Hola Barcelona May 20 2013 Our Second Day

It was supposed to be a rainy day today, so we slept in late. We finished our breakfast, and headed out.

We walked along the Santa Caterina market and tried to decipher how the garbage collection works here. On the wall of the Santa Caterina market, there are two hatches that I had seen someone throw a bag into the other day. Later in the day we noticed larger bins on the street for garbage, paper, glass and organic wastes.

We made our way across our familiar route to the Cathedral. We bought a 6 museum pass at the Tourist Information counter, and then hopped down into the metro to pick up a 10 ticket Bus/Metro pass.

Today we were headed toward the Eixample section of town. Eixample means expansion, and this is where Barcelona first exapnded once Madrid allowed it to tear down its medieval walls and grow outside its ancient city limits.

This was a planned development, and one inovation that is charming was that at the intersections, was the snipping off of building corners. So instead of the typical fours sided intersection, the intersections are much more open with eight sides. It makes it feel all the more airy and friendly.

This is also the area where Modernista archictects made their mark, as well as where many high end shopping stores can be found. Being a holiday Monday, they were all closed, but Hera did make a point that we will have to walk here again another day. For the most part, we walked up Passeig de Gracie, but we also meandered in and out of various streets along the way to get a better feel of the neighborhood.

A notable toursist stop here is the block of discord. Where the three very influtential Modernista archictects have buildings next to each other making it easier to compare and contrast their styles.

 Gaudi's Casa Batllo   is found here, and while it is usually open to visit, it was closed for today.

Next to it Cadafalch's Casa Amatller who combined the three historical traditions with a Moorish lower floor, topped with a Gothic style traceries and gargoyles, and topped with a step-gabbled roof of the Habsburg's Low Countries.

A few houses down is Montaner's Casa Lleo Morera. Again a mixture of styles with Classical Greek Columns on the ground floor, followed by Gothic balcomies higher up, and above it Moorish stucco work.

Another common motif among these archictects was the addition of hints of modern life like the box camera, electric lights, and gramophone.

We could have walked straight up Passeig de Gracie, but we detoured and took a less frequented but lovely Rambla Catalunya. Our ultimate destination for the day was Gaudi's La Pedrera,  which means stone quarry. 

Here Gaudi took two city blocks and created a very unique apartment complex. The building can be admired from the outside, but it is well worth the somewhat steep admission price to enter the building. Most of the building is occupied by tenants. Admission allows you to see one of the two unique atriums that allows light to enter the complex, the spectacular roof top which is what makes the admission price worthwhile.

 One also wanders through the attic which is a small Gaudi museum, and one of the epoque furnished arpartments can be toured.

We spent a fair amount of time visiting La Pedrera, and were getting tired when we exited. The weather was also threatening so we decided to take a metro back to our neighborhood rather than risk getting soaked once again far from home. When we exited the Metro, we spied a cute tapas bar and decided to have a glass of wine a some tapas.

We ordered two servings of two different tapas and a glass of Rose each. We realized that it would have been wiser to have bought only one serving of four tapas instead, and split them so that we could sample more. Tapas, are small, and it is easy to order more. So we ordered one serving of two more. Unfortunately, tapas, while tasty, are small and not that filling.

 As we walked along the boulevard, we wondered what we might have for supper when we fell upon Dunne's Irish Pub. While not typical Cataluan cuisine, we decided why not, ordered a couple of pints of beer, and some food. Hera had their Irish Stew while I had a Fish 'n Chips. As far as pubs go, this was a good Irish Pub. Reasonably priced with very good food, located at 19 Via Laietana.

Home was just a short walk away, and while it never did rain, it was getting late, and we were tired, so we headed to our apartment. Tomorrow, with the stores finally open once again, it will be time to get some basic shopping out of the way.

Hola Barcelona.. Sunday May 19-2013 Our Arrival and First Day

We left home Friday evening. Not having a connecting flight in the US makes check in and customs clearance a breeze. But we still have to arrive three hours early so after going to the duty free shop, we spent our time at a pleasant restaurant bar with drinks and some food.

With our flight leaving at 22:10 hours in the evening, we assumed that no supper was going to be served. But to our pleasant surpised a warm meal we served, as we watched a movie on our individual screens. When traveling East, it is best to try and sleep a bit to help adjust to the new time at arrival. But flying Economy gives me so little room, that while I might have napped here and there, it was quite uncomfortable to say the least.

 We picked up out bags, cleared customs in minutes then hopped into a cab to make our way to town. We walked along the small narrow pedestrian only streets of the El Born neighborhood, looking for an even small street where our apartment was located.

 As we turned onto the street, a jovial Xavier introduced himself and helped us with our bags. Located within an old buidling, the apartment itself is newly renovated efficient and very comfortable.

We changed, and headed out to explore our new neighborhood, and get some of the essentials. My first prioroty in a new city is to get a SIM card to avoid the excessively high rates we are charged for roaming. I had already scouted out a nearby telephone boutique prior to leaving home, and we made our way there first. We walked up the street and walked along Santa Caterina Market, then headed west and walked in front of the Cathedral then continued along a picturesque narrow street. We found the Orange store, enquired about the SIM card, but then found out that non-Europeans required a passport to activate the card. Disappointed but understanding the reasons why, we retraced our steps, and did some shopping in the Santa Caterina Market.

The fruits and vegetables looked lovely, but it is the seafood and even more so, the various hanging legs of ham that is most impressive. How to choose? A friendly clerk offered us each a sliver of ham that we were looking at. It was so so so delicious that it was impossible not to buy. So we bought some ham as well as some cheriso, along with some cheese.

 We got some fruits and vegetables at a another stall. It was mid afternoon and many shops were starting to close up. We found a couple of bakery stalls, but they were out of bread. Delicious food, but we needed bread, so we exited the market and found a little grocery store to buy some other items as well as bread.

We emptied our packages at home, and had a bite to eat. It might sound simple, and it was, but just bread and thin slices of ham made such a delicious meal. Ham in Barcelona is a real delicacy. While proscioto is delicious, the ham here is so intensively flavoured. We are most certainly going to try the various hams here on a regular basis.

Fed, but a bit jet lagged, we headed back out to get the SIM card, then found a quiant little cafe to get some coffee to give us a boost. Being coffee drinkers the weak little cup of coffee we got on the plane prior to landing was simply not enough. The coffee was just perfect to recharge our batteries, and we headed a bit further west and found ourselves on La Ramblas.

La Ramblas is probably the most pleasant boulevard in the world to walk along. It is a wide street, with an enormous median. Almost everyone walks in the median which is wide enough to hold cafes, flower stalls, and little pet shops, along with various street performers.



While Santa Caterina market is almost across the street from us, the most famous market is La Boqueria Market. We knew we were not going to buy anything, but strolling the market is always worth the experience. The variety of produce is amazing. Again, it is the huge assortment of seafood and the meats, particularly the hams that steal the show. Exiting the market, we continued our stroll down the Ramblas for a distance.

 

A bit tired on our first day, we headed back up, then followed one of the narrow side streets towards the Cathedral. At Santa Caterina market we head south, found our little narrow street, and were back home. Modern travel includes a fair amount of electronic gadgets. Cell phones, tablets, laptops, camera and camera bateries. I had bought a few extra adaptors for the European plugs, but.... we forgot to bring them. So I headed back out, and found a small Oriental electronics store and bought a couple of adaptors. No doubt over priced, but most stores would be closed the next day (Sunday) as well as Monday since it was a local holiday.

A hint for travelers, stay awake your first day, even if tired, and go to bed at the local bed time hour. By doing so, we awoke the next day fully adpated to the local time.

We took our time Sunday morning, after all, we are on Holiday, and left our apartment late in the morning. Our apartment is ideally located, so close to everything. I knew that in front of the Cathedral, the local Sardana dance was danced. A nationalistic dance that was banned for so long, but now is danced by locals each Sunday (and I believe Staurdays arond 6pm). The music is a bit hard to place. It has a European flavor for sure, a bit regal, but far from pompous. It is a circle dance, and various circles would spontaneously form as locals danced, and some tourists joined in.

 We spent a bit of time enjoying the music and the fesitivities before we headed onto one of the small streets leading into the Barri Gotic area.

Without any preconceived plan, we meandered along the various tiny winding streets, taking side streets here and there. While most shops were closed today on Sunday, it gave a different flavor of the streets and its architecture.

 

We passed Roman ruins, walls and some pillars of the Temple of Augustus, as well as an old Synagogue. FInding ourselves at the south end of the Barri Gotic area,

 I decided to head further south towards Barceloneta and the beach. Barcelonata, where sailors once stayed, feels like a little town that was annexed. In fact, most of Barcelona is really areas that were annexed on to the original Roman town of Barca. The streets of Barceloneta, while reminiscent of the rest of Barcelona, has its own distinctive flavor. We bought an orange as we walked, that hydrated and nourished at the same time. Soon we found ourselves at the beach. While there are wonderful beaches not too far from Barcelona, for a city beach, this was wonderful. We followed the beach eastward, stopping here and there. Again, for a city beach, the beach is quite long, and various handsome looking restaurants lining it.

 

Ahead of us was a crowd and music playing. As we approached, we deicphered that it was a Latin American fesitaval as many stalls had various Latin American meals to be had.

 Unfortunately the wind that was blowing had become stormy, and the rain started to fall. We were fortunate to had our raincoats with us, as the rain fell lightly, then heavier, and then it poured.

We ended up at a tapas bar. The service was slow, which I have heard of. The rain had stopped, but, the food looked delicious. We moved clsoer to the bar area, hailed a bar tender and ordered our drinks and three tapas.

The first was a shrimp wrapped in potato strands that was fried, the second were lightly battered small fish, and the third tapas plate was cheriso sausages. All were delicious, but I had to agree with Hera that the tastiest was the simple fried small fish.

We started to head back. But soon it started to rain lightly. Unfortunately it then poured heavily once again. We hopped into a cab and decided to call it a day. By the way, while Barcelona is defintely an easy walking city, the cabs here are very reasonable and worth using. (As is the transit system but that will be for another day.)