Back in Barcelona

We spent Easter in Barcelona.

SWMBO’s parents were finishing up a cruise there and it seemed like a great opportunity to go to a city that we like, spend time with family and eat a lot of tapas. 

A success on all counts.

It is interesting returning to a city where you have spent time previously. There is no temptation to see all of the sites, or force fit a schedule around certain activities. You can sleep in, read a book, linger in a café and not feel as though you are missing out on something better. The more we travel, the more we are inclined to behave this way anyway. 

Our travel patterns these days tend to have one day where we do some hard core site seeing. I usually tease SWMBO that these are her forced marches, as she is usually the one to define the path we will take. The rest of our time however, is typically more relaxed. We still walk a lot, our strategy is to let ourselves get lost and try to see what we can see. Some of our best experiences have come by going off piste. Toss out the guide book and just wander. You tend to stumble upon something great or at least memorable.  

Even when we are in siteseeing mode, it is often more tuned to taking in the scene. We will read the occasional plaque, maybe the odd information card, but we will seldom read more than a few and generally avoid the audio guides altogether. We take our time where we want and move on when we want. I would not suggest that this is the best way to explore the sites you visit, but it works for us. 

We often refer to our travels as “Eating our way through Europe”. Generally we try to find little places, away from the touristed areas where we can sample simple, local food. Sometimes this is successful, sometimes not, but more often we have a good meal and a memory.

One place that is the exception that proves the rule for us is El Quim de la Bocqueria. Right off the Ramblas in the Bocqueria, in most places it’s location alone would have me avoiding it. That would be a mistake however. The first time SWMBO and I visited El Quim we came on it by chance. What we noticed first, was that the place was packed with locals. Always a good sign. So when a chair opened up, we jumped in. The place is worth going to just for the show.  5-6 guys cooking in an incredibly small space, food stacked high, serving patrons by reaching over the balanced ingredients. And the food is good. Is it the best tapas in Barcelona? I don’t know. But it is tasty, entertaining and one of our favorite places to go.