Furnished Apartment and Playing like Kids!!

Dear Family and Friends,

I did not post the pictures of the apartment early this morning as I said I would.  Chuck and I decided to play the day away.

So, first of all I will share the apartment pictures.  This is an apartment from around 1912, with furniture and fixtures just as they were back then.  I found this exhibit to be very interesting.

Obviously, this apartment belonged to very wealthy people.  Even so, I was quite amazed at all the conveniences they had 100 years ago.

Here is a cool cast iron hall tree.

The living room reminded me of many I have seen in Ecuadorian colonial homes.

The dining room.

Here is the hall way.  It is well lit from the windows that open to the courtyard.

Here is the study.

The master bedroom.

What I found amazing is that this bedroom had it's own bathroom.

Here are some pictures of the kitchen.  I was impressed.

Chuck standing by the stove.  Oh, in case you are wondering, Chuck is not with child.  He has his backpack on backwards.

How about this.....a double sink.

 

AND, this really neat breakfast area off from the kitchen.  Notice the pocket door.

Of course a house this grand would have a live in maid.  Here is her bedroom.

Her uniform hung on the wall at the foot of the bed.

Here is a workroom.  How nice!

And the main bathroom.  Large enough to be called a ballroom in today's apartments.

Also in this bathroom was a great tub for washing little children......no more bending over the tub for this mom.

I wanted to share these pictures with you because it made 1912 not seem so long ago.  I was quite fascinated.

Now for what we did today!

I didn't wake up this morning until 9:00am.  I am really getting into the spirit of a vacation.

Over breakfast we discussed what we should do today.  We wanted to do something that was not centered around Gaudi.  His stuff in interesting but we wanted a change.

Chuck suggested that we take the funicular up to an amusement park.  The amusement park is on top of Tibidabo mountain.  Here is a link:  http://www.tibidabo.cat/en/info/benvinguts

The adventure started out by us taking the metro to the funicular.  The funicular is 100 years old (refurbished in 1998 thank goodness!)  

From the funicular we took a shuttle bus to the amusement park.

One of the first things we saw was a big church.  Not expecting that!  Here it is from the ground.  I will share how it looks from the air in a moment.

We were very high and had a view of the city.  It would have been better but is was quite hazy.

There were several old rides from years past that are still in use.

Here is a two story merry-go-round.

What about this old ride.  Two cages that you stand in and slowly rotate around.

Of course we had to try it.  Here is what that church looks like from the top of the ride.

One ride we were both intrigued with was an airplane.

The propeller went around and the motor sounded just like the plane was actually running.  The fun part was that half the ride was out over a cliff, which made it seem like you were really flying in the airplane.  Seventy or eighty years ago I am sure this ride was a big hit because not many people had experienced flying.  Chuck said that the airplane was really propelled by the propeller.

Chuck and I decided to give it a go.

When we got inside we realised that we were in a real airplane.

And yep, just as we thought...when it went out over the cliff, it was felt like we were really flying.

After we got back to earth, we learned that this airplane is an exact replica of the first commercial airplane to fly from Barcelona to Madrid.  The year, painted on the tale of the airplane was 1928. 

We went to the historical amusement park museum and had lunch at an outside cafe in the park.  All in all, it was just what we needed.  Just a fun day!!

Love,

Nancy