The Travels of 4 Couch Potatoes: Barcelona Day 1

Barcelona is the most popular city to visit in Spain. People come from around the world to marvel at the city's architecture, mainly that of Antoni Gaudí. His Catalan Modernist designs were inspired by his passion for nature and religion. While his style of architecture may not be for everyone, there's no doubt that it is pretty unique and a must-see while in Barcelona.

While Gaudí's works were on our bucket-list for Barcelona, we first wanted to start with more traditional attractions. The Catedral de Barcelona was a reasonable walk from our apartment. On our way there, we stopped at the Alsur Cafe for a late, but hefty breakfast.

Homemade granola bowl

Cottage cheese pancake with dulce de leche

Breakfast donut sandwich

Eggs Florentine

Eggs Benedict

Avocado waffle tray and fruit cup

Barcelona's cathedral is located within the Barrio Gotic (Gothic Quarter). This area constitutes the oldest parts of the city. However, many of the notable landmarks are not medieval structures as the neighborhood was rebuilt in the early 20th century. The Pont del Bisbe (Bishop's Bridge) was constructed in 1928 in the neo-Gothic style.

Entrance to the cathedral is free during worshiping hours, which was also the time that we visited. Additional fees can be paid to visit the roof and cloisters. The cathedral dates to the 15th century and was built in standard Gothic style.

It is dedicated to Saint Eulalia, a young girl martyred by the Romans when she refused to renounce Christ. Before she was beheaded, she was tortured in various ways such as being scalded with boiling oil, burned at the stake, having her breast cut off, rolled down a hill in a barrel full of knives, swords, and broken glass, and crucifixion--pretty humane stuff next to waterboarding. Her remains are buried in the church's crypt.

Like the other cathedrals that we had seen on our trip, this one was also immense and beautiful. But at this point, I was growing pretty weary of seeing Gothic cathedrals.

The Barcelona Cathedral is also the home of 13 geese. The number of these birds signify both St. Eulalia's age and the number of tortures she endured.

On the way towards our next stop, we passed a bit of commotion as locals were protesting the Spanish national government. Over the next few days, we would see plenty of sentiment towards Catalan separation from Spain.

We walked a couple more blocks until we arrived at the Basilica Santa Maria del Mar, which was built in the 14th century. Adjacent to the church is a large sculpture dedicated to those who died in the Siege of Barcelona from 1713-1714 during the War of Spanish Succession.

Unlike the Catedral de Barcelona which was built by the region's kings, the Basilica was funded mainly by the local inhabitants. The congregation mainly consisted of blue-collar maritime workers such as sailors, fishermen, merchants, etc.

In 1909, the church was set ablaze by anarchists. Despite extensive restoration, some of the smoke damage still persists to this day.

We noticed that several of the floor tiles had the skull and cross bones to denote burial sites. Our guide explained that these mark the crypt locations where bodies are buried.

We purchased entry tickets that also included a tour that would take us to the roof of the basilica. We had to climb several sets of stairs, but the views of the city were amazing. When the church was built, the city's harbor was only a block or so away. Over the next 600 years, silting has moved the waterfront away from the Basilica. We could still see Barcelona's harbor from the rooftop. However, it was far away in the distance.

A statue of Christopher Columbus watches over the dockyard.

On the rooftop, we saw several pipes, with clay bells beside them. These served as ventilation holes for the smoke that is created from the candles that illuminated the church. Looking down the pipes, we could see the flames flickering below. On a rainy day, the bells are used to cover the pipes.

Once we finished our tour, we walked several blocks to Guell Palace, a mansion designed by Antoni Gaudí in the late 19th century. Since we were all tired and hungry, we eschewed the tour of the interior.

We perused the food stalls at the nearby Mercat de la Boqueria. Although the food at the inside bars looked enticing, they were just too busy and crowded to accommodate the six of us. Instead of sitting down and eating, we grabbed a couple of snacks and drinks and went on our way.

Across the street from the market is the Museum of Erotica. I asked The Boy if he wanted to check it out, but he nervously declined.

On our way back to our apartment, we did some window shopping as there were several stores in that general area. Several shops sold caganers, a popular figurine of a person taking a dump. In the 17th century, figures of a person using the crapper began making their way into nativity scenes as a symbol of fertility. The person's poop would fertilize the Earth, and the the holiday season would repeat the following year. Nowadays, it's popular to have a caganer with a famous politician or celebrity. This signifies that no matter how rich, famous, or powerful a person is, they are still equal to others in that they all have to poop.

When I say "Xmas" in Barcelona, you say "poop."

Oddly enough, this was not the gift shop for the Museum of Erotica.

We also stopped at the Plaça Catalunya, the main square of the city. It was hopping with activity, from families playing in the park to activists protesting the government.

We stayed for quite awhile to watch a free comedy performance. There was no spoken dialogue, so nothing was lost in translation for us. Surprisingly, they were actually pretty entertaining.

Later that night, we hiked a couple blocks away from our apartment to a restaurant named Can Cargol. As their name would suggest, their specialty was caracoles or snails.

Once we were seated, the waiter placed a basket full of toasted bread, ripened tomatoes. and garlic cloves. The Mother-In-Law remarked that it was a pretty yet odd combination for table decoration. Because I had read about the pan con tomate dish during my limited Spanish culinary research, I explained to her the steps of preparing this Catalan appetizer.

We rubbed the garlic on the toasted bread. Drizzled a small amount of olive oil on top of it. Then cut the tomatoes in half and smeared their juicy innards all over the oily, garlicky toast. Yum.

It was apparent that the restaurant's clientele are predominately locals as their waitstaff spoke minimal English and they had menus in only Spanish and French. Despite the language barrier, the service was good and their food was even great. We enjoyed the snails so much that we ordered a second round of them.