Whenever I travel internationally the first day feels like an eternity. It's totally worth it to spend the rest of trip adjusted to local time, however it does require extra patience, planning and a sense of humor to survive 'day one' (which is really two days mushed together).
This trip started in Orlando, we hopped to NYC where we spent a couple of hours snacking and chilling at JFK. Our $20 lunch of a tuna sandwhich, chips and a coke was well worth it once we got on the AlItalia flight to Rome, plane food always sucks. :) 
The 9 hour flight was fine, great movie options, nice attendants etc. Only challenge was that their seats are even smaller than Delta's coach seats and Jeremy just flat out didn't fit. There was a lot of up and down for him throughout the night. Luckily once we got to Rome we had three hours in FCO before our Vueling flight to Barcelona which gave us about two hours to chill. We discovered a wonderful little nook of our terminal with these amazing loungers where we curled up for an hour plus nap. What a luxury!
Our good luck continued on our flight to Barcelona. Once we boarded and again settled into our tiny seats, Jeremy's knees pressed firmly agains the seat in front of him, delicately wedged in place, praying the seat in front of him didn't attempt to recline, the flight attendant approached us. "You're so tall! Would you prefer the exit row?" there is only one answer to that question...they moved us both to the more expensive, comfie seats. What a difference a couple of inches makes! We slept like babies the whole flight.
Once in Barcelona we took a train into the city and fairly easily found our B&B. We are staying with a cute young family right in the Gothic Quarter. We are only 200 feet from the Barcelona Cathedral in a VERY old building. BUT like I said, no rest for the weary, it was only 3pm locally, we couldn't go to sleep until at LEAST 9pm. So a quick splash of water on the face and off we went to site see.
We enjoyed a yummy lunch at my favorite little Vegetarian cafe and walked Las Ramblas before making our way lazily through the Gothic Quarter and to the Gothic style Barcelona Cathedral. This was the first true Cathedral Jeremy has ever been in. Now I'm a Cathedral nut, I have been known to plan entire trips around getting to spend hours inside these amazing structures. It was beyond cool to get to be with Jeremy for his first experience. The grand size of it alone is overwhelming, but then to think of how old it is, how there was no modern technology to aid in it's creation. All of the lives that have been impacted by its existence, people seeking sanctuary, all of the changes that have happened in the world outside while this building remained....it moves me beyond words. Jeremy too was touched 'this is really cool' he kept saying as we circled the interior.
View of the Apse from the Choir.
Geese, Swans and Coy in the Cloisters.
After an hour or so in the Cathedral we spent the rest of the evening wandering the side streets of the Gothic Quarter and eventually found a small market where we bought Jeremy's favorite Spanish snacks for a light dinner: Cheese and Onion chips, Tucs Crackers, Cruz Campo beer and Milk Bar chocolate. As you can see we absolutely had to free our 'barking dogs' from the socks and shoes and spent the last bit of our day on our balcony enjoying the cool evening air. At one point Jeremy is pretty sure a tourist took a picture of him mistaking him for a local :) Jeremy is wearing my FitBit for the trip so we'll know each day how many steps he takes, how many miles we go and how many calories we burn. Today, since we landed in Rome we've taken about 20,000 steps, walked 10 miles and burned about 3,000 calories. Yowza!
Finally, finally, around 9pm we both fell asleep, exhausted, as you saw from the post last night. Jeremy literally crashed. Now it's 9am here in Barcelona and we're both well rested and ready to get back to the streets. Today we will see Sagrada Familia. I can't wait!
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