Day 75: Getting a big Welcome to Barcelona by being robbed (July 28):

  Today we left the Provence area of France and drove back to Spain!

  Here is what the kids do to pass the time, sit and take pictures of themselves.

        We find our apartment and no parking, so we stop in front of the apartment and do our usual unload – everyone grabbing their suitcases out of the back and pulling them to the curb.  Benson drives to find parking while the kids and I trek up to our apartment. Ashlynn, Peyton, Tanner, three suitcases and I climb into the tiny elevator. We push the button and the elevator slowly starts to climb, but comes to a halting stop and we are stuck. There is no phone to call out. We are squished, I keep pushing the alarm button over and over again, the kids downstairs are yelling up at us, we are yelling back, and the temperature is quickly rising in the little oven. Peyton starts to cry and I begin to get nervous as nobody seems to be hearing the alarm. After what feels like a long time, an older gentleman opens the door for us. Benson has returned and helps pull a few kids out. Everyone is staring out their apartment doors and the man is yelling at me for putting too much in the elevator;), but we are free! We put less in the elevator and take a few more trips up the stairs, and we check into our little apartment.

    As we unpack our things, we realize that our computer back pack is gone, and realize that while we were all in the back unloading, someone was in the front of the van snatching and running off with our computer back pack which had the ipad, all of the chargers, and all of our chords in it. Benson remembered a woman yelling as we were unloading, but didn’t realize what she was yelling about. Luckily the backpack didn’t have either camera or the other I pad where we had been storing many of our photos. Welcome to Barcelona!

    Our apartment lobby even has a sign telling us to be extra careful to shut the main door behind us as apartments have been getting broken into.

    No one can be trusted in Barcelona or Roma! EVER!

   Anyway, me and Momacita walked to the Lidl (a European grocery store) nearby because the next day was Sunday, so it’s closed. Surprisingly we found the Disney Channel in English! It was a nice treat for us!

   We wash our clothes and hang them out to dry on the balcony overlooking a shared courtyard, and we hope that nothing important falls off, because it will be lost forever. I guess it’s all important because we only packed so much;). I can’t wait to use my clothes dryer again! We end the day with a game of Take 2!