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figarofigaro1For our last day in Barcelona, we decided to do one of the tourist bus tours so we could see a larger overview of the city and at least view the outside of some things we weren't going to have a chance to see in depth. We started the morning touring the northwestern route. The line was pretty long for it all since the marathon the day before had disrupted the tourist buses for much of the day. The couple behind us were Russian I think; they didn't speak much English. She was knitting something and so I pantomimed that I was a knitter and then showed her the socks I was wearing. She pointed at them and then at me. I nodded and made knitting motions and pointed at my socks again. She told her husband, I guess, that I had knitted my socks and then they both laughed. So I guess men don't knit in their part of the world.
We tookteh bus past La Sagrada Familia and got a different view of it. I love this picture that I got there. Check out how the bird looks eerily like an angel!
We saw lots of interesting architectural details on many buildings. It was very cold up on top with the wind. There was a convent where it was the local custom to bring the nuns eggs so that it wouldn't rain on one's wedding. And there were other reasons why one took them eggs as well. We made so many jokes about it that we just laughed and laughed and laughed.
We made a pit stop back at our hotel and then walked down to the Plaça Réal for lunch. We found a little spot, La Crema Canela with a wonderful prix fixe menu (9.95 euros): a glass of wine; Catalan spinach cake with Romesco sauce; sausages with samfaina sauce (caramelized onions in a tomato reduction with eggplants, zucchini, and peppers);
and for dessert, B had a huge dish of chocolate ice cream and I had a toffee cake with crème anglais.
In the afternoon we dressed a bit more warmly and got on the bus for the second route, seeing the Plaça d'Espanya,
and views of the city from Montjuïc,
the Olympic stadium, the waterfront, and back up into the Gothic quarter. We got in a bit more shopping before returning to our hotel to pack our bags in preparation for our departure the next day.
The folks at our hotel recommended dinner our last night be at a place called Speakeasy. We wanted something different from the usual tapas fare and to go a bit fancier. This place was rather incredible. The front is a bar called Dry Martini. When you go in, you walk to the back of the bar and there's a door, obviously to the kitchen. On it, in very small letters, it says "restaurant". We'd been instructed to go directly through that door and keep going. One must walk through the kitchen and through another door, opening on large room decorated to look like the storage room for the bar. On one side were industrial shelves lined with liquor bottles all lit from the back. Along another wall was a large wine cellar.
Check out their website here, and check out this video. The place was super-cool.
So the whole theme of the place was cocktails paired with food. They had three different tasting menus. We opted for the middle one.
And this photo from the menu shows the starters with the cocktails:
The cocktails were smaller sized, but after a full-sized aperitif cocktail and then seven smaller ones, we were feeling no pain! The one on the far left was an anchovy on top of date paste on a piece of baguette. The cocktail was a vodka martini frappe (think of a martini slush). That was one of our favorites. The other favorite was the tuna roll with the wasabi martini slush (third from the left). Some things were pretty different: The "Sharon Stone" was some sort of thick chocolate concoction. The suckling pig was excellent.
When we arrived for our 9:30 reservation there was only one other table seated. I thought since it was a Monday night, it was slow. Then by 10:15, the place was packed full of people. We finally left at 12:45 AM Tuesday morning and when we made our way out, we had to press through the crowds of people in the Dry Martini bar in the front. It is a very popular place.
We refer to this as our Epic Meal, and it was one of the most memorable and different experiences of our dining lives!
We tookteh bus past La Sagrada Familia and got a different view of it. I love this picture that I got there. Check out how the bird looks eerily like an angel!
We saw lots of interesting architectural details on many buildings. It was very cold up on top with the wind. There was a convent where it was the local custom to bring the nuns eggs so that it wouldn't rain on one's wedding. And there were other reasons why one took them eggs as well. We made so many jokes about it that we just laughed and laughed and laughed.
We made a pit stop back at our hotel and then walked down to the Plaça Réal for lunch. We found a little spot, La Crema Canela with a wonderful prix fixe menu (9.95 euros): a glass of wine; Catalan spinach cake with Romesco sauce; sausages with samfaina sauce (caramelized onions in a tomato reduction with eggplants, zucchini, and peppers);
and for dessert, B had a huge dish of chocolate ice cream and I had a toffee cake with crème anglais.
In the afternoon we dressed a bit more warmly and got on the bus for the second route, seeing the Plaça d'Espanya,
and views of the city from Montjuïc,
the Olympic stadium, the waterfront, and back up into the Gothic quarter. We got in a bit more shopping before returning to our hotel to pack our bags in preparation for our departure the next day.
The folks at our hotel recommended dinner our last night be at a place called Speakeasy. We wanted something different from the usual tapas fare and to go a bit fancier. This place was rather incredible. The front is a bar called Dry Martini. When you go in, you walk to the back of the bar and there's a door, obviously to the kitchen. On it, in very small letters, it says "restaurant". We'd been instructed to go directly through that door and keep going. One must walk through the kitchen and through another door, opening on large room decorated to look like the storage room for the bar. On one side were industrial shelves lined with liquor bottles all lit from the back. Along another wall was a large wine cellar.
Check out their website here, and check out this video. The place was super-cool.
So the whole theme of the place was cocktails paired with food. They had three different tasting menus. We opted for the middle one.
And this photo from the menu shows the starters with the cocktails:
The cocktails were smaller sized, but after a full-sized aperitif cocktail and then seven smaller ones, we were feeling no pain! The one on the far left was an anchovy on top of date paste on a piece of baguette. The cocktail was a vodka martini frappe (think of a martini slush). That was one of our favorites. The other favorite was the tuna roll with the wasabi martini slush (third from the left). Some things were pretty different: The "Sharon Stone" was some sort of thick chocolate concoction. The suckling pig was excellent.
When we arrived for our 9:30 reservation there was only one other table seated. I thought since it was a Monday night, it was slow. Then by 10:15, the place was packed full of people. We finally left at 12:45 AM Tuesday morning and when we made our way out, we had to press through the crowds of people in the Dry Martini bar in the front. It is a very popular place.
We refer to this as our Epic Meal, and it was one of the most memorable and different experiences of our dining lives!
