Barcelona with kids

The Shield walking down the hills of Montserrat

This winter I've had several families with kids, and there are two of them that I'll remember with all my love.

First was the Shield family, with 2 beautiful daughters: Natalya and Daniela. Their parents, Chris and Carol, booked me to take them on a daytrip to Montserrat. She is a musician and wanted to hear the choir, and he's a geologist and was fascinated about the mountain's geological origins. We took the St. Joan funicular, then strolled down following and easy (but sometimes steep) path down the mountain enjoying the views, the strange shapes of the mountains (we saw the Monkey, the Elephant, the Parrot...), smelling the local herbs such as rosmary and thime, finding interesting pebbles and rocks... And then of course we did the Escolania Choir.
It was a fun day! So fun... that the girls kept asking to have me again, and two days later we arranged another tour, this time to visit the Sagrada Família church. They are so lovely!

Joshua and the Giants

The other family I love being with was the Cohen. Peter, Janice and their kids Julia and Joshua are a delightful family who hired me for 2 mornings. On our first day together however Julia was undisposed, so her father stayed with her, and Janice and Joshua came with me exploring the Old Town. We missed the others, but had fun altogether. On our way to the Gothic Quarter we hit an exhibit on Giants (traditional cardboard sculptures used in Catalonia for festival parades) and we loved them. We also took the elevator to the roof of the Cathedral - Joshua was pleased to see I could take him into a church without it feeling like another boring church! ; )
And we finished our morning eating some delicious hot chocolate with churros.

Hot Chocolate with churros

Happily, the next day Julia was feeling better and everyone joined our second morning tour, where we did the Boqueria Market and the Gaudí sites (again, the Sagrada Família didn't look at all like any other church Joshua had been into, and it was even his favorite place in town!).