4-29 Barcelona – last day in Spain

Today is the last day of my European adventure. We stayed in a hotel outside of Barcelona and went into the city by train, which was surprisingly easy. Our first stop was La Sagrada Familia – the perpetually under construction church that was designed and started by Gaudi. They made significant advancements since I last saw it in 2000 but still unfinished of course.

Then we took a walk down through Passeig de Gracia – the street where many of Gaudi’s works are – down La Rambla – a super touristy big pedestrian-friendly street where we ended up having lunch. It’s been a challenge finding the perfect restaurant since so many of the restaurants around here have the tacky multi-lingual menus and the cookie cutter Paella pictures. We picked what looked like a decent bar/tapas restaurant. Little did we know that the man who runs the front of the house and was likely an owner of the bar was a complete madman. After making the bad choice of this restaurant, we then made the bad choice of sitting by the entrance where the madman reigned. I would have much preferred to have had one of the regular waiters in the white shirts and black ties. So not only does the madman get our order wrong, but then he yells at others for the mistake and talks to me like I’m a complete idiot. The food was satisfactory I suppose, although covered in grease. We had the pleasure of sitting next to an Irish couple though, who did not speak any Spanish but were nonetheless amused by the antics of our madman.

Next, we walked down to the port where the weather was so nice we had to spend some time just sitting by the water. It was there that we met Larry the Banana. He was a self-proclaimed vagablogger who was travelling through Europe on the donations generated from the website where he blogged about his travels (much like this blog, maybe I should collect donations too!). His gimmick was dressing up in a banana suit and having people photograph him along the way in his travels – that’s where we came in, we were asked to take a picture of him.

After chilling by the water for a while, we headed by into the city and wandered around a bit in the Barri Gothic. We visited the food market of Barcelona and there we were swindled for 5 euros for a sugar apple – granted, it was a huge sugar apple, super ripe, and super yummy – but still, highway robbery! This was the first time Antonio had a sugar apple though, and it’s always good to try new fruit.

Having missed out on Park Guell due to traffic issues yesterday, we took a second shot at it today. We were successful and had a lovely time sitting in the park listening to some random musicians.

For dinner we went to the Barceloneta which is a stretch that projects into/along the sea. While most of the restaurants seemed touristy, a particular one caught our eye, or more precisely the New York Times review posted outside this restaurant caught our eye. After all, if I’m willing to take Times’ advice on food in the US, why not outside the US too. It turned out to be an excellent choice. We had some tasty gazpacho de buey de mar (crab soup) to start followed by some truly yummy paella with shrimp and squid accompanied by some lovely white wine that our waiter recommended. The paella at this restaurant definitely rivaled those we had in Valencia. In short, I highly recommend this waterside Barcelona restaurant – La mar salada – a fine dining experience for a reasonable price.

4-28 Tarragona – Barcelona

Today we drove from Requena to Tarrgona where we visited the Roman amphitheater beautifully situated next to the ocean and walked along the beach. The water was cold but not too cold. Interestingly, the sand here have specks of gold that shimmer in the sun.

After our visit to Tarrogona, we drove to Barcelona. We visited Colonia Guell – a church/crypt designed by Antonio Gaudi for a workers’ colony. The church was not open as it was closed for restoration but we still got pretty good views from outside the fence. In addition, the architecture of the little town is very particular.

Next, we tried to visit Park Guell. However, it took us nearly 1.5 hrs to drive the 20 km from Colonia Guell to Park Guell because of heavy traffic. It turns out that tonight is a big semi-final soccer game between Barcelona and Milan Inter. While crawling along in traffic, we saw a huge commotion going in the opposite direction. It was the motorcade of the Barcelona team – preceded and followed by police cars, protecting a big team bus and followed by a long tail of many motorcycles driven by Barcelona fans dressed in team jerseys and waving team flags. When we finally got to Park Guell, it was fairly late and there was no parking to be had. We ended up giving up and heading off for dinner instead, in the Gothic quarter. After dinner we learned that Inter had won due to the unenthused people in Barcelona jerseys and a passing motorcycle shouting cheers of Inter while passing by.

4-27 Albufera - Sueca - Xativa - Requena

We left Valencia today (after one last horchata drink with farton pastry - yum) and headed south to Albufera lake. We stopped by Albufera Lake and then by the ocean on the other side. As we were leaving Valencia a dense fog passed over the city covering everything in gray but as we drove around the lake the blue sky reopened and the view was glorious.



Next we passed into Sueca which appeared to be a sleepy dusty town with one and only one beautiful building in town. There we bought supplies for lunch and had a wonderful picnic by the orange groves where we dined in the wafting scent of the orange blossoms. We have been really lucky in terms of our timing in the Valencia region. We are here at the perfect time for wonderfully scented orange blossoms to greet our every walk and drive. We also picked some orange blossoms and have placed them in the car in little cups of water - now every drive is freshly perfumed, naturally!

Our next destination was the castle of Xativa. It is an immense castle that served as a major post before 1707. The views from the castle were spectacular!!

And finally, we concluded our day in Requena - a little city with a medieval center. We are staying in a hotel in the heart of the medieval center which consists of narrow winding streets within medieval city walls perched on a hill. The medieval part of the city seems to be in repair but the rest of the city is bustling.

We had dinner at our hotel and had the tasting menu which apparently meant all the specialties of the house and was enough to feed an army. I think we may have gotten through 1/4 of the food. Most of it was pretty good. Especially the fried pig tails I especially ordered.

Back to Barcelona tomorrow.

4-26 Valencia

Today we explored the city of Valencia. We walked around and came across the big market - one of the largest in Europe. It was awesome - so many yummy goods!!To
Mmm...yummy pig parts!
Paella pans of every size!
Old stuff

The bullfighting arena (not the collosseum)

For our last dinner in Valencias - paellas of course. We went to a lovely little restaurant across the city of arts and sciences - offering lovely evening/night views.
Dinner consisted of a plate of cheeses each paired with its fruit/flower counterpart, paella with squid and artichokes - absolutely phenomenal, and ending with yummy sweets.
A plug for the place we're staying in - Rooms Deluxe - a part of a company that offers many low-cost housing options in Valencia. http://www.roomsdeluxe.com/?l=en - cheap clean rooms with free wifi at good prices - what more could you ask for.