¡Visca Catalunya!

We had an early flight to Barcelona that meant we’d need taxis to make it there on time. Our friends at the hotel arranged for two taxis to meet us at 7 a.m. All worked as planned and before we knew it, we were landing in Barcelona - it’s about a 90 minute flight from Granada.

The night before, we had decided that we would take it slow in Barcelona. Keep the sightseeing to a minimum, enjoy the neighborhood, enjoy each other’s company. That meant dropping a side trip or two (i.e., Montserrat), but we soon found Barcelona was best with a slow travel approach.

There is a great express bus service from the airport to the center of Barcelona. Only 5 Euros and you are downtown in 30 minutes. Buses leave every 5 minutes during peak times. Super easy way to get into town. We jumped off at Plaça de Catalunya, the main plaza in the city. From there, it was two metro stops to our neighborhood, La Ribera, also know as El Born. Our apartment is close to the Picasso museum and again, a perfect location to reach just about anywhere in Barcelona.

(The entrance to our apartment on left and a view of our street on the right.)

We arrive at the apartment a little ahead of the proprietor, Silvia, so we waited out on the sidewalk for 10 minutes or so while they finished cleaning up. Our apartment, at Cotoners 6, is one flight up from street level. It’s clean, recently renovated, with two bedrooms, two full baths, small living/dining room and kitchen. AC unit in main living space, fans in the two bedrooms.

It was probably 10-12 degrees cooler in Barcelona than Granada, but the higher humidity made it seem as if there was no difference.

After unpacking, the troops were hungry. So we set off in search of the Mercado Santa Caterina and its adjacent restaurant Cuines Santa Caterina. The restaurant had a real California vibe. They served food in several styles, multiple cuisine influences, using the locally sourced and fresh supplies from the Mercado. The food was great, we sampled several cuisines. The service was disappointing. Our waitress literallly disappeared. Things were going well until I ordered a bottle of Albariño. She never came back, nor did we see her again in the restaurant. A somewhat confused waiter picked up the ball and served us through the rest of the meal. The restaurant has an open kitchen and I could see more than one chef was getting annoyed with the wait staff, with some sharp words exchanged. This place is worth the visit for the food, but don’t expect much from the wait staff. Reminded us of Halley's Waitress.

The rest of the day was spent wandering our neighborhood, provisioning our apartment and settling in for a siesta. Judging by the number of people on the streets vs. Madrid, it was clear there were many more tourists in town here.