Our favourite family attractions in Barcelona

In May half term this year, we spent a week on the Allure of the Seas cruise ship in the Mediterranean. With the ship departing from Barcelona, we took advantage of a couple of school inset days, and spent a few days exploring Barcelona with the children - Harry was 6 and Mia nearly 4.

We had a great time, and these were some of our highlights:

The Sagrada Familia church

Ram and I visited the Sagrada Familia church on a day trip to Barcelona about five years ago, and it was quite amazing how much it had changed since then. Construction on the church began in 1882, and has progressed slowly over the years, with an anticipated completion date of 2026. When we last visited, the basilica was filled with scaffolding, now that has all gone and you can really appreciate it.

The stained glass windows are absolutely beautiful. We visited late afternoon and the sun was streaming through and the colours were everywhere. The children's favourite part was the doors at the entrance. There are moulded leaves, and in amongst them are all sorts of insects and bugs. They loved hunting for them and picking them out, we spent ages here! Harry was also fascinated by the museum inside which has the original plaster models for the church, it's also a good way to have a look at some of the details close up.

The Sagrada Familia is very popular and you need to buy a timed ticket for your visit. You can do this easily in advance on the official Sagrada Familia website, where you can also check how many tickets are remaining - we found that mornings were busy but early evenings less so. We bought our tickets when we arrived and we had to wait about 15 minutes to buy the tickets then another half an hour or so for our time slot. An adult ticket without guide costs 15 Euros and you can pay an additional 4.50 Euros to visit the towers, although we weren't able to on this occasion as Mia was too young - only children 6 and over are allowed. Children under 10 are free to visit the church.

Montjuic - by Cable Car

The Montjuic Cable Car links the city to the top of Montjuic and Montjuic Castle. We took the funicular from Paral lel Metro station. The funicular isn't as exciting as it sounds, the train just goes up the hill inside a tunnel so there aren't any views, but it's included in your Metro ticket. Then we boarded the cable car directly outside Parc Montjuic station. We bought one way tickets (Adult 7.80 Euros, Child 6 Euros), return tickets are available for a little bit more. It's a lovely ride up, it wasn't busy and we had car to ourselves. The views across the city to the hills and sea are amazing, and were were able to pick out our hotel and some of the places that we had visited.

Once at the top it's a short walk to the Castle with cannons to see and views across the city and the docks. We saw the cruise ships, and the cranes loading boats and trains.

Montjuic - Exploring across the top

We bought our one way tickets to the top of Montjuic, planning to walk down. It's not a long walk (although steep with steps) if you go back the way that the cable car takes you, but Ram wanted to visit the Olympic Village, so after a look at the outside of the Montjuic Castle we walked across the top of the hill and down through the Olympic sites, descending via escalators to the Magic Fountain in Placa d'Espanya.

The Olympic Stadium is open free to visitors, so we popped our heads round for a quick look.

Then you can walk down the hill past some very impressive cascades and fountains which the children loved.

It's a really pretty walk, I loved these tiled steps off to one side of our route. There are quite a few steps to go down, but the escalators were brilliant for us at keeping the children interested while we hunted for the next one - it was a long trek for our reluctant walkers but they managed really well!

At the end of the walk was the Magic Fountain, which is impressive enough during the day but is really something special in the evenings - see below!

The Magic Fountain

At night time, the Montjuic fountain comes alive with a musical fountain show. It starts quite late, but we managed to keep the children awake and were glad that we did because they loved it. You can see a timetable for the Magic Fountain shows here (English), but we found that although the shows are timetabled half hourly in reality it was running pretty much continuously, with just a few minutes break between songs. The nearest Metro stop for the fountain is Placa d'Espanya, and there are plenty of places that you can watch the fountains from all sides.

La Boqueria Food Market

The food market is located about two thirds of the way up the Ramblas on the left, and it is one of Europe's largest and most famous food markets. It's a maze once you are inside, packed with fruit and veg, meat, sea food, chocolate, biscuits - all sorts of things! I loved the displays of fresh fruit and we enjoyed some mango smoothie for just 1 Euro a cup.

The most fascinating part for me was the sea food, even though I won't eat it - as well as plenty of fish there were shelves full of crabs and lobsters, all still alive and twitching. We even saw an octopus. We managed to visit while my parents looked after the children, which meant that we could have a proper look around - it was very busy and it would have been hard work trying to steer little ones around without losing them. I think they would have found it interesting though!

Barceloneta Beach

There are plenty of beaches to visit in Barcelona, starting right in the city centre. We took a tram from our hotel to Barceloneta Beach, which is very central. On a weekday in May it wasn't too busy but I can imagine that during the summer it's packed. It's a nice sandy beach with a calm sea, and we spent a couple of hours here digging around.

When I'm at the beach I love walking along the shoreline hunting for shells and other treasure, and I was delighted to find that Barceloneta beach was a fantastic place for finding beautiful, elusive sea glass! I brought a little pot full home and I've plenty of crafty ideas for it.

Our hotel - The Novotel Barcelona City

We stayed four nights with my parents in the Novotel Barcelona City. It was a nice hotel, a bit too far from the centre for little legs to walk to the main sites, but it is close to Metro and Tram lines and next to a large shopping centre with various shops and places to eat. The hotel itself was lovely, with a rooftop swimming pool and terrace, and our room was high up, with wonderful views out across the whole city to the hills beyond. The breakfast was very good (children eat free) and it had free wi-fi too, I'd definitely recommend it!

If you are visiting Barcelona I'd recommend a visit to BarcelonaTurisme to help plan your trip!

I received a Barcelona Press Card from Barcelona Turisme which gave me complimentary admission into the Sagrada Familia and to the Montjuic Cable Car. 

The "I'm going to Britmums Live 2015 meme"

Not long to go now until Britmums Live 2015! I'm starting to get very excited, and also a little terrified as I will be speaking in one of the sessions which is a scary thought. If you'd like to come along I'd love to see you, I'll be talking all about Pinterest in the Pinterest: Winning Ideas from Leading Pinners session on the Saturday after lunch.

So I'm joining in with the Britmums Live 2015 meme to share a little more about me. I'm hopeless at recognising people but apparently I look exactly like my profile picture, so if you see me please do come along and say hello! I'm often quite happily wandering about on my own, and if there is any free wine or cake on offer this year then you'll find me close by!

Name

Jennifer Jain

Blog

Jennifer's Little World

Twitter ID

@jenniferjain

Height

About 5'3"

Hair

Brown in a pony tail

Eyes

Blue

Is this your first blogging conference?

No, I've been to Britmums Live twice before. You can read about my experiences here - Britmums Live 2013 and Britmums Live 2014. I also went to Blogfest in 2013.

Are you attending both days?

Yes

What are you most looking forward to at BritMums Live 2015?

Catching up with some bloggy friends and hopefully meeting some new ones. Also some of the sessions look amazing, it's going to be so hard to choose which ones to go to.

What are you wearing?

Normally I just wear jeans, a top and trainers, but as I'm speaking this year I'm thinking I might need to step it up a little. I might go for black tailored trousers with boots and a slightly smarter t-shirt, possibly even a bit of make up!

What do you hope to gain from BritMums Live 2015?

Last year I came home really inspired with loads of ideas, I completely redesigned my blog and thought a lot more about my posts. I hope to feel the same this year. I'm also hoping that the session I am speaking in will go well - I've never really done any public speaking before, and never anything like this, so I'm very nervous, but sometimes it's good to step outside your comfort zone and I think it will be great for my confidence!

Do you have any tips to pass on to others who may not have been before?

Remember that most people there are just as nervous as you are, even if they look confident. If you are going to a session on your own, look for a table with a couple of other people that are also sitting on their own and introduce yourself. Choose the sessions that you're interested in even if you don't know anyone else going, but don't feel that you have to attend all the sessions that you can, sometimes it's nice to just wander around the stands while it's a bit quieter or even pop outside for a break and some fresh air.

I hope to see you there!

Shopping toys for young children

Last week it was Mia's birthday, and we were quite pleased with a few of the presents that we found for her so I thought that I'd share them. She has been interested in playing shops for quite some time, and I'm finding that it's a great way to start teaching her a bit of number recognition as well as indulging her love for role play.

Mia had been talking about having a shopping trolley for some time, but all the ones that we'd seen were aimed at younger toddlers, quite large and clunky in bright plastic colours. She was also adamant that it had to have a seat for her dolly. So Ram found her this fab realistic little toy Waitrose shopping trolley in John Lewis. Her dollies fit in comfortably, it has a nice padded handle, and there is plenty of space in the trolley as well as space underneath for a shopping basket.

It's great because it's not too large, it looks good, and because it's quite subdued in colour it doesn't stick out too much when it's stored in the corner of the room. It cost £18 which I thought was quite reasonable for a sturdy, well made toy.

John Lewis sell nice baskets of groceries too, but we preferred a much cheaper one that we found on Amazon, at only £5 I think it was a bargain - Child's Shopping Basket. It came packed with plenty of play food inside and it's quite small, which means that it fits on the shelf underneath the trolley and Mia can carry it around easily. Some of the packets have barcodes on them which Mia enjoys placing against her till to 'scan' them like she does when I use the self-service till at the supermarket. The boxes are perhaps a little flimsy for very little ones to play with, but I think that ours are at the age now where they will look after them better.

We've never had any kind of toy till for the children, but I've always known it was something that they'd both love, so we spent a bit of time looking for a nice one. We wanted one that was durable and long lasting, and preferably a bit more grown up than the basic bright plastic toys aimed at younger toddlers. It's quite difficult to find one that resembles the type of tills that are actually used in supermarkets, but in the end we opted for the Calculator Cash Register by Learning Resources.

A big bonus is that it is solar powered so it doesn't need any batteries, and it has a lovely drawer for the money underneath which is easy to open and close with the press of a button and makes a satisfying 'ding'. The till beeps when you press a button and when you insert the credit card, and it's also a fully functioning calculator. The till comes with a full set of play money, both coins and notes (UK denominations) as well as a play credit card. At just over £25 it's a little pricier than some of the other toy tills on the market, but I'm hoping that we'll get our money's worth from it. I've noticed that even though Mia has not had it long she's already starting to recognise her numbers, something that I've been trying to teach her for a while and not found a way to keep her interested. The large flat area on the left is great to press the food boxes up against and use as a scanner.

Finally when you are shopping you need somewhere to put your money, and I love these little purses that my Mum bought for the children a little while ago. I've no idea where they are from I'm afraid, but they are so sweet!

With perfect timing, last week I received a copy of Let's Go Shopping Peppa to review. The book is all about Peppa's trip to the supermarket when Peppa and her family need something tasty for lunch. At the supermarket, Peppa finds everything on Mummy Pig's shopping list, but when they get to the checkout something extra has appeared in their trolley..! I really like this particular story because the scenario of going shopping is something that is familiar to all little ones, even if perhaps in reality they don't all love it as much as Peppa and George do! Mia watches a lot of Peppa Pig, so this book was a big hit, we loved reading it together and because she has seen the corresponding television episode several times she knew what was going to happen and enjoyed telling me all about it. A lovely companion gift!

We've set up a little shop in the corner of the living room and I can see many days ahead of playing toy shops. Mia loved helping me to make the shop (she built the little walls herself out of her coloured blocks) and she's already learned a few tricks of the trade, like placing a few little toys by the till to tempt the buyer, and then trying to sell me something extra while I'm paying for my shopping!

I think that our shopping role play set up is pretty well sorted now!

We received the Let's Go Shopping Peppa book to review, all the other bits we bought ourselves. Amazon links are affiliate.

Vegetable patch update

You might remember that a few weeks ago I blogged about our vegetable patch. I was feeling very proud of myself, because I had spent a couple of hours working hard out there, pulling out loads of weeds and raking it all over nicely, ready for planting. I didn't really go out there much after that, until the week before Ram and I enjoyed a few days without the children in San Francisco and my parents were due to come down to look after the children. They'd promised to bring some plants with them, so I spent a bit of time out there pulling up all the new weeds that had grown in the meantime, and making it look nice and neat for them.

I came back to find that my parents had been very busy! They had planted out all my tomato plants in neat little rows, as well as adding some runner beans, onions and potatoes, and it's looking wonderful. Dad has even built a little teepee with canes for the runner beans. Also, fingers crossed, it looks as though the cats have found somewhere else to relieve themselves this year, so I can let the children help me dig around in it.

I've been back and weeded again since we got home, but I'm afraid that I can't take a great deal of credit for how it's looking at the moment. Having it looking so lovely is a great motivation for me to continue with it though, perhaps this will be the year that I finally keep my tomato plants under control and fight back the nettles that grow in from the open space behind us!

Mia's 4th birthdays

This year, Mia's birthday fell on the last day of our holiday. Not the best day to celebrate a birthday - a rushed morning departing from the cruise ship and then most of the day spent at Barcelona airport. So I'm afraid that we told her it was her 'pretend' birthday, so that we could celebrate her birthday properly a week later. We sang a quick Happy Birthday over a cake at breakfast (no candles are allowed on cruise ships) and even though we insisted that it wasn't her actual birthday that day I think she suspected - when we asked her the next day how old she was she answered four!

She has a couple of little girl friends that we meet up with regularly during the week, so this week I hosted and we had a vaguely Frozen themed party, then at the weekend we had another party with Ram's family that were visiting. My children always seem to end up celebrating their birthday on multiple occasions! We saved most of her presents and cards for her to open together and she had a Frozen cake. I'm afraid that I took the easy option and just bought some little Frozen toys that I placed on a blue iced cake, but I was pretty pleased with it!

During the week between her pretend birthday and her real birthday though I'm afraid both Ram and I over compensated for the fact that we'd not celebrated her birthday on the actual day. I bought rather too many Frozen themed party accessories and Ram bought a few too many presents, which we then had to distribute around other family members to give to her so that she didn't have too many from us. Although we were actually so pleased with some of the things that we found for her that I'm planning a separate post about them this week!

I can't quite believe that Mia is four already, and the clock is ticking until she starts school. We've received her class list now, and will be arranging the teacher home visit very shortly before she has a couple of settling in sessions. It feels like I've only just realised that I'm now spending my last few weeks with a pre-schooler!

Visiting Pompeii with small children

My husband and I visited Pompeii together almost ten years ago. We purchased the audio guide and our visit lasted longer than the batteries did - we were there for nearly 8 hours and it was exhausting. With our recent cruise stopping in Naples we really wanted our children (Mia aged almost 4 and Harry aged 6) to experience Pompeii, but we knew that a visit like ours was unrealistic. So here are my tips if you are planning a trip to Pompeii with small children.

Before you visit

We prepared the children, in particular Harry, for the things that he would see, to get him interested before the trip. There are lots of videos on YouTube with information about Vesuvius and Pompeii, but it's a good idea to watch along with your children so that you can censor the information if necessary - some of the videos can be a little scary for young children. I can recommend this video from the BBC - David Tennant visits Pompeii ;) We also looked up pictures on Google image search, both present day photographs and images of the excavations over the years, I found it all pretty fascinating too.

Plan your visit in advance as much as you can - Pompeii is big. Although the buildings open to the public are found in clusters, there is still a lot of ground to cover. If you only have one day to visit, even without small children in tow you need to be prepared for the fact that you won't be able to see it all. You can download a map of Pompeii and a guide to Pompeii, with free paper copies of these documents being available to pick up when you arrive. We planned a route through the city that visited some of the major sites, but we didn't stray too far from the entrance and we knew that it would probably be unrealistic to get as far as the amphitheatre located on the other side from our entrance.

Getting to Pompeii

Our cruise ship docked in Naples. We took a taxi to Porta Nolana station and travelled on the Circumvesuviana line to Pompei Scavi - Villa dei Misteri which takes you to the Porta Marina entrance. The Circumvesuviana line is a separate train line to the main Italian train network and it runs from Naples to Sorrento. We found taxis in Naples to be quite a hassle - very pushy, wanting to drive us all the way to Pompeii and trying to put us off taking the train. Of course a direct taxi is easier, but it is a lot cheaper to take the train, and although it's a bit scruffy it felt perfectly safe with plenty of other tourists. For travel from different starting points, see the official Pompeii website (in English).

We felt that a guided tour would be too long and intensive for our children, but there are plenty of companies offering tours, both bookable online in advance, outside the gates as you approach, or through your tour operator. The audioguide is also another option which you can purchase along with your tickets at the entrance, it certainly served us very well ten years ago.

It's important to arrive as early as you can to avoid the queues - Pompeii opens at 8.30am. We arrived around 9.30am which was the earliest we could manage and the queue was still relatively short, but when we left around 2pm there was a very long line. The site can get very busy as the large tour groups arrive, so an earlier visit is definitely better if you are sticking to the popular buildings. When you purchase your tickets, look out for a sign on the window telling you which buildings are open that day, and don't forget to pick up your free map and guidebook. There are also toilets here tucked away in the corner.

Tips for a visit to Pompeii with small children

When you arrive, a good place to head for is the Forum which is a short walk from the Porta Marina entrance. It's a big open space so that you can orientate yourself, and along one side are sheds containing various artefacts including some of the plaster casts made from the bodies, which the children found fascinating although I'm not quite sure they understood what they were.

We got Harry his own free map and guidebook from the entrance. The guidebook is quite difficult for little ones to read, containing lots of Latin terms, but he loved identifying the buildings from the pictures as we saw them and he felt important as he told us bits about them.

If you can manage it, don't take a pushchair. Although Mia very rarely uses a stroller now we do take one for trips that involve a lot of walking. But Pompeii with a pushchair would be almost impossible. There are pavements, but you can't rely on them as they are often blocked by scaffolding, and they are pretty rough anyway. For a younger child you might not be able to do without one, but you'd have to bear in mind that the areas you would see might be quite limited.

Be led by your children, and spend more time on the things that interest them. Our children spent quite a lot of time splashing in puddles made by the water fountains and jumping across the stepping stones, but amongst their play they were still learning.

Although the facilities have improved since our previous visit nearly ten years ago, there are large areas of the site with no toilet or refreshment areas, and a visit to Pompeii can be very hot and tiring. Wear comfortable clothes and shoes with hats and sunglasses, wear lots of sun cream, take plenty of water and snacks, and make frequent stops in shady areas. There are many places where you can stop for a sit down on a step for a bit of a rest and a chat about what you can see around you.

We spent around three hours in Pompeii, which was plenty of time to see the main buildings and get a really good feel for the site. The children were very good, but when they started to ask when we were going back to the ship we didn't push it too much. We were lucky because we had both already visited the site and were happy to just see the highlights, and the children definitely took in a lot from their visit. Since we returned home they've been busy reconstructing Pompeii with Duplo, and even Mia keeps talking about it! I'm really glad that we made the effort to take them.

Father's Day crafts with Baker Ross

This year Father's Day is on the 21st June. I must admit that I've been all over the place lately and not had much time to stop and think, so it was quite a relief when I received a lovely box of Father's Day crafts from Baker Ross which I could do with the children to make some suitable gifts and keepsakes.

First up was these gorgeous Father's Day Handprint Poem Decoration Kits. They are quite similar to the handprint decorations that the children made for Mother's Day and I love that they are simple to make and even though it's a kit the children can really interpret it themselves using their creativity. Both children were very keen to make the decorations without any help, and as you can see even Mia at just 4 did a really good job with her red handprint! They are so bright and colourful, I'm hoping that Ram will take them into work to brighten up his office.

Next we made some super simple Father's Day Wooden Keyring Kits. They are very quick to make, although the children did need a little help threading the string through the beads. Ram needs a new keyring for his car keys, he might end up with both keyrings on it though as he won't want to have to choose a favourite!

I love these DAD Wooden Decorations which come with little pegs that you can slot into the back to stand them up. They were so simple to decorate and I think that the look great. I painted them with acrylic paints first, then gave the children a variety of stickers and crafty embellishments from our stash to decorate them with. I've always found the Baker Ross wooden shapes very easy to paint, they take the colour well and dry quickly so you can get on with your project.

Also in the Father's Day craft range are these T-Shirt Craft Boxes. We've not had chance to decorate these yet, but I'm thinking that they would look great decorated as football shirts. Ram was lucky enough to go to a Barcelona game while we were on holiday, so I might paint one up for him as a little Barcelona shirt!

Finally, you need a Father's Day card, and I think that the children did a fab job with some Father's Day Face Cards. Again, similar cards are available for Mother's Day, and I think that they are lovely. There are four different designs in the pack along with envelopes, it would be fun to get the children to do one each year and see how their pictures evolve over time!

As always, I think that the Baker Ross craft kits represent excellent value for money. Because the kits each contain several of the same craft, it would be a great idea to get together with friends and put in an order together, I usually have plenty of extras from my boxes to share out among my crafty friends!

I received these products as a member of the Baker Ross Bloggers Network.