New sites and an old friend in Barcelona

Friday was a fabulous day in Barcelona for us. It was warm but not as hot as yesterday. We wandered around in the morning, back to our "old stomping grounds" when we rented an apartment in the El Born area of the city for a week In the fall 2015. We found our favorite pub that was just around the corner from that apartment and made a reservation for 7:30. It's so busy we can only book a table from 7:30 to 9, then they have another reservation.

If you ever wonder about the crowds in Barcelona, this is the cathedral with crowds that just seem to accumulate here. There are buskers, beggars, tourists and local folks hanging out at any time of the day.

We met one of our favorite Tasmanians, Sue who took us on a little tour of some of her favorite places in the area. We stopped here for lunch where she says the food is typical Catalan. Her husband is Catalan and she met him walking her first Camino. They spend half their time in Spain and half in Australia.

I had this delicious salad for my first course: goat cheese, pears, cooked pumpkin and walnuts. Wonderful! Sue had a lentil dish and Wendy a noodle meat dish. I didn't take pictures of theirs as I was totally focussed on my salad!!!

We all had the same secondo, a lamb skewer with mint salsa. Delicious.

After we had cafe con leche and postre (dessert). What no picture! I guess I ate mine too fast to stop to take a pic. When we go home to Victoria we will be eating lettuce for a month.

Sue took us on a neat little walk around an area we had not been to before. Tucked down an alley and into the middle of some buildings are these very old Roman columns.

They are from the ancient temple of Augustus and date from the first century. Called Temple Roma  d'August. Imagine looking out your apartment building at these 4 columns and just imaging the stories they could tell.

Sue and Wendy, down one street and then another, pointing out places we should come back to.

This is like the bridge of sighs in Florence.

Another neat doorway.

After we left Sue to take the train back to her home village, 45 min. from the centre of Barcelona, we did a little food shopping at El Cortes Ingles, our favorite department store in Spain, for food and wine. We went back "home" for showers and siesta before heading out again at 7 to walk to Bar del Pla. They only serve tapas here and it's very popular. We had the crispy beef with foie gras, patates bravas and a salad that was just called refreshing salad but it had hazelnuts, pine nuts, watermelon, orange segments and salad greens with a balsamic vinegar. Nummy.  

We walked home from there and had dessert of our favorite Spanish chocolate , Valor puro, with some red wine. 

The end to a fabulous day. Thank you Sue. Next time maybe we can meet up in Tasmania.

Abrazos

Marion and Wendy