The usual enormous buffet breakfast in the hotel and then a taxi to a spot near the Sant Antoni market – a local favorite. Our guide (Barcelona’s Favourite Markets Tour – Viator) took us through the market with tastings of ham (jamon) and seeing lots of the local fish and shellfish, along with beautiful produce. Next and walk through the streets and a stop at a local bakery for a croissant and sort of fluffy sweet bread topped with sugar (a Catalan favorite – never did learn the name), La Boqueria Market and lots of samples. The seafood and the sweets were the best! Really liked a local version of paella that is made with broken pasta instead of rice, and a dish made with black rice and octopus. The various forms of nougat were wonderful! Lots of honey, pistachios and almonds – and chocolate. Let’s not forget the chocolate! We tried a local red vermouth – nope. And a local rioja – yep. Overall, very very crowded but a lot of amazing produce, meat and fish available – and a wealth of prepared food for take-away. On to the Santa Caterina Market – very similar, much less crowded. I wish I could have bought some of the absolutely enormous strawberries (almost as big as a tennis ball).
Time is passing quickly so goodbye to today’s first tour and on the second – Ramblas, Old Town, Gothic and Gaudi Architecture (another from Viator). The contrast in architecture around the city was very obvious – from ruins of Roman buildings, medieval churches, somewhat gothic church facades, and Gaudi. Casa Batilio and La Pedrera show his progression from the incredibly colorful and fanciful sort of maritime-themed Casa Batilio, a private house, to La Pedrere (an apartment building) that is much more monotone dark bronze decoration – both still avoiding straight lines and using themes from nature. Fascinating.
Finally, exhausted and back at the hotel – the taxi system in Barcelona is great! and they are everywhere. Dinner is the next adventure.
Dinner is at a Michelin-starred Catalan restaurant – Xerta – pronounced “Cherta”. In spite of being very early for dinner in Spain (8pm) the service, the food and the ambiance were amazing. We had the seafood tasting menu. The very best thing was fresh, tiny green peas with baby octopus. Each whole octopus was no bigger that 2 inches long. The sauce was cured duck egg yolk and I don’t know what else but incredible. Risotto with lobster. Pink cuttlefish with a squid-ink sauce, coconut milk sauce and basil oil. Sea urchin shell holding the uni with a romesco sauce and something. So beautiful. Anyway we both ate every single scrap and loved it all. Thank you to The Fork app for making it easy to search for and reserve restaurants around the world – in English so I’m sure of the date and time and all the important stuff when I reserve!
Back to the hotel for packing up (luggage will be picked up at 7am) and falling into bed. March 8th at an end.
journeys 