Originally uploaded by autarken

It wouldn´t be hard to do much better than we did last time we visited Barcelona. At least now we have a place to sleep. But we´re doing a lot better than just finding a place to rest our heads. The only thing I regret is not uploading more pictures… it has been so easy to do camera-phone pics though, I think that is what you´ll all be stuck with until I get home. Then I can do a big flickr dump from my camera and spend the time to do it right (with a fast connection).

Kim and I had a great time wandering through Valencia on our own before saying our goodbyes to our gracious hosts Sergio and Laura and jetting off to Barcelona yesterday morning. The metro here rocks so we were able to trot all over the city, checking out the amazing Sagrada Familia (which really deserves its own post when I get the photos ready), hitting up the beach for tapas and horchata, then over to La Ribera and El Born for dinner. We struck gold here. After wandering around and checking out the various fare, Kim picked a place called Petra that blew us away. Pictured here is her Ensalada Queso de Cabra (goat cheese), with caramelized sugar on top of the goat cheese, and a tasty balsamic vinaigrette. I started with a mascarpone & jamon soup, served cold with a little olive oil. When I was done I realized the cream & olive oil combo reminded me of caprese, but this was tangier, and the ham/bacon made it much better. Those were just the apps! Some kind of glazed pork (looked like it was lamb the way they frenched it off the bone) for Kim, blue cheese gnocchi for me. All with a local bottle of Catalan wine. Total bill 35€! For the quality of the food this was actually the best meal we´ve had for the money.

Today we took the train out to Cava country and went down into the caves for a tour. Think Champagne, but not in France. For only 5€ each we had a private tour with our guide Miguel (who we coincidentally ran into later on La Rambla back in Barcelona) and a trainee, Patricia. The tour was pretty interesting, and it was nice to be down in the caves from noon to 2 or so, out of the heat. Refreshing cava tasting at the end didn´t hurt and we both napped on the train back into the city.

After a short siesta we took the funicular up to the top of Montjuic and took in a panoramic view of the city from the Castell, before heading back to La Rambla and La Placa De Catalunya, our old stomping grounds from our last homeless stay in Barcelona. Now we´re off to bed early so we can catch our sunrise flight to Seville tomorrow morning.

Until next time…
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