The Travels of Eric and Lorna

After the maritime museum, we walked around the marina area. The original port building. Looks like it's going to be pretty cool when the renovation is complete. A better shot of the CC monument. A nice view of Montjuic. The 1% harbor. More of the 1% harbor. Later on you got into the real yachts. Holy crap. Some of these things were the size of a naval cruiser. This is the .01% harbor. A panorama of the super yacht harbor.

We also went to the Barcelona Maritime Museum . This amazing museum is located in the old shipyard building dating to the 1400s. The building itself is really cool, and the displays are great. Entrance to the Maritime Museum. The star exhibit is an exact replica of a 16th century slave galley. It was made in 1972 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of The Battle of Lepanto (really important if you've never heard of it ).  If this was the only thing in the museum it would honsetly have been worth the very modest (4.5 euros) entrance fee, but the rest of the museum is great as well, and is very good about having displays include English descriptions. Anyway, on the the galley, apparently an exact replica of a specific galley that fought in the battle. Here's a model of the ship. The rudder. Stern shot. The nice part of the ship. The very not nice part of the ship.

Barcelona Cathedral Another shot of the remnants of the aqueduct. This is an antiques market that takes place in the plaza in front of the cathedral. Aqueduct and a busker. This facade was decorated by Picasso. The Christopher Columbus monument. It is here because Barcelona is where he reported to Ferdinand and Isabella when he returned from the New World.

It immediately became apparent that we made a good choice staying in the Gracia neighborhood. It was so much quieter there, and so much more like a real neighborhood. Within a one minute walk of our hotel were a bakery, a pizza place, a supermarket, and a subway station. There were also several great restaurants in the area. One we went to twice is a local chain (there are four in Barcelona I think) called Macchina Pasta Bar. This is what we would call a fast casual place in the US, you order at a counter and pay and then they bring the food to your table. In this case, you pick your pasta, and your sauce, and any additions you want. It was actually really good. The second time we went there I got the lasagna, and I have to say it was some of the best I have had in a long time., and probably the best I have even gotten in a restaurant. Casa Vicens, the first private house Gaudi designed, was located literally around the corner form our hotel. Here is an exterior shot.   T...

 The jamon store we visited. The different types of jamon available. Seriously, ham is an art form in Spain. It's importance to the culinary history of the country can scarcely be overstated. The Market we visited. This man may look like a worker, but let me assure you he is an artist, and his medium is cheese. If you are in Barcelona, just look it up and go. Amazing. The yellow ribbons were everywhere, and represent the desire to free the political prisoners arrested when the Spanish central government crushed the elections recently. This place was my favorite establishment I went to while in Barcelona and I am very sad I did not go back before I left for home. Seriously google it and go if you are there. The most old school bodega in the area. To go there is to see how life has been lived in the neighborhood for the last couple hundred years. Always on the lookout for great street art. Love this one a lot.

We flew to Barcelona from DFW on Monday April 15, arriving Tuesday morning at 9 right on time. We stayed at the excellent Aparthotel Silver in the Gracia neighborhood north of Barcelona. This area was a separate town from Barcelona until the Exiample was built in the nineteenth century. Our Hotel Down Carrer de Breton de los Herreros towards the Fontana Metro stop.  It's funny, really. Whenever we left the hotel we went this way. The market, subway stop, pizza place, and bakery were all this way within one minute of walking. We were always generally headed towards the subway or towards this street to walk down it. We both kept saying "We need to go down this other street," but we never did. One of the first things we did was to take a Gracia neighborhood food and market tour, which started in this square, which is considered the main square of the Gracia neighborhood. Here's a video of the square  The tour was run by Devour Barcelona, and was...

Just got back from a trip to wonderful Barcelona. Pictures and stories coming soon.