More Visitors!! Kyle and Kelly come to visit us in Barcelona!

We were super excited when Kyle and Kelly emailed us a few months ago to see if we would be up for some visitors.  Are you kidding me?  We were thrilled!  We haven't had a lot of people visit for varying reasons - vacation time, expense of travelling with a family, fear of flying... all totally valid.  So when someone tells us they are coming, we do a happy dance!

They arrived on Wednesday afternoon and settled right in - I love it when you can not see people for months and then just jump right back to where you left off.  That to me is the sign of a great friendship.  We just chilled out on Wednesday as they got to our place shortly before the kids got off the bus and Aidan had jiu jitsu.  Everyone got a good night's sleep on Wednesday night in preparation for a big day of touring the sights on Thursday.

Josh had to work Thursday so Kyle, Kelly and I hit the ground running.  We walked everywhere!  I'm going to say we probably did at least 5 miles of walking and it was a typical gorgeous day here in BCN.  All in all a great day of comfortable conversation, great food (perhaps a drink or two) and lots of sights!  Sadly, I was bad about taking pictures on Thursday so I've got nothing to post.  But we're not done yet!

With only a few days to visit us, Josh took Friday off and we decided to rent a car to go back to Collioure, France.  We went when Becky and Ray visited us in April and we had been hoping to go back, without kids, as a chance to explore the seaside town a bit more in depth.  I asked Josh to rent an automatic since it was a 2 hr drive and it would give us both the opportunity to drive one way.  The beauty of Sixt, the rental car company, is that if they don't have what you want, they upgrade you at no extra cost (remember our beautiful BMW 5 series we had back in Oct for Provence??).  They came thru once again.  Josh had rented an automatic for a whole 60 euros and what did we end up with?  A Mercedes convertible.  I kid you not... it was gorgeous.  However, not really a 4 person car - or at least perhaps, not a 4 person car for tall people (sorry Kyle and Kelly!)... but Josh and I loved it! 

Outside our apartment ready to go...

View along the drive

Josh with the top down

The last time we went to Collioure rain was predicted.  The weather held out but it wasn't the blue sky that Collioure is known for.  So we were extremely happy to have a 75 degree day and perfect blue skies!! 

Had to park waaayyyyy up high on a hill... fine for the way down but not fun at the end of the day!

View from where we parked

View on our way down the hill

Josh

Cool tiles next to a store

One of the quaint streets in Collioure

Took a picture of this walkway last time - it's still there and I still like it :)

I'm a sucker for flowers and a door

More cute streets

More flowers

It's nice travelling with friends - we actual can take couples shots!

Another castle up on another hill

Kyle and Josh

In one of the main squares

Lunchtime!  Same place we ate at last time and just as yummy!

Heading off to explore the castle (not the one from way up on the hill a few pictures ago)

View of town from the castle

Love these boats!

A little something about the castle (you can click the picture to make it bigger) and another view from near the top.

Yes, I know, you've seen several of this photo already but I swear, they are all taken from different places in town!

Just past the entry in the castle

Ouch!!  These ceilings were meant for much shorter people!  Josh and I did just fine :)

View from the top 

Courtyard

Castle walls

Love the views!

I can see what they mean about the Collioure sky - amazing!

Sitting at an outdoor cafe

Yes, he is pretending to be on the cross...

Next we walked all along the rocks you see here

There was actually a little bit of a man made path here though it was definitely in need of repair!

Yes, we conquered the path!

Kyle, Kelly and Josh

Kyle, me and Josh

Yes, he's "that" guy...

We drove back in the early evening, just in time to do dinner at Da Greco's - an Italian restaurant here that we frequent regularly.  All in all an amazing day!!!

Saturday, our last full day - Aidan had tennis lessons so we decided to divide and conquer.  Josh had not been to Parc Guell before and so it was decided that it would be an opportunity for them all to go visit for the first time.  We met up again in the late afternoon to relax a bit for dinner out at our favorite restaurant, Specchio Magico.  It was a great way to end our time with Kyle and Kelly who had to leave first thing this morning.  We were sad to see them go but so happy they took the time to come see us!

Off to Venice this coming weekend and home 2 weeks after that... we're keeping busy for sure!!

Julie