A garden walk and a "sweet" walk.

Today was our last day in Barcelona, so of course we slept late to take advantage of our last day of vacation, and also to prep for a sleepless night ahead of us (we have to get up at 3am tomorrow morning to catch our plane...)  We left the apartment and went to lunch at Casa Tomasa in El Born.  It had a nice outdoor terrace, but they actually charged more for the meals on the terrace than to eat indoors!  Being the cheapskates we are, we opted to eat indoors despite the lovely day.  :)  Casa Tomasa was another welcome chance to eat a few greens; I had a tasty strawberry and salmon salad.

Tower of the cable car Transbordador Aeri.

After lunch we decided to ride the cable car from La Barceloneta to Montjuïc to get a lovely view of Barcelona.  We didn't realize that this would take a LOT longer than expected.  First, we waited at the bottom of the tower - there were only about 30 people in line, so we expected it would be a pretty short wait, but we had to stand there for about a half hour.  Then once we got up to the top, we had to wait for another 45 minutes before even getting on the cable car!  It only holds about 15 people, and it moves ve-e-e-e-eery slowly...

Once we got on the cable car, it did provide lovely views of the city, despite the fact that I had to have my face almost directly in some German guy's smelly armpit.  From the cable car we had beautiful views of land and sea, and I could see all the way to the Cathedral, and even beyond to the spires of La Sagrada Familia!

Beautiful Barcelona as viewed from the cable car.

That boat in the picture was seriously HUGE - the mast was probably 3-4 stories high!  The wide angle lens makes it look small.  :)

Barcelona!

At the top of Montjuïc, we decided to do the "views and gardens" walk from the Lonely Planet.  Lonely Planet unfortunately didn't tell us that the art museums on the walk are all closed on Mondays... The various gardens were lovely and green, though I bet they are a lot nicer in the summer when the flowers are in bloom.

The view of Barcelona from Montjuïc.

Inside one of the gardens of Montjuïc, with the Museu Nacional D'Art de Catalunya visible above the trees.

Walking in the Jardins de Laribal.

Museu Nacional D'Art de Catalunya - the end of our walk through the gardens.

Finished with our garden walk, I picked out another tasty looking walk from Rick Steve's book - "a short, sweet walk." :)  This walk starting from La Rambla was a tour of some sweet and calorie-laden Spanish delights.  We started out at Casa Colomina for some turrón, sort of like fudge or nougat made with almonds, honey and sugar.  We nibbled on the turrón as we headed for La Pallaresa Granja-Xocolateria for churros con chocolate - yummy, deep fried tubes of dough which are then dipped into a cup of hot chocolate so thick it is a step away from being pudding!  Rick Steves books tend to be great at getting us off the beaten path, and this place was ALL locals - not a single tourist in the place besides us!  At this early evening hour it was packed - not a single empty table, and the servers could barely squeeze between all the crowded tables.  Perhaps this is why the Spanish can eat their dinner so late - they have churros at 5pm as a snack!  :)  Our last stop was the Fargas chocolate shop for more delicious homemade chocolate truffles.

Gavin enjoys some churros con chocolate at La Pallaresa Granja-Xocolateria.

Having had three desserts first as our "appetizer," we then headed out to dinner.  (yes, we are a little ridiculous with the eating on our vacations...)  Gavin picked a place recommended on Yelp called Il Mercante de Venezia, a nice, quiet Italian place that was a welcome change from seafood and tapas.  We had a lovely dinner with delicious red wine, then headed out to take one last romantic evening walk in Barcelona, heading back to the apartment early to pack and get ready for our 3am walk up call.  Tomorrow we say adiós to Barcelona.

Port Vell at night.

Zombified at Los Caricoles :)

Today Gavin and I headed over to the El Raval district just beyond La Rambla to see the Museu Marítim.  We were excited to see a full-sized replica of Don Juan of Austria's flagship; from the pictures it looked like a beautiful gold-gilded mahogany masterpiece, and it is incredible that one is actually allowed to board it and walk around!

Don Juan's flagship in the museum.  Not our picture, see below for details. :(

Unfortunately, this beautiful thing was closed for restoration - we didn't even get to peek in a room to see it!  Sad!  The rest of the museum was smaller replica ships encased in glass, engines and other assorted bits of ships and lots of seafaring history.

We cracked up at this display - a Garmin GPS is on display in the museum.  I guess GPSs are ancient history now...  :)

Port Vell.

After the Museu Marítim, we headed over to La Barceloneta to see Port Vell, which includes a large shopping mall.  Outside the mall, artists were selling their paintings, so we bought a small one for our collection (we try to buy a piece of art from a market or on the street anywhere we go!).  Then we headed back in to La Rambla to try out Los Caracoles, a famous Barcelona restaurant, for lunch.  I decided to be adventurous and try their squid ink paella.  It arrived in a black paella pan and was so blackened with the squid ink it was barely distinguishable from the pan!  The paella was nicely tamed for the tourists, as the shrimp were thankfully fully cleaned (no eyeballs, antennae, legs, etc).  :)  I also kind of liked the dark ink covering up all the seafood "mystery meat" so I couldn't tell what it was - my growing-up-in-the-midwest tastes are still a little revolted by little rubbery bits...  :)  The squid ink itself was pretty salty and gave the dish the slightest aftertaste of pond scum, but eating it had the humorous effect of giving me "zombie mouth."

Los Caricoles means "the snails" and they give you little bread loaves shaped like snails!  So cute!  I wasn't brave enough to order the REAL snails that are their specialty...  :)

Squid ink paella at Los Caracoles.

See? Zombie Mouth!  I should try out to be an extra on Walking Dead...  :)

Zombie mouth gave rise to this little video gem, which I made Gavin shoot when none of the classy, tie-clad waiters were watching.  :)

After lunch, we walked around the Port Vell area a bit more, taking in one of Barceloneta's lovely beaches.  Though the weather was a little chilly, that evidently doesn't stop kite boarders from bringing out their parachutes.  :)

Me in Barceloneta (with my new Barcelona advertising banner purse.  :)  )

Kite boarders in La Barceloneta.  BRRRRR!!!  The ones I saw closer up were wearing wet suits.

Gavin on the beach in La Barceloneta.  :)

For dinner, we decided to ditch the travel guidebooks which have been leading us astray this whole trip.  We walked around in the El Born district near our apartment and came upon a tiny little side street with lots of interesting looking places to eat and drink.  We settled on a nice tapas bar called Suaida al Born for dinner.  It was a lovely, medieval looking place with stone walls and heavy wood tables and booths.  We had some delicious tapas and wonderful sangria, then headed out for the next bar down for more nibbles and drinks.  This bar was aptly named Rubi, as everything in it was ruby red - walls, decor, lamps, even the lightbulbs themselves gave the whole place a dark red glow.  The low lighting and small tables created an intimate atmosphere, despite the noisy Brits at the next table over.  :)  Wanting a change from sangria, I ordered a strawberry mojito, and it was one of the best I have ever had!  Our last stop on our evening's tour of pleasures was once again Creps Barcelona for more delicious dessert crepes and tea, a lovely way to end our evening of tapas gluttony.  :)

If Bag End were a tourist attraction...

Today was the first day of Gavin's conference, so I got to entertain myself for most of the day.  I started out by heading over to Park Güell, Gaudi's miniature city that was meant to be a housing site for the well-to-do of Barcelona, but unfortunately it didn't take off.  I imagined it would be a delightful place, architecture looking like something from the Hobbit, colorful mosaics, lovely walking paths...  All of the above applies, but add about a thousand tourists, nearby restaurant owners walking around with signs and calling out to potential customers, plus almost an hour in transit (subway and walking uphill) to get there, and that tends to diminish the charm...  I should have planned better and arrived before the crowds instead of right at noon...

The gatehouses of Park Güell, and the city of Barcelona beyond...

So many tourists in Park Güell that I could hardly get any decent pictures.

Inside the Sala Hipóstila (Hall of 100 Columns - there aren't actually 100 columns, there are only 88.  No, I didn't count...  :)  ) 

After my brief walk around Park Güell, I headed down into the Garcia district to have lunch.  I grabbed a little sandwich at a bakery near Plaça de la Revolució de Setembre de 1868 (imagine having to write THAT return address on all your mail...).  I ate lunch on a park bench in the plaza while a couple of young girls beside me played cat's cradle with string.

After lunch, I headed back to Mercat de Mercats - I just had to have some more of those incredible chocolate/raspberry/cognac truffles!  As I mentioned before, the Mercat de Mercats is right outside the Cathedral, and it made me giggle to see so many people calmly sitting on the steps of one of the major cathedrals in Barcelona drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes.  :)

Mercat de Mercats.

Boozin' it up on the steps of the cathedral.  :)

Inside La Catedral, Barcelona's awesome Gothic cathedral.  Since Gavin isn't all that interested in going inside churches, especially if he has to pay for it, :)  I went by myself!

Upon leaving the Cathedral by a side entrance, I found myself at a loss for my sense of direction again (not like mine is all that great in the first place...) and "unfortunately" (for our bank account   :)  ) ended up back on Calle de Ferran (the major shopping street that leads to La Rambla), where I saw a store that only sold recycled purses, handbags, etc.  I bought a funky purse made from recycled Barcelona advertising banners.

Later in the evening, Gavin was finished with his conference, so we headed out in the Born district to find some dinner.  We once again failed to find a Lonely Planet recommended place, (I guess their Barcelona book is way out of date!) so settled on a nice restaurant near the Picasso museum that had some covered outdoor seating; the sky had been spitting rain intermittently throughout the evening, but it was still not too chilly to eat outdoors.  I was happy to be able to order a nice, fresh salad, but their salmon dish was tasty, too.

Overall, I enjoy days walking in cities by myself while Gavin is busy working.  It gives me a chance to see the sites that I am interested in but with which he would have been bored, but I am always happy when he comes back and we can end our day together with a nice dinner, drinks and strolling through the quiet streets at night.

Barcelona, the perpetual sidewalk

Barcelona's many narrow, jumbled streets paved with cement blocks or tiles are often pedestian-only, giving the whole city the feeling of being a perpetual sidewalk. But every once in a while, we will be walking down a narrow street only to suddenly have a car approach. I think this is probably how they keep the tourist population down... :)

Today I feel completely adjusted to Barcelona time, but Gavin wasn't so lucky... He told me he woke up at 4am and couldn't sleep, so was reading until 9am when I finally woke up. Then as soon as I got up he promptly fell back asleep until noon. (in the meantime I got ready to do, did some research for what to do today, wrote yesterday's blog post... then finally ran out of things to do and made him get up. :) )

First, we headed over to the Mercado Santa Maria, only a few blocks from our apartment, to have lunch/brunch. Mercado Santa Maria is a permanently standing produce, fish and meat market that is open pretty much every day from early morning until early afternoon. I always enjoy the fresh food markets in other countries - every vendor pays such attention to artistically arranging their wares: perfectly arranged piles of bell peppers, massive clumps of sausages and meats hung from hooks above the vendors' heads, fish, hooks in the mouths still included, arranged so they are all staring at my accusingly with their still-shiny moist eyes... :)

Mercado de Santa Maria. (notice the lovely tripe (intestines) for sale in front...)

Look at all that meat! (don't mind the tourist-hater glaring at the camera... :) )

See, I TOLD you they were staring at me!

One of the restaurants in the Mercado Santa Maria was highly recommended by both our Lonely Planet book and our apartment manager, so we sat at a shared table and ordered some tapas. I also ordered some fresh apple/carrot/mint juice - probably the most vitamins I will get on this whole trip. :) A really fun band was playing mostly New Orleans style jazz, but a few other standards like Mack the Knife. We also did some people watching - easily pegging the tourists in their sweats, fanny packs and backpacks... Natives to Barcelona are really stylish, but one of the first things that struck me yesterday is that they wear VERY little bright color - mostly blacks, grays and earth tones. So that has become another way I to mark tourists - anyone wearing color (like my bright blue shirt I was wearing today) is more than likely a tourist. :)

The mosaic-roofed outside of the Mercado de Santa Maria.

After brunch Gavin and I decided to do the "Sins of Gluttony" walk from our Lonely Planet book - it was a walk completely based on sampling or buying food. (NOT healthy food...) And, bonus, the walk started at Mercado Santa Maria! The first stop after the market was the Museu de la Xocolata (Museum of Chocolate) that not only had displays of old chocolate making equipment and exhibits on the history of chocolate, it also had the equivalent of a wax museum of chocolate! There were cartoon characters, historical characters, and even a chocolate replica of the Pieta (Mary holding Jesus after he died on the cross), sculpted out of chocolate. Gavin and I each got a free chocolate bar with admission; Gavin was really disappointed that it was dark chocolate, but I was glad to take it off his hands. :) If every museum gave out chocolate with admission, I am sure they would be more popular... :)

Me eating me free museum chocolate in front of a chocolate Tom and Jerry.

Gavin in front of chocolate gladiators.

No, I wasn't kidding - someone really DID make a chocolate Pieta. I am attempting to take communion - "The body of Christ, the chocolate of heaven." Now that I think about it, if the communion wafer changes into the body of Christ, then why can't they make a chocolate communion wafer...? (in other news, I am going to hell for posing for this picture AND writing this caption, and Gavin is going to hell for having the idea for this picture... :)

Our gluttony walk was then supposed to take us to a nut shop, a coffee shop, a sausage shop and two different chocolate shops, but we didn't get much gluttony in because four out of the five above were closed! (at 3pm!) Luckily, we got into Bubo, an incredible chocolate and pastry shop, everything artistically made and kept behind brightly lit glass counters, which gave the impression that we were actually standing in a jewelry store, not a chocolate shop. I ordered some lovely concoction of chocolate, green tea and hazelnut, and it was seriously some of the best chocolate I have had since Switzerland, which so far is the top of my chocolate experiences (and I have had MANY chocolate experiences... :) )

The incredible "jewelry counter" of chocolate and pastries at Bubo.

Chocolate at Bubo!

I am about to partake in one of the tastiest chocolate experiences of my life! :)

At this point we gave up on the gluttony walk since it ended at a restaurant and we were not hungry for dinner yet, so we walked inside the nearby Gothic cathedral Santa Maria del Mar to have a brief look at the lovely stained glass windows and the incredibly high arches and pillars inside. Then we headed back to our apartment, doing a little shopping on the way. We discovered the store Desigual - kind of the Starbucks of Barcelona clothing stores in that there is one every 30 feet. This is probably my new favorite store in the world - everything in there is colorful and unique - I bought only one dress because the place was also higher priced than I normally buy, and many of the things I tried on didn't fit at all - sleeves too short being the main culprit (ah, the woes of being skinny with long arms...). Gavin got a nice sport coat, too!

Santa Maria del Mar

Inside Santa Maria del Mar.

After shopping we headed back to the apartment to drop off our bags, then went out for dinner. We chose a recommended place from Lonely Planet called Agut, pretty close to La Rambla. This time our map and directions were good, but we walked right by the place two or three times because their sign was just a few small letters painted on the side of the building, and not even over the door! Inside it was a nice, warm atmosphere with low, exposed beam ceilings. We got seated in a romantic little corner in the back of the restaurant. We also got some of the faster/better/friendlier service we have had in this city. We ordered a steak to share, and it ended up being a gargantuan mass of meat the size of my thigh! The "garnishes" were french fries and deep fat fried eggplant. And it was actually REALLY good steak, as close to competing with Argentine steak as we have ever had, but it was REALLY rare, despite that we ordered it medium.

A note on restaurant service in Spain and Barcelona - if you come here, don't expect the borderline overdone service we get in US restaurants. ("Hi, my name is John, and I'll be your server today. Our specials are blah blah blah ad nauseum") Here, we are never greeted or acknowledged when we sit at a table in a "seat yourself" kind of place, even if the wait staff happens to be delivering food to the table next to us. They will bring the menu when they are ready and won't even look at you until they are ready to serve you. :) This first contact can often take several minutes, which got my "entitled American" :) side a bit ticked, until I realized that is just what is acceptable here and the wait staff AND diners are not in a rush to get done eating and get on with the next thing on the agenda. After you order, the wait staff bring your food and completely leave you alone to eat it - not once has anyone asked how the food tastes, which I enjoy very much, as American wait staff will invariably stop by and ask about the food when my mouth is completely full. :) We also ALWAYS have to ask for the check; there is no bringing the check as soon as your plate is clean in a rush to get you out of the restaurant, which I also appreciate.

After dinner we headed back to Plaça Reial to have some drinks and dessert at one of the outdoor cafes. We pretty much sat down at the first one we saw: El MariscCo, a cafe specializing in seafood, though we ordered an apple tart, some chcoolate torte and sangria. Ah, Spanish sangria - the worst in Spain is better than the best attempt at sangria from any restaurant in America... Not saying this was bad sangria - it was really good. :) Spanish sangria is as refreshing as ice tea or lemonade on a hot day. (it is not hot here now, but our last trip to Spain was in July...)

We stayed out a bit later tonight, walking all the way to the end of La Rambla at Plaza Catalunya, where we watched a street "artist" blowing giant bubbles for money. Then, well after midnight tonight, we headed back to the apartment and crashed.

A street "artist" blows giant bubbles in Plaça Catalunya.

La Rambla at night.

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Sagrada Familia - forest and melted frosting

Today we took the metro over to the Eixample district to see Gaudi's unfinished cathedral Sagrada Familia. This cathedral has been over 100 years in construction, and it is expected to be finished around 2020 or 2040. We waited in line for about 45 minutes, dubiously admiring the outside of the cathedral with its towers topped with what looked like bunches of grapes, a Christmas tree, the Tim Burton-esque Passion Facade with larger-than-life sculptures depecting scenes from the Passion and the Last Supper, the Nativity Facade looking like a fancy wedding cake left in the sun too long, the dichotomy of color between older, tan construction and newer salmon-pink construciton, and one whole side covered in scaffolding - the current constuction effort. Gavin tried to convince me not to go inside since the line was so long ("We've seen a ton of churches!"), but I insisted we see the inside. :)

The Nativity Facade, looking like so much melted frosting...

Old and new - Nativity Facade. See the Christmas tree between the four tall towers? And the bunches of grapes on top of the smaller towers?

The Passion Facade (opposite side of the church from the Nativity Facade.)

It was definitely worth the wait! (even Gavin was impressed :) ) Sagrada Familia is unlike any cathedral I have ever seen! Literature posted around tells that Gaudi wanted the inside of the church to evoke a forest, and that is definitely the best comparison I can make. The stone columns holding up the ceiling all split into several "branches," and on the ceiling it is sculpted to evoke leaves or a forest canopy; it reminded me of a jungle canopy. The multicolored stained glass windows shine different colored light on all the columns, giving the stone more color than it would normally have, (though half the windows were plain glass - the stained glass is also a work in progress) but the stone columns were also made of different colors of stone, some pink, some blue, some grey. I read somewhere that cathedrals are built with such high ceilings to send one's attention high into the heavens, and no cathedral I have ever seen has given me the feeling of being lifted up like Sagrada Familia.

The "forest" interior of Sagrada Familia. Notice all the plain glass - stained glass is only partially completed.

The "canopy." The glass windows on top are intended to let in little bits of light, just like trees in a forest.

After seeing Sagrada Familia, we headed over toward Passeig de Gracia - Barcelona's main shopping strip. We stopped for lunch at De Tapa Madre, a nice little tapas place with outdoor seating separated from the busy street by a wall covered in plants, a very nice noise barrier. I was excited to see SALAD (!!) on their menu, and ordered a nice goat cheese salad, which ended up being a huge hunk of goat cheese with a bit of salad rather than the usual proprtion of a bed of greens with a bit of goat cheese, but I'll take what little green stuff I can get in Spain... :)

Passeig de Gracia is your typical upscale shopping boulevard. The completely unaffordable places post handy little cards in front of their store displays telling the prices of the things on the mannequins (i.e. Suit coat $500, Dress, $700). Gavin and I joked that this was to keep the rifraff out. :) The more affordable places where you could buy things under $100 didn't post prices out front. If the prices weren't intimidating enough, all the expensive places also had security doormen in expensive-looking suits - I joked to Gavin that if I walked toward one of those shops they wouldn't open the door for me in my cheap attire. :)

For dinner, we decided to try out the La Ribera area near our apartment. I picked a place out of the Lonely Planet book, (Wushu, an Asian place for a change from tapas), but unfortunately Wushu doesn't appear to exist anymore, or at least not where it is marked in our book. That is strike two for our books letting us down about a restaurant! Gavin had us stop at a nice-smelling wood fired pizza place nearby instead, where we had what we coined, in our sarcastic manner, a "mind blowingly average" meal of sad caprese salad with almost green tomatoes and tasteless pizza.

On the way back to our apartment I stopped us at a cute little wine bar called Origen. The tiny, cozy interior was decorated with numerous shelves full of wine and vases full of wine corks. I ordered a glass of Moscatell, assuming this would be the same thing as my favorite sparkling dessert wine: moscato. Not in the least - this was more like a while port, syrupy sweet and served in a tiny shot glass. I also ordered a baked stuffed apple for dessert, which I enjoyed, but Gavin complained that this is not a real dessert, just a healthy fruit masquerading as a dessert. :)

Tonight it was raining in Barcelona, and the weather enveloped the Old City in a drowsy romantic atmosphere, creating a cloudy haze around the antique wrought iron street lights, covering the tiled streets in a reflective sheen of moisture, sending little rivulets trickling down the brick and stone facades of the old architecture, and encouraging happy couples like us to share an umbrella. (though this trip I actually remembered to buy travel umbrellas, so Gavin and I, practical as well as romantic, each had our own umbrella. :) ) So, mano y mano, we walked slowly back to our apartment, enjoying the romance of a rainy Barcelona night.

 

Gaudi's Casa Batlló on Passeig de Gracia.

 

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¡Hola Barcelona!

This morning we arrived in Barcelona after a relatively short (only 7 hours!) flight from Toronto. We had uneventful flights, other than our Air Canada flight from Hartford to Toronto being in a plane roughly the size of my college dorm room: one row of seats on each side and no overhead bins. The co-pilot was our "flight attendant" and said if we need anything, just come up to the cockpit and ask... ("Excuse me, could you get me some water?" "Sure, of course, ma'am. Not like I'm busy flying the plane or anything...") I don't mind the size so much as the fact that a slightly above average size sparrow could sneeze on the plane and cause turbulence... I get a little freaked out with turbulence now, and I wonder what happened to the younger me who LOVED turbulence and found it fun and thrilling like a roller coaster ride in the sky... The worst was our landing in Toronto where we landed sideways balanced on one wheel and the pilot fought to bring the other one down. When we finally were fully on the ground Gavin quipped, "Any landing you can walk away from..." ("is a good landing," for those of you unfamiliar with that quote. :) )

 

We arrived before 7am in Barcelona, and we couldn't get into our apartment until 10am to drop off our luggage. We had some coffee at the airport, the took the cheap and handy Aerobus into Barcelona, where it let us off at Plaça Catalunya, the very center of the city. Our apartment was about a half mile walk, so we headed down the still-half-asleep streets. It was around 8am by this time on a weekday, but not a single store was open. Even restaurants advertising breakfast were still closed! I guess Gavin and I don't have to feel bad about sleeping in - the whole city must be on a late-start schedule!

Me in front of the Església Santa Maria del Mar

At 10 we met Jordi, our contact for our apartment and he let us in. We are staying in a lovely, cozy but high-ceilinged studio apartment in the El Born district in La Ribera. We are right in the heart of the main shopping district of Barcelona, and within a mile of most of the major things to see and do. After dropping off our luggage, we left for another couple hours while the apartment was being cleaned. We wandered sleepily around, checking out bits of the shopping, then we went to a supermarket to buy our breakfast food for the week; one of the main advantages of renting an apartment instead of a hotel is that at least we can have a healthy breakfast... After our semi-aimless wandering, we headed back to the apartment to catch up on a bit of sleep, since neither of us had slept a wink on the flight.

Feeling refreshed after our nap, we did a little shopping in our Born district, and quickly discovered it was "too rich for our blood." Gavin went in to a little boutique and was about to try on a really nice looking coat... until he saw the price tag was 1,400 Euros... So instead of doing more shopping we headed over into Barri Gotic to check out La Rambla, the main pedestrian
drag in Barcelona. La Rambla is a pedestrian-only street about the size of a 6 lane

 

highway, lined with cafes and restaurants, all with brightly lit outdoor seating. Both our travel books recommended NOT eating at any of these touristy and expensive places, so we set out to look for a Rick Steves recommended restaurant El Pintor. After trying to find it for about a half hour (Rick Steves hand-drawn maps leave something to be desired...), we gave up and stopped at a little tapas place called El Paraigua in Plaça de Sant Real to have "dinner" of many little plates, my favorite of which was marinated red bell peppers and eggplant. I also tried Cava, Catalunya's variety of sparkling white wine, a lot like champagne, but light and fruity and not dry. Still, I prefer the sweetness of moscato.

 

Cheers! Cava and rioja and frizzy hair... :)

Rioja and Cava and frizzy hair... :)

Gavin and our tapas - his favorite was the spicy sausage.

 

After round one of tapas, we tried to look for an interesting looking bar/restaurant we had passed while looking for El Pintor, but Gavin insisted that we not pass a nice looking gelato place... I had some good dulce de leche gelato, but still Argentina has it beat... :) Then we found the bar we had seen before, called Salterio, and went inside. Salterio was tiny little place no bigger than our studio apartment with stone walls, exposed beam ceilings, and it ended up being more "my" scene than Gavin's; it was mostly a tea bar, though they did have wine and beer. (Gavin ordered a glass of "Tinto" which was a really bitter tasting red wine - Gavin said "Tinto must be Spanish for nasty." :) ) I ordered Te Rojo, which I thought would be rooibos and non-caffeinated, but I was wrong, it was a red colored variation of black tea. (it was 11pm, so I didn't want to drink caffeine and keep myself awake while still trying to adjust to Spain time...) We also ordered a stuffed pizza-ish thing with delicious mushrooms and spinach to share. (side note, we discovered the next day that both El Paraigua and Salterio were recommended in our Lonely Planet Barcelona book, but we had picked them both on our own! I guess we have good taste! :) )

By the time we left, it was almost midnight, yet the streets were still fully lit and tons of people were still out walking, drinking and eating tapas - on a Tuesday night. That is the thing that I remember the most from our last trip to Spain - everybody is out and about until the wee hours EVERY night, whether it is a weekend or not! But since we are still not fully adjusted to the Spanish schedule, we headed right back to the apartment to sleep. :)

Place de Sant Miquel at night.

La Rambla at night.

 

Beautiful tea bar in Barri Gotic.

 

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