Waking bright and early on the morning of the big four o - I was pleased that the hangover seemed minimal. A Berocca later we headed out for Mercator St Josep La Bouqueria en route to Sitges for a day at the beach.
We settled on Bar Boqueria for breakfast - drawn by the extensive selection of tortilla available. One spinach tortilla and café con leche later we were good to go.
Reaching Sitges priced traumatic, primarily due to unusually appalling map reading skills and the lack of helpful sigbage on the Metro. Heading for an interchange at Passeig de Graçia we ended up at Graçia itself and after an altercation with a scary lady Metro worker headed back to Plaça Catalunya to access the adjacent Renfe station,
Sitges was beautiful - we hit the beach after a cheeky gazpacho and lay there for the afternoon, before heading back to Barcelona around 6 for a quick siesta and some olive oil crisps before the evening's activities.
Dinner was at Tapaç 24 - an amazing place by cgef Carles Abellan tgat has three queues - queue 1 is on the street, then queue 2 is on the stairs to the basement where the restaurant is based, then finally queue 3 is in the bar area. The food was amazing - as well as the usual tapas staples, we had one of the signature dishes - Bikini (toasted ham and cheese sandwich) with iberico ham, manchego cheese and truffle oil. We passed on the McFoie Burger for obvious reasons. For dessert we had chocolate ganache with pa (bread), olive oil and sea salt.
Wednesday, 26 September 2012
Monday, 24 September 2012
Barcelona 40-1
I always think that rain (at home) is a good start to a holiday, so when the rain is so heavy that you need to wear a kagool and get a taxi the 300 yards to the station it must be a really good start?
Gatwick was a breeze, though I still don't understand why the queues to check in at the airport retro style are so much shorter than than the queues to simply drop your bag - having checked in online in your own time and printed your boarding card using your own paper and toner (or your employer's)? I opted for the former and headed straight to the desk.
Arriving at Barcelona airport was similarly straightforward - barely 10 minutes from plane to taxi.
The apartment (my first experiment with airbnb.com) is very cute, and the neighbourhood in the Barri Gòtic is lively but central. After a quick change we pretty much head straight out, we have a quick beer in Plaça George Orwell and then head for the Ramblas - and almost immediately stumble into the Festes de Mercè parade. This consists of drumming bands and people in outsize medieval costumes - sometimes squirting water at the crowd. After about half an hour it becomes apparent that the same core characters are looping around so we head off in search of another drink.
We end up in the cathedral square where the symphony orchestra was about to start a free concert - Tchaikovsky I think.
We then headed over to Raval for more drinks and dinner. We stumbled across a Chinese country and western giv, sung in Catalan on an outdoor stage - it was actually pretty good!. A glass of cava at Buenas Migás half way then guacamole and ceviche at Rosa Raval. Then drinks at Café de las Delicies before heading back to Barri Gòtic and Plaça George Orwell for a lat(ish) San Miguel and some tapas in a slightly grungy bar - the pintxos (crusty bread with manchego and an anchovy) were delicious as were the olives and chorizo. Behind the bar the bar staff were whipping up omelettes to order, but we resisted and headed to bed.
Gatwick was a breeze, though I still don't understand why the queues to check in at the airport retro style are so much shorter than than the queues to simply drop your bag - having checked in online in your own time and printed your boarding card using your own paper and toner (or your employer's)? I opted for the former and headed straight to the desk.
Arriving at Barcelona airport was similarly straightforward - barely 10 minutes from plane to taxi.
The apartment (my first experiment with airbnb.com) is very cute, and the neighbourhood in the Barri Gòtic is lively but central. After a quick change we pretty much head straight out, we have a quick beer in Plaça George Orwell and then head for the Ramblas - and almost immediately stumble into the Festes de Mercè parade. This consists of drumming bands and people in outsize medieval costumes - sometimes squirting water at the crowd. After about half an hour it becomes apparent that the same core characters are looping around so we head off in search of another drink.
We end up in the cathedral square where the symphony orchestra was about to start a free concert - Tchaikovsky I think.
We then headed over to Raval for more drinks and dinner. We stumbled across a Chinese country and western giv, sung in Catalan on an outdoor stage - it was actually pretty good!. A glass of cava at Buenas Migás half way then guacamole and ceviche at Rosa Raval. Then drinks at Café de las Delicies before heading back to Barri Gòtic and Plaça George Orwell for a lat(ish) San Miguel and some tapas in a slightly grungy bar - the pintxos (crusty bread with manchego and an anchovy) were delicious as were the olives and chorizo. Behind the bar the bar staff were whipping up omelettes to order, but we resisted and headed to bed.
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