Espana

From 1997-2000 my family lived in Bilbao, Spain while my parents were serving as Mission Presidents for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I was ages 10-13 while I lived there. Living there was one of the hardest yet most rewarding experiences of my life. Looking back however, the benefits far outweigh the sacrifices. For Cassie's graduation she chose to take our family trip back to Spain and visit some of the old areas we used to visit and a few new places. We had a great time seeing how things had changed in the last 10 years, and also how things had stayed the same. My parents totally spoiled us the whole time with the best hotels and restaurants and we were just living the high life. It was fun to take Paul and Tyler and show them this part of our family and teach them more about Spain and Europe. Paul and I both loved the trip, and especially the food.
Below is a brief recap of everywhere we went with some of my favorite pictures, the bulk of all my pictures are in a facebook album so click HERE if you really want to look at all of them. (warning: There are A LOT...surprise surprise).

Highlights of Barcelona were: seeing the Sagrada Familia Cathedral and other buildings by Gaudi, going to Los Caracoles restaurant for delicious food and fun old-Spain ambience, visiting and "poble espanyol" to see architecture from all over Spain. Barcelona was a new place for me and I really loved seeing this city.

Monserrat was a stop along the way for us. About an hour outside of Barcelona, it's a big monastery/basilica on the very tip top of a mountain. The views were beautiful as was the basilica.

Paul loved going to Pamplona to see where the "Running of the Bulls" takes place. We walked the route and looked around town a little and also got caught in the rain so we went inside for hot chocolate with churros which no one can understand how good it really is unless you've had it in Spain.

San Sebastian was another stop along the way. It's a beautiful beach town with impressive views and pretty green mountains around a perfect shell-shaped bay.

This is our old house from when we lived here! It was crazy to be able to see it and go inside and walk through it. We visited with the Cleggs who live there now and went to lunch and saw some things around Las Arenas that brought back lots of memories of our old stomping grounds. We also went to church here and it was great to see old friends who even after 10 years remembered us and were so excited to see us.

In Bilbao we: saw and toured the Guggenheim museum, went to "Corte Ingles" ( one of our favorite Spanish stores), got caught in more rain, and saw some pretty views of the city and so many new buildings and updates.

A cool city up in the mountains. Beautiful steep mountains with lots of greenery and waterfalls. This is the Covadonga basilica, famous for being the place where the Spanish stopped the Moors. We loved the hotel we stayed at here-- a converted Monastery with an amazing restaurant.

Gijon: another stop along the way. This city has one of the best park/playgrounds ever. We used to play here whenever we got the chance when we were little so it was fun to get out of the car and stretch our legs and play around for a little while.

Santiago de Compostela is a great old town, full of medieval lore. Pligrims from all over the world still flock here to seek blessings from St. James. It's one of the top three most important and famous religious sites of the Catholic church, plus that cathedral is killer.

Segovia was probably our favorite city of the trip. I just feel like it encompasses all the charm an old European city should have. Plus it's got the triple threat going on: an ancient Roman aqueduct, an old gothic cathedral, and a castle that Disney modeled theirs after. Our hotel was awesome because it had the most amazing views of the city.

In Madrid we: saw the Royal Palace, discovered our first touchscreen-order-kiosk in a McDonalds, went to a wonderful art museum, went for a row-boat ride in this park, and went to the oldest restaurant in the world.

Toledo is another quaint old Spanish city with lots of tiny narrow cobblestone streets. The cathedral here is really something to see, as are a lot of the local artisan work. We had a fun time walking around, getting lost and finding treasures to buy.

Alicante was the closest large city to the beach villa we stayed at so we came into town to shop and do some things. One of which was attending a bull fight. Paul was so stoked to go and it actually ended up being a pretty fun event.

We took a day trip to Valencia and toured the Lladro factory (so amazing) and also visited their aquarium. We ate lunch in a "submarine" restaurant: an underground circular room with fish tanks surrounding you. My favorite animals at the aquarium were the flamingos and the beluga whale.

We rented out a beach villa for the last couple of days in a little suburb called El Campello and got to enjoy looking at this amazing ocean whenever we wanted. It was very relaxing and the perfect place to land at the end of a whirlwind trip.