Anniversary Trip 2010 - Part 2

Barcelona
Tuesday, March 9

After a short plane ride from Rome to Barcelona, we land in Barcelona in time to check into our awesome boutique hotel. We cleaned up and walked around to get ourselves familiar with the area. The first thing that became apparent was that we needed to get to a store to buy ourselves warmer clothes. It was FREEZING in Barcelona. Of course the day before we got there they had the first blizzard they had in many, many years. I bought a sweater to wear under my coat and wore it pretty much everyday.  We walked around the neighborhood to familarize ourselves with the area and decided on dinner.  Had to be tapas.  We went to a highly rated tapas bar and boy did we feast!  Among the many dishes we ordered, we had a small bowl of olives, patatas bravas (potato croquettes), and chicken skewers with a garlicy aioli.  It was delicious and I have to say...quite like San Chez at home.  Although this place did not have sangria, but I did have rioja.  After dinner we walked to a Spanish grocery store, bought some wine and headed back to the hotel.  We were pretty tired and it was too cold out to walk around too long. 

Wednesday, March 10

Our first stop we had to see was Sagrada Familia (Sacred Family).  This is a famous church by the renowned Barcelona architect Antoni Gaudi.  Gaudi started building this church in 1882 and construction is not expected to be completed for another 20 years.  From far away, the building looks a little peculiar but up close, it is truly magnificent.  In each little "cove" is a scene from the bible.  The two most prominent being the Nativity and the Cruxifiction.  It features very modern and somewhat abstract artwork, but beautiful nonetheless. 

Once in the Sagrada Familia, you see the construction that is taking place.  The outter facade is mostly finished but the inside and the top of the building are still in progress.  The main attraction now (as the church isn't going to be dedicated and holding offical mass until September of this year) is the view from the top of the church.  It is a truly breathtaking view of this beautiful city.  Not that you don't have to work to see such a beautiful view!  You first have to wait in a rather lengthly line to get to the elevator, then pay 2 euro to go to the top.  Once at the top, you have an unrestricted (read: uncomfortably unprotected) view of the city.  Once you have gotten over the unprotected height and taken it all in, its time to make your way down a very, very narrow and long winding staircase.  I'm not a fan of heights and I am most certainly not a fan of being dizzy, put the two together in a tight, dark space...and I'm surprised I made it through.  I have to admit when we finally did reach the bottom, my knees were completely weak.  They were shaking on the insides.  If it weren't such a lovely (yet cold) day in front of such an incredible work of art, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have recovered so well! 

To regain my composure, it seemed like a good idea to have some lunch and get a drink.   Tapas and sangria seemed like a perfect lunch idea.  This tapas bar had an assortment of tapas that resembled more of what I would call bruschetta - toasted baguette slices with ham and peppers on top. Joe and I split a pitcher of sangria.  It was delicious.  One thing I noticed in Barcelona is that their sangria was pretty much the same from place to place.  Red wine, brandy, sugar and orange and lemon slices.  It was delicous and refreshing! 

Now that we were thouroughly recharged from tapas and sangria, it was time to do some more sightseeing.  We walked Las Ramblas...the famous street with shops and street performers. On Las Ramblas is the famous street market. Oh, if we had markets like this in Grand Rapids, I'd be in love. The freshest produce, the most succulent local meats...displayed very naturally for your selection, farm fresh cheeses and eggs, decadent desserts --- it is a foodie dream come true. If only I had a kitchen to cook there -- oh the possiblities!!

Our next stop was Casa Mila.  This is another structure by Gaudi.  This one was built to be an affluent condo complex.  The style of the building is called modernismo.  It was the Spanish translation of Art Nouveau.  The apartment  buildings in this neighborhood are all very grand moderinsmo designs; each neighbor trying to outdo the other. The building still today houses lucky home owners who live in an incredible work of art.  The roof of this building is a giant playground of moderinsmo sculpture.  To me, it felt like I was on a rooftop desert of art; the winding and different elevated scultpures provided interesting resting places and varying views of the bustling shopping and restaurant district below.  As you can see, it was a goregous sky that day, Joe and I spent quite a bit of time up here just taking it in and enjoying the view. 

For dinner this night we went to another tapas bar.  This one was a brewery.  I had to admit at this point, three meals in a row of tapas was starting to wear on me, but the food was a little different than typical tapas and delicious.  I had fried artichokes which were salty and buttery.  Joe had the calamari.  It was a busy and rewarding day of traveling.

Thursday,  April 11

This day started off with a bad start.  Our intent was to go do a different part of the city and see another famous church ...however, after we took the metro lines all the way there, we step out into the square in front of the church and a bird decides to drop a lovely present on my head!  I was none too happy.  Joe, bless his heart, walked into the women's bathroom at Starbucks with me and wiped down my head so that no white stuff remained.  I rinsed my hair with some water and tried to suck it up.  We were supposed to be at the Picasso museum.  Despite my better judgment, we went to the museum.  I'm sure it was a perfectly lovely museum...I hardly remember any of it...I was too focused that there was crap in my hair.  After we saw the famous works of art from Picasso, I couldn't take it any more and we went back to the hotel.  I took a badly needed shower and we rearranged our plans for the day.  Time for lunch.  We went to a restuarant known for their paella.  We each got the paella mixte which was probably whatever they had left over that they threw in the pot that day.  It was delicious.  It had prawns and a meat that resembled miniture ox tails that fell apart in your mouth (don't forget to take out the bone!)  After that we went to the end of town which was closer to the ocean and did some street shopping, stopped at a beer bar and had a beer, walked to the shore and saw some of the sculputres there, including the Christopher Columbus statute pointing the way to the New World.  We got some dinner and went back to our hotel bar and had a drink.  Our next day was the last day of vacation.

Friday, March 12

The last day in Barcelona was not the best weather wise.  It didn't full on rain, but it definitely wasn't sunny...or warm.  We sucked it up though, you know what they say...a rainy day of vacation still beats a good day at work.  So, we headed over to, what else?  Another famous spot by Gaudi.  Park Guell.  This was originally supposed to be an upper class community.  It was like a wealthy subdivision on a hill with incredible views of Barcelona.  However, the idea never really took off. Instead of a housing development, this became a public park filled with beautiful views and beautiful architecture.  Mosaics are very popular in Spain and this bench is a long and winding bench with individual mosaics. 

After the park we just wandered down some of our favorite streets in Barcelona;  Las Ramblas and Rambla Catalunya just soaking it up and taking it all in to bring the memories back home.  For our last dinner, we went to a very exclusive tapas restaurant, Cal Pep.  This restaurant didn't open until 7:30.  We had to wait in line until it opened.  Luckily we were one of the first so we got seated at the bar which probably had about 15 seats and those were the only seats in the place.  A line quickly formed behind us before we got our first course.  This was another restaurant with no menu.  What they made you is what you got.  They did ask if you had special requests, i.e. no meat (which was great because it was a Friday in Lent).  Our first course was bread rubbed with garlic and tomato, it was delicious.  Second course was sauteed spinich with garlic and chick peas.  I thought it a bit strange when it first came to us, but it was delicious.  I have recreated it since I've been home...haven't quite gotten it to taste like it did there...stay tuned to my food blog to see if I figure it out. Our next course was a sauted garlic shrimp and after that was fried fish.  It came in a basket of various small fish, whole fish (heads, tail and all), breaded in a salty breading and fried.  I was already getting full but we still had another course. This was a cheesy potato tart (it unfortunately did have ham in it so I couldn't really eat it) but the smell of the smoky ham and cheddar was divine.  It was a great last dinner experience. 

After dinner, we got a bottle of cava and drank it in the hotel lobby listening to the live music playing in the bar below.  Vacation over.  Wonderful first anniversary trip!