As a side trip from Germany, we went to Barcelona! This town merges a city and beach with typical Spanish flair. The food, sangria, architecture, sites, shopping... did I mention the food and sangria?? Not only was the food amazing (OMG lobster paella!!), we had perfect weather for visiting Barceloneta beach. We were also in town for the annual Le Merce' festival. We never could really put our finger on what it was celebrating but Oliver and I never miss a party!
 |
| The aforementioned tapas. In the back left corner you will see my food lover in Barcelona- Manchego wedges... |
 |
| La Boqueria is one of the World's largest open markets. If it's food, it's here! |
 |
| This Iberico ham is famous in Catalonia. It is a pig that only eats acorns or something and then they sell it for 159 euro per kilogram (2.2lbs)! |
 |
| My artsy fartsy pic of the trip. The moon was rising over the beach! So beautiful. |
 |
| A day at the beach was exactly what we needed after two weeks of eating and drinking our way through Germany... I was tempted to leave the cover up on! |
 |
| Barceloneta Beach |
 |
| My lobster paella looked like it was about to crawl off the plate but man was it tasty! |
 |
| Inside La Sagrada Familia |
 |
| La Sagrada Familia- This Cathedral has been under construction since like 1845 or something. The concept and design is very intriguing but when I walk into a cathedral, I don't expect to hear jack hammers working away. It's expected to be done in 2020. I guess that's what siestas and cava do to construction. Oliver's opinion, and I quote "if the Germans were building this, it would have been done 50 years ago!" |
 |
| An excerpt from a restaurant menu translated into English. I really appreciated that they took into account that not everyone could read Catalan, BUT I really also wanted to bring to their attention that not many people "cock" with rosemary. |
 |
| One of the nights we decided to do it Catalan style. Bring any spirit of choice to the beach and lounge awhile! Oliver and I happened to pick up some Piper Heidsieck in the duty free shop and thought this would be a perfect night to enjoy it, oceanfront. |
 |
| Human Towers at Le Merce |
 |
| We still have no idea what the tradition behind these human towers is (besides just being freakin' cool). We figured out that the goal is to make them as tall as possible (duh) and then have a small child climb to the top and wave to the crowd.* |
 |
| Do these candies not look delightful?? Oliver and I bought some mixed chocolates from this place, and to our disappointment they had some sort of scorching hot chili pepper mixed in with some strange gummy substance. Oh well, at least the display case was pretty. |
 |
| I love food art! |
 |
| Roamin the streets with my new purple striped scarf purchased that day, because in Barcelona (or just Europe period) you must be wearing a scarf. |
 |
| Cava Sangria, I love you and all of your other sangria friends. Thanks for an incredible time. That is all. |
|
|
Our trip to Europe was truly unforgettable from beginning to end. I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to visit so many different diverse and interesting countries. O and I have decided that our next stop (after the honeymoon) will be South America. It is time to conquer a new continent, or at least visit...
Ciao,
Claire
*Sidenote: As a pediatric nurse, it was difficult for me to enjoy the children climbing to the top of these four story human towers as much as the crowd around me, as all I could see flashing like a neon sign in my head was Traumatic Brain Injury!!! Over and over.
No comments:
Post a Comment