Elle’s in Europe 2025 - Day 5 - Fireworks
We tried to get on time here in Barcelona, but this morning we all slept in until close to 11 AM. We weren’t planning to go to breakfast again at the W Barcelona, but by the time we woke up, it wasn’t an option anyway. Instead, we went downstairs to their restaurant, Fire, and had lunch. That turned out to be a great decision. Jenn got a steak and I had their shrimp, both of which were phenomenal. It was a little heavy a few minutes after we woke up, but leagues better than our breakfast the day before.
After lunch, I grabbed a coffee across the street at Fika Coffee Market. The coffee was OK, but it was strong, which is exactly what I needed. We put Elle down for a nap, and Jenn took an Uber to work. We’ve been talking about it a lot on this trip about how fortunate we both have been. We never in our wildest dreams thought we’d have jobs that would take us internationally for work. Jenn started the trend in 2019 with Amsterdam, and both she and I have been doing it even more frequently in recent years. We both have felt incredibly fortunate to have the time to enjoy Barcelona before she went back to work.
When Elle woke up, we left to go out for a nice long walk along the beach and eventually to Ciutadella Park. I love a good city park, but have been spoiled by New York, London, and Paris. Sadly, Ciutadella Park wasn’t as nice as I was hoping, but Elle didn’t mind. She loved it. We arrived and found our way to the lake/pond where couples and families were rowing. We sat down on a bench for at least half an hour and watched everyone slowly maneuver around the lake, with ducks coming and going. I am pretty sure Elle learned the word “duck” today because by the end, she was saying it each time one floated on by.
From there we walked another 10 minutes to Barcelona’s Arc de Triomph. It’s not nearly as big of a tourist attraction as Paris, but it was beautiful. I found it interesting that it wasn’t built for a war but for the 1888 Barcelona World Fair. I was thinking about those who walked these same steps in 1888 and what they must have thought about the future, and thinking about Elle and what it might be like the next time she’s in this same spot. For this trip, she was getting tired, so I hurriedly made the 40-minute walk back to our hotel for her second nap of the day.
By the time Elle was done napping, Jenn was downstairs working and waiting to come up. We all freshened up before going out for dinner. Elle has been doing so good at dinners that we decided to try a slightly nicer restaurant tonight. We went to Ten’s a Michelin Guide restaurant that was only a few blocks from our dinner last night at Calabrasa. I’d consider this an elevated tapas restaurant with some very cool dishes. We knew from the very first sip of wine (red for me and white for Jenn) and bite of our beef tartare taco that this was something special. We did eight different tapas and two desserts. I won’t go through all of them, but point to a few highlights. We adored the sous vide egg with foam of cured meat, grilled cannelloni with parmesan, and chicken wings with Norway lobsters. There wasn’t a bad dish, including the carrot cake for Jenn and cream fritters for me. Elle did excellent, along with eating a ton of bread and small bites of our tapas, was enamoured with the painting on the wall, and her food pouch. We are so proud of her and so grateful she let us enjoy such a delicious dinner.
We walked back to our hotel only to discover that it was a night of celebration. It was the night before the Nativity of John the Baptist holiday. That means everyone goes out and lights fireworks, especially in Barceloneta near our hotel. The entire walk back, we were able to watch various groups shooting fireworks off over the ocean. Jenn held Elle the entire walk home in case she got scared, which she didn’t. She was enamoured with it all. We got back to our room a little before 11 PM and put Elle to sleep. She was able to fall asleep with the fireworks going on until the early hours of the morning, her parents, on the other hand, weren’t as successful.
