Paradiso Vibes

We decided to try Dosa Nova for breakfast down the street from our hotel - as we had East Asian flavors last night, we thought we’d have Indian today. I think these were better than the ramen place, but both weren’t obviously the same as home. Mama Kim, however, enjoyed these relatively new flavors and we all had coffees while waiting for the restaurant to be ready. A collage below:



Then we flagged down a minivan taxi and drove north to Parc Guell, designed by Gaudi. It sits on top of a hill and in a park. Mama Kim was able to wrangle a wheelchair for Anna and Mary Ann had to turn over her drivers license as collateral - I joked, it’s the first time it was useful!

On a beautiful day, we were able to enjoy Gaudi’s playful vision and views of Barcelona including the Sagrada Familia. I’ve been here every time I’ve come to Barcelona, so this was my mom’s 2nd time. She said seeing it again, you can take in more details and it was fun to see the others experience it for the 1st time:













Then I made everyone model different parts of the tiled benches and I was challenged to make a collage - challenge accepted:



We then descended down and enjoyed the ceilings:





And then down the famous steps:









After walking down the hill, we jumped into a minivan taxi and napped on our way to Barceloneta beach where we lunched on pizza and a burger, while enjoying some drinks:





Upon returning to the hotel, we split up as Mama Kim wanted to stop into Zara for some shopping. Afterwards, we swung through the Mercado for a midafternoon snack to try some uni and oysters that were a bit salty, but certainly very fresh!



After resting, we headed to dinner early to explore the area in the Gothic Quarter. Here’s us posing in front of some trees for Tresa:



I had researched some bars in the area, and one of them was a mixology / speakeasy-type place called Paradiso. They were packed and booked, but offered us seats outside for a more “basic” menu. The menu still included some of their classics, so we enjoyed a variety of their cocktails:



For our last dinner together, I had made reservations at Cal Pep - a classic tapas place I’ve been to on every trip to Barcelona - 2014, 2017, and now 2023. It’s super popular and mostly counter seating, but if you book in advance, there are a few tables in the back. The waiters were lovely, but I don’t recall, the “we don’t have a menu” vibe. So the waiters kind of presumed and tried to pigeon us into some dishes. It was still tasty, even if there was a little confusion. A collage below of some of the tapas: smoked fish, artichoke, peppers, tuna tartare, omelette, seafood, clams, steak, and a puff pastry:



After competing with other groups wanting a minivan taxi on a Saturday night, we finally hailed one down and returned to our hotel. We took one last group selfie on the famous La Rambla!



Per usual, the daughters enjoyed a final bottle of wine that Tresa had bought in Lourdes. Barcelona is one of my favorite cities and this trip cemented the relaxing good vibes and energy. We comfortably went sight-seeing and felt so relaxed for these 3 nights after a week of a lot of maneuvers and logistics. It was amazing to take it all in again and with this wonderful crew!