Barcelona

June 13

After the spending some time in Dubrovnik and traveling all afternoon, Jeffrey and I decided to head toward one of the oldest watering holes in Barcelona to help change gears from laid back island time to this happening Spanish city. 

After our pre-dinner drinks, we headed toward Biblicatala for dinner. It was a tapas restaurant recommended to us by our Airbnb host. We continued with the flow and recommendations and went for all the recommended tapas by our server... and it was all delicious! 

June 14

After a big day, we decided to catch up on some beauty rest and slept in some. We headed to lunch by the harbor and caught up with a walking tour in the afternoon. 

While the walking tours can be considered less adventurous, we also like to hear more about what we are looking at and some of the history of the city while we are there. 

This is a funny christmas thing, where the farmer is always giving back to the earth... by pooping. I couldn't resist taking the picture!

 

After learning some about the city, we worked up quite an appetite. Lucky for us, there was a food festival going on at 'The taste of La Romba'

After re-fueling the body, we headed back to the beach for the sunset. 

The Christopher Columbus status. 

June 15

We started the day by wondering around a market off of La Romba. 

The colors and smells were amazing... we couldn't pass up the opportunity to sample some of these fruits either!

The markets are a great way to get a feel of the local foods available and to almost picture yourself living and working in a city. 

We couldn't be too healthy... we were on holiday after all, 

so we stopped to rest and get some churros and chocolate:) 

We had booked a paella cooking class in the afternoon. 

Our host (Marta) opened up her home to us and tough us the secret in making mouth watering paella. 

So it turns out the secret is in the sofria veggies and the fish broth

Jeffrey's job was to add pepper throughout the cooking process

After waiting around and smelling this cook, we were starving and it was one of the best paella's we have ever had!

After our cooking class, we decided to explore the local neighborhood a little more and ended up grabbing a pint at a micro brewery. We also checked out a Gin bar (Bobby Gin) that had interesting cocktails. After trying new things, we both realized that we actually like and enjoy gin every once in awhile :) 

June 16

And no trip to Barcelona is complete without a visit to the Sagrada Familia.

Construction for this church began in 1882 and it is still ongoing.

I had no idea how colorful or breathtaking this place was going to be. We have been to a lot of different chapels, cathedrals and churches over the past 2 years and this by far was the most unique. It was much more modern than I ever thought it would given it was started over 100 years ago. 

No detail was left unturned. I could go on and on about how each tower has its own meaning, and how ground breaking the design is... but we just enjoyed looking and taking in the views while there. 

To continue the Gaudi theme, we went to a park that had several other pieces inspired by him. 

and yes it was hot walking around! haha

To help cool off and re-fuel the body and mind, we headed back toward the middle of town for lunch.

We ended up grabbing some tapas and stopping in a micro-brewery. After all the walking around and the heat, we decided to go and see a movie. The movie of the summer was Jurassic World, so we decided to sit back and relax and watch some dinosaurs.  It was the perfect way to wrap up our time in Barcelona and get geared up for the next stop on our world tour... Greece!