Yo El Rey!!!

YO EL REY!!! (or "I the King!", which is how I felt after riding the cable car up Montjuic, the mountain over Barcelona, yesterday!)

Me in a Miro

Yesterday, after taking my sister for a ride on the carousel and going to the Aquarium (which was frikkin awesome) we rode the cable car over the Barcelona harbor to Montjuic. At the aquarium, we saw the first submarine ever built, which was made by a Spanish inventor in the 1880s. It was made of wood and a little metal. I also learned that people have sometimes been afraid to explore the sea because the English used to tell people they had Krakens in their channel. And we saw a fish I have never seen before called a sunfish, (or Bot in Spanish), which look prehistoric because it looked like it had been ripped in half.

Loads of Legos!!!

The cable car was so cool- it went 300 feet over the harbor! At first, I was freaked out because it looked a little old and I thought it could fall, but after I rode it, I was like "I DID IT". Then, after some ice cream, we walked past the Olympic swimming pool, which has a great view of the city, and went to the Joan Miro museum. He was a famous artist who was born Barcelona and lived in Majorca. He made all sorts of designs, on pieces of paper, on cardboard, and sometimes he did random stuff, like sculptures out of umbrellas and soccer balls. My favorite thing at the museum was a giant Lego table full of white legos. I tried to make the Eiffel Tower. Other people had made the leaning tower of Pisa and my dad made the tower in Dubai. I wish I had that many Legos at home!

Dad and me at the Military Castle on Montjuic

Then we rode another cable car up to the old military castle. There were big guns, and swords, and shields - everything! The president of Catalonia was tortured there in the 1940s, so it was used not so long ago. Scary. But the coolest thing was a piece a paper that had all the names and signatures of all the kings and queens of Spain going back to 874 AD. Only one of the queens could not sign it - Joanna the crazy, who was queen for 56 years but could never rule. Some kings just signed it "Rex", but I liked the one that said "YO EL REY!", in huge letters, which means "I THE KING!".

On the way down, we found the best slide I have ever been on - it was like 50 feet down and super fast. I fell face first in the dust once. It said "Only six years and up", but Lu rode it and almost went face first but Dad caught her! We loved it! Even mom went down. Then we went to see a huge fountain that lit up in different colors and kept changing and kind of dancing. You could see the whole city lit up.

Me before the Cable Car ride...

Today, we are going to find out how to rent bikes that the city has everywhere. There is new program in Barcelona where they put 3000 red bikes in places all over the city to encourage people to ride bikes to reduce cars on the road and stop global warming. It is only 1 Euro a week to use the bikes and you can leave them any of the places in the city, but you need a special card. Dad and I are going to find it.

That is all for now. On our next post, more about Barcelona!

The best slide ever!