Our plan for the rest of our stay in Barcelona was to combine seeing some of the main attractions with doing some shopping(all three kid's top priority!) and trying out the local cuisine.
Wednesday morning, after dragging the tired kids out of bed, we all headed out to wander the northern half of La Rambla up to Placa Catalunya. Here, we'd been told, there are many shops, especially Corte Ingles, one of the biggest department stores on the planet, I think! It was a glorious morning, perfect for a walk. What a colorful place La Rambla was...lots of flower stands, some tourist kiosks and lots of animals! There were tons of these kinds of street pet shops selling mostly birds, small rodents and LOTS of turtles! Turtles are "interdit" most everywhere we've been...the US, France, Italy but they've got them in spades here in Barcelona!! Our Spanish friends in Aix actually brought Sarah two turtles from their trip home in October...their names are Ben and Jerry.
As we also see frequently in Aix and also saw on our trip to Italy, miming is a popular profession, here on La Rambla. Seems like they get wackier and wackier....silver mermaids sitting and doing nothing, "Castro" giving military speeches, Julius Caesar-you name it! Look at this guy!
We reached Placa Catalunya and were a bit disappointed after the hype one guide book put it on a par with the square around the Eiffel Tower! In it's defense, there had been some sort of big event in the center and there were workers disassembling whatever it was all three days we were there.
From here we entered the colossal Corte Ingles(which I believe means "English Cut" referring to tailoring where the English Cut is the best you can get). All three kids needed all kinds of things and we'd been told clothing was less expensive in Spain than France. All we really know is that clothing three kids is expensive no matter what country you're in! But, especially with Nicholas and Lindsey being so far away, it was great to do this together. It's great that at their ages they still value our opinions on what they're wearing. After shopping until we almost dropped, we were all hungry and went in search of lunch. I was looking forward to going to the "Boqueria" market located just off La Rambla so we went in search of both. This huge wrought iron building, also known as Sant Josep, houses one of the most popular and traditional of the city's food markets. It really did live up to it's reputation! Our senses feasted on all that we saw and smelled....
While we were wandering in amongst all the stalls, getting hungrier and hungrier, we spotted a crowded little restaurant, El Cochinillo Loco, on the edge of the market and decided to give it a try. What great people watching, what great food, what a great find! If you go to Barcelona, this is a must(Portic Sant Josep, 6-8, Mercat Boqueria, 666 913 663).
We had a delicious lunch comprised of a variety of tapas dishes(including melon with thin sliced jamon(ham), paella and fried calamari. We sampled some Spanish beer and cava, spain's sparkling wine. It is served everywhere, but is most prevalent in Barcelona and Catalonia.
After lunch, it was late in the afternoon and we headed back to the apartment, enjoying wandering in and amongst the little side streets along the way. Tonight, we'd planned to stay in for dinner and have a relaxing evening en famille.
We'd brought a batch of Nick's spaghetti, which was a big hit!
But as you can see, it brought out the REAL sillies in some members of the family!
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