Spain: Day 3

ou’d think I’d be done writing about my trip to Spain now. It’s been a month – wait, over a month, since I was there. But I told myself I was going to record the entire trip, and here it is, slowly but surely. I think one of the best parts about going on a fun trip is being able to share it with others when I get back. So here it is – Day 3 of 6.

We had a flight at 3pm to Madrid so we took it easy that morning and just wandered around town. We lost track of time and almost missed our flight! Luckily, we caught it, and everything went fine…whew.

see all photos »

See: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

Morning Walk

Barcelona is really nice in the morning. Everyone is so relaxed, you’d think it was the weekend.

Barcelona has their own city bike system! I think Amsterdam has it too. You can pick up and drop off bikes at any of the stations in the city.

Here are some photos of the public art pieces that we saw on the way to breakfast. I like this funky one of a staircase.

I LOVE this statue.

Cafe Zurich

We had breakfast at this really great place called Cafe Zurich in the morning (thanks, tour book). It was in a touristy area of the city, overlooking La Rambla and the Plaça de Catalunya, a city park.

I think this was one of the best breakfasts that we had in Spain. It was simple – pastry and coffee, but both could not have been better. I think we ordered a cafe con leche everyday.

We had a local treat called an Ensaïmada. It tastes exactly as it looks – a really tender and flaky croissant, shaped like a giant cinnamon roll and dusted with plenty of powdered sugar. It was out of this world.

We also ordered these rolls, which were good. I think they had cream inside, but I don’t remember.

Everyone in Spain has a Scottish Terrier. Don’t know why.

Las Ramblas

From the cafe, we started walking down a street called La Rambla, which leads to a giant Christopher Columbus monument at the waterfront. It’s a lively marketplace, mostly for tourists.

Supposedly, if you wash your hands here, you will want to live in Barcelona for the rest of your life. (I didn’t do it, it would be more tempting than it already is).

Old guys shooting the breeze.

Really, really cool performance artists.

RABBITS! There’s a section of the marketplace dedicated to selling baby animals in tiny cages. It’s pretty terrible. They keep them locked in there at night, too. But they were cute.

I don’t know who would buy chipmunks but….I guess you can buy chipmunks if you really wanted to. Poor chipmunks.

La Boqueria

Off the main strip is a marketplace called La Boqueria (“Flower Market”), although it sells mostly produce, not flowers.

I love seeing super fresh produce. There are those grenade shaped melon things again. I really wish I tried one when I was there.

I think those are hazelnuts on the right.

One of the food stands had an enormous pile of wild mushrooms.

Meat, meat, meat. Spain is all about eating meat. I was really over it at this point.

The Spanish version of Dunkin’ Donuts – Dunkin’ Coffee.

Getting lost in the Barri Gòtic

So we were walking down La Rambla, and we see this opening on the left. Thought it looked interesting, so we went in, and ended up wandering around the windy streets for about an hour. Turns out it was the Barri Gòtic, the old quarters of Barcelona. It was fun.

Looks like a scene from a movie, right?

I really liked these really old, tiny coffee bars hidden in the alleyways.

There was a shoe store that sold nothing but flats in every color of the rainbow.

Some people on a bike tour. Not a bad idea – walking gets tired, and you feel like you miss out on stuff if you sit in a bus. I wouldn’t mind doing this if I come back here.

Mike got gelato in Nutella and Pistachio.

Waterfront

We somehow ended up at the waterfront, which oddly felt like home. More like Los Angeles, I guess. The weather there is similar to the weather in the SF Bay Area.

Super cool giant lobster sculpture. I think it’s a bus stop or something.

Look at these bike lanes! Nice, right? I wish we had these here.

There was an (overpriced) antique show going on there, I’m not sure if it’s a daily thing or something that happens once a week. I got an antique alarm clock, Mike got a compass.

VWs buses rule.

Here’s that giant Christoper Columbus monument I was talking about. It’s too bad we missed Christopher Columbus Day by a week, I think there were celebrations.