We stayed at the Oriente Atiram hotel on Las Ramblas which is in a historic building and has a beautiful atrium.

After checking in we spent most of the first afternoon wandering around in the rain. Over the next few days we toured La Sagrada Familia and Park Guell - two of the architect Antonio Gaudi's most famous works and walked by a number of his others. Both were as magnificent as advertised and well worth the visit.

Two of the architectural highlights though weren't by Gaudi. One was Sant Pau Recine Modernista - a complex that was formerly a hospital. Amazing site and really interesting both from the architecture and the history of the hospital and hospitals in general. The other was the Palau de la Musica Catalana - an amazing concert hall. We visited but unfortunately, nothing was playing that interested us during our time in Barcelona. Both of these sites were designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner.

We also visited the Picasso museum, Miro foundation, a couple of smaller museums and even found a small museum in what was an old Jewish Synagogue.

Food was also dynomite. We hit one place for paella but mostly did Tapas. I was a little concerned with dining since they eat much later than we do. I thought we'd either have to totally shift our schedule or we'd just get bad tourist food. It actually worked out fine. We for the most part ate a little later but still earlier than most locals but as long as we were off the main tourist drags and squares we seemed to do fine.

In fact, one particular place - probably our best meal in Barcelona, our early dining worked for us. It was Bodega Biarritsz where they had a fixed tapas meal - 45 euros for 2 people or 55 for two with an extra course of local cured meats and cheese. I looked to see if they took resrvations and their site said no and if you didn't want to wait, come off hours, specifically between 2:00pm and 6:30pm - score!!!!!

Toledo

We did a day trip to Toledo from Madrid. There was enough in Madrid so we could have spent plenty more days without venturing out but Toledo had some Jewish stuff and we always like exploring our heritage when travelling even if we're technically of Ashkenazi decent and Spanish Jews would be Sophardic.

We visited one Synagogue/museum from the 1400s and another that was first a synagogue and then a Catholic church that dates back to 1205. That older synagogue interestingly enough was also designed by Muslims.

We also hit few other interesting Jewish historic sites and some Catholic ones as well not to mention a quick stop in the El Greco museum.

I found it interesting that on the one hand, prior to the trip I saw a fair amount of materials talking about Toledo as a center for the three major Abrahamic religions with an implied veneer of equality. It was nice to see that once there, the history wasn't whitewashed with references to Jews living under Islamic law as Dhimmis - second class citizens and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 by Spain's Catholic royalty.

Our Toledo visit was our rainiest day but I 100% recommend. If we get back to the region, we'll probably return to Toledo for another day since there are still a few things I want to see.

Madid was also pretty terrific. We skipped the Prado - Madrid's largest and most famous art museum and decided to hit the other two of Madrid's big three - the Reina Sofía and the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza.

We did something similar when we went to Paris for a couple of days on a trip last year - skipped the Louvre but hit the Musee d'Orsay and a couple of others.

The collections and exhibits at the Riena Sofia and the Thyssen-Bornemisra were more in line in what we're currently enjoying.

I think we made the right decision. Devorah really wanted to see Picasso's Guernica so we hit that first at the Riena Sofia.

It wasn't too crowded so we could get both up close and distance views to really take it in. I also loved that they had information on it's development and images of themes that never made it into the composition.

The physical viewing was a stark contrast to when we were at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam last year and saw "The Night Watch." It wa covered in glass and you couldn't really get up to it (though a year before, when I was there with Batya you could).

Overall the museum was great but I think I liked the Thyssen-Bornemisra even better. The main exhibit was set up chronologically starting with rooms full of fourteenth century mostly religous works. As you go through the museum you move through time, later visiting a room full of Hudson River School paintings, also impressionists, and up to more modern works.

We also visited the Royal Palace which was impressive and various other sites around town.

Of course, lots of great food.

Just as we found one particularly terrific restaurant in Barcelona we also did the same in Madrid. We originally set out for a place that looked good on Google maps but when we got to the address there was no restaurant to be found.

We ended up a few blocks down at what maps to this place - En Busca del Tiempo though the menu online doesn't match at all what we saw and what we had.

We were given Spanish only menus but muddled through. Ordered three dishes - one tapa - a mushroom dish, what they had listed as a "snack" (based on Google translate) - Prawns braised in cider on rice and a meat dish. Way too much food but each dish was sublime.

We had to go back the following night because we wanted to try their paella. Our waited recognized us and took good care of us. His English was far better than our Spanish so we managed to have a nice chat and at the end we were comped an extra. Definately going back next time we're in town.

So that was ou January in Spain trip.

Great time in spite of the rain.

Thanks to all my friends who helped guide us in making our intenerary.

Next time, we'll dive back in to observations - teachers observing each other.

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