A quick visit @ Barcelona

The plan was to meet Richard and Mireia (and let's not forget young Eric, either!) at a traditional Catalan restaurant, and have a traditional countryside meal. The place was located just outside Barcelona - and we found it eventually, after a rather adventurous trip through the suburbs of Barcelona, and some rather treacherous dirt tracks that were not really suitable for our Clio. Anyway, we made it! The concept was rather cool - they have this winter-time tradition in Catalunya. It all revolves around the Calcot, which is Catalunyan for Spring Onion. The idea is that a bunch of scorched spring onions is brough to the table, the idea is then to peel the scorched bit off, and dip it in a very tasty mayonnaise type sauce. This is combined with plenty of wine and grilled meat. Needless to say, it gets very messy. And needless to say, I absolutely loved it!

The culinary cultural bit out of the way, we made our way to their flat, located not far from FC Barcelona's home stadium, where we hang out during the evening, catching up on the latest. After all, we don't get to meet up very frequently these days, and we sadly also missed Rich and Mireia's wedding last autumn, since we were in Asia at the time...

The next day, we headed off to explore Barcelona. What better place to start than the Sagrada Familia  - especially since Mireia is actually a tour guide, and knows the place very well, and actually had the time to take us there.

We've both seen the Sagrada Familia, of course (we've both been to Barcelona several times), but the cool thing about this monumental piece of architecture is that it's a work in progress, which progresses year by year. Actually, the church is funded only by donations - which mostly equals tourist entrance fees these days. Which means they actually have loads of cash now, due to the influx of tourists, particularly China.

What's exterior of the church is of course what's most famous (in particular the historical facade which  was completed by Gaudi himself), but what's great news is that the interior has been completed now, as well. And pretty amazing, it is! It's certainly unlike any church I've seen before - it's more reminiscent of the scenery from the movie Avatar, than a catholic church! Very clever how they light up the place using natural light as well, even if today was a bit of an overcast day.

Sadly, Mireia had to rush  off after our very informative visit, and we had to rush off to meet up with Richard for lunch. After a tasty and authentic Catalan "business lunch", we continued our modernista tour by checking out Palau de la Musica Catalana, another modernista masterpiece (this one, however, is not the handiwork of Gaudi The cafe where we waited for the tour to begin was already in itself a sight to be seen - even if it  was nothing compared to the breathtaking concert hall. Certainly one of the most beautiful (if not most beautiful) concert hall I've been to.

We spent the rest of the day kind of randomly wandering around Barcelone, checking out the Ramblas, the area around the port, and a really cool middle eastern style teahouse in the old town, where we had some mint tea and oriental sweets. Yummi! All reminded us of what a great place Barcelona really is - one of the top cities in Europe, no question about it!

We then headed back to Richard's and Mireia's, where we were treated to a great dinner, for more catching up on old times. We didn't even made it to a bar/pub - seems like we are getting a bit old for that sort of stuff??

Anyway, the next morning, it was time for us to push on, so we said our good byes, and hit the road. Felt a bit wistful, as it may well be some time until our next visit to this part of the world...