Day 2 Barcelona

Jamon at La Boqueria

Okay, so today is suppose to be a major walk so I loaded up on ibuprofen and we headed out down La Rambla which is Barcelona's main boulevard that runs a mile and a half from Avenue Diagonal down to the waterfront. It's Barcelona's answer to le Champs Elysees. Like Elysees it's very touristy but it's a walk you have to do. The most impressive thing was La Boqueria market. One thing we try to do anyplace we visit is to check out the local markets, and La Boqueria didn't disappoint. Of all the markets we've visited in Europe, I don't remember any better than this one, and there is no comparison to anything I've seen in the U.S. It's well worth the trip, and before we leave here I think I'll go again. Instead of walking back up La Rambla, we came back through the Barri Gotic distric which is the oldest part of Barcelona. It's streets are narrow, winding lanes with lots of little classic antique shops, bars, and Roman ruins. You could spend the better part of the day just wandering this area. We did stop in the Cathedral of Barcelona and it's pretty impressive. Seeing as the old knees were getting sore, I requested that we stop for lunch and Sylvia was kind (or thirsty) enough to agree. We managed to find a "Normal" restaurant (non-tapas) near the apartment on Ronda Sant Pere called Cullera de Boix. We had to wait a few minutes until they started serving lunch at one (that's normal), so we had libations while waiting. It was a pleasant day and we sat outside and ordered a pork tenderloin with a creamed red pepper sauce and a squid stuffed with mushrooms served with an ink sauce. Both were terrific, the pork actually tasted like pork and my stuffed squid was great. There was no doubt in my mind it would be light tapas in the evening.

Sagrada Fabilia

After lunch we took a taxi up to the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia, the biggest church I have ever seen and it's not even finished. It's a Gaudi designed church that was started in 1882 and is not expected to be completed for another 30 years - yep, that's a total 132 years. It's an amazing Basilica and worth a trip as it's the number one attraction in Barcelona. We walked back to the Plaza Catalunya area via El Born section of town and decided that tomorrow we would spend more time there. After six hours of steady walking we decided a rest before dinner would be good, so we had a few cocktails in preparation for some kinda-light tapas.

Jamon at Qu Qu

Okay, so we didn't have some kinda-light tapas - it was more than we could eat. The above picture is of the assorted jamon and sausages is ONE of the tapas we had. The restaurant was a Rick Steves recommendation Qu Qu and although he's normally right on, he missed on this one. Tomorrow's another day in Barcelona and for sure it'll be light tapas.