So how many paellas and jugs of sangria can you eat over a 3 day period?
Olie's answer: Four different types of paella and four servings of sangria.
Our weekend holiday was highlighted by awesome food, warm weather (a sunny 21 degrees adding some colour to our London sun-starved skin) and a trip to Camp Nou - home of the FC Barcelona football team. Barcelona, as a city has now made its way into our 'top' list as we loved so many aspects of the Catalan culture that we have promised ourselves a return trip.
Arrival in Barcelona
We arrived in Barcelona at lunchtime on Friday and were starving for some good Spanish hospitality and to try out the tapas dishes recommended by friends. This trip (just 3 days) would be a whirlwind of seeing as many places as possible and eating as many different foods. The following map shows a summarised view of where we travelled on this trip.
Barcelona Card
Our journey from the airport to the city centre was made easier by pre-purchasing a Barcelona Card issued by the city's tourism department. The 3 day pass included unlimited transport options and the airport train run by Renfe (a name that we aren't likely to forget as you will find out later in this post). By picking up the pass from the tourist information stand in the arrival hall, we managed to beat the queues of tourists trying to find coins for the ticket machine at the train platform - something we had learnt from experience in Paris after queuing for a good 15 minutes.
Passeig de Gracia
The train platform was bathed in sunshine and we soon opted for short-sleeves and sunglasses. Barcelona's Mediterranean climate was definitely winning us over. The train dropped us off at the Passeig de Gracia station, where we were unsuccessful in our search for the Metro platform - something that we regret later on in our trip.
However, in these days of mobile technology, Olie pulled out the GPS app and led us towards the hotel located on Las Ramblas, the main tourist street. As background information, putting Las Ramblas into 'Google' will no doubt bring up some search results of Barcelona's reputation as the pick-pocketing capital of Europe, with Las Ramblas being the No.1 destination for petty crime. The horror stories managed to make Mei perhaps overly paranoid everytime Olie brought the phone out to check for directions.
La Txapela
The route to the hotel was detoured slightly due to our growing appetite for tapas. We stopped at a tapas bar - La Txapela which had a wide selection of snacks and a very helpful photo menu for ordering when we didn't speak a word of the local language - Catalan.
In all, we ordered 11 different snacks and 1 Litre of potent sangria. Our first gastronomic impressions of Barcelona: Wow!
Tapas ordering using a very detailed picture menu
Hotel Flores
After eating, and with Mei feeling a little giggly, we decided to check into the hotel - Hotel Flores, located 2 minutes from the Liceu Metro stop, 5 minutes from the market and 10 minutes from the Port. The room was small - although still matched the size of our shoe-box in Oslo, however it contained all the comforts expected of a 2 star accommodation.
After check-in and with the weight of the bags shed, we went for a walk to familiarise ourselves with the neighbourhood and discovered the Barcelona version of Borough market - La Boqueria. There, we ate our fill of anchovies wrapped around olives, fried baby squid (puntillitas), cured mountain ham (jamon serrano) wrapped in a paper cone and chorizo on sticks, washed down with fruit juice.
Deli heaven
Chorizo by the stick
Fried baby squid
Pickled onion and anchovy wrapped olive pintxos
Columbus Monument
After eating our fill, we headed to our first tourist destination - the Columbus monument next to Port Vell - the Barcelona waterfront. The monument was built in 1888, is 60m tall and is the largest of the 64 Columbus monuments in the world. Entry was free due to the Barcelona Card, and we rode the small 2 metre wide lift up the central column to the viewing area where we enjoyed 360 degree views over Barcelona.
Columbus monument
Overlooking the esplanade and Gothic Quarter
Las Ramblas
Yachts inside Barcelona Harbour
Port Vell
After visiting the monument, we walked across the Rambla de Mar which is a swing bridge that connects the Port Vell shopping centre with Las Ramblas, and also allows yachts into the mooring area. Walking down the Esplanade from the dock area, we passed some tall sailing ships that were reminders of days gone by.
Old sailing ships
The historic buildings at Port Vell
Rambla de Mar - swing bridge over the Barcelona harbour
El Ray de Gamba
Our walking was eventually rewarded by a row of restaurants specialising in seafood. One of the recommendations from a colleague was located in the restaurant strip but sadly closed at the time of visiting. Instead, we opted for the El Ray de Gamba where the customer service was good - although the waitress did leave a fair chunk of cork in our Galician wine.
Castel de Fornos - Galician wine
First Paella of the trip
After dinner we stopped off for gelati at the cafe next door to our hotel where Olie had his usual dessert snack of banana and Nutella crepes.
Banana and nutella crepe and neon green mint gelati
Camp Nou Tour
Olie woke up early, as excited as a little puppy as the first destination on our travel list was Camp Nou, home stadium of FC Barcelona. Using the Metro, we reached the stadium before 10am and joined the queue of mostly male fans, waiting for the gates to open.
It was then, that everyone noticed the official Barcelona team bus hanging out the front with a number of athletes walking towards it. Everyone in the crowd reached for their cameras in anticipation of spotting Messi or one of the other famous players. However, sadly we soon realised that the athletes boarding the bus were actually members of the FC Barcelona hockey team and players were already in Seville, ready for their game against Sevilla FC later that night.
Olie's paparazzi moment - FC Barcelona team bus
Once the gates opened, Olie headed for the merchandise store and bought an official team scarf for himself and Mei, and we headed to the start of the Camp Nou experience.
Entrance into Camp Nou
The tour is self guided and commences at the FC Barcelona museum where many of the recent trophies are kept, and then leads into the player's entrance to the stadium, coaching box, press room and away team changing rooms - where the audio guide left nothing to the imagination when mentioning that the world's famous footballers like David Beckham had stripped down and showered there after facing FC Barcelona.
2011 Champions League trophy
The away team change rooms
The corridor used by the players to enter the stadium - even has its own shrine
Best seats in the stadium
Olie posing in front of the Press Room at Camp Nou
"More than a club" - FC Barcelona motto
Our short video clip of the Camp Nou stadium:
The Camp Nou tour was Olie's highlight of the entire Barcelona trip. Just left on the 'to do list' (and sufficient to justify another trip to Barcelona) is to watch the team play live in the stadium. We were actually quite surprised to find out how easy it was to obtain tickets to the games against lower ranked teams, as the stadium fits close to 100,000 people and FC Barcelona has the most members of any sporting organisation in the world.
Hop On Hop Off Bus
After the tour finished, we bought tickets for the Barcelona Hop On/Hop Off tourist bus Blue Route which covers most of North Barcelona.
The start of almost 3 hours on the tourist bus
Hop on / hop off buses - easiest way to see a city in a day
Sagrada Familia Barcelona has a number of artistic and architectural attractions including Gaudi's unfinished Basilica - Sagrada Familia (which we didn't venture inside as the queue was too long), Casa Batllo (Gaudi's museum) and the Royal Palace.
Casa Batllo
Casa Mila -The last building designed by Gaudi
Sagrada Familia
Spires of Sagrada Familia
Modernista artwork
House of Gaudi's patron - Guell Pavilion
We even sat for the entire route - passing by Camp Nou again so Olie could take more photos, before swapping for the Red Route that covered the Southern side of the city. A further 1.5 hours later on the bus, we also ticked off the 1992 Olympic stadium, cable car, harbour and Gothic quarter.
Iconic telecommunication tower inspired by the 1992 Olympic flame
On top of Montjuic
Medieval architectural in the Gothic Quarter
Time spent on a tourist bus is also a fast way of developing an appetite, which we gave into when we were near the beach / Casino area.
Friendly lobster
Barcelona beaches
El Tunel del Port Restaurant
Tempted by the restaurants along the beach front, we started hunting for more paella. We found a popular restaurant - El Tunel del Port with beach views where we enjoyed a set menu of: 3 tapas starters: jamon serrano, roasted peppers and fried octopus; seafood paella, then finished off with a lemon sorbet and chocolate profiteroles. We also tried cava (champagne) sangria which wasn't as good as the regular red wine version, but did come with a number of strawberries. Not wanting to waste the berries, Mei instructed Olie to fish them out of the sangria jug - however he was distracted by a muscular Spanish sunbather in speedos on the beach which he insisted that Mei have a look at.
Cava sangria, peppers, octopus and jamon serrano
Paella number 2
Dessert
Museu d'Historia de la Ciutat
With our stomachs full again, we headed back to the city centre where we visited the City museum - Museu d'Historia de la Ciutat at the Placa del Rei, which is located inside a medieval cathedral that had been built on the remains of a Roman fish sauce factory. The walk inside the museum is a stunning trip back to Roman times (1st and 2nd century AD) where the original buildings have been excavated.
Entered a medieval building
Took the lift down one level to Roman times
From the museum, we headed back to our hotel and decked ourselves in the FC Barcelona scarf, ready to watch the FC Barcelona vs Sevilla FC game from the Bar International Beer (Australian themed) pub next door to our hotel that served a tasty set of tapas (including amazing anchovies, octopus and olives) and as it was St Patrick's Day, we received a free hat on the purchase of 2 pints of Guinness.
Placa Reial
The game was eventful for the first half, but the excitement died away. We ended up eating a late dinner at a restaurant in the nearby square (Placa Reial) where Olie had Paella Negro (black squid ink paella), another glass of sangria and Mei had Catalan sausage and fried white beans. Dessert was from a nearby gelati shop where interesting flavours such as: avocado and mojito were sampled.
Paella Negro - number 3
Sangria number 3
Pastisseria Delpi Granja Our final day in Barcelona started off with us checking out of the hotel, dropping off the bags and eating churros (Spanish donuts) and chocolate for breakfast at the Pastisseria Delpi Granja.
Spanish donuts in Spain
Museu de la Xocolata We then headed for two more museums to ensure we got our monies worth with the Barcelona card. The first stop was the museum of chocolate (Museu de la Xocolata) - where the entry ticket was a chocolate bar of 73% cocoa, we learnt about the history of the cocoa bean (spread across Europe by the Spanish after discovering its use in South America) and saw some amazing chocolate sculptures.
Asterix in chocolate
Amazing chocolate art
Chocolate gladiator
Chocolate Tom and Jerry
Cute Easter Eggs
Museu Barbier-Mueller
The next museum - Museu Barbier-Mueller was originally a private collection based on pre-Columbian American artworks, dating back to several centuries BC and demonstrating the native techniques for sculpting in gold and stoneware.
Ancient South American art
Animal inspired pottery
Qapaq Nan - The Royal Inca Trail
Orlo A rest-break was taken at a local tapas bar - Orlo where a further 10 pieces of gastronomic wonder were sampled.
Ham, crab, tuna and anchovy tapas
Port Vell Cruise From there, we headed towards Port Vell where our Barcelona Card entitled us to a free harbour cruise and it was a relaxing (although windy) journey by boat, seeing the dock cranes haul up shipping containers and waiving at cruise ship passengers. After this had finished, we realised we didn't have that much time to take lunch before we were due to catch the train for the airport.
Scenery from the harbour cruise
Les Quinze Nits
After picking up our bags from the hotel, our lunch was eaten back at Placa Reial, at a place that always had a long queue - Les Quinze Nits - great food but really slow service. We ate our last paella (this one included chorizo and chicken whereas the others had been just seafood), last sangria and another serving of jamon serrano. The service was so slow that we almost gave up waiting for our 8 Euros change as we were worried about being late for the train back to the airport.
Enjoying the sunshine at Les Quinze Nits
Our fourth sangria - no photo of the fourth paella
Buffalo mozzarella and four types of tomato
Renfe Journey to the Airport
The drama of the return journey back to the airport cannot be expressed easily in words - only that we were 3 minutes away from missing the train and therefore our flight back to London. We had taken the train from Metro station Liceu to Passeig de Garcia and had reached this destination within 5 minutes after some sprinting down the stairs. It was then that we realised that we had no idea where the Renfe train platform was at Passeig de Garcia and in vain hope attempted to look at each Metro line platform for clues. With less than 10 minutes before train departure, we realised that we were pretty lost and started asking strangers at the platform for directions. A couple of girls pointed out that we needed to look for the lime green train line, however after looking around, it was clear that this wasn't forth coming. At the 6 minute point before train departure (4:02pm), we were almost resigned to the fact that we were going to need a cab to the airport. However, it was then that Mei noticed a Renfe sign and an arrow pointing back the way we had came through the Metro platforms. As a desperate attempt, we followed the arrows, which led us back to a ticketing gate and an exit out of the platform area. With no other options, we followed the arrows and entered another ticketing hall where a sign-board and a ticket seller pointed us to the direction of Platform 1. Running again, we made our way to Platform 1, exhausted but 3 minutes to spare in time to catch the train - a lesson learnt in time management, but it didn't dampen our impression of Barcelona as a city!
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So how many paellas and jugs of sangria can you eat over a 3 day period?
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