Living in Barcelona you understand that beach is not the place where you go only in summer.

Here are 9 beaches in Barcelona, all of these were mostly created or renewed in 1992, for the Olympic Games and now are one of most touristy places in Barcelona in summer. Today I will talk about just 2 beaches, where we use to go with our little toddler, it is Mar Bella Beach and Bogatell Beach. These are situates on the coastline on north of the Olympic Port. Before 1992, here was an industrial zone and more than dirty sand you wouldn´t see anything. Now, it is a really clean sand, if compared with Barceloneta´s beach (which is most touristy beach in Barcelona) and the views are really spectacular. As well on the coastline of all beaches you will find a lot of people practicing sport, that´s why on every beach there is special place for most sportive people.

In summer all 9 beaches are full, and if you come little bit later you can see that it is really difficult to find a place in the front line of the sea. In winter there are fewer people who stay at sun to tan theirs skin, most of them are locals, you won´t find a foreigner to tan in February for example, but locals enjoy sunshine even in these months. But to be true, here in Barcelona are very few days without sunshine and really bad weather. We (me, my husband and our toddler) use to enjoy breakfast on Sundays here at the Mar Bella Beach, by the way really good outside activity, as well it is our Family moment when we can enjoy our stay together, play with our kid, and smell the sea breath.

As well here I would like to mention that on these 2 beaches there is plenty of hotels with sea view, if you want to enjoy your stay in Barcelona in a room with sea view, one of this will be a good choise. As well in summer, every beach opens bars right on the beach, called 'chiringuito'.

Below some images, taken in different weeks,and on different beaches.

Bogatell Beach

Mar Bella Beach

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Playing with shapes, lovely inside activity for toddlers

As I mentioned previously, looking through pinterest I have found amazing things to do with my toddler, the most that I really liked were printables. I think that after first time playing with alphabet printables with my toddler I understood that this was the right choice for an educational activity, even now, we play with them, and when Damian really wants my attention he takes these printables and show me to play with him. So this time, I decided to make something more complex and make printables with shapes. I printed different shapes and bought pipe cleaners from carrefour, as he enjoys playing with them. It is actually a good fine motor skill, as your kid try to repeat you, and this pipe cleaners are very pleasant to move and make shapes. Damian liked the idea to play with them, but when I stopped doing shapes he didn´t follow the game, so for me it was tricky as I thought to leave him to play further, but no way, I had to stay and invent another game.

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Do you like ships or yachts? Port Vell is a good choice to watch all this during your stay in Barcelona

Today I will SHARE with you a place that I really love in Barcelona, it is the old port of Barcelona, called Port Vell. Actually I love all ports in Barcelona, mainly for the great number of ships and yachts, one more beautiful than other. 

Looking into wikipedia I found out, that this place was mainly prepared for the olympics in 1992, and from that year hosts almost 16 millions tourists each year. As before 1992, there were factories and nothing that will atract tourists. Nowadays there is a big comercial center Maremagnum, Aquarium (one of the largest in Europe) and other tourists atractions.
Being a mum I almost like or dislike places by space without cars, or places to play with kid. Even if there is a plenty of tourists everyday, any month of the year, you can enjoy the stay or walk there with your kid.

Here you can find various touristy places like:

– Mirador de Colom (Columbus Monument) – Columbust stays at the top of a column, with lions below, all the tourists make pictures here.

-Maritim Museum

-Las Golondrinas – a cruise around the harbour, we didn´t take it by the time, we think that Damian has to grow up for this outside activity. It´s about 40 minutes ride, where you can enjoy sighseeings of the harbour.

-Feed fishes – at the same place where you can take the cruise, there is a corner where a lot of people feed fishes, it is amazing how many fishes you will see there. After feeding the fishes take a walk through Rambla de Mar – it is a bridge that connect the waterfront with Maremagnum mall, as well this bridge swivels and rotates to let the yachts pass by, it is amazing how in such touristy place all this job is very organized.

-Maremagnum – a big commercial center with a lot of shops and really great restaurants, there are great views from the restaurant, just pick up a great sit.

-L´Aquarium – one of the largest aquarium in Europe, hosts more than 500 pieces of fish, sharks, dolphins, an small fishes. I am more than sure that you will enjoy the stay here and your kid even more.

I am sure that your toddler will like this place as much as you will do. Below some of amazing pictures that we took.

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Sand - outside activities

It is great when the winter is gone and spring with its’ good weather comes. While I am writing this article in Barcelona is raining , but last weeked we had great weather with sunshine and really good temperature. We went to the nearest park to slide and play with a ball, and we found that we weren’t the only parents who thought like this, there were a lot of children and everyone came with its toys, most of all came with the toys to play in the sand, and we didn’t have ours with us. If you are a parent you know that you can take a lot of toys with you outside, but your child for sure will find the others’ toys more interesting. So daddy, went back home to bring sand toys for Mr. Toddler.

I took a good lesson last weekend as well,as I found out that Damian is a shy boy, he prefers to watch other toddlers to play nor to play with them and it costs him to interact with them. When we saw this, first thing that we did was to sit with him in the same place where were plaing other toddlers, as well we mixed his toys with anothers one, so at the end this worked and he enjoyed plaing with other children. So our main objective for the future is to go to play with other toddlers as much as it will be possible.

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Cold and how to chase it

Recently I have been very active on socials and promoting this blog, even I agregate a really great page on twitter and google+, come and follow us :), as I felt like I have a little bit more time for this, and as well I thought why not to promote this blog, as for sure I will find mums alike that would love to read what I am share with my readers. But suddenly Mr. toddler got a flue, and all this time flew out, and I was absorbed with fever, congestion and all cold stuff that I even haven´t time for me, nor for other people. It is true, that if your baby is not ok, all around you goes not in the right directions, you don not have time, nor desire to make something out of order. Now, I am happy that I am back, my toddler is great, I think he now is better than before the cold and I feel relaxed, happy to continue with blog and my socials. For sure, follow Happy Mama Secrets, as I am on the way to make some changes on the site, and I would really appreciate your reviews to see if you like the changes which we prepare.

Going back to last week, and to the cold… this was our first time when our toddler got a flue for a one week long, never it was so much time, fever not more than 2 days. How we manages this? It was difficult, as the stress get you absorbed and sometimes you don´t think clearly in such situations and you don´t know what to do, and the unique way to escape is to keep calm and listen the doctor. Our daddy was 3 times to the doctor to see what happens, and how we can cure this cold. So here are some advices that were given to us: put an onion on the room where baby sleeps, clear nose with serum, give paracetamol each 6 ours, but just if the temperature is higher than 37.5 and if there is no changes after paracetamol, put wet cold compresses till the temperature goes down… and yes we were doing all this process during 6 days… here I would like to add another tip, that I think had finnaly helped us…baths with tepid water… make sure it is not warm, this is just great to low the temperature and of course be patient, as the cold is not just for 1 day. Then another tips that are important during a cold, is give as much water as your child can drink.

Wish you will be healthy always!!!!

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Travel is fun - come to Barcelona with your kid and visit Cathedral

Dear reader, I have a lot of things to share with you, but unfortunately my little boy got a flue last week, so all the week he stayed with fever, thanks God he is alright now, so I will keep posting and sharing new things with you during next days. As well this week or next week, I will change a little bit the way you see our blog, we are working on this, so I invite you to look after all the posts and don’t be shy and follow our blog.Today I share with you another amazing place for kids in Barcelona, not just for kids, but as I am writing about my toddler and thing that I do with him, I want to share all places to go outside here in Barcelona, with you my darlings, beautiful mums who like to travel with theirs toddlers or kids. Cathedral of Barcelona is not just a holy place for Christians but as well a great place for kids to enjoy Barcelona city. Here on the streets most of the time you will see people making shows, people who sing or people who make soap balls, of course these persons wait for any remuneration from the tourists and even if not all the tourists are keen to give them anything, they make happy every child who pass by. It is a great place for mums with babies, toddlers or kids as in front of the cathedral there is a lot of place to run, play and sit down for a break, as all the cars are far away from this place, what makes this place pleasant for a break.

Below some images.

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