Back home!

We are home again after a FABULOUS trip. I will be doing a few posts about our trip once I've gone through all the pictures (we have 670 so I need to do some serious editing!) but for now I'll just say it was great! We had no issues - all (7!) of our flights were on time, our baggage was never lost, we had no issues with pickpockets (Barcelona in particular is notorious for thefts), and saw and did so much. We had so much fun and everything worked out so well. We were gone for 10 days, but one day each way was a solid 24 hr travel day, which left us 8 days in Europe. We spent 3 days in Barcelona, 3 days in Paris, and then 2 days in Madrid. Of course, parts of those days were taken up with travel too, but we managed to squeeze in an amazing trip into the remaining time! We did lots but also took time to relax too. It was the ideal chance to reconnect with my husband - exactly what I needed.

Hmmm...summary of our trip: 6 days of sunshine, 1 day of clouds, 1 day of rain, 4 museums, amazing architecture, good espresso, lots of wine, and delicious food - baguettes, cheese, chocolate, ice cream, crepes, olives, and tapas. All the food we had was so good! Interestingly, there seemed to be very few overweight or obese locals. I think, in general, the European mentality is very different from the American/Canadian. They seem to subscribe to the "have better, but less" concept, rather than the "more is better" ideal we have over here. Portion sizes are totally different - take bottled drinks for example; soda pop and juice come in much smaller cans than we have - and are probably much closer to what a portion size should be.

We walked a TON, but other than that I didn't do any exercise. I also ate and drank a lot. All good stuff, all worth it. The upshot is that my pants still fit, but are a bit tighter than than when I left. According to the scale this morning I am up about 5 lbs, which is ok by me (though 10 days of indulgent eating is the max I would want)! This morning I went to the gym and then went grocery shopping for some good, healthy food. Back to normal routine. :)

Our vacation was amazing, but I'm ok with being home now too. I guess that's a good thing.

I am still going through the photos but here is a sneak preview! This is me in Paris with the best ice cream I have ever tasted in my entire life (It's French luxury ice cream made by Berthillon. I had Salted Caramel, Evan had Mint Leaf. They were both amazing).