Barcelona

Another Spanish city conquered! I sound like a moor! I woke up around 6 am to catch my 9 am flight to leave Sevilla and head to Barcelona. I took the airport bus which picks up less than five minutes from my hotel and then it was less than ten minutes to the airport in Sevilla. I grabbed breakfast and took Vueling to travel up to Barcelona. Vueling is a local low cost airline.

In Barcelona, I took the A1 bus into the city, because it leaves from Terminal 1. A2 leaves from Terminal 2. Both bring you straight into the center of the city for less than 6€ and drops you off at various metro stops. I would have taken the metro to my hotel, but as Nakia was waiting and it required a few transfers and learning the system, I just hopped into a cab. We met at the hotel and hung out in the lobby as our room wasn't ready yet.

When are room was ready, we took a siesta and left our hotel around 5 pm. We decided to head to the Parc Güell where Gaudi had incorporated his architecture into the park. It was a bit of an adventure to find the park and the exact place where Gaudi had added his designs. Also, all the literature I had said it was free, but upon arriving we learned now everything requires a ticket as they limit how many people can enter each of the areas.

We couldn't stay long as we had reservations at a high-end tapas restaurant called Tickets. It took two months to get reservations and is owned by the Adrià brothers, the prior owners of elBulli, a 3 Michelin star restaurant north of Barcelona which is now closed. elBulli was repeatedly considered the best restaurant in the world. The food was delicious and we were in foodie heaven. We had an excellent bottle of Rioja and ordered various dishes including: "pizza", two types of poached olives, bread with tomato, ham, oysters with ponzu sauce and salmon roe, manchego cheese balls with hazelnut and caviar, and razor clams with tomato and caviar. A photo collage below:



As we were still hungry, we ordered avocado cannolis and octopus with kimchi purée. For dessert, we had poached strawberries with juniper cream and Toblerone-inspired mousse with gold. Here's a photo collage below along with a selfie with Nakia with our pinchers:



Afterwards, we took the metro back to our hotel and explored the lounges and pool. We ended the night with watching "Pitch Perfect" dubbed in Spanish, with Catalan subtitles. At least the music was all in English as everyone knows I love acappella!