2015-08-01 Arrival in Barcelona

The first stunning image we got was the drive from the airport to Barcelona. There is a cliff face on the north studded with crypts,  punctuated with tall slender Cypress trees -- so ancient. They used to overlook the sea, but now the view of the dead is of a massive shipping port with containers and gantry cranes.

We checked into our AirBnB on Rambla del Ravals, a wide avenue with an interior space where restaurants and bars set up tables and chairs. There's a mix of kabob places and Islamic carnicerias, as well as new hip bars and restaurants.  We're right above them, and -- happily for crazy cat people -- right above the tail of Fernando Botero's "Big Cat" sculpture. It's big enough that children climb on it like I did with Trixy the Triceratops in front of the Smithsonian when I was a kid.

We chose this place specifically because it has a roof terrace that's quite large. We'll be living here for a month, and I'll be working, and we need some outdoor but private space. The view is of the tree-lined Raval.

We hit a cafe on El Raval which had elderly Spanish-speakers and had our first beer of the day before noon; an Estrella Damm, not our usual cup of tea, but after a long flight and longer day, it hit the spot.  Sandwiches with sausage and ham, and a couple cups of espresso and we were ready to start pounding the streets. We like to stay up for the day and get our body clocks in sync with local time, and being out in the sun's the best way we know.

We're only a 5 minute walk to the fantastic Mercat De Sant Antoni, which last we saw it felt like a slightly smaller version of El Boqueria. It's currently under a massive, multi-year renovation but they've moved the vendors into a giant tent that stretches the length of the block -- just like they did in DC's Eastern Market.  We picked up some fine dried sausage, some dried cod roe, a dozen brown eggs -- under 10 euros. We were very tempted by the various jamon, but will have to wait for another time: it's a local speciality, really a national treasure.

On the way back, we found a small wine shop that had a variety of wines dispensed directly from casks, so we picked up a Rioja at under 5 euro for a liter; it's a bit sweet but at a cool refreshing temperature, it's a perfectly fine table wine. We found some (disappointing) bread at a bake shop, and chilled out a while on the terrace, and somehow managed to consume 0.5 liters of the wine and the entire sausage.

We headed out before dusk to Las Ramblas which -- as expected -- was mobbed with tourists and perhaps even some locals strolling in the beautiful evening. It's a bit too crowded for us so we headed off into El Barri Gòtic where we took in some of the ancient and modern architecture. It always fascinates me to see layer upon layer of history seeping through the heavy stone and brick like a masonry palimpsest.

But it's just part of the landscape, like the setting for this place that seems to fix cars.

I've fallen in love with Barcelona's distincitive modern architecture, which starts with modernista design akin to the Art Nouveau movement but has what I think of as a mathematical angle to it similar to the Viennese Secessionist movement. 

There's fun art work all around, some quite jolting.

We had to have a cava at 4 Gats, started by and for modernista artists and architects; it was early so relatively empty, but felt a bit cold.

We continued our aimless wander hitting whatever bar took our fancy, including a cave-like place whose name escapes us, until we hit Bar Celta, which our friend Ann took us to on our very first visit. It was as good as we remembered, with a stunningly good meal of octopus, razor clams (navajas), sausage, and a bottle of rosé wine for a ridiculously good price. Highly recommended.

Finally we headed back towards our flat across town, and stopped in at Ambar just down the block, where we had a couple cocktails; they had an interesting selection of amaros. We first tried a local artisanal vermut (vermouth, but rich and flavorful, unlike the insipid Martini and Rossi), then  I had a Punt e Mes and Irene had a Negroni, then we had another pair before shambling back to our door. The view from the roof doesn't reveal the hubbub below of happy night owls.