Three Kings Barcelona

I was the lucky winner of two Christmas holidays this year. The first, in the wintery wilderness of Northeast Washington state, the second, in the sunny and vibrant metropolis of Barcelona! I got to enjoy the best of both worlds.

It wasn't exactly Christmas that we celebrated in Catalonia, but rather, Three Kings (Dia de los Tres Reyes). A celebration of the day the three kings arrived in January to say "hello" to baby Jesus and adorn him with gifts. And, subsequently, the day of the main gift-exchange for the Spanish people (instead of December 25th). December 25th carries other traditions, involving a 'slightly' altered Santa, this guy: 

I'm not going to go into the details right now, but you should look it up. 

So, Ignasi and I headed south for a long weekend to enjoy family, festivities, and sun.

The first day in town we headed down to the water for a late lunch near the W Hotel. Ignasi's lovely family:

One of our paella's dyed black with squid ink (delicious!):

Post-meal sunset walk:

After sunset we headed to the main Barcelona parade for King's Night. The parade celebrates the arrival of the three kings, with lots of beautiful floats, costumed people, and the kings as well. 

Throughout the parade there were helpers collecting letters from the children, containing their wishes, to be delivered to their favorite king:

And there were lots and lots of presents:

These photos were taken on my phone, and are of terrible quality, so I only have 1 king sort-of in focus:

There were also beautifully constructed elephants, giraffes, horses, and robots (?).

After the parade we wandered over to Santa Mara Del Mar:

And then met up with a group of Ignasi's friends for eats and drinks:

The next day, while nursing a gin&tonic hangover, we finished wrapping presents and joined Ignasi's family in the living room to exchange gifts. Included in our gang were Ignasi's parents, Pere and Tere, his brother Ferran with his girlfriend Tajka, and his cousins Eva and Vanessa with their partners Borja and Christian. Quite the crew!

So, as you can imagine, there were too many presents to fit under the tree:

After the presents, we headed over to Eva and Borja's house for lunch/dinner. I failed to take pictures this night, but it was a lovely evening. We first enjoyed some drinks out on the terrace in the sun, then moved inside for a beautiful meal, including the traditional holiday cake. You can wind up with the bean, or the king. If you get the bean, you must pay for the cake, if you get the king...well...you're the king of course! And you get to recite a poem. We ended the evening with a lively game of Party&Co. A view from the terrace:

The next day Ignasi and I went to see some of the fruits of Barcelona. First off was Park Guell to admire Gaudi's work and the view of the city:

This guy, in his full cheetah attire, serenaded us with a "meow" song he was making up:

Next we headed down to the water to ride the Port Cable Car installed for the 1929 International Exhibit. The ride takes you from the port to Maramar on Montjuic. I must say, it's pretty high up there. Strangely enough, the most nerve-racking part was approaching the mid-way tower. Perhaps because it gives you a point of reference for how high up you are.

Once we reached Montjuic, we walked up to the castle, where Ignasi gave me some Catalan history lessons.

Parched from all the sun and views, we returned to the port and made our way along the restaurants scouting for some refreshments. And we found this place:

Can't say I've enjoyed a bottle of champagne on a curtained mattress overlooking a restaurant while being offered messages before. So that was interesting.

After champagne we headed into town for dinner with Ferran and Tijka. And we ended the evening at the movies to watch Les Misérables. A good movie, but holy smokes it was long! And honestly, do you really need to describe every character's feelings through a song?

Our final day before takeoff we had a couple errands to run. While out, we wandered by the Barcelona Cathedral, and entered through it's courtyard:

Skulls, names, and crests marked most of the floor stones . All clues point to these being burial places:

And we were blown away upon entering the cathedral:

And exiting out the front:

Adéu Barcelona! That was great :)