Downtown Walking and Dinner in Barcelona, Spain

Hey Everyone,

Our second day in Barcelona was quite an adventure. We covered Rambla de Catalunya as well as La Rambla, eventually ending at the harbor where all the sailboats are. The wind became stronger the closer we got to the water. We followed the map and did a quick walk through of La Boqueria. We ended up there again on Monday, I’ll leave that for another post:) I’d say Catalunya is definately the street to go if you want somewhere to go and sit out with coffee or a glass of wine and do some serious people watching:) The main drag of La Rambla is where you are going to find the shops…
At the end of the street where the road ends there is a roundabout and a large monument that we later found out was Christopher Columbus pointing to America! There’s a bridge we crossed over that goes towards the W Hotel which we heard was amazing, but didn’t have the chance to hit while we were there. I have an older half brother that said the hotel is known for flaming drinks on the rooftop bar. There were swarms of seagulls overhead, and pigeons chasing crumbs near the monument. I am told the “beach” in Barcelona is on the other side of the W Hotel, further then we were. I would describe the harbor being more relate-able to San Francisco if you have ever been there, row buildings (although a different architectural style) trees, and that small downtown feeling…
Coordinating the metro on the way back was difficult and ended up leaving us about 6-7 blocks north on Travessera De Balmes lol. By the next day we had it down:)
I wish I could remember the name of the restaurant we hit for dinner this night. Its located on the north side of La Rambla on Passeig de Gracia, north of north of Carrer de Valencia, and has music or a performer playing in a large room downstairs. They are known for their Paella. If I can find the name I’ll be sure to post it also. The food was very filing nd this was probably the latest dinner we had, stating around 10pm. This was also the day that Barcelona was playing Madrid so we knew downtown was supposed to be insane. Barcelona was the favorite but Madrid ended up taking the win. Large groups of fans came in to eat about halfway through our dinner. I had a “few” glasses of their sangria de cava which was amazing! I think between the 6 of us we went through 2 or 3 pitchers lol. As an appetizer, the waited suggested un plato de prueba patates. Its a potato that has been peeled, quartered and fried, with a red cream sauce… so good! The sangria is usually made with the following fruit: Lemon, casaba melon, orange and kiwi. The sopa de pescado that I ordered was a broth based soup with a slice of brioche. There were all types of seafood inside, baby clams, shrimp, cod, etc. The broth seemed like a cross between veal and seafood stock. For entrees, I got the lobster paella. So did Brett. We found that a lot of the restaurants require at least 2 people to order the paella, because the dished they make them in are so big:) The boys got a couple of orders of the traditional seafood paella as well. The waiter brought them out at the same time, and set us a little table at the edge of ours where he presented the meal, and served the dishes:) I can’t complain even though I was left with an upset stomach by the time we finished… Oh and if you think we left without dessert, your wrong:) We shared the Amazing Almond Tart and Chocolate cake. This is where the food coma hit. I love that the tart was flaky and easy to break. I have tried some in the US and usually find them to be too “flour-y” if you know what I mean.
We shuffled back to the hotel and crashed soon after so we could function the next day… lol

Here are some photos from the day as we headed downtown, and some from the dinner as well.

Enjoy!
Mrs. B