It was another fairly quiet week at home, at least until we left for the weekend. School is back in full force, and Ryan has been busy with schoolwork and hanging out with friends. Work has been busy for me as we prepare for the end of the fiscal year at the end of this month, while Matt has been dealing with plenty of back to school IT issues at work. After a relatively uneventful week, we were definitely ready for a little adventure.
On Thursday night, we had Ryan’s Back to School Night. Although we already knew several of his teachers from Brooklyn having had them, we met a few new ones as well, and it seems like he is going to have a really good group this year. Hopefully, that is a good sign of a successful school year to come.
Friday was my day off, and since it was another beautiful day, I decided to take advantage of it and cross a few more things off my Germany to do list. First, I dropped the dogs off at the kennel since we would be going away for the weekend, then I headed to Bietigheim-Bissingen, a town north of Stuttgart near Ludwigsburg.
I had only recently heard of it after someone suggested it as a place to take out of town visitors, and I was pleasantly surprised by how charming it was. The historic center is filled with beautiful half timbered buildings and is still surrounded in places by remnants of its medieval walls. I can’t believe this little, charming town is only 30 minutes from our house!
The Enz River wraps around part of the old town, giving it an almost moat-like appearance, while several adorable wooden bridges connect the historic center with the areas beyond it.
The town was also getting ready for its annual wine festival while I was there, something I had not even known about before visiting. I saw several other American tourists wandering around as well, and after seeing all of the preparations for the festival, I decided that maybe next year we will have to come back for it. Everything looked incredibly cute, and it seemed like exactly the kind of small town festival we would enjoy.
On the way home, I made another quick stop at Monrepos Lakeside Palace, which had also been sitting on my Germany to-do list. I was surprised to find such a busy and popular area surrounding the palace. The palace itself has been converted into a hotel, but there is much more to the area than just the building. There are beer gardens, wineries, restaurants and plenty of people out enjoying the lake and grounds. It immediately struck me as the kind of place we could bring visitors for an afternoon, so I made a mental note to come back before heading home.
Once I got back, I picked up Matt and Ryan, who were now home from school, and we headed to the airport. Our destination for the weekend was Barcelona. Our flight was so scenic! I’ve not spent a lot of time looking out the windows for years but I’m glad I did this time. We flew over so many familiar towns of the Black Forest, then over the Bodensee, and Zürich. It was a super clear day, so I could also clearly make out the peaks of the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc. It was so pretty!
After a little over a two hour flight, we landed in Barcelona, grabbed a taxi and checked into our hotel before heading out for dinner. We went back to Coco Vail Beer Hall, a restaurant we had visited during our 2021 trip to Barcelona. We remembered that they had really good American style food, including mozzarella sticks, which is something we almost never have, so we treated ourselves to multiple orders before heading back to the hotel.
It was a fun and easy way to start the weekend, but being back in Barcelona also brought back so many memories of our first trip there in 2021, when Brooklyn was with us. That first trip was one of our earliest adventures by plane after moving to Germany, and so much of what we did during those early years was experienced as a family of four.
This time, walking through the same streets and returning to places we had visited together felt different in a way that was hard to put into words. I kept thinking about how much Brooklyn would have enjoyed certain things or remembering little moments from our previous trip. There was an emptiness that came from knowing she was not going to walk through that hotel door, sit down at the restaurant with us or be there for the next adventure. We were happy to be back and excited about the weekend, but her absence was definitely there with us. It is strange how a place can stay exactly the same while your life has changed enough that being there feels completely different. Barcelona was still beautiful, the food was still delicious and we were still having a wonderful time, but a piece of our family was missing, and I think that made this trip more emotional than I expected it to be.
Saturday morning came early because we had booked a guided tour to Montserrat. After spending years planning every detail of our trips ourselves, renting cars, figuring out routes and driving everywhere, we have officially reached the point where we are tired of doing all the work! Guided tours cost a little more, but there is something really nice about showing up and letting someone else worry about the logistics for a change.
Our destination was Montserrat, the dramatic mountain range located just outside Barcelona that is home to the famous Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria de Montserrat. The mountain itself is unlike almost anything else in the area, with its unusual rounded rock formations rising dramatically above the surrounding landscape. ‘Montserratt’ literally translates to “serated mountain” in Spanish. The monastery has been an important pilgrimage site for centuries and is especially famous for housing La Moreneta, the Black Madonna of Montserrat, a statue of the Virgin Mary that is considered the patron saint of Catalonia.
Our tour began at the base of the rack railway, where we boarded the cogwheel train that climbs the mountain toward the monastery. The train makes the steep ascent through the mountains while providing incredible views of the surrounding countryside, and it was a much easier and more scenic way to reach the monastery than trying to make the climb ourselves.
Once we arrived at the top, our guide took us on a walking tour of the monastery grounds and explained the history of the site before we joined the line to see the Black Madonna. The statue is housed inside the basilica and dates back centuries, although much of its exact history is surrounded by tradition and legend. It is carved in a Romanesque style and is dark in color, which is where the nickname Black Madonna comes from. Pilgrims have been coming to Montserrat for generations to see the statue and pray, and even though we are not exactly experienced pilgrims, it was still fascinating to see such an important part of Catalan history and culture in person.
After visiting the Black Madonna, we decided to take the funicular up to Sant Joan, one of the highest accessible points on Montserrat. The funicular climbs dramatically up the mountainside, and once we reached the top, we were rewarded with incredible views looking down over the monastery and across the surrounding countryside. From that height, you really get a sense of just how unusual the Montserrat landscape is, with the monastery tucked into the mountain and the jagged rock formations stretching in every direction.
We spent some time taking in the views before heading back down, where we did a little shopping in the gift shop and visited the audiovisual exhibition. The exhibition gave us a glimpse into the history of Montserrat and, among other things, featured the famous Escolania boys choir. Unfortunately, the choir was not performing that day, so we had to settle for seeing and hearing more about them through the exhibition before it was time to board the bus back to Barcelona.
By the time we returned to Barcelona, it was around 2 p.m. and we were absolutely starving. We decided to stop at the first restaurant Ryan picked since he really wanted tapas, and within about five minutes of leaving the bus terminal, we found a small tapas bar that looked like a very local place. It turned out to be really, really good. We ordered a variety of tapas and completely stuffed ourselves before finishing the roughly one mile walk back to the hotel. By the time we got there, we were exhausted and took a very long and very necessary nap. Once we woke up, of course, we were hungry again, so it was Matt’s turn to choose dinner. He picked an Irish pub, where we enjoyed some classic pub food before heading back to the hotel.
It was still relatively early when we finished dinner, so Matt and I decided to head up to the rooftop bar for a drink. Completely unexpectedly, we ended up sitting next to another couple from Stuttgart. Matt recognized them from the school, and we realized that they were another couple living in Germany for five years whose kids are the same ages as ours. We had actually crossed paths a couple of times before without ever formally meeting. What started as a quick drink turned into three hours of talking, laughing and enjoying drinks with our unexpected Stuttgart neighbors. It was such a funny reminder of how small the world can feel when you live overseas. We had traveled all the way to Barcelona only to end up spending our Saturday night talking to people from home. Eventually, though, we decided it was time for bed after a very full first day in Spain.
Sunday came early again, and we were on the road by 8 a.m. for what would turn out to be an incredibly long day. This time, we were headed to Andorra, the tiny country tucked into the Pyrenees between France and Spain. From Barcelona, Andorra is only about three hours away by car, but getting there means climbing steadily into the mountains and navigating plenty of winding roads. Rather than rent a car and attempt the switchbacks ourselves, we decided a guided tour was definitely the better option. We met our group at Estació de França and settled onto the bus for the long drive north.
Our first stop was Mont Louis, France, about three hours after leaving Barcelona. Mont Louis is a tiny fortified mountain town in the Pyrenees, built in the seventeenth century under the direction of the famous French military engineer Vauban. Its stone walls, fortress and military installations were designed to protect France’s border, and the town still has a distinctly fortified feel today. It is also home to a military training facility, a church and a small medieval settlement tucked inside the walls. It was interesting to see, but very, very small. Our tour gave us about 45 minutes to explore, which honestly felt like about 15 minutes more than we needed. We had walked through nearly the entire town in half an hour and were left with time to spare.
We decided to find somewhere to grab a quick snack, but because it was Sunday morning and still fairly early, most of the cafés were not serving lunch yet. Eventually, we found an ice cream for Ryan, which solved the immediate problem, and then made our way back to the bus. From there, we had another hour and a half of driving before reaching the Andorran border.
Andorra is one of those countries that seems almost too unusual to be real. It is a tiny landlocked country tucked into the Pyrenees between France and Spain, and its history dates back more than a thousand years. What makes it especially interesting is its unusual system of government. Andorra is a parliamentary co-principality, meaning it has two heads of state: the President of France and the Bishop of Urgell in Spain. That arrangement dates back to medieval agreements from 1278 and 1288 that established shared sovereignty over the territory. Today, the co-princes have mostly representative and constitutional roles, while the country is run through its parliament and elected government.
Andorra is probably best known for its mountains, ski resorts and shopping. Despite its tiny size, the country has become a popular destination for people looking for outdoor activities in the Pyrenees, particularly skiing and snowboarding in the winter. It is also known for its extensive shopping areas, which have long attracted visitors from neighboring France and Spain. The country has a reputation for lower taxes and a wide range of stores, from fashion and cosmetics to electronics and sporting goods.
The closer we got to Andorra, the more dramatic the landscape became, but so did the traffic. There was a long line of cars waiting to enter the country, and once we finally crossed the border, we stopped at a panoramic overlook for our first glimpse of the mountains surrounding Andorra. From there, we continued driving almost the entire length of the country, heading from east to west along winding mountain roads. Andorra may be tiny, but it is packed into some seriously dramatic terrain. We passed mountain villages, ski resorts and steep green valleys before eventually arriving in the capital, Andorra la Vella.
Our guide gave us a short walking tour of the city before turning us loose for about two hours to explore on our own. During the walk, we saw the parliament, the old town, the shopping district and the Salvador Dalí clock.
We did some shopping, although unfortunately we did not find quite the bargains we had been hoping for.
By then, we were hungry, but knowing we had a big paella dinner waiting for us that evening, we decided to keep lunch simple and went with McDonald’s.
Even that turned into an unexpectedly interesting cultural experience. Every meal came with a McFlurry, and many of the condiments and seasonings were powdered rather than the sauces we are used to getting at McDonald’s in the United States. It was definitely not the most glamorous lunch of the trip, but it was memorable, and when you are traveling, even something as ordinary as McDonald’s can become part of the experience.
Earlier in the day, we had stopped at the Andorra la Vella sign on a bridge to take a picture, and that was where Ryan accidentally dropped my Coke bottle over the railing and into the river. We figured that was the end of it. The water was moving so quickly through the city that there was no realistic chance we would ever see that bottle again. But as we walked along the riverfront toward the bus after our shopping, we happened to look down, and there it was. Somehow, the bottle had gotten caught in a little waterfall, where it was continuously flipping over and over in the rushing water. Of all the things we saw in Andorra that day, somehow the lost Coke bottle became one of the things we talked about the most. I suppose every good travel day needs at least one completely ridiculous story.
Then it was time to get back on the bus for the long three hour drive to Barcelona. The bus seats looked incredibly comfortable when we first boarded that morning, but somewhere around hour two, we discovered that looks can be deceiving. The shape of the seats was surprisingly uncomfortable, and by the time we reached Barcelona, our backs were aching. We tried to sleep, but it was a long, cramped and increasingly uncomfortable ride. At that point, the idea of spending another three hours on a bus seemed considerably less appealing than it had when we first signed up for the tour.
Still, despite the exhausting travel time, I was glad we got to see Andorra. It was another country checked off the list, and the scenery alone made the trip worthwhile. I just wish the tour had skipped the stop in France. Mont Louis was interesting, but spending nearly four hours of the day getting there, exploring it and then continuing on to Andorra made an already ambitious day feel unnecessarily long. If we ever make it back to Andorra, I think we will definitely choose a different way of getting there.
We finally made it back to Barcelona around 8 p.m., grabbed a taxi to the hotel, dropped off our things and had just enough time to make our 9 p.m. reservation at Paella d’Sus, conveniently located right next door. After spending the entire day traveling through three countries, we were more than ready to sit down to a proper Spanish dinner. We ordered a family style paella and chose the Valencia beach version, loaded with crayfish, shrimp and calamari. Matt and I thought it was just okay, but Ryan absolutely loved it. Considering we had managed to pick the three seafood ingredients he loves most, it was probably no surprise that he declared it the most delicious paella he had ever eaten.
By the time dinner was over, it was nearly 11 p.m., and we had absolutely nothing left in the tank. We went back to the hotel knowing our alarm would be going off at 5:30 the next morning for our 8 a.m. flight home. Thankfully, the early flight meant we landed in Stuttgart before 11 a.m., picked up the dogs and were back home by noon.
After three countries, countless hours on buses, mountains, shopping, ice cream, a surprisingly resilient Coke bottle, an unexpected reunion with people from Stuttgart and one very late paella dinner, we spent the rest of the day doing exactly what we needed to do: unpacking, resting and getting ready to go back to real life. It was an exhausting weekend, but also exactly the kind of adventure that reminds us why we love living in Europe.
Gilcrests Abroad 