Barcelona

The first weekend of March we took Monday off and spent a long weekend in Barcelona. I have been to Barcelona before on a work trip so I knew it would be an amazing time and we decided it was our favorite trip since we have been here! Below are some highlights and photos... Sorry for it being so long and with so much info- I also use this blog as a way for me to remember everywhere we went, ate and explored!

We flew in on Saturday afternoon and were staying right off Las Ramblas, a pedestrian street with miles of bars and restaurants in the center of the city. We were staying in an apartment we found on air bnb. This was my first air bnb experience, the apartment was ok but lets just say I will do a little more research next time ;) BUT it was a great location. We got here just in time on Saturday to explore Las Ramblas and have tapas and sangria at Los Toreros.

Churros and hot chocolate for dessert at Cafe De L'Opera

Followed by drinks at Los Orvella Negra (the black sheep) and El Bosc De Les Fades which was a bar that looked like a magical forrest when you were inside, it reminded me of Fern Gully :)

Sunday we spent the entire day exploring all of Barcelona by vespa. It was sunny and in the mid 60's and we had the best time! Heres how we spent the day...

First stop...Park Guell an absolutely beautiful area designed by Gaudi. Originally this park was built to hold an exclusive neighborhood and Gaudi was to build all of the houses in it but the project was unsuccessful as only 2 houses were built (one being a "model home"). But the 2 houses and the amazing park area Gaudi designed are there for all to see. 

Then we headed up the "mountain" to Tibidado the highest point with the best views of Barcelona.

Drinks with an amazing view at Mirablau

Lunch in Gracia at El Glop which was our favorite meal while there! Then to Casa Batllo

Stops in La Pedrera, Placa Catalunya, Parc de la Ciutadella, Port Olimpic, Platja Bogatella etc.

We explored Poble Nou where we had a Horchata drink at El Tio Che, rode down El Gotico, El Born and took in the city!

Sunday night we had dinner at Tacon Rojo with cava sangria in fishbowl glasses

After dinner we ventured to a slightly sketchy area of Barcelona to the one and only Bar Marsalla. This is Barcelona's oldest bar est. in 1820. It looks like the bar has not changed much at all since then and the atmosphere really makes you feel taken back in time. This is a bar where Salvador Dali, Ernest Hemingway, Gaudi and Picasso would go to get their drink on back in the day. This bar is famous for serving absinthe so while there we had to partake...

Monday we started our day off at La Sagrada Familia. Another work designed by Gaudi, construction of this church began in 1882 and is still incomplete- not scheduled to be finished until 2026!

Next stop was lunch and exploring La Boqueria Market...we sampled lots of foods and juices that were delicious!

The rest of the day was spent wandering around getting lost in the city. Some highlights were Placa Reial, Guell Palace and Royal Plaza. The streets of barcelona are so exciting and filled with all kinds of people, street performers and guys on corners selling beers from a six pack- you could spend hours exploring!

Dinner at Bodega Biarritz-there were tons of tapas out on the bar you just pointed to. 

This along with an early flight on Tuesday concluded our trip. Barcelona is such a colorful city with amazing architecture and friendly people it is hard not to fall in love with it and we definitely did!

New Flat

We officially moved into our permanent flat 2 weeks ago. We spent our first 6 weeks in London in a temporary corporate housing apartment. It is really nice to get settled somewhere and unpack all 7 of our suitcases. :)

Moving day was quite an adventure! We had to rent a car here and drive to Ikea and Argos (closest thing to a Wal-Mart). To find a rental car that was an automatic was a task in itself... Matt had to take the train all the way to Heathrow Airport which was the closest place he could find an automatic car. Driving on the wrong side of the road in such a big city with so many crazy roundabouts was quite scary, but he did good. It was a looong day but we managed to get everything we needed all moved in.

Our new place is about a 15 min walk from Matts work (London Bridge area) it is a 5-10 minute walk to 2 different areas we like with lots of good restaurants and pubs (Bermondsey St and Shad Thames area). It is a brand new modern building/apartment and has an awesome grocery store on the bottom floor which I love! At a spacious 496 sq ft ;) it is very energy efficient which makes for low electric and water bills but is also code for very low water pressure!

Here are some pics and a video of our new place:

 

 

 

This was the first weekend we have been home since we moved in so we spent the weekend exploring the area.  On Saturdays there is a food market on a street right by our house (Maltby Street Market) so we went there for lunch.

Sunday the weather was beautiful 63 and sunny so we headed to the Shad Thames area where there are lots of restaurants with outdoor seating overlooking the river so we had brunch outside and enjoyed the sunny March day!

Edinburgh, Scotland

We had a pretty exciting Valentines Day weekend (even though Vday is no big deal here). Friday we were in London and ate at our favorite restaurant we have been to so far, Antico, a delicious Italian spot. 

We got up bright and early Saturday morning and headed to Edinburgh, Scotland. Edinburgh is such a beautiful city with SO much to do! We wanted to make the most of our time there so we were very busy seeing as much of Scotland as we could. Heres what we did with our 48 hours there:

Our home in Edinburgh was the Stay Central Hotel on Cowgate St right in the middle of Edinburghs Old Town.

First stop Palace of Holyrood (a Blackbaud customer actually)

A fox we spotted in Holyrood Gardens

We stopped for lunch at The Pie Maker. If you are looking for a cheap lunch in Edinburgh I'd recommend it. All the pies are around 1 pound and really yummy!

We strolled up the Royal Mile taking it all in on the way to our next stop

Our next stop is the Edinburgh Castle which had great views of the whole city

After we explored the castle we had signed up for one of the Free City Tours where we got to see all of the hot spots and hear more about the history of this beautiful city! The Scottish people are so proud of their culture and history (so much in fact that we stopped telling people we were living in London to avoid irritating them)!

Some of the highlights were:

Mercat Cross

St Giles Cathedral:

Cemetery and Greyfairs Bobby

Inspiration for Hogwarts for the Harry Potter fans. We walked through the cemetery JK Rowling used for inspiration and also saw The Elephant Cafe where she spent a lot of time writing the series.

 Grassmarket

We had dinner at a tapas restaurant called:

Then our own impromptu pubcrawl featuring... Brewdogs (ipa bar), Frankenstein (a little too clubby for me), Captains Bar (pub with local musicians playing traditional Scottish music- so fun!) and Whistle Binkys (live music bar).

Sunday we had an all day tour through the Scotland Highlands. We were blessed with sunshine and great weather almost the whole day. We stopped in many towns that represent everything you would imagine when you think Scotland. They are almost frozen in time so it was a really cool experience and the scenery was amazing! Heres some pics from our tour:

The tour was called the Hairy Coo Tour and was a free one we found on trip advisor (tips only) it was a really fun and cheap way to spend the whole day. Heres the big orange bus:

Forth Bridge:

William Wallace Castle/Monument in Stirling

Monty Pythons Doune Castle from the movie Holy Grail

Then we stopped in a town called Callander where the highlands officially begin. It was a cute little town with lots of shops restaurants and pubs. We ate at a little place called Mor Bread and I had one of the best meals since I have been here! With REAL scrambled eggs!!! Sidenote: there are rarely ever scrambled eggs available in London and when I ask for them they have been dry and not very good. Also people consider baked beans a breakfast food here...

We made a photo stop where we had a great view of the lochs and mountains 

Next was the most fun part of the tour- the Hairy Coos! We headed up the mountains where the coos were- they were so cute! We fed them and all got to take some great photos with them.

Lake of Menteith

Our last stop was the town of Aberfoyle for a drink in one of the traditional pubs. After that we headed back to Edinburgh and took in the beautiful scenery on the ride home.

For dinner we headed to New Town had drinks and ate at The Queen Arms.

We ended our trip to Edinburgh with a ghost tour and lets just say we went out with a bang.  Let me start by saying this was the scariest ghost tour I have ever experienced (granted I have only done ghost tours in Charleston and New Orleans but I have been to a lot of haunted houses and this takes the cake). I was already scared because most of the tour takes place in vaults below the city where thousands of ppl died from the plague so many years ago. Because of this it is known to be one of the most haunted areas in the world. Before we were heading to the vaults I insisted we go to the front of the group right beside the guide so we would not be lagging behind in scary vaults. Since we were right beside the guide she points to Matt and asks for a favor he says yes before hearing what it was...she asked if we would stay at the very end of the group so when we moved from vault to vault she could just say...Matt are you here? And if he was she would know the whole group was there...I was not thrilled! The tour was CREEPY all on its own but at one point the group was moving to another vault and another couple was lagging behind taking tons of photos in the dark so of course we had to wait on them alone. The wife of the couple then told me she was a medium and there was a spirit of a man right in the vault with us. Then her husband showed me his phone where he was taking pics and in the middle of the pics there was a very distinct orb of light...at this point I was terrified! I could not wait for the tour to be over but once it was it was definitely an experience to look back on... This was definitely a LEGIT ghost tour !

Our time in Edinburgh jam packed but we had a great time and got to see so much of this wonderful city!