Day 2 in barcelona photos

Day 2 Barcelona

Day 2 in Barca began with the same food obsession that day 1 finished with. We had a BIG breakfast in the hotel on the supposition that we would need fortifying for the big walk day we had planned. So it was scrambled eggs, fruit salad and Danish pastries ( yes I do know that's too much but the breakfast bar kept calling out to me). 

We took Brit some yoghurt, pastries and fruit to her room and then set off down La Rambla, to the amazing market. This was fresh produce HEAVEN! I have never seen any food that was more beguiling. At nine o'clock the Pinocchio bar at the entrance of the market was full with people breakfasting on fried seafood and washing it down with a bottle of red wine. It was not just that the food at this market was fresh and of high quality. The stall holders created art in the presentation of the produce. It was a feast for the eyes as well as for the mouth. The seafood stalls had oysters as big as my open palm. There were myriad unfamiliar shellfish and crabs with claws 10cm in circumference. There were rabbits and pheasants..and yes, there were jamon stalls with their astonishing range of Iberian hams. We bought a paper trumpet full of ham slivers and tiny loaves and snacked our way through the market. We bought candied peel dipped in chocolate. We perched on high stools under the vaults that run alongside the market and sipped hot, strong coffee. 

Brit continued her grocery and wine shopping. She found a lovely helpful young man in a wine shop who helped her to decipher the local labels and she left with bags chinking with glass. Then it was more spicy ham and special sardines. This was the kind of shopping that I could really get excited over!

From here we went to contemporary art gallery which defied all expectations. It was an astonishing modernist white building that completely overwhelmed the art displayed within it. We went from gallery to gallery in bewilderment. I have never seen a more silly and self- important nonsense. The gallery had optimistically set up an interactive exhibit (a photo booth) that called on visitors to take a before and after picture. The aim was to photograph the patrons' response to the art work. I think my expression said it all. It was a pleasure to leave and walk through the streets that ringed the university to find somewhere for lunch. Today we had an assortment of empanadas and I have to tell you that the glass of beer with lunch might become a fixture when we return to Melbourne. 

There is such an easy elegance to the way that people dress in Barcelona that it's a pleasure just to sit in a cafe and people watch. Even the kids put colour, cut and texture together so well. We then hiked over to the Gaudi apartment, Casa Milan. It was interesting to see the progression of thinking in the buildings along that street. There were the Greco Roman inspired facades, with their reliance on geometrical shapes. Then there were the buildings where the architects defied the heaviness of the stone they worked in and sought to carve lace from stone. Then Gaudi used that facility for working with stone to twist stone into the shapes of human bone and drape across his buildings the skeletal forms and skulls suggestive of human beings. These forms emerged from the organic fabric of his buildings as if they have been disinterred from a grave and put to some engineering use. Crowning his Mila Apartments was a huge crown topped by a crucifix. I think that the whole building was the expression of some kind of mad obsessive devotion. All humanity was weak flesh and man was subjective to an almighty god. Maybe. What was just as astonishing as Gaudi's buildings was the fact that he found patrons that believed in his disturbed and opulent visions and supported him with commissions. 

We gave ourselves a short break back in the hotel room before going out in the early evening. Brit suggested we sign in for a cooking class and John had booked us in about 3 months ago. Kimba, the Catalonian  chef that took the class was just fantastic and adept at handling everyone from well intentioned but unskilled cooks, to know all Texan software salesmen who consider themselves quite a dab hand in the kitchen and probably only took the class so they could demonstrate their knowledge.    

The cooking school with its full catering kitchen was located in a building on La Rambla. There were 7 students in total so it was easy to get to know everyone as we were delegated preparation tasks. We made butternut pumpkin with pear crime and served it with blue cheese and caramelised hazelnuts. The second course was a Spanish potato and onion tortilla served with garlic and tomato toasts. Course 3 was a wonderful seafood paella with mussels, prawns and cuttlefish. We finished off with a Catalan crime brûlée. I have to tell you we did a great job and the whole meal was delicious! It was a real adventure and really nice being able to meet a range of people visiting Barcelona from around the world. We really needed the long walk back to the hotel to help digest the meal and walk off the effects of the wine that we drank throughout the preparation and meal. 

The walk was also an opportunity for Brit to drop into a shop we visited earlier in the day to try on a rather snappy pair of loafers. Though it was almost ten pm, the city was jumping. The streets were full of people and loads of shops were open and doing business. 

We'll so ended day 2 for Brit and me, but poor Johnny had to stay up to do battle with the internet and a most uncooperative Familia Sagrada ticket booking website.  It's so late and I'm so tired. Goodnight.

BARCELONA DAY 1 PHOTOS

 

Beautiful Barcelona

We arrived in Barcelona via Milan. The Milan airport was surrounded by the most amazing snow capped mountains. The Italian Alps were amazing. As our aircraft flew over them they stretches out underneath us for close to an hour's flight time. I could well understand why Perry fell in love with them on his bike riding holiday. Despite the magical views I had had enough of plane travel. Luckily the Singapore to Milan flight was not heavily booked and we got a chance to lie across 3seats.it helped us to get a bit of sleep.

Barcelona airport worked as slick as clockwork and we were out, on the bus and into the city within half an hour. As we rumbled our cases along the street to the hotel someone rushed up to me and tapped me on the shoulder. My first thought was that I must have dropped something... It was Brit!! Unbelievably she had organised with Johnny to meet up with us for a short holiday. Such a shock. Such a delightful surprise!! She had been following us from the bus stop. So happy!!

We took our bags to Brit's room as our room was not ready yet and by late morning we were out and touring about. Brit had been here before and knew the lie of the land. We headed straight for the gothic quarter and it's wonderful maze of narrow alleyways. The sun was so bright but there was a winter nip in the air. 

Though the mass was in progress in the Barcelona Cathedral, tourists filed into the church and we followed them. It was a picture go high gothic beauty with its lace like stone carving and it's serpantining statues of the saints. Yes there were Romany beggars outside but they were easy enough to ignore.

The streets themselves were a feast for the eye with an amazing blend of Romanesque, gothic and more contemporary architecture. Every twist and turn of the laneways revealed more sights. The streets were full to overflowing with promenading locals and tourists. True to the words of the guidebooks, every corner, every nook and cranny has a tapas bar. As people move through the streets they drop into a cafe chair or lean on an upturned wine barrel for a drink or a plate of food. We enthusiastically joined in the local tradition, stopping for a beer and Iberian ham roll, ice cream then coffee and finally for a plate of tapas and sangria. 

We finally found our way to La Rambla and walked its full length. The middle part of the Rambla is pedestrianized and bordered by trees. the kiosks, flower stalls and street artists and restaurants ensured it was a magnet for tourists. are in abundance here.  The Rambla was originally a small stream flowing just outside the city walls. In the 16th century convents and a university were built along the river. In the 19th century the city wall was torn down and buildings were erected along the  dried up river bed. The street is made up of 5 ramblas that have been joined up in to one enormous roadway and tourist footpath. You can still see hints of its watery past in the cast iron drinking fountains that dot its length. or us it was the myriad streets fanning off La Rambla that were more interesting. Down one of these was the Picasso museum but the line for tickets stretched out for close to 400 metres  so we gave it a  miss. I'm sure that the art galleries will be more interesting than the museum based on the artist's life.

One of the most interesting things we saw was the specialty ham shops. The walls were totally covered with the different hams. It looked as bewildering as a wine shop. The prices varied with the region the ham has come from and the process used in its curing. Brit bought some ham and wine to take home. Today is her's and Wil's second wedding anniversary so I'm sure there will be celebrations with a Spanish flavour when she returns to Dubai on Thursday. 

It was 6.30 before we returned to the hotel for a rest and change of clothes before heading out for dinner. Wow what a city. Wow what a surprise. Wow what a holiday this will be.

spain here we come

Off to Spain in a few days. Hola!