Sunday, June 16, 2019

Exploring the city of Barcelona, and more feasting!

Day 6 (Fri, 14 June 2019)

Today would be our last day in Barcelona and we dedicated it to viewing the sights in the city. First up was Palau de la Musica Catalana, a concert hall designed in the catalan modernista style. It's a UNESCO heritage site.


A look at the upcoming programmes on signboards within the hall showed an impressive lineup featuring world renowned musicians, including Simon Rattle, Ann Sophie Mutter, Lang Lang and Cecilia Bartoli. Would have loved to attend a concert here.


A short walk later, we arrived at the Catedral of Barcelona. It's a classic Gothic cathedral typical of European cathedrals constructed from the 13th to 15th centuries.


It always amazes me how people constructed these massive cathedrals at a time without modern machinery (which is why they often took hundreds of years to complete!) Even today, the scale of these cathedrals is awe-inspiring. Photos can't capture the sheer wonder you feel when seeing these structures in person.

Massive organ within the cathedral

On the cathedral grounds was a penned compound full of geese. They looked really serene and well fed. Hope they're not being bred for their livers!


The area next to the cathedral is the Gothic quarter, which has remnants of its Roman past, like the one we saw in Girona. There are many charming details in the narrow alleyways. Simply beautiful.


Then we walked on to Boqueria Market, which we missed out on a few days ago. On the way, we passed by the Generalitat of Catalunya building, which is the seat of the Catalan government. There was a protest going on and the press were gathering. Yellow ribbons were hung everywhere, which mean something quite different from in Singapore. Here, they're a symbol to free the Catalan political prisoners. We saw yellow ribbons all over in Girona too.


But back to Boqueria. It's a super popular tourist haunt and was crazy crowded. When I mentioned to a few friends that I was going to Barcelona, they all told me to go to Pinotxo Bar. It only has a few seats at the bar, so we were very fortunate that a few people were just leaving as we'd arrived.


I asked the waiter (the one waving to the camera) if he had an English menu and he replied, "I'm the English menu!" LOL. Ordering here is a little tricky because the board is entirely in Spanish. We asked the waiter what he recommended and he rattled off a few things - squid, shrimp, octopus, clams, croquettes. We basically ordered blind, taking our chances.

Squid in balsamic vinegar
Grilled shrimp
Spinach croquettes
Razor clams
Stewed rabbit

The food was delicious. We've never tasted anything like the rabbit and the squid, they were pretty special. We loved the spinach croquettes so much that we ordered another 6, on top of the original 3. However, it was a very expensive meal, IMO. Because we had to order the food without knowing the prices, we had a bit of a sticker shock when presented with the bill. It came up to €63, which I thought was pricey since we didn't order all that much.

The rest of Boqueria comprises tons of stalls selling everything from takeaway food to jamon (ham) and fresh seafood to ice cream. It's an explosion of colours and smells.


What really caught our eye though, was the fantastic array of fruit. They all look fresh, luscious and very cheap. We bought a large punnet of bright red strawberries for only €2! They were incredibly sweet.


Walking back to the hotel from Boqueria was a pleasant stroll along Las Ramblas, the major tourist walkway. It was teeming with people.


We passed by Placa Catalunya, the main square, which was inundated by pigeons, kind of like Trafalgar Square in London.


We had a lazy afternoon and headed back out for an early dinner to Ciudad Condal, because we enjoyed our first dinner in Barcelona there so very much. Ciudad Condal has a standard menu but they also have a tapas menu that changes daily. It's like a surprise present waiting to be opened.

Anchovies montadito and two glasses of tinto de verano
A variety of tapas  
Fried squid and lobster rice

Every dish was exceptional, such a treat for us foodies. That lobster rice was out of this world and even something as simple as fried calamari was done so beautifully. We enjoyed the food so much we ordered three desserts: a creme Catalana, a torrija (a Spanish French toast or bread pudding with custard) and a sponge cake soaked in whiskey.


All three desserts were worth the gazillion calories. I don't know how they make their custard but it's delectable. Every bite was heaven in a mouthful. We were astonished when we received the bill - it was only €59 for that quality and quantity of food that left us stuffed. Unbelievable value. So, so happy that this was our last dinner in Barcelona.


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