We just got back from seven nights in Barcelona. The short story is we liked it. Some cities we just like being in. Some cities have stellar sights. Some cities have great food. In Barcelona we found all three. We will go back, I'm sure.
We, we being a couple in our mid fifties, arrived about 4 pm Saturday. I'd booked us an apartment on La Rambla, but we were so jet lagged that we got a block or two down Portal de l`Angel before realizing our mistake moving over a block. Both streets felt crazy full of people at that hour. It was an easy walk though and it felt so good to move after the plane flight. We had no trouble checking in.
The apartment is plain, clean, with a view of Mercat Boqueria. It had great counters but much less in the way of cooking equipment than I've dealt with before.
After checking in we went across the street to buy groceries for dinner and Sunday. The market is both beautiful and full on gorgeous and intreging seafood, much of it still twitching. But I was afraid to get much of the meat and seafood because my available knives were all large cheif knife shaped but serrated. Definately not handy for cleaning and cutting fish or poultry. We got salmon steaks and just oogled the whole fish. We sampled and the bought a variety of local cheeses, cured meats, and olives from various booths. We also got, broccoli, onions, and mushrooms. We couldn't find lettuce or eggs.
Next to our apartment door there was a 24 hour convenience store where we got olive oil, vinegar, salt, paper towels, soy, aioli, and wine.
I made us a quick salmon and broccoli dinner and then we went walking to keep ourselves awake until bedtime. We walked down to the harbor and back and then collapsed in a jet lagged stuper.
We woke up feeling pretty good the next morning. After coffee in, we did Rick Steve's La Ramblas and Barri Gotic walks, detouring often, taking photos, stopping for more coffee, ducking in and out of shops, looking for an open grocery, and generally being lazy. We saw many Catalonian flags hanging from balconies which became an all trip feature. It is a pretty flag. We also noticed that the Spanish were all dressed in heavy black winter coats. Giggling over being the only people walking around in shirt sleeves and hoodies as opposed to arctic gear became another running theme.
We headed back to the apartment for lunch where we feasted on cheese, olives, cold meat, and wine. Then we headed off the the Piccasso Museum where we had tickets for 2 pm. In January, reserved tickets really weren't necessary. We occasionally had whole rooms to ourselves. It was heavenly. My husband professed not to like Piccaso before we went. Now he's revised that. He doesn't much care for Piccaso`s cubist period.
Heading back toward the cathedral to visit the Barcelona History Museum we found an open health food grocers. No meat, but there was lettuce and eggs. We debated waiting to shop until after we'd seen the museum, but the store closed in hour so we put the groceries in our backpacks and stored them in the museum lockers.
The museum is free Sunday after five. We were afraid it would be crowded but, it being January, it wasn't. We really enjoyed the Roman ruins in the basement and then kinda rushed the middle ages upstairs.
Back at the apartment, I poached eggs in a chilli sauce made from bullion cubes and ground chili I brought with us. That, salad, and yet more cheese made dinner. After dinner we went on another walk through the Berri Gottic.