So Saturday night for dinner we wandered down the twisting alleyways of Barcelona, looking for a good tapas bar/restaurant to get some food at. After passing a few we finally found a place that looked decent and also didn't have a ridiculous wait. The food and white sangria was delicious! We probably ate way too much, even our server cautioned that we'd ordered a lot, but we ate it all! So yummy! Artichokes with sundried tomatoes and parmesan, manchego cheese cubes with guava, bombs de la barceloneta (potato/meat fritters), fried camembert with fruit coulis, and gambas al ajillo (garlic shrimp). The second picture of food shows our padron peppers and grilled veggies with romesco sauce. For dessert we had a crema catalana brûlée (not pictured, like creme brûlée but a lighter custard).
Sunday morning my dad went to the train station to double check on our rental car reservation and I wandered around the city for an hour. I found the Barcelona Cathedral and then headed over to the Picasso Museum. There were surprising number of sketches and paintings that they had, most of his sketches being of nude prostitutes. I was able to sneak a few photos (no photography allowed) just to show the variety of his work: sketches, normal looking oil painting, and the more abstract paintings he is known for. From they I wandered over to the Spanish Arc de Triomf. It is not a monument built for a great victory but rather the entrance to the 1888 Barcelona World Fair. It is not nearly as large as the one in Paris, but does look kind of cool with the red brick.
From there I met back up with my dad and we went to check out the Palau Güell, which is a "palace" home designed by Gaudi for Eusebi Güell. It has pretty cool architecture and the top terrace is decorated with the usual Gaudi spirals covered with mosaic tile. After checking out the palace we went to the church Santa Maria del Mar, walking through an old car convention, which was pretty cool and random. We looked for a few minutes then continued on to the church. It's a beautiful, massive church with really nice stained glass. From there we walked up to the Sagrada Familia, since we now had our ticket times to enter at 1:15pm. It's really weird looking on the outside but I think the inside is fantastic. I love all the weird curves, and the stained glass is probably my favorite out of anywhere I've seen (not counting the windows my grandma Omi made).
After we left the Sagrada Familia we headed back to the hotel for a little time relaxing by the pool before leaving again to catch our tour group for a winery tour. We went to the Oller del Mas winery, about an hour outside of Barcelona. This land and vineyards have been with the same family for 1000 years. It is the 36th generation living here today. The original owner was a knight called Arnau the Potter. "Oller" is potter and "mas" means house or cottage so the winery is literally the house of the potter. The guide said they have 55 km of property (not sure if that is km squared, but probably). The grapes we saw were Macabeo which is one of the three used to make Cava (Spanish sparkling wine). They sell these grapes because they only make one white, one rosé and a few different reds at the winery. They have a super fancy Swiss-made grape sorting machine that costs 200,000 Euros and apparently is one of 50 in the world. Not all their wine is done this way, some is done by hand, but the machine works as fast as 18 people at once, so it helps a lot. They use any of the grapes that are rejected for table wine or for compost since they are an organic winery. The winery itself is a "castle" which looks more like a fort but in Spain that is considered a castle. It was pretty cool since I've never been to a winery before or got to hold baby wine grapes. Then we tasted three of their reds and had some cheese to go with it. The cheese was my favorite part, though the wines were ok. Red just isn't my favorite.
Once we got back to Barcelona we went up to Parc Güell, another of Gaudi's works for Eusebi Güell. Originally meant to be a developed community of houses, the project was cancelled and was donated to the city of Barcelona. It is now a UNESCO site and popular tourist attraction. It was a beautiful time of day as well, with the sun setting and everything cooling off. I thought the houses looked like little gingerbread cottages. And the mosaic work is pretty cool.
We stopped back at the hotel briefly and then went out for tapas and Euro Cup watching. Found some decent tapas and cava to enjoy while watching the match. Croquettes de setas y jamon (ham and mushroom fritters), pan con tomate y jamon (bread with tomato and ham), and bavette (grilled flank steak on bread with padron pepper). Not shown were artichokes with olives and tomato/burrata salad. For dessert we had a 'flammekueche' which is an Alsatian and South German dish made of thinly rolled out dough and for the sweet ones like ours, a thin layer of fresh cream and cream cheese topped with thin sliced apples and nutella drizzle. It was delicious.
We are leaving Barcelona now to head to France and drive along the southern coast. I'll keep you updated as we travel. Adios!
Sunday morning my dad went to the train station to double check on our rental car reservation and I wandered around the city for an hour. I found the Barcelona Cathedral and then headed over to the Picasso Museum. There were surprising number of sketches and paintings that they had, most of his sketches being of nude prostitutes. I was able to sneak a few photos (no photography allowed) just to show the variety of his work: sketches, normal looking oil painting, and the more abstract paintings he is known for. From they I wandered over to the Spanish Arc de Triomf. It is not a monument built for a great victory but rather the entrance to the 1888 Barcelona World Fair. It is not nearly as large as the one in Paris, but does look kind of cool with the red brick.
From there I met back up with my dad and we went to check out the Palau Güell, which is a "palace" home designed by Gaudi for Eusebi Güell. It has pretty cool architecture and the top terrace is decorated with the usual Gaudi spirals covered with mosaic tile. After checking out the palace we went to the church Santa Maria del Mar, walking through an old car convention, which was pretty cool and random. We looked for a few minutes then continued on to the church. It's a beautiful, massive church with really nice stained glass. From there we walked up to the Sagrada Familia, since we now had our ticket times to enter at 1:15pm. It's really weird looking on the outside but I think the inside is fantastic. I love all the weird curves, and the stained glass is probably my favorite out of anywhere I've seen (not counting the windows my grandma Omi made).
After we left the Sagrada Familia we headed back to the hotel for a little time relaxing by the pool before leaving again to catch our tour group for a winery tour. We went to the Oller del Mas winery, about an hour outside of Barcelona. This land and vineyards have been with the same family for 1000 years. It is the 36th generation living here today. The original owner was a knight called Arnau the Potter. "Oller" is potter and "mas" means house or cottage so the winery is literally the house of the potter. The guide said they have 55 km of property (not sure if that is km squared, but probably). The grapes we saw were Macabeo which is one of the three used to make Cava (Spanish sparkling wine). They sell these grapes because they only make one white, one rosé and a few different reds at the winery. They have a super fancy Swiss-made grape sorting machine that costs 200,000 Euros and apparently is one of 50 in the world. Not all their wine is done this way, some is done by hand, but the machine works as fast as 18 people at once, so it helps a lot. They use any of the grapes that are rejected for table wine or for compost since they are an organic winery. The winery itself is a "castle" which looks more like a fort but in Spain that is considered a castle. It was pretty cool since I've never been to a winery before or got to hold baby wine grapes. Then we tasted three of their reds and had some cheese to go with it. The cheese was my favorite part, though the wines were ok. Red just isn't my favorite.
Once we got back to Barcelona we went up to Parc Güell, another of Gaudi's works for Eusebi Güell. Originally meant to be a developed community of houses, the project was cancelled and was donated to the city of Barcelona. It is now a UNESCO site and popular tourist attraction. It was a beautiful time of day as well, with the sun setting and everything cooling off. I thought the houses looked like little gingerbread cottages. And the mosaic work is pretty cool.
We stopped back at the hotel briefly and then went out for tapas and Euro Cup watching. Found some decent tapas and cava to enjoy while watching the match. Croquettes de setas y jamon (ham and mushroom fritters), pan con tomate y jamon (bread with tomato and ham), and bavette (grilled flank steak on bread with padron pepper). Not shown were artichokes with olives and tomato/burrata salad. For dessert we had a 'flammekueche' which is an Alsatian and South German dish made of thinly rolled out dough and for the sweet ones like ours, a thin layer of fresh cream and cream cheese topped with thin sliced apples and nutella drizzle. It was delicious.
We are leaving Barcelona now to head to France and drive along the southern coast. I'll keep you updated as we travel. Adios!
The food looks mouth-watering! Barcelona looks like a lot of fun!
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