Aire de Barcelona Roman Spa & Barcelona's Maritime Museum: A Relaxing Easter Weekend!

Easter weekend arrived at last! Four days off the hectic life I lead here - four days off teaching at the uni, tutoring, PhD work and stress (for the most part).The last two weeks have been inundated with senseless paperwork for conferences and overly complicated scheduling; instead, the last few days have involved gym time, playing the piano, organizing, running productive errands, spending time with K, French, and relaxing a little. There has been a bit of PhD work, a few random hours - but nothing compared to the craziness ahead. 

In fact, I plan to take the majority of the day off today before going back to reality.

Aire de Barcelona is the Roman Spa where I started my weekend on Friday evening. I wanted to super-splurge and get the baths, massage and exfoliation package - but it turns out I got the very last appointment this weekend (due to a cancellation) and they only had time for the baths and massage.  Photos are from their website.

Here's my opinion:

• It's really, really beautiful to have different swimming pools and a steam room under original Roman arches. Wow.
• I love the idea of having a swimming/lazing in the pool session followed by a massage
• The "hot" bath is not at hot-tub temperatures! This is okay though, because the steamroom is wonderful and has incredible smelling aromatherapy oils
• The "jets" bath is kinda fun and the "floating" salt pool is cool. I'm not sure how much salt is in there though; you definitely still had to try to float! Childhood memories of swimming class evoked ;)
• False advertisement on the juices and tea and relaxation room. This could have been because they were super busy on the long weekend, but I didn't see anyone with tea or juice...
• It is definitely expensive.  33 euros for just the baths, 70 euros for the baths + a 45 minute massage and 100 euros if you want the exfoliation package.

So, I used to HATE massages (this is back when I had way less patience and couldn't stay that still -  but moving from Canada, where everything is easy, to England's bureacracy to Spain's insane bureacracy and slowness has made me more patient).  This is why this was only my third massage in my whole life - I had one once when I was 15, and once in Banff when I was about 24 (a hot stone massage).  I must say that the masseuse here in Barcelona actually  managed to get all the knots out of my back and neck. It was amazing! 

Now all I need to do is find another baths/steamroom/massage combination that does not cost this much...suggestions?!

Sapna at Maritime Museum

On Saturday, Anna and I spent the afternoon together walking along the beach and visiting the Maritime Museum. I had no idea so many Spanish sailors lost their lives in the World Wars (which Spain did not partake in; however many of their merchant ships were sunk by the Axis). 

We then walked over to the El Born area, and had crepes for dinner at Crepes al Born, a cute place that is also a cocktail bar. It has a really fun vibe, with Hawaiian shirts hanging from the ceiling and swinging lamps that the bartenders push to move to the beat when the music gets louder. (We will be coming back at some point to check out their professional-looking cocktails!) 

It was great to catch up with Anna! What a fun weekend so far.  Happy Easter, everyone!!

Anna at the Maritime Museum

Sapna at Crepes Al Born

Crepes al Born

Mona de Pasqua, March 28, 2016

By the way, if you're curious about Spanish Easter traditions, click the link to check out my blog post from last year. Here's a pic of this year's "Mona de Pasqua"! I bought it while walking Kiara and the line was so long that K got impatient outside and started barking - so a very nice lady hung onto her for me while I was in line. So sweet! Happy Easter!!!