Estación Liceu

Honeymoon Newsletter 3

Hi, Fam,

Well here we are on a Sunday in Spain and it is the Lord´s Day therefore nothing is open except the internet cafe (that´s in the Bible, right?). The unfortunate thing is that the picture uploading machines are also closed so no new pics today :(

We are having a fabulous time and are happy that we decided to spend more time in Barcelona. We also decided to stay at our current hotel the whole time since it´s so nice to have a home base and we´re getting to know our little neighborhood quite well. We´ll be here until Wed and then we´re headed back to Paris.

Barcelona is just awesome. The Modernista art and architecture blows me away. We´ve been walking around a lot and it´s amazing what you´ll find tucked out of the main way, buildings with great detail unlike anything outside of Bcn. Last night we walked down the Paseo de Gracia and took in two of Gaudi´s architectual masterpieces (pics soon). We also had a little picnic of fresh baguettes, cheese, fruit, and of course some lovely Rioja wine. Then we went back to the little bar we went to on our first night here and the owner remembered us, giving us some salsa-topped mussles on the house. Austin doesn´t like mussles but tried one and agreed they are much better here. We also got to meet two police officers who came in for a beer and had a fun chat with them. In the end, the owner got out 75 year old brandy aged in oak barrels and gave us each a shot. I´m not big on brandy but it was great stuff. Austin adored it. We are going to go back there one more time before leaving. It´s fun to try new places but we like feeling like regulars during our little visit.

On Friday night, we walked around to find a random dinner place (breaking away from our guide book) and ended up at a great seafood place. I got the feeling that the waiter wanted to pick for us so I let him do whatever. He brought us a pitcher of white wine from Galicia which had just a bit of bubbles in the texture--outstanding AND on tap! Our pitcher was refilled frequently ;) Then he brought us a seafood salad of crab, tuna, potatoes, peppers, and tomatoes. It was really good and we got the tomato bread with it. Then he said he´d prepare a mixed grill for us (our only criterion was no snails) and it was the most amazing giant plate of all sorts of sea creatures artfully arranged. So, so good, wait until you see the pictures. In true Spanish fashion, we were there for about 3.5 hours just chatting with the waiter and hanging out. At the end, he brought out the home made liqeur and gave us a couple of shots on the house. It was a perfect night with fantastic food, very honeymoon feeling Austin noted.

Today it´s Sunday so as I mentioned, few things are open. We are going to walk down the Ramblas and find some art to purchase. We are also going to explore the gothic quarter which has cool winding streets that are barely as wide as sidewalk. Ít´s going to be a fairly relaxed day but that´s the point on Sundays around here.

Tomorrow is our cooking class, can´t wait for that. Museums are closed on Sundays and Mondays so we´ll be hitting a few of those up on Tuesday.

Hope everyone is well. We´ll try to get pics up tomorrow or Tuesday at the latest.

Besos,

The Lunderoys

posted by Kelly @ 7:38 a. m.