We were supposed to be in Barcelona with our two older boys while our twins spent some quality time in NY with their grandparents. I know many of you had plans that are now cancelled (or hopefully rescheduled). So perhaps you’d like to come along with us on our virtual trip to Barcelona, or maybe you want to use some of these ideas from a giant list of virtual field trips or create your own virtual trip for your preferred destination. Obviously, none of this beats being there in person, but my hope is that it will just make it that much more exciting when we actually experience it live! (On the flip side, travel was a bit easier this way!)
Some of the things the boys were most looking forward to were a soccer (ahem, futbol) match, and a day at the Barcelona Open tennis tournament. I was excited to eat paella, tapas, and churros with chocolate, walk all over, and go to the Picasso Museum. My husband could walk all day and spend endless hours in museums. We all couldn’t wait to speak some Spanish! Turns out, we can do versions of those things right from home!
To start, we viewed Rick Steves’ video on Barcelona, where we enjoyed walking along Las Ramblas and salivating over tapas with him. His introduction to Picasso and Dali were also great. We’re trying to speak in Spanish all week, and using PBS’s Salsa station, Duolingo, and Muzzy for learning and brushing up on our Spanish.
We asked our family who had recently visited Barcelona to be our tour guides. They selected their top 10 photos (okay, maybe 25, but narrowing down photos isn’t easy), put them as their Zoom backgrounds, and shared stories about them to give us a sense of what it was like being there. My brother even included pictures from the balcony of the AirBNB we were going to stay at (on his recommendation), and a picture of Europe at night from the sky as he was flying back home!
Next, we were off to the Picasso Museum for a virtual tour and some photos of highlighted works. To actually be meaningful to kids (heck, to me!) I find it helpful to have some introduction to the artist and their context in history so that I have a lens through which to view the artwork and find it interesting. I found this kid-friendly summary on Pablo Picasso that also has ideas for doing some inspired artwork on your own. Several other museums have virtual options in Barcelona, but my favorite was this special exhibit on the history of clothing and fashion by the Design Museum of Barcelona. It’s actually a Google culture presentation so it’s more interesting than scrolling through pictures of artwork that many other online collections offer. (But if you’re into that, you might check out: highlighted works at the National Art Museum of Catalonia in Barcelona; the archives of the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art and bonus selections being shared during the pandemic; pieces from the Museum of the History of Catalonia; and much of the collection from the Design Museum of Barcelona.) Since there is currently no live tennis to watch, we’ll spend an afternoon watching tennis clips through the ATP Tennis YouTube Channel later in the week. Eating concession-type food will also be a must!
I found this replay of a Barca versus Real Madrid match (apparently not the same line up we were going to see, which had Atletico Madrid--lesson number 1 for me!) from a few years ago. The boys wore their soccer jerseys, and we practiced some fanatic songs and chants. I thought it might be an opportunity for an arts and crafts project to make a sign or one of those giant fingers, but apparently I know nothing about being a soccer fan. Fortunately, you can find a how-to guide on being a soccer fan as well as an analysis of fan type on the internet. We made our own version of tapas to snack on too!
So where are you off to? I’d love to come along!
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