Barcelona at day 2

So we arrived in Barcelona without incident. Little had a tough time on the plane – she can usually fly without any trouble and falls asleep as soon as the place takes off, but I think the extended length of the flight (7 hours, plus an hour lined up on the runway before takeoff) was a little more difficult for her. In the end she managed to sleep, but she woke frequently and probably slept very lightly as a result.

I, of course, didn’t sleep at all due to tending the baby. Ah well, we both did a good deal of sleeping upon arrival, and two days later Little is still catching up. She slept all night (a huge surprise to me – I was anticipating being up with her for most of the night and was pleased to get a full night’s sleep instead) and slept most of the first and second days here. I’m hoping that by tomorrow she will be more rested and willing to explore the city.

We located the grocery store just two blocks from our apartment and found the necessities: European-style yogurt for me, Diet Coke and coffee for Todd (they call Diet Coke “Coke Light” here). But baby food is a different story: all the baby foods here are blends of various fruits or vegetables with sugar, salt, corn starch, and a lot of other unnecessary additions. Why would you need to add sugar to strained pears? They aren’t sweet enough already? We purchased a jar of mixed vegetables and I tried it before feeding Little last night; it was awful, and I don’t blame her for refusing to eat it. So I’ve resorted to making her food. Fortunately I bought a food mill while we were in Michigan and brought it along on the off chance that we couldn’t find decent baby food. Today I made strained zucchini and strained peaches. She will only eat the zucchini if it’s mixed with peaches, so this will be an interesting experiment for us. I told Todd that if we were ever to move here I know what business I would be starting for myself! Hard to believe that a greater selection of baby foods isn’t available. But I suppose I sound like a spoiled New Yorker (or at least a spoiled American) when I say that.

We did manage to get out of the apartment a few times today: once to the grocery store again for more water and a few things we didn’t get last night. A longer trip was through the old city and over to the World Trade Center (odd to be going there, coming from New York) where Todd is working. I snapped a few quick photos as we were working our way across town but didn’t bother with the camera once we reached the tourist attractions near the port. I did need a photo of the building where Todd is working; he was telling me yesterday how he could look out the window and directly into the window of a cruise ship, but I didn’t understand how literally he was speaking until I saw the ship parked right next to his building. I don’t think they’re more than a sidewalk away from each other!



But Little had a meltdown after we met Todd and were preparing to explore the city, so we ended up back at the apartment for a nap, and we managed only a final trip down to the beach (just 4 blocks away!) before she went to bed. No Catalonian dinner for us, since restaurants here don’t open for dinner until at least 8pm.

Unfortunately it’s 11:30 and she’s wide awake, so we’ll see what happens tonight and tomorrow!