Straddling our April birthdays, Cathy and I took a family vacation with Oskar and his girlfriend, Isys, to Barcelona for a week. We stayed with our architect friends, Kay and Augusto, who have an apartment in the middle of the Gothic Quarter. They are both architects in Bar Harbor but love to travel too much to stay there for too long.

Our flight over was a little delayed, but we arrived in time to explore some of the narrow streets of the Gothic Quarter then celebrate my birthday at a quirky restaurant, Canete. Kay and Augusto have a wonderful apartment with balconies at both ends and a large patio with an outdoor cabana room that Oskar and Isys stay in.

After coffee and croissants we visit the Picasso Museum, which is not large but has a nice Barcelona based collection of paintings. We had one of our most memorable meals at a standup lunch counter, Can Paixanol. They serve fresh sandwiches and champagne.

We dine at Gat and then find the bar that Hemingway used to frequent. I don’t think it’s been painted, cleaned or dusted since he left. The London Bar was a treat with exquisitely presented cocktails.

Our next day is centered around the Sagrada Familia while Kay and Augusto get some work done. Cathy and I were lounging around the city until we presented our tickets at the wrong cathedral. The taxi driver had a good laugh at our expense but delivered us just on time for our reservations. Absolutely worth a visit to the interior of this Antonio Gaudi masterpiece. The exterior does not do the cathedral justice. We ended the evening with tapas (of course) and then a highly ranked cocktail bar, Dr Stravinsky.

Kay and Augusto led us on tour of the Olympic village from the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. A cable car carried us over the harbor to Montjuic where we toured the Joan Miro Museum and explored the various Olympic stadiums and then Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion originally built for the 1929 Barcelona International Exhibition.

The next day, April 14, sketched in the morning and then everyone met up outside Santa Maria Del Mar for lunch. Oskar and Isys showed up engaged. Oskar proposed while they walked along the Mediterranean. Coincidentally, the news was delivered as we were all outside the same cathedral that Kay and Augusto married in 30 years earlier.

We toured another Gaudi building, Casa Batllo, the next day, which is also extraordinary. We continue to explore the maze of streets of Barcelona.

We leave the city by train to visit the beach town of Sitges, about 20 miles south. We split up to explore while Augusto and I found some places to sit and sketch. It is fun comparing our sketching techniques, I very much admire Augusto’s sketches. We did stumble on a small gin store recently opened by a British couple, if you find Pao Stiges Gin on store shelf be sure to pick me up some.

Our last day in Spain was Cathy’s 60^th birthday. We explore Barcelona more, including the Gaudi’s Park Guell where Oskar and Isys bought their first pieces of art. It will go into their new house as they also just bought a house in Bath this month, too.

It was an early rise to fly home. What a great week, we cannot thank our hosts, Kay and Augusto, enough for their generosity and time they spent with us. Truly a memorable vacation!