isn't going to be perfect! I took a few pictures of the geese but looking at them now just creeps me out... apparently they have heard the word about the Great Animal Kipphut Conspiracy!!! Just another group of birds giving me the eye and plotting against me!

Chris took the lift to the top of the cathedral while I relaxed in the courtyard. I have recently perfected my fear of heights and choose to keep my feet firmly planted on the ground as often as possible. However, the view does look pretty amazing!

This was the image that I had of Spain prior to arriving... only in my mind, I always thought that there would be an old lady in her dressing gown standing on the balcony...

And there she is... at this point, I was officially in love with Barcelona... I want to grow old and be that lady!

After wandering through Old Town, we made our way to Barceloneta for our first glimpse of the beach and my first ever glimpse of the Mediterranean Sea! As we strolled along sidewalk, we came up on this group of nuns checking out the beach, too. The funny thing is that the beaches in Barcelona are about 50% topless...

Barcelona is known for it's architecture but we were not prepared for a giant steel fish hovering above the beach! We walked about 30 minutes longer than we'd planned just to see it up close!

And came back the next day to get some pictures with it!!!

We got up at 7 am on Sunday morning, had a quick breakfast and headed to the beach. Our hotel was about 20 minutes from the beach but we were there by 9 am... this picture was taken around 11:30 or 12:00!!! It was packed!

We were very cautious about getting too much sun. We loaded up with SPF 20 about 15 times throughout the day and I had SPF 50 on my face! I was determined to come home golden brown and not lobster red!!! We only stayed at the beach for a few hours. First, it was too hot. Second, it was too crowded. And third, we had rented bikes and were ready to tear up the town!

Our first destination via bicycle... Ciutadella Park and the Gaudi fountain!

Nothing like a self portrait to commemorate the trip!

I think that winged lion is spitting in Chris's ear... Run Chris!

Once he escaped the lion spit, Chris was back to the book to figure out how to get to destination numero dos... El nostre viatge a Barcelona II to follow soon! Until then, XOXO

Gnew Gnoah Gnome

Chris couldn't bare the misery brought on by the loss of my beloved Gnoah... so he searched out Gnoah's parents and found a replacement Gnoah. He may look amazingly similar to Gnoah and I admit he is... let's just say the Gnome community is not so hung up on the ethics of cloning. So without further ado, I would like to introduce Gnew Gnoah Gnome...

Gnew Gnoah looking out the train window as we pull into Gare du Midi in Brussels. He was fascinated by his first train ride and couldn't wait to make his way in the city!

Similar to his predecessor Gnew was quick to make little Gnome friends.

Also, like Gnoah he was more than happy to sample the local brew.

Gnew is quite the show off and when we weren't looking he jumped up on the stage and started to shake his thing!


This little guy also loves his flowers!

Gnew is officially part of the family and will be joining up on our future adventures!

Until next time! XOXO