Howdy, Y'all

After our arrival into Barcelona, we Metro’d our way to our designated subway stop. After climbing the stairs and finding the nearby avenue our VRBO was on and with the Samsonites firmly in our paws, we trekked up the street. Looking at how slowly the address numbers were ascending to match our building's, we came to the realization we were in for a long schlepp to our apartment. To make matters worse, today is a 1-day taxi strike. Moaning, bitching and cursing as we continued our way up what felt like a 17-mile incline, the street ended. WTF?!?!?  Now what?!?!?

A call to our fast-talking, broken-English speaking property manager got us back on track. Somewhere along our stroll, we zagged instead of zigged, and ended up on the wrong street – our apartment is about 100 yds. from the Metro stop we got off at 2+ miles ago. Oh well, traveling is an adventure and getting lost is all a part of it. However, to any of you thinking of a visit to Barcelona, stay off Carrer de Roger de Llúria. It grabs hold of you, your luggage and your soon to be broken spirit, spitting you out once you’re tired and worn out.

But, on a positive note, the tapas are so much better!

While wandering somewhat lost one day (a soon to be common occurrence), we ran into a street musician playing a handpan. It’s similar to an inverted steel drum, looks like a Jetson’s spaceship, and is played with fingertips instead of the typical small rubber mallets. It's a softer and mellower version of a steel drum.

As most of you have noticed, visiting a cosmopolitan city is not really our style of vacation, unless we're passing through it. Because of that, we decided to take a photo class/tour of Barcelona and get some tips on photography in a city setting. Our 6-hour class began in the late afternoon with a walk down La Ramblas, a main street in Barcelona – think Mission Beach Boardwalk combined with all the tacky touristy charm of Seaport Village on a busy summer weekend.

Our elbows bruised and bloody from knocking our way through the frenzied sea of bodies, we entered La Boqueria Market, a lively open market that’s more crowded and less civilized than La Ramblas. Even surrounded by all the turmoil, we learned a lot on shooting under very different lighting conditions.

    Barcelona- A-0423   

After a break for tapas and wine (!), we ended the evening in the courtyard of a church that had been the sight of a bombing during the Spanish civil war. In the photo below, the chunks missing from the lower portion of the two walls are the result of a bomb explosion in the courtyard, killing a number of school children.

The following evening, we took a tapas cooking class that included a tour of the above mentioned Mercado, to do some light grocery shopping. Under the direction of Chef Lolo, 11 of us sliced, diced, peeled, boiled, sautéed and plated our way to gazpacho (cold tomato soup); patatas bravas (served many ways, they’re usually small bites of potatoes with a spicy sauce); Sobrasada (a 3^rd cousin twice removed from Italy’s bruschetta, but with chorizo added); and meatballs with cuttlefish (squid). Between all the slicing, dicing, etc., and viewed from our 3rd story kitchen window, we were interrupted by a small parade of bagpipes and a contingent of kilt-wearing Irishmen. Shortly after that break, the local Gay Pride Parade ambled through the Rambla.

Barcelona Pride Parade

 Stirring the meatballs                  Finishing off the gazpacho

Barcelona cooking class potatas bravas i0872  

Piping the filling for the patatas bravas

Once again, I read something on the internet (so you know it's legit), calories consumed while on vacation don't count. To take advantage of this fact, and just because we could, we had 2 desserts this afternoon.

TTFN