Hanging With The Family In Barcelona

A side benefit of the wedding was that I got to spend time with some of my family here in Spain. My dad and Ginny, who were here in the spring were able to come back. This time, my sister Jackie, brother Kevin, brother-in-law Larry, and sister-in-law Zahra also came. Say hola to our fearless world travelers on the airport-to-city bus right after their early-morning arrival into the Barcelona airport:

Because the apartment we rented wouldn't be available until around 3pm, we all headed to our place in Vall d'Hebron. We hung out there for a few hours while everyone took showers and some much needed naps. Diana made us lunch before we went out to see some of the city. Unfortunately, it was raining a little bit that day but we still managed to make our way around. We stopped at the Barcelona cathedral and then took a walk over to the Santa Maria Del Mar church, which is one of my faves:

After seeing the inside of both churches, we took a walk through Parc de la Ciutadella and stopped to take a photo in front of one of Gaudi's first public-works projects:

From there, we went back to Vall d'Hebron to pick up the luggage and go check in at the apartment. Later that night, Pau and Vladimir met up with us for some tapas at Sagardi:

Note that my dad, Larry, and Diana aren't in the photo above. Diana was able to score some tickets for the three of them to see Barça play Athletico de Madrid that night. Lucky them!

Pau was nice enough to take Kevin, Zahra, Jackie, and Larry over to Princesa 23, one of our favorite adult-beverage establishments, so that Diana and I could go back to the apartment and do some last-minute wedding prep. I'm not sure what time they got back to the apartment but they apparently had a great time.

The next day was Friday and we had wedding stuff to do pretty much all day. Later that night, after the reception, we did have a chance to go out for a round of drinks near to the apartment. Here are the newlyweds on their first night out on the town:

I was super excited that everyone would be here during the last weekend of September for Barcelona's Merce festival. I wasn't here for it last year so I was really looking forward to it this year. The Merce is the celebration of the city's patron saint during which Los Gigantes (the giants) make appearances on the streets of the city:

The weekend's festivities also include displays by the Castellers, which are teams of people who build "multistory" columns of humans. Unfortunately, some of the events were rained out this year so we missed seeing the Castellers. (Stay tuned for a "real" story about the Merce next year...)

Sunday's weather was much more cooperative so we decided to take a walk from the apartment over to see the incredible Casa Batllo:

From there, we walked down Passeig de Gracia and then down La Rambla to experience some local Barcelona flavor. Passeig de Gracia is Barcelona's high-end-shopping street while the nearby Rambla reminds me a lot of Venice Beach in California because you see a good cross section of the local population along with a ton of tourists. There are always a lot of street performers, people watching, and other stuff to check out.

On La Rambla, one of the most popular street performances is the "human statue" where people dress up in some kind of costume and pose for long periods of time to look like a statue. They only move when someone deposits some money into their cup (or to yell at folks taking photos and not putting money in...). I'm guessing that part of the popularity is due to the low barrier to entry...

After lunch on La Rambla, we took the metro back up to La Pedrera where we had taken our wedding photos just two days prior. This is Jackie and Larry up on the roof:

...and Zahra and Kevin near the first-floor entry:

We finished up the weekend by attending a fireworks show in Plaza Espana along with 140,000 of our closest friends. It was quite a show:

The short weekend was bittersweet for me. Of course I got married and the wedding and everything else was great. It was so nice that some of my family could make it for the big event. The bummer was that they were only able to be here for a few days. Oh well, I'll take all the time I can get and enjoy every minute of it! Thanks guys for making the trip over. I love you all so much and I can't wait to have you visit again. See you again soon!

(Thanks also to Diana who took most of the group shots.)

The Reception

I can't believe that I've been posting stories about the wedding for almost a month now! Maybe you can't either...but anyway...today's story is probably the last in the "series" since it's about the reception. That's good because I'm ready to get back to posting about food, wine, or some other critically important idea... :-)

Like the wedding itself, we wanted to keep the reception simple. I originally wanted to have the wedding mass out at the church at Colonia Guell, a Gaudi-designed building that's my favorite of his. We could have done it there but it would have introduced a whole bunch of logistical challenges to the day since Colonia Guell itself is about a half hour from Barcelona's city center via car. It would have required renting at least one bus to take everyone out there for the ceremony and then back for the reception. Yuck...too much trouble...it just didn't fit with the K.I.S.S. goal we had. So, in the end, we decided to hold the wedding and reception on La Rambla Catalunya within a couple of blocks of each other.

Diana and I chose to do the reception at El Glop restaurant, which is one of our favorites here in Barcelona. (El Glop means "a gulp" in Catalan.) When you arrive, it doesn't look like much; just another bar-style place, which there seem to be maybe ten on each block. Nope. The magic happens when you go down the steps to the basement where traditional Catalan architecture and (great) food can be found.

A funny side story... Diana and I, on the Monday following the Saturday we got engaged, met with Xavi the priest, the priest at San Ramon de Penyafort (the church where we did the wedding), and the manager of the restaurant and had all three coordinated/arranged within about an hour of each other. All part of the K.I.S.S. program!

Diana and I got to the restaurant about 30 minutes later than planned due to our long stop at La Pedrera for the wedding photos. Right after we arrived, we did a cava (Spanish sparkling wine) toast:

...with our family and friends in attendance:

This one's not during the toast but it shows the guests on the other side of the room along with some of the architecture of the space:

Dinner was a set-menu choice of a barbecued-meat combo or a salmon steak. I loved the barbecue combination and never got to try the fish. Lots of wine and cava were drunk and people seemed to have a good time. (A plug for El Glop...you gotta' go there and get the arroz negro for lunch one day...yum!)

Right after the main course was cleared, Victor got up and read the three poems (one each in English, Spanish, and Catalan) that he had written for Diana:

Diana then did the bouquet toss. There were about eight young ladies vying for the flowers with Paula, one of Diana's friends who is also from Colombia, getting the prize. I love this photo because she seems so happy and her boyfriend seems a bit terrified at the sight of the flowers:

Later in the evening, Diana's friend (and our wedding priest) Xavi led everyone in a sing along while he played guitar. He did about ten songs in all, everything from Mariachi to traditional rock 'n' roll.

What wedding reception would be complete without the official cutting of the cake? Obviously not ours!

Everyone's been to enough weddings to know that there are good tables and not so good tables to be at. Our reception had "sleeper" (in a good way) tables like the one where folks from Diana's church sat with Gema, Olga, and their sigots (significant others) but the award for the table that looked to be the most fun definitely goes to this one. Congrats to Victor, Vladimir, Nadia, Marcos, and Leiris for killing at least a bottle of wine each and for showing us all a thing or two on how to have an awesome time at a wedding and reception!

Wow. I can't believe it. I'm married. Whoda' guessed? Certainly not me. But, it's good so far and I'm confident that it'll continue that way. Thanks to my family who came over from Philadelphia, our friends here in Barcelona, Diana's family back in Colombia, our extended families and friends in the United States and Colombia, Xavi, the mystery guy who got us into La Pedrera for our photos, and the gracious folks at El Glop.

Thanks also to my beautiful bride Diana. I love you very much! Here's to a long, happy, and, very importantly, fun life together!!!

Lucky Break: Getting Our Gaudi On

After the wedding and taking some photos out in front of the church, we decided to take a walk over to the nearby Passeig de Gracia and La Pedrera to take some more "trad" wedding photos. Diana and I were just having a bunch of fun but David, our official photographer and good friend, along with the videographer were working away snapping pictures and shooting video as we went. I liked this Abbey Road style one with the Barcelona tourist bus in the background:

A common wedding photo spot is to stop at the Pere Falques designed benches that run along the avenue (no, they weren't designed by Gaudi). This Catalan modernist architect also designed the similarly cool lamps that run along Avenida Gaudi near the Sagrada Familia. Anyway, this is our version...

...and a lovely close-up...awwwww...how sweet:

I wanted this one where we were "waiting for a bus" at this stop:

So, what about the lucky break that I mention in the title? The original plan when we left the church was to walk around Passeig de Gracia and maybe stop out front of La Pedrera. When we got over to La Pedrera, Diana asked the person at the door if we could go inside the ground-floor courtyard to get a couple of pictures. The girl said that there was a special event going on so we couldn't go in.

Oh well, we thought. We walked over to the side of the building to take some photos when a man in a suit approached us and asked if we wanted to go in. It turns out that he must have been someone fairly important as he guided us right past security, into a private elevator, and up to his huge office that overlooks Passeig de Gracia! SCORE!!! Not only did we get in, we got the VIP treatment along the way. Taking advantage of the situation (of course), we took a bunch of photos inside his office including this one sitting on one of Gaudi's two-person benches:

The guy's office was pretty amazing but it wasn't until he showed us the door to his private balcony (!!!) that we knew how truly lucky we were. This is one of those cases where I have maybe 10 different photos that I'd like to put in this post but knew that I had to choose just one. I liked this one because it shows the facade of the building, the iron railing, a little view of the street beyond, and, surprise, a small statue of the La Moreneta (that chick is everywhere) along with Diana's bouquet:

After what seemed like about three minutes to me and probably like a half-hour for the man who was super nice to us that day, he took us up a back stairway to the attic, which is probably my favorite part of the building. The only thing that makes Gaudi's undulating brick catenary arches look even better is the happy newlyweds under them! :-)

We spent probably ten or 15 minutes taking photos in the attic before going up to the roof. If you've ever visited La Pedrera, you know that the space looks like something out of Star Wars:

While up the roof, the wind picked up a bit at one point and made Diana's veil fly around. For some reason that I'll probably never be able to explain, it made me think of the plastic-bag scene in the movie American Beauty. Watching her veil in the wind was very beautiful and I think this photo captures the moment:

Like I said, our friend David did a great job making us pose for some "traditional" types of photos that we probably wouldn't have done. I liked this one in front of who-knows-what-it-is:

It looks like we're dancing or something in this photo but I can promise you we're not. I like it because it shows a bit of the roof, some of the other buildings in the area, the pretty sky, the video guy, and our former roommate David:

I like how he framed this one and how you can see the scale of Gaudi's crazy chimneys:

And finally, a nice happy-couple shot with the Sagrada Familia in the background:

How lucky is that? Not only getting in to La Pedrera but also getting the private tour and the opportunity to hang out there for about an hour taking photos. Sorry again to all the guests who had to wait at the restaurant for us to get back but the photos and the experience were definitely worth it!