Barcelona - Day 3

Number of steps: over 17,000+

Number of drinks consumed: 1 café con leche, 1 Fanta, water, 32 oz of Estrella beer, one small sangria, one small free beer, and one coca cola
Number of tapas consumed: 0
Number of ham/cheese sandwiches: 1

Today we were up "early" in that we had to be at La Pedrera (the quarry) at 9:30. La Pedrera is one of the Gaudi houses. It's an apartment building now, and has a couple of residents. Otherwise it's  all about the tourists. 

 

The rooftop is really the most amazing thing about this place. Gaudi believed the chimney stacks and air vents didn't have to look ordinary or boring. Instead he thought they should look interesting. And oh boy do they. 

 

 

 

 

The building was constructed in 1910 and has recently been "updated" and refurbished. At the time it was constructed it was the talk of the town. Many people said Guadi was either a genius or crazy. 

 

From La Pedrera we stopped and had ourselves a Fanta. I don't know what it is about Fanta in Europe, but I just can't get enough.

 

We walked a couple of blocks to Casa Batllo (bat YO). Another Gaudi house. This one, unlike la Pedrera was PACKED! I mean a ton of people…all pushing and shoving and being rude. Gah..I hate crowds.

 

 

 

Casa Batllo was built in 1906 and like La Pedrera was the talk of the town. The inside of this house feels a lot like you're under water. Which is what Gaudi wanted you to feel.  There didn't appear to be a single straight wall. 

 

 

 

 

It's roof, while not as impressive as La Pedrera, still showed Gaudi's flair for decorating the chimneys and making a rooftop somewhat fantastical.

 

 

When we purchased our hop on and hop off bus tour, we were given a coupon book. Always looking for a deal, we decided to try one of the little tapas bars in the book. Let me just say…WORSE meal of the trip. I'm still not sure what the meat was. The hot dog was normal, but the "beef burgers" we were questioning what "beef" was in it at all. The reason we went…free beer. The beer was good.

From lunch we did the west side of the city hop on hop off bus tour. Absolutely nothing of interest on that side of the city. At least to me and Janet. It was a long tour and we were thankful the sun was out, while it was chilly on the bus, it wasn't raining. 

 

Finishing our tour we realized it was time for tapas. We  walked into this tapas bar called Puratapa. Again, we had a coupon so why not. The first one was so unsuccessful, this one HAD to be good. And oh boy was it. We had more of the Iberian jamon on tomato bread and fried potatoes. The best part were the 32 oz of Estrella beer. Oh…my…Goodness that cold beer tasted so good. We didn't finish it all, so there was no stumbling into the hotel.  

 

On our way back to the hotel we noticed thousands…I mean THOUSANDS of people lining the road of la Rambla.  This caught our attention so we decided to stand around and wait. Turns out it was a Easter weekend religious procession that happens every year. It was fascinating to see. I love stumbling into cultural things like that.

 

It started with military looking guys on horses, followed by a bunch of people dressed in black robes, with black pointy hats. Young people carrying crosses, some had chains wrapped around their feet (carrying sins I imagine). Then women dressed in what I assumed was mourning clothes. Then the Jesus statue being carried by men underneath the carriage. Then the guys with the green hats came. Then the Madonna. The interesting thing when the Madonna came into view people cheered. They all did the crossing of themselves and cheered. It was fascinating. Then when the procession ended, everyone dispersed and went about their business. I'll post more photos of this when I have a better Internet speed.

 

According to our hotel lobby guy – whom we called Jorge because we never got his name – it happens every year and is a tradition of people of Barcelona. 

 

For dinner we walked down to the 7 Portas to try to get in again. The guy taking names said quince minutos – which is 15. But as we sat we realized he might have meant ciquenta – which is 50. We had a glass of sangria and they brought us a little bowl of olives to munch on. I did the munching. Janet did not. 

 

Finally our name was called. We were traipsed through this enormous dining room, upstairs and seated in the table in the corner. I kinda felt like they were putting us where we’d cause the least amount of commotion. 

 

I ordered a coca cola and Janet aqua con gas. Then the paella menu came out. What to get? Janet was done having paella (I can’t understand that) and so ordered some cannelloni. I, on the other hand, ordered paella. The menu said the paella came with chicken, pork OR sausage and may include any type of fish from squid to shrimp. Oh boy…I’m not a seafood person so this should be interesting. 

 

Back during my first visit to Spain, we ordered paella a lot. And it really was the first time I had ever really shelled cooked shrimp.  The first shrimp I picked up was clearly a mama shrimp since she had all her baby eggs still attached. Totally grossed me out. 

 

This paella not only had a shrimp, but this enormous shrimp like thing with claws. It wasn’t until our next trip to la Boqueria that I determined its name. Turns out they are called Cigara escamaria. I wasn’t sure what it would taste like and it took me forever to get into. Finally, the meat was the texture of lobster and it had that sorta flavor. Not something that’s pleasant to me. Blech. But I ate it.

 

The rest of the paella had mussels and this strange rubbery white chunks of meat – I assumed was calamari. It was good paella that’s for sure. Brown in color not yellow. I learned that paella comes in many different varieties and the traditional paella I think of, isn’t all that traditional. 

Tomorrow we’re heading to the beach to spread some of Dad’s ashes. I have mixed emotions about this in that I don’t want to be sad all day. Dad would have loved Barcelona. He loved Spain so it seems only fitting we leave some of him here.