Barcelona - Tapas & Tours

After sleeping in, Thomas and I got up and strolled down l'eixample's paeso de gracia to look at a couple different Gaudi buildings. We walked by the casa batllo and toured la Pedrera at Casa Mila. La Pedrera is an apartment designed by Gaudi. The tour offers access to the roof, which gives great views of the city. A free audio-guide offers a nice overview of the design elements and architectural history of this building.

Casa Mila

Roof of Casa Mila. The pillars are "knights" and some represent the four natural old timey elements.

Great views from the roof. 

View down paseo gracia.

Just chilling by the Fire monument.

View from inside the apartment through the wrought iron balcony.

The actual apartment was kinda small, but full of interesting design elements and lots of natural light.

After touring Casa Mila, we were hungry so went looking for a place to eat. I marked a ton of restaurants on my travel map, and we ended up at a very nice gastronomic restaurant called Mont Bar. I'd highly recommend this place for its unique twist on Spanish and Catalan staples and ingredients. The food here was really unique and the staff were very helpful. 

Come on, this is still Spain...you knew there'd be jamon iberico at some point. 

Up front is a jalapeno corn cake. In back is a pork and shrimp sandwich and a croquette of sorts.

This dish featured stracciatella cheese with a salty foam on top and sweet fruit inside. Very interesting!

Finally, we had a gorgonzola gnocchi morel mushroom dish. Very savory.

After eating our fill, we decided it was time for a siesta back at the AirBnB. Thomas needed to finish some work and I watched TV and took a nap. After an hour or so we headed back out towards the Arco de Triunfo de Barcelona and strolled through the Parc de la Cuitedella. Here we saw the lake, the Cascada Monumental and the Catalan Parliament building.

Afterwards, we strolled through the Gothic quarter towards the Catedral de Barcelona. We grabbed a gelato near the plaza in Born before gazing at the cathedral. Next we went to the Mercado de la Boqueria to check the area out. The market is basically a grocery store/food hall.  Thomas got a couple snacks and David bought some Catalan chocolate to take home. Overall a great market!

Barcelona's where's waldo, apparently. 

Arco de Triunfo

Cascada Monumental. They're not exaggerating it's monumental nature.

Catalan Parliament. 

More photos of the Gothic Quarter. It's like a cleaner Rome.

Catedral de Barcelona. Very monumental and interesting building.

Mercado de la Boqueria.

To wrap up the evening we went to dinner near the AirBnb at a little tapas place called el Mercat. We had a random assortment of some patatas bravas, friend chicken curry, spring rolls and "langostine" (basically giant prawn). Unfortunately, the langostine was a little intimidating, it was butterflied and chock-full-of-organs...we we basically just picked out the tail meat and hid the bodies. Overall, another great day in Barcelona!

Prawn graveyard.