Fabulous weather today! I haven’t seen a full day of warmth and sunshine in at least a week! Mercat de la Boqueria is Barcelona’s famous food market, known now mostly for tourists, but dates back to 1217.
Right when you enter the market, there is a tapas bar to the right called Pintxo that was jammed full of people, at 9AM! There are stalls selling chocolates, fruit, fruit juice of every combination imaginable, seafood, meat… sheep’s head, anyone?
Mom kept exclaiming that it’s just like Taiwan!
A croissant-like pastry with cream stuffed inside:
Strawberry Coconut fruit drink (tastes like a cross between strawberry daiquiri and pina colada! Oh soooo yummy!)
Blackberry coconut and strawberry guava~
Fried-to-order churros with the thickest, creamiest hot chocolate ever!
Angel’s favorite, alfajores, dulce de leche sandwiched by soft, crumbly butter/shortbread cookies, with a thin coat of shredded coconut. She fell in love with these cookies in Costa Rica.
The streets of Barcelona:
I knew when we hit Barcelona, that I wanted to see the Gaudi sites. There are 5 famous ones, the cathedral, Sagrada, Pedrera, Batllo, and Parc Guell.
The Gaudi cathedral, under construction (like just about every major tourist site in Paris and Barcelona!):
It is free to go in and look around, just like Notre Dame and the churches of France.
Amazing how they got stained glass that detailed!
We then walked to Casa Batllo, a Gaudi creation 1904-1096. The style and flow of the house has been compared to Monet’s water lities.
Inside of Batllo:
Near the Casa Batllo is a restaurant named TapaTapas and since we saw a lot of people both sitting on the outside and inside, we decided to go in. Oooohhh… I can live off tapas! Love ‘em! Loved every single dish, but my favorites from here were:
Fried Small Fish… see the lemon wedge? USE IT! Brings out the flavor so much more!
Assortment of tapas, with truffled brie, Iberico ham, salmon mousse:
My absolute favorite, potatoes sliced extremely thin, with Iberico ham and fried egg:
We went to La Sagrada Family’s Temple, which Gaudi designed and started building 120 years ago. Building has not been completed as of yet! So we weren't able to get a good snapshot of the temple, as there are construction cranes all around the building.
Last Gaudi site we went to today (unfortunately missed Parc Guell, but heard it's amazing... 1.5 days is just too short to cram everything in! Parc Guell is supposedly open 24/7, and I heard going at midnight is gorgeous with the lights illuminating the entire park!) was La Pedrera.
Angel and parents were pretty worn out of these sites, so next stop on my hit-list was a chocolate shop! Best patisserie in Spain, and one of the best chocolatiers in the world, Oriol Balaguer. At first, the concierge had circled the shop to me, but it was waaaay out of the hub of the city and we thought it would be in a ghetto neighborhood because nothing showed up on the map! But when we got there, we realized why... it's where the wealthy live, and they like it quiet. We bought some chocolate (haven't opened it yet) to see what the fuss is all about.
Alberto Adria has gotten critical acclaims for his tapas restaurant, Inopia. He is the pastry chef of El Bulli, and brother to Ferran Adria. If I did NOTHING in Barcelona, I would still have to go to his restaurant.
The hotel concierge said yesterday it was closed, but tonight would be open at 7pm. Online blogs recommended getting there before 7pm, otherwise you'd be waiting in a huge line. So we get there around 6:45. Nobody. 7pm. Nobody. What's going on?! The shopkeeper next door felt sorry for us, I guess, because she came out to tell us that they were CLOSED today! I was so crushed! She said tomorrow they might be closed too. What, you set your own hours now? Different from what you posted on your door???? We wasted 11 euros taxi to get there and back to the hotel!
So we went back to the hotel, walked around La Ramblas and Mercat de la Boqueria (8am-8:30pm) before heading to another tapas restaurant the concierge had recommended. Turns out, I don't need Inopia! I guess I just love tapas! This restaurant, as with the other tapas restaurants we've been to on this trip, is damn good! Their sangria's the best too, out of the 3 places we ordered it at.
The waiter recommended the veal, so we ordered that... Angel loved it! Grilled shrimp as well~
Small baguette sandwiches are also pretty popular in tapas restaurants, as well as little bruschetta topped with different things and held in place by a toothpick... those are based on the honor system usually. You pick what you want from a waiter coming with a tray and you pay at the end based on how many toothpicks you have.
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