Day Four in Barcelona

Today forecasted for rain. Q2 and I made our way out of the apartment around 2 PM to grab lunch. Unfortunately, Cal Pep is closed for all of August so instead we went to Euskel Etxea, a bar/restaurant that serves Basque style pinxtos.

The dining experience in Barcelona has been wonderful. Q2 and I have been on a tapas/small plates craze for the past several months- scouring nyc for the most authentic tapas restaurant. While we’ve found some great restaurants, nothing has compared to the real thing. Here, tapas are in its true form, simple but exquisite bar snacks. Plates of delightful and exotic creations served on small sliced baguettes: smoked cod, roasted red peppers stuffed with seafood, tuna cakes topped with grilled green peppers, succulent spicy sausage, and etc. All the tapas have toothpicks in them, so after you finish eating, the waiter/waitress counts up all the toothpicks and bills you accordingly.
























Q2 and I laughed about how this honor system would never work in NY or China. . .the fact that it works in Spain is a beautiful thing! You can see the remains of our meal!!!

After lunch, we made our way to La Pedrera and were again wowed by Gaudi’s genius. One thing that struck me was his inventiveness and creativity in problem solving. He devised a model using weights and strings to simulate the arches in his designs to calculate how much weight they can sustain because he did not know how to mathematically calculate this. Even more, the pure beauty of his work is breathtaking. Against the stormy sky, the structures on top of La Pedrera, twisting, undulating up to the sky is simply unforgettable.