This beautiful exchange

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What a great trip! First and foremost, it was great to see Derek and spend time with him. We got the chance to meet several great people that he works with and get a better idea of what it is that he’s really doing there.

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Most of our time in Barcelona was spent walking around the city and checking out many of the wonderful sites. We enjoyed good food (fuet, botifarra, semi-cured cheese, and Catalan wine) and beautiful architecture (almost every building in the city had wonderful designs) and artwork (local Picasso museum). We even got the chance to experience Barcelona football the local way (which consists of everyone watching the game together so you hear cheers and jeers coming from all over the city)!

Some of our favorite sites were:

La Sagrada Familia: A cathedral designed by Antoni Gaudi. This cathedral is incomplete, though they are in the process of finishing it, even after Gaudi’s death. The pictures can only give you a glimpse of the intricacies in the entire design. We toured the cathedral and got an amazing view of the city from near the top of the spires.

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Park Guell: A park designed by Antoni Gaudi. We were amazed at the intricate designs and details of almost every piece of work within the park. It was created to lure wealthy people to buy real estate in the area. I don’t know if that worked or not, but the park was beautiful nonetheless.

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The Beach: We spent an afternoon eating lunch and watching the water on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.

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There’s a good chance that we both lost weight on this trip due to all of the walking we did! Of course, Barcelona has an elaborate public transportation system, but think of all of the things we would miss seeing by being stuck in the underground metro. TIP: If you want to see the Park Guell, take the 24 Bus that stops RIGHT IN FRONT OF DEREK’S APARTMENT and don’t get off of the bus until it drops you off RIGHT AT THE PARK GATES. Whatever you do, DON’T get off the bus a mile away. It’s a LOOOONG walk up hill. Just a tip.

On to Paris…

We also really enjoyed our day trip to Paris. It was suppose to rain the whole day we were there, but it turned out to be a lovely, sun-filled day. I loved Paris. I really did. I found it to be so beautiful and charming and everything you picture it to be. Now, getting out of Paris at the end of the day is an ENTIRELY different story. I’ll post about that separately.

Some of our favorite sites in Paris:

Eiffel Tower: This is much larger than I expected it to be. When you stand directly under it and look up, it can make you dizzy! Well, at least it made ME dizzy.

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Arc de Triumph: This is also much larger than expected. I didn’t know it until recently, but this is where their tomb for the unknown soldier is located.

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Notre Dame: Our guide book said that Notre Dame was more impressive on the outside than it is on the inside. I beg to differ. I was amazed as we walked through the old cathedral. It really hit home for me the impact that these amazing cathedrals are trying to accomplish and the sense of awe and wonder that they are trying to stir in our hearts.

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(To view all of our pictures from the trip click HERE.)

Side note #1: We were very impressed with the Munich airport. It was everything one would expect from the Germans: beautiful, precise, quiet and efficient.

Side note #2: We flew over the Alps while going from, and to, Munich. They are beautiful! We took a few pictures of them from the plane. Not the best, but they give you an idea of what they look like from the air.

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After our vacation, it feels good to be home, if only to return to the muck that is our house buying process. I will also post separately on that bit of “oh so fun” news.

So, one adventure down, one to go!