David's Diary: Sunday, January 6, 2002

Parc Güell, Barcelona

After our exciting day yesterday we decided to take the morning off and rest. After lunch we boarded the Barcelona subway for a trip to Parc Güell, North of the Port Vell marina. This park is one of Gaudi's most famous undertakings and it was commissioned by Güell. There are fantastic shapes, a bench that bends and twists like a snake, rocks that look like palm trunks, columns, mosaics, and all manner of tiles and decoration.

Gecko

Another pleasure was just how much greenery there was in the park. We have been surprised in the South of France and in Spain at parks. What is marked as green space on the map often turns out to be a large tiled square with a few trees. It is a complete contrast to the parks of BC, which are covered with trees, undergrowth, and grass. Parc Güell was a real gem as we climbed up to the top of the hill through paths surrounded by trees, flowers, and growth. From the top we had views back towards the marina and Montjuïc.

Friends Sally and Elin with Jocelyn, Kevin, and Allen

For the last six months we have been traveling as a family unit. For five of those months, the children have had no one to play with but themselves. In Barcelona, there are many cruisers wintering over, but only a few have children. Fortunately, Arbella, a boat from Maine, USA was just down the dock from us and Elin at nine and Sally at six became good friends with Jocelyn, Kevin, and Allen.

During the holidays Elin and Sally were quite busy as they had many relatives visiting them. But now that holidays are over, the two sets of children have been playing together a lot. Today, Elin and Sally accompanied us to Parc Güell. As they got scooters for Three Kings' Day and the Dragonsinger children got scooters for Christmas, it was quite a site to see all five children roaring around Parc Güell.

While Jocelyn has been playing with Elin and Sally too, she really wishes that there was a twelve-year old in Port Vell. Jocelyn has gone a long time without any friends her age. While she has got to do a lot of adult things (like going to the pub), she does have days when she really misses the company of people her own age. We just hope that as we travel more we will run into other families with children Jocelyn's age.