A Museum Day for Amelie

Amelie recently told us that she was tired of going to museums because she "couldn't run around, they are boring, all you do is look at things, and you have to be quiet."  We have definitely slowed down our museum-going, but in researching things to do in Barcelona I found there was a Chocolate Museum (Museu de la Xocolata).  This small museum reviews the history of chocolate from the first time the cacao “bean” touched the shores of Spain to present day. While the history is interesting, the real stars of this museum are the astonishing array of chocolate sculptures –everything from a bull fight, to dragons, soccer stars, and lots more.  However, I knew Amelie would not be completely impressed so I signed her up for a Chocolate Artist Activity.  She was able to spend an hour, sans her family, playing with chocolate.   She was very apprehensive about leaving with the others in the group, however when she was finished she could not stop smiling and raving about how much fun it was.  She gave us lots of kisses and hugs thanking us for this experience.  While she was playing; Bobby, Liam, and I walked leisurely around the museum reading up on the history and examining the chocolate art.  After we met back up with Amelie, we enjoyed eating our tickets...actual chocolate!

Liam loved pointing out the sculptures.  

We thought we would not get to see Amelie, but when we rounded one of the corners in the museum we were pleasantly surprised.  We could see her working AND see her drawing in the large mirror overhead.   However, she was more concerned with licking than with drawing. ;)

The museum is located in the Born district of Barcelona and is an area that we had not yet explored.  We walked around the city streets looking for a more substantial food option and came across a really neat tapas open air market.  After eating we walked through Parc de la Ciutadella.  There was so much activity on this weekend day.  We watched slackliners practice, jugglers, and more.  Amelie and Liam popped large bubbles for a while in front of a cool dragon fountain before we called it a night and headed home.

Watching the slack liners play/practice for such a long time led Bobby to deep philosophical questions:  What comes first, dreads or interest in slack lining? The correlation is proven, and now it's definitely a chicken/egg conundrum for sure.

Barcelona's Arc de Triomf