Day 11: Gaudi Day, Palau de Musica & Mojitos

Last day/night in Barcelona. We didn't intend to however, we made the absolute most of it.  Today was to be Gaudi day.  We planned on checking out Parc Guell as well as walking back in such away to check out Sagrada Familia, La Pedrera and Casa Batllo. We also had hopes of getting to Boqueria market.  Since it was closed they day before we decided to go again today (there was some serious Foodie shopping to be done!)

In any case, Parc Guell is a haul!  We decided to go up the big hill way and it took some serious time.  The place is pretty but I didn't think it was all that.  I am glad I saw it however don't feel like I would have missed much had I not seen it (knowing what I know now)

On the way back, we walked down Passeig de Gracia.  We tried to grab cafe con leche at one of the cafe's there but it was busy and service sucked so we just sat there, watched some people and kept walking.  We saw the La Pedrera as well.

We didn't go into any of the Gaudi buildings.  They have tours and you can go inside and check them out.  Neither one of us were interested in this, so we passed.

Eventually making back to the Boqueria area we find out, much to our dismay, that Boqueria is partially closed on Monday as well! What the hek.  I am so glad we saw what we saw on Saturday!  Unfortunately, no foodie shopping to be done!  We walked around looking for place to eat.  Wound up in El Ravel area.  Decent (east of Las Ramblas) and finally got a chance to check out the El Menu del Dia.  This concept is fantastic.  For a very reasonable price, area restaurants offer a 3 course meal and usually include a wine/beverage for an incredibly reasonable price.  We tried to do this over the weekend but its mostly offered during the weekday.  We ate at a place called Carmelitas.  One of the options on the Menu del Dia was actually vegetarian!  Ok, so we were somewhat happier (even though we really wanted to shop at Boqueria and then head over and have a picnic somewhere - we like picnics!)

We decided to check out Olympic Village after lunch.  The 5-day transit pass truly was abused today.  We checked out the park.  Pretty viewing but not much going on.  From the Park, we hopped on a bus and headed further up the Montjuic and wound up at the Castle.  This was cool.  I actually think Montjuic is so much cooler then Parc Guell.

We basically trekked from one side of the city to the other in the same day.  The views were cool and the day was gorgeous. All and all, a very pleasant day.  You would think we were done by now... last night and all (and super early flight in the morning) oh no... we headed back to the hotel. 

Got ready for dinner.  Did a repeat at Rosa Negra (our favorite Mexican place:) had some seriously good mojitos and headed to the Palau de Music for a concert.  Wonderful end to a fabulous weekend in Barcelona.  Night over. Time for bed.  Btw, I am still sick and the plastic Netti pot wanna-be, only made it worse :(  The flight back was hell (and the Iberian air hostess' were on strike to beat)

Day 10: Colombo, Indian Food & El Tablao de Carmen

Sunday was a slow day.  The excessive smoke and wind from the nose bleeds of Camp Nou had me ill.  I was somewhat miserable but I sucked it up and we slowly made our way back into the city.  Started the day at the  Colon.  Its a statue of Christopher Coloumbus - pretty cool ...as far as statues go.

From there, we headed down the Ramblas again.  Did some shopping as we made it to our intended destination, the Boqueria.  Our thought for the day was to take it easy, head to the Market and get ourselves some serious picnic supplies and make it to one of the scenic parks (either Guell or Montjuic) unfortunately, the Boqueria is closed on Sundays!  It was a damn shame.  The place was awesome.  Foodless, we decided to grab lunch at City Gate, an Indian Restaurant that our tour guide had recommended.  The food felt good and we stayed longer than we normally would (partially because I was getting tired)

After lunch, we casually made it back to Born area where we started our Fat Tire tour on Friday.  We decided to take care of our souvenir shopping.  I had been trying to get Sangria pitcher and was determined to find just the right one.  It took some time but I found even better then the one I saw the first night near the Picasso museum.  Sangrias just taste better in there :)

After that we went back to the hotel, relaxed and got ready for the evening.  We had tickets to El Tablao de Carmen.  Its a flamenco show (ironic that we would choose to see this in Barcelona.  We just didn't have the time nor the insight to go see this in Rota or Sevilla.  Since both cities are in Andalucia, known for Flamenco, it probably would have made more sense:-)   So getting to this place as joke!  It took 30 minutes from the time we got off the train.  We didn't realize that El Poble Espnayol was whole tourist attraction in itself.  Had we known, we probably would have gotten there earlier and bummed around the place.  After like 15 minutes of walking up some big, flippen mountain (so it seemed) we made it to the place.  Only missed a few minutes of it.  We were tired but the show was amazing - passionate and vibrant.

After the show, we were starving - there was dinner portion to the show however not knowing the vegetarian options, I chose not to take part.  We decided to head to the L'Eixample neighborhood for dinner.  We walked around there for awhile.  It was kinda dead (possible because it was Sunday night?) kinda creepy.  Perhaps we weren't in the cool part of the area?  Not sure, we decided to head back to our hold stand by, Born.  We looked around the various places to eat and finally decided on Karma, another Indian restaurant (yep, we ate Indian twice in one day. I don't even think I do that in the States.) It was good, really good and I was content.


Oh forgot to mention, as we were walking around trying to figure out what to eat, we did come across (just coincidence) Gaudi's Casa Batallo.  Interesting work - he likes his waves.  At night, it looks a little on the creepy side.

Night over after dinner. Lots of walking.  Lots of excitement.  Good food and now for a peaceful, drug-infused sleep

Day 9: Las Ramblas, Boqueria & FCB v. Mallorca (4-2)

I have spent the last two days reviewing receipts and notes made on hotel notepads and I am struggling with what we did on some of the days.  Saturday is pretty spot-on but details for Sunday begin to blur.  In any case, take it as it is.  I will convey the activity perhaps the day will be a bit off.  This just tells me I shouldn't rely on the availability of the net while traveling and keep a traditional, write-in-me travel journal :)

Ok so Saturday was pretty cool.  The Fat Tire guide had told us that Cathedral - the famous Cathedral of Santa Eulalia, that everyone talks about in Barcelona - was actually free to the public at certain times (I don't remember the times) so we decided to go check it out.  The morning was spent goofing around the square outside the Cathedral and checking out the inside.  If you get a chance, Google the history of the Cathedral.  Its patron saint is a 13 year old little girl that was brutally killed for believing in Christianity.

After the Cathedral, we walked over to the Las Ramblas.  Its a touristy street and great if you enjoy people watching.  Personally, I didn't care too much for it.  It was crowded and the stalls seemed to offer similar things for sales - kinda like Chinatown in NYC. The one cool part about Las Ramblas is that the Mercat de la Boqueria is located off of there.  This place is the flipping bomb!   Hustle and bustle market place offering really fresh and regional foods.  Phenomenally clean; order in mass chaos!  This is the place where you should go, buy yourself some treats and then go picnic somewhere  (I would say Montjuic)

We eventually made it to the Zurich Cafe.  Sat down, had a cafe and beer and watched the people go by.  The day was long and we were tired so after this, we hopped back on the train and went back to the hotel for a nap.

After our much needed sleep, we got ready and went to Camp Nou Stadium.  This is where the revered FC Barcelona futbol team plays.  This plays is fantastic in size and the city loves there futbol.  Some interesting notes:

1. The game day is not finalized until 48 hours before totally sux for planning.  In our case, we could have gone to the game either Saturday or Sunday.
2. There are no souvenir shops inside  the stadium.  It is nothing like America.  Everyone is passionate about the game there is no sense of capitalism at all!
3. The place is huge and we walked up a lot of stairs and when we go there, the wind was strong.  We were cold.  So very glad that we invested in team bufondas (scarfs) outside the stadium before entering.  (Cuz no one sells anything inside!)
4. There are no concession people selling up and down the aisle.  Though people are drinking they weren't there to get drunk (sorry, my only reference is a Cubs game)
5. During half-time, everyone rushes down stairs to eat ham sandwich and drink coffee.  They then go back upstairs and ALL the concession stands close down.  Yes, the close down!

Overall, FCB won. They were playing Mallorca.  Team favorite Massey came towards the end and scored a nice goal.  (Score was 4 to 2)

Its not over yet.  We went Camp Nou back to the Born district.  We wound up at Caputxes restaurant (Italian) food was good but just like everywhere in Barcelona, the smoke like chimneys! We had a table of 4 next to us and I swear, we thought they would take turns lighting up just so they can enjoy the second hand smoke.  Needless to say, that part sucked and I got oh-so sick after tonight.

This was the veggie burger.  Resembles nothing like a burger and there was no bun but we found it amusing - possibly the bottle of wine adding to our amusement.  And yes, we took a picture of the wine because it was actually pretty good...

Day 8: Fat Tire & Picasso

(Saturday mornings are generally domestic days for me.  I spend my mornings re-setting the place and getting the monotonous but highly necessary chores out out the way.  Once that is done, I can get  to furiously squandering my day away with random musings.  This morning, as I was organizing papers (I hate administrative tasks) I came across my Barcelona box.  It’s really just a shoe box filled with various receipts, business cards, post cards, maps, etc from the Spain trip.  As I was looking through it, I realized that I hadn't finished posting all the information on here for 4 months now.  So with chores out of  the way, I sit here at Macondo (a Columbian empanadas place in the city) with my free trade coffee and a table littered with papers from my Barcelona box. So here is me trying to recount the good and bad of my trip from November...

Our first official full-day in Barcelona was idealistic.  The weather was gorgeous - sunny and warm  (neither cold nor hot.)  The morning started off with the Fat Tire bicycle tour around the city.   Fat Tire was fantastic.  We basically met at 11am in Plaza Saint Jaume, got to meet the tour guides and the 30 other random people also on the tour and went to get our bikes.  This was a great way to spend the first day as we explored the major attractions of Barcelona and had someone explaining to us why they were the major attractions.  This way, later during our trip, we could decide if want to re-visit or pass on any of the key places.  We saw pretty much everything.

We started off at Saint Jaume > Placa Reial > Cathedral > Palau de Musica > Arch de Triumf > La Ciutadella > Placa de Toros Monumental > Sagrada Familia ended at the Beach & late lunch with group.  I will try and upload a map, the ground we covered is fairly significant.  One definite plus of ending up in the beach for lunch was that we discovered an interesting twist on a grill cheese sandwich - they called a Bikini, basically a grill cheese with grilled onions and  mustard (yes, mustard) and it was yummy!

Practical information:

http://fattirebiketours.com/barcelona
Rate: 22 Euros/person
Time: 11a - 3p

So recounting all this information is hard!  I forgot to mention, later that evening, we walked around the Born neighborhood and then eventually made it to the Picasso Museum.  Ending with dinner at at place called Mosquito (the owner spoke like Chinese, English, Spanish - he was a UK transplant) In any case, this place actually had veggie dumplings! My favorite, not to mention a seriously nice selection of micro brews.
                                                                                               
Beer information: Guinea (Fox Brewery)
1. Riner
2. Antuis
3. Ales Agullons Runa
4. Montserrat Extra

Day 7: BCN

Today was a travel day.  I booked an inter-Spain flight from Jerez to BCN on Vueling.  It was definaltey cheaper then doing the whole trip via Iberia.  Key thing to keep in mind: all inter-Europe flights have tight luggage/weight restrictions.  The fees are high, Vueling was 10 Euro/Kilo and this is considered one of the cheaper fees!

We checked in with the Tourist Office at the airport.  Picked up some maps and caught a cab to City-22, a few minutes outside of the heart of Barcelona.  In retrospect, I would highly recommend purchasing the transit card from the Tourist Office as well.  (When we bought ours at the station later that night, it wouldn't take our credit cards and had to use cash.)

We stayed at the Holdiay Inn Express in City-22 and though it was clean and accomadating, the internet was not free.  The business center had two computers and there was always kids checking facebook on it - so it was never available either!

Meanwhile, the evening was low-key.  We hopped on the L4-Yellow line, Llacuna station (<5m walk from the hotel) and made it Palau de Musica, where we bought tickets for a concert for Monday night.  We walked over to get dinner at a Mexican restaurant (yes, Mexican!) - Rosa Negra was the place and they had the best Mojitos I have ever tasted!  Caught an outdoor performance for a few minutes (a dude in a bubble, playing the saxaphone) and called it an early night.

On to Barcelona

(Back from Spain.  We didn't have internet the last leg of the trip so I am post-trip blogging now) 

We depart for Barcelona tomorrow. Rota was a placid getaway, since it was in the off-season, the beaches were quiet and the overall area was pleasent to navigate. I managed to catch the sunset over the Atlantic each evening and it was spectacular.

Each night, we also managed to eat roasted chestnuts from the corner street vendor. The absolute best; people would just gather around the cart each night and wait for the chestnuts to finish roasting over the strange-looking (I think homemade) coal-fired, tube roaster.

Day 5: Gonzalez Byass

 I boarded a public bus this morning from Rota station to Jerez. It's about a 30 minute bus ride. Once I reached there, I basically walked around and decided to see what I could see. The city seemed more active than Rota.

I found my way to the Gonzalez Byass (better known as Tio Pepe), one of the largest and well-known bodegas in the region. As it turns out, Jerez makes up a third of the Sherry Triangle. The other two being Sanlucar and Santa Maria. For a wine to be designated as "sherry" it must come from the area within Sherry Triangle.  Overall, it was an interesting experience from the perspective of learning about sherry as well as figuring out how Spanish public transportation worked.  Day 4, I just hung out in Rota.  Caught up on some administration work and sleep.

Moroccan Tea

Overall, the trip to Tangier was a bit disappointing. Being Indian, most the sights and smells were not interesting nor appealing. However, I have to give props to their tea. Our tour guide brought us to a government subsidized arts/crafts place. While we were being given the spiel about how great the rugs are (I may be biased but Indian rugs are so much better) they served us their national drink, tea.

The tea was awesome as was their hospitality for offering it to us. It is a green tea (not like Japanese green tea) that is served warm with lots of fresh mint and sugar.

Market

These are some views of the market place in the Kasbah. Tangine pots, fresh fruits and dates. Overall, the industry in Tangier is hand crafts and tourism.

We hired a tour guide to show us around and it seemed he just had his usual tour route and "shopping" locations planned. Personally, I would prefer to roam around the market on my own.

Africa

Veiw of north Africa from the ferry. From a distance, it looks likes like the images and thoughts that I have romanticized about Africa.  However, Tangier was nothing like I imagined it. It felt just like being in India again.

Day 3: Tangier, Morocco

Day 3: We started with an early morning (left Rota at 6am) road trip to Tarifa. These pics were taken at day break from the car. There are wind-turbines and solar panels everywhere around this part of Spain. The plan was to get to Tarifa for the 9am ferry to Tangier, Morocco.

End of Day 2

Day 2 ends back in Rota, watching another beautiful sunset over the Atlantic Ocean. This was taken outside of Ruta 66 Bar.

Palm Trees

Sevilla is a quaint town with beautiful architecture everywhere. Of course, every now and again, you get sick of looking at old buildings. This is shot of the the palm trees outside of the Hotel Alfonso XIII.

Cathedral & Giralada - pic 1

The Cathedral is a very popular site in Sevilla. I have read that it is the third lagest Cathedral in the world (behind St.Peter's in Rome and St.Paul's in England) What I found intersting about the location was that construction started in 1401, on the grounds of the center of mosque that was there during Arab occupation.

Cathedral & Giralada - pic 2

This is actually a better view of Giralada, taken from Reales Alacazares.  Pic 1 depicts the Cathedral.

Day 2: Sevilla, Spain

Day 2: We went on a day trip to Sevilla. This is the Plaza de Espana, it was designed and constructed under the direction of Anibal Gonzalez, a well-known architect from Sevilla, for the 1929 Ibero-American Expo. The geek in you may recognize (I had to Google this) that this is the location for a Star Wars Eposide II scene - when Padme and Anakin are in Naboo.

Sunset over the Atlantic Ocean

I got to the beach around 6p to just sit and listen to the waves crash.  The evening was cool and the breeze was stronger than I had anticpated.  I returned back to the beach a few minutes later with a sweater and a cafe con leche and just waited for the sun to start its evening decent. 

Sunset over the Atlantic; nice close to Day 1.

View of old church. Near Hotel Duque de Najera

Day 1: Rota, Spain

Arrived at the Jerez airport at 1:30p local time on Friday, Oct 30.  Long day. Started at 5:45p on Thursday, Chicago time.  Made it to the hotel in Rota, cleaned up and decided to walk around town so as not to be tempted into taking a nap. 

Autumn Day

Spring Valley Nature Center

Walked around the Nature Center and took advantage of the brief hours of sunlight this evening.  Fantastic coolness in the air.  The leaves were brilliant with bright hues of red and yellow.

Left sad thinking that a few more days of cold and dreary Chicago weather and all the leaves will be retired for the winter.

Dells Weekend

Post Labor-Day weekend in Wisconsin Dells.  Nice time of year to get up there.  With all the kids in school the overall area is in the "quiet" period of the tourist season - makes for a peaceful getaway.  This picture and the next few are from an off-shore excursion from the Upper Dells boat tour.

Dells Pic 1

Dells Pic 2

Courtyard in Modern Wing

New Modern Wing at the Chicago Art Institute. This is the courtyard.

Niagra Falls, Winter

Niagra Falls, Winter.

This shot was taken from hotel through room window.  We headed up there in January to check out the Ice Wine Festival.  It was cold but we visited the local vinyards and tasted some delicious ice wine.

Let the Wild Rumpus Begin

Botanical Gardens - Winter

Chicago - View from Modern Wing side

Art Institute - Modern Wing