We took off from Venice on a Friday afternoon of dark skies and rain and landed in Barcelona around two hours later to see the sun setting and palm trees silhouetted
against the sky. Here’s what we got up to!

OPERA RAMBLAS HOSTAL

Don’t be put off by the name hostal. In Spain it’s a category for a family-run and well-priced simple hotel. In our case, this one has been completely modernised and the rooms and en suites are stylish and spotless. If you need more space, there’s even a communal area with sofas and plants. As it was Valentine’s Day, they’d even left some gold-wrapped chocolate hearts for us on the bedside table!

So this hostel place is just off THE RAMBLAS, a wide pedestrianised avenue in the heart of Barcelona running from the sea to another great landmark and hub: Plaça Catalunya. The Liceu Metro station is also just nearby so the location couldn’t be any better for getting around.

BREAKFAST AT MERCAT DE LA BOQUERIA

I’d visited this covered city produce market on a previous trip but it was too busy back then (with tourists like me looking for something original and special!) and I couldn’t get the vibe of this place.

This time around I wanted to do it justice and once I realised it was only 200m from our hotel, along The Ramblas, I decided to get up early and beat the crowds.

So I made a bit of noise until Mr CA woke up ‘naturally’ and then won over his heart by suggesting some good coffee and a nice, savoury breakfast just nearby. We arrived around 8am- so early that the stall holders were still preparing their stands, trundling produce along on trolleys and like window dressers, creating eye-catching displays with food.

You can find butchers’ stalls festooned with cured hams and salamis; freshly pressed juices made from colourful fruit combinations; goat and sheep cheeses and greengrocers’ stalls piled high with winter cabbages and cauliflowers.

There are even white strawberries which on further research are actually pineberries- they look like unripe strawberries and apparently taste like pineapple, hence the name. Next time…

While someone was starting the day with a flute of Cava (Spanish sparkling wine),
we headed for EL MITIC bar inside the market and we had coffees and shared a dish of huevos con jamón iberico: two fried eggs with runny yolks topped with
snippets of Ibérico ham all served on a bed of straw potatoes.

Why is Ibérico ham so good? Well, it’s extremely tasty and moreish. The pigs feed
on pasture and commercial feed while the top quality feed on acorns. Each slice is
marbled with fat so it’s full of flavour.

CASA BATTLÓ

This house was bought by the wealthy Battló family in 1903, who then
commissioned Antoni Gaudì, Catalan architect and designer, to use his magic
touch and turn it into something special.

The facade alone is bizarre and original with Gaudi’s hallmark broken mosaics
used to decorate the surface and those strange balconies that resemble Venetian
carnival masks.

Inside you will pass through the rooms where the family once lived and brush past
smooth and polished wooden surfaces you can’t resist touching. Everywhere you’ll
see examples of Catalan Modernism, a turn of the century style full of curvy and
sinuous lines, light and colour.

CORTADO COFFEE

Wonderful Casa Battló will have your head turning with everything you’ve seen, especially the supreme digital art video at the end, so stop at a bar nearby and ask
for a local favourite- the cortado. It’s made with half steamed milk and half espresso so you get a strong coffee with a creamy texture and sweetish taste.

GRACIA NEIGHBOURHOOD

We took the metro to the Fontana station which is in Gracia: a district of Barcelona with pedestrianised streets lined with trees, plenty of boho chic shops and cosy bars selling Vermut, a fortified wine with a herby taste.

Our bar of choice was BODEGA MARIN. Dark, small and atmospheric. The walls were stuffed with bottles of wine and spirits and decorated with the odd spooky items like plastic dolls and a retro TV set. We had a red vermouth, strong and tasty, served in a small glass with a large ice cube and and an olive.

EL GLOP RESTAURANT

This was unexpected, We found ourselves at EL GLOP restaurant for dinner whose seasonal speciality turned out to be CALÇOTS, extra large spring onions which are thrown on the grill in huge bunches and cooked till they’re charred.

They’re brought to your table along with a big bib and a pair of plastic gloves- then the fun begins! You need to peel off the outside charred layer of the onion without burning your fingers in the process and then feed the onion into your mouth as if it were spaghetti, biting through the onion just before the green part. It’s a messy process and probably the best part is watching everyone else trying to eat them!

HALF MARATHON

Sunday was the big day. Cold and sunny. And with more than 30k runners plus all their family, friends and children supporting them, that made for a lot of people.

That’s great if you’re a runner because that’ll give you motivation and keep you going and that’s great if you’re a spectator because you get to soak up all that atmosphere and be part of something special.

At the finish there’s a medal designed in the style and primary colours of another great Catalan artist: Joan Miró, which matches the running shirt gifted along with your bib.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Barcelona has such an incredible density of bars, shops and restaurants that you can’t really get tired of it. Stroll down any street early in the morning, you’ll find everywhere asleep with the dusty and graffiti-decorated rolling shutters closed completely.
A few hours later and that same narrow street has come to life: you can buy a
waffle cone of gelato, get a reflexology foot massage, buy your nephew a souvenir
hoodie and have a drink in a medieval bar- all in the same street.