Culture Stamps: Barcelona, Spain

When a weekend trip includes ticking off an activity from the master 'to do list', the lead up to the travel date is full of excitement. Olie was like a kid waiting for Christmas morning prior to this trip to Barcelona. The reason for his eagerness? It wasn't the paella or works by Gaudi that had him bouncing around on the Easyjet flight. It was the anticipation of watching FC Barcelona play at Camp Nou. So out came the matching scarves we had purchased at the Camp Nou tour in 2012 and we were ready for some La Liga football action.

Arriving in Barcelona

Travelling to Barcelona in March was a welcome treat to a sunny and warmer climate. On arrival, we caught the shuttle bus to the center of the city - Placa de Catalunya, not far from the infamous street - Las Ramblas. From our previous trip to Barcelona, we had a pretty good idea of the area and the reputation for petty thefts. However, as March seemed to be outside the tourist high season, there were noticeably less crowds and we saw many police officers walking around so we felt safer.

When we had booked tickets for the FC Barcelona game, the match date and time was still subject to change, being played either on a Saturday or Sunday. Therefore to be safe, we booked our return flight back on a Monday afternoon and this gave us the opportunity to spend more time exploring the city.

Spanish and Catalan flags

Barcelona House

On our last trip we had stayed in a small budget hotel on Las Ramblas. This trip we moved a bit further down the street and off a small laneway next to Placa Reial, a public square rimmed with restaurants and clubs. On check-in, it was apparent that our hotel, Barcelona House was popular with group travel. In particular, groups of British guys on a bachelor party (stag do) that were waiting for a coach to take them drinking and one had even dressed up in a diaper - all this before midday.

Reception at Barcelona House, including a floor
overlaid with a map of the area

Placa Reial at night with the Gaudi designed light

Our hotel was also closely located near a McDonalds that despite all the amazing Spanish food that we were eating on this trip, we still managed to eat there twice over three days.

The Filipinos flavoured McFlurry amused Olie

Mercado (La Boqueira)
One of the trip highlights from our last visit to Barcelona was visiting the central market - La Boqueira. This is foodie heaven and is crammed with tourists eager to try out the jamon, fruit juices and score a seat at one of the small tapas bars at the back end of the market. On the day we visited, there was a Carnival theme and many of the sellers were dressed up in funny outfits.

Busy with people on a Saturday afternoon

Market is decked out with a Carnival theme

We dodged through the queues to our first stop, one of the many delis that sold pieces of jamon in a cone. These strips of fatty acorn fed ham is one of the most amazing taste sensations in the world.

Mei and jamon cone

But we did not want to spoil our appetites too soon and our next stop was in the seafood part of the market where we bought a little tub of mixed seafood.

Seafood salad

Bar Clemen's Boqueria

On this visit to the market, we were keen to find a place for lunch at one of the small restaurants that were bursting with tourists and locals. We hung around one long enough to get the attention of a waiter, who took our beer order and we managed to score a seat not long after.

Beer and fresh Spanish produce - what could be better

The food on offer was a variety of small plates that were cooked to order. We chose the pimientos padron (fried green peppers where one in ten is a hot one) and a plate full of razor clams.

The peppers

Delicious razor clams

After finishing our meal, we remembered the small fried squids we had eaten on the last visit and craving to eat them, we found our way back to the original store.

Small fried squids

Mas Jamon
And just when we thought we should leave the market (after spending a solid amount of time eating), we walked passed the Mas Jamon store and they advertised gift packs of jamon. Thinking that we should bring some home to London, we inquired about the prices.

Mas Jamon store

Jamon pricing varies based on age and also the purity of the food that the pigs eat (they love acorns). We also met a small group of Londoners that had bought a suitcase just to take home a full leg of jamon - great for parties they explained to us. Whilst we didn't have the appetite for a full leg, we did end up buying two packets of jamon, one that we later brought along with us to Reims the following week, as the perfect accompaniment to a bottle of champagne.

Cut and vacuum sealed to order

We thought about buying an entire leg

Brazilian musicians
Fitting in with the Carnival theme, a small group of Brazilian musicians were entertaining the crowd outside the market.

Exploring the Gothic Quarter

Our location was an area known as the Gothic Quarter. It was home to many bars, restaurants and lots of vibrant energy at night as happy locals and tourists moved between different venues and were intercepted by gangs of beer sellers than can be found on every street corner. As we had settled our need for food, we started exploring the many narrow lane-ways dotted with souvenir shops, tapas bars and the occasional chicken rotisserie.

The delicious aroma of roasted chicken

Interesting architecture

The architecture of this district is not necessarily 'Gothic' but it is interesting. As the center of Barcelona's Old Town (Ciutat Vella), it has been influenced by different rulers over the centuries. When the weather is good, it is a great place for a walk.

Placa Nova
Placa Nova is an open square in the Gothic Quarter that was once used as a market and the Tourist Office has signposted the remains of Roman era defensive towers that date back to the 1st century BC. When we visited, a large crowd had gathered to watch a group of street performers start their dance routine. However not long after they had started their routine (and surprisingly before they had passed around the buckets for donations), they suddenly packed up and left. Most likely as a result of passing law enforcement officers.

The street dancing performance

Barcelona Cathedral (Catedral de la Santa Cruz y Santa Eulalia)
This cathedral was built in the 13th century in the Gothic style. Perhaps less visited than Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, it is still worthwhile to have a walk around to admire the interesting gargoyles on the roof that featured both domestic and mythical animals.

View of the Cathedral from Placa Nova

After walking around the Cathedral, we arrived at the courtyard of the city museum (Museu de'Historia de la Ciutat) that we had visited in 2012; and the nearby Picasso Museum.

Museu de'Historia de la Ciutat

One of the Renaissance style buildings in the Gothic Quarter

Cafes El Magnifico

Our self guided walking tour soon moved away from the Gothic Quarter and towards the La Ribera district that used to be next to the sea in medieval times. We found a popular coffee shop - Cafes El Magnifico and stopped by for a caffeine boost before continuing with our sightseeing.

Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar
Next to the coffee shop, we visited the Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar. The inside had some interesting stained glass windows, including a brightly coloured rose window near the entrance.

Front entrance of the Cathedral

Rose window

Barcelona Beach

One of the destinations outside of Barcelona that we considered visiting was Zaragoza, about halfway between Madrid and Barcelona. However, the prices for same day tickets were quite expensive and we decided to spend our time relaxing on the beach rather than worry about trying to rush around another city.

Live music at the beach

Interesting sculptures

Unique architectural design

The boating marina

Watching the many beach volleyball games

Palau Guell

That night, we had plans to eat dinner with Olie's colleague Bastian and his girlfriend Nelly. On the way to the restaurant, we passed through the district of Raval, on the other side of Las Ramblas. Along the way, we passed by the Palau Guell, a building that resembles a Venetian palace and decorated in the art nouveau style by Antoni Gaudi.

Cera 23 Restaurant

For dinner, we met up at the Cera 23 Restaurant, one that Bastian and Nelly had discovered the night before and was so good that they wanted us to experience it. On arrival, we started off the night with a blackberry mojito cocktail, before selecting from the menu that had a modern twist on Spanish cuisine.

Blackberry mojito

Fried prawns

Ceviche and fruit

Duck with fruit salad

Steak

Cheesecake

Table photo with Nelly and Bastian

Bar Rodrigo Restaurant
The next day (Sunday and match day) we had the opportunity to sleep in and relax as we had visited all the tourist attractions that we were interested in. When we finally emerged from the Gothic Quarter, we were only interested in finding food.

Walking back to the La Ribera district, we soon found ourselves at a small restaurant - Bar Rodrigo, that advertised itself as being a paella specialist. This got Olie very interested, as we had yet to eat paella on this trip. Arriving just before lunchtime, we were one of the first patrons of this family run restaurant. Not long after, we were joined by locals and other tourists and all the tables were soon occupied.

We ordered a starter dish of small prawns, octopus and a jug of sangria. For main course, we shared a tasty black (due to the squid ink) paella.

Crispy fried small prawns that could be eaten whole

Galician style octopus

Black paella

Dream tickets

We started our journey to Camp Nou fairly early in the afternoon, as we wanted to avoid the crowds on public transport and also to soak up the atmosphere before the game. Although the game was FC Barcelona versus a lowly ranked Almeria side; we were lucky that FC Barcelona were going to line up all their top players as they couldn't afford to lose the game, as they were in a tight race to the top of the league. Earlier that day, their two nearest rivals - Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid had played each other in a Madrid based derby.

The earlier match had likely taken the shine away from the match that we were due to watch. In addition, the late Sunday night kick off was perhaps not convenient for many season ticket holders to attend if they were overseas residents. As a result, many members had returned their seats to the club and by chance Mei had scanned the website a few days before. Realizing that front row tickets were now available for a reasonable price; she made the executive decision to purchase another pair of tickets (our original tickets were high up in the stands) and then tell Olie afterwards.

Olie was not upset in the slightest and he was very excited to not only be watching FC Barcelona play, but also to be able to catch all the action from front row seats.

Camp Nou
Travelling to Camp Nou from Las Ramblas is quite straight forward. There is one train line and we followed everyone else decked out in FC Barcelona merchandise. On arrival at Camp Nou, we walked around the perimeter before taking loads of photos outside the stadium. Olie was a very happy man.

Can you see that smile

Barca and Estrella - perfect combination

Porta 73
One of the conditions of our tickets was that we had to be FC Barcelona supporters. Our scarves came into use and we presented our tickets at Door 35. This turned out to be the incorrect section and we were soon escorted out to the other stand - Door 73 where our row A seats were waiting.

Took a number of attempts before we could convince the security guards
to step out of our photo

Olie sitting in our front-row seats

Before the game

The teams playing tonight

Kick off
At kick-off, the atmosphere in the stadium was amazing. The FC Barcelona team came out and posed for photos, before taking the lead on the score sheet.

The star players

Messi

Neymar Jr.

Pedro

Dani Alves

Xavi

The Result

During the first half, Almeria put up a bit of a challenge and FC Barcelona had to avoid some shots on goal. However, the second half was more one sided and they ended up with a 4-1 win to the delight of the crowd.

Restaurante Mango

After the game, we hung about the Camp Nou area to wait for the crowds to recede before we attempted to use public transport. We found a popular restaurant - Restaurante Mango near the train station and had a quick bite to eat whilst watching the highlights from the match.

Fried sea bream

However, we forgot to check the Barcelona metro closing times. By the time we had finished eating, we arrived at the station just as it was closing up and ended up catching a bus back to our hotel.

Sagrada Familia
As Monday was our last day in Barcelona, we decided to visit the La Sagrada Familia, the unfinished church and monument designed by Gaudi. As we had not been firm on the date that we would visit this attraction, we had overlooked buying tickets in advance. As a result (and despite Olie trying to do so from his mobile), we ended up queuing for a good 40 minutes as there was a huge crowd of tourists attempting to get in.

Conservation and construction work still continues

A couple of the many spires

It is difficult to describe the artwork on and inside this church. It is a UNESCO listed site and is unique in so many ways - with its palm tree line supports, stunning stained glass windows and decorative stonework. So we let our photos tell the story.