Spain Interrupted: Our not-so-excellent adventure
Mar 27th, 2020, 04:56 PM
#83
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Mel, sorry about the indescribably frustrating start to your trip. Glad you had the experience of enjoying a concert in that gorgeous Musica Palau, as well other outstanding attractions in Barcelona. Your photos are outstanding and bring back wonderful memories. Our last visit was in 2018, and we look forward to a future visit! I look forward to following along with more of your TR!
Mar 28th, 2020, 05:03 AM
#86
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Mel:
Kudos on your reporting. Just think how this will be part of your great travel stories in the future. Not sure I would have handled it as well as you did. I start each morning with a search of your latest episode. You definitely have a high level of "travel grit."
Huggy
Kudos on your reporting. Just think how this will be part of your great travel stories in the future. Not sure I would have handled it as well as you did. I start each morning with a search of your latest episode. You definitely have a high level of "travel grit."
Huggy
Mar 28th, 2020, 05:21 AM
#87
Question about that blue tonic water. Did it taste like anything or just blue? I came home from work last night and first thing I did was make a big gin and tonic. I had my elderflower tonic but that blue tonic looked amazing. None for sale on amazon.
Mar 28th, 2020, 06:10 AM
#88
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Blue tonics are quite popular in Spain, the biggest consumer of gin in the world (but just for G&T), and a variety of brands are widely available at any supermarket. Our GTs take time to be prepared, for some it´s an art!! And always in a big glass, not much gin, lots of hardened ice and a good tonic (I personally like the standard Schewppes). No funny things inside, it´s not an orchard!! 
Mar 28th, 2020, 06:15 AM
#89
Macross -
The Nordic didn't really taste like tonic to me, nor did it say tonic on the bottle, just mixer. It was good, but hard to describe. The same brand does sell straight tonic and we bought some of that as well, but had to abandon it along with the rest of the gin and a bottle of wine when we were forced to flee.
Mikelg - proper ice was the issue - we only had two tiny ice trays in the apartment and they took forever to make ice, then produced very little. We finally resorted to making thin sheets of ice in plastic bowls, but didn't have a chance to use them.
The Nordic didn't really taste like tonic to me, nor did it say tonic on the bottle, just mixer. It was good, but hard to describe. The same brand does sell straight tonic and we bought some of that as well, but had to abandon it along with the rest of the gin and a bottle of wine when we were forced to flee.
Mikelg - proper ice was the issue - we only had two tiny ice trays in the apartment and they took forever to make ice, then produced very little. We finally resorted to making thin sheets of ice in plastic bowls, but didn't have a chance to use them.
Last edited by Melnq8; Mar 28th, 2020 at 06:17 AM.
Mar 28th, 2020, 09:02 AM
#90
March 13 – Friday the 13th
We’d booked an 11 am tour at Sant Pau Recinte Modernista for today, but had learned the night before that it had been cancelled.
Donna had found a walking itinerary, so we decided to ramble the Ramblas, Barcelona’s main tree-lined pedestrian street. La Rambla runs 1.2 km through the heart of the city center and connects Placa de Catalunya with the Christopher Columbus Monument near the waterfront harbor of Port Vell; it’s tourist central.
Wanting to take the metro at least once, we took it from the Sagrada Familia station to Placa de Catalunya. It was easy to navigate, clean and eerily deserted €2.40 each.
Placa de Catalunya is Barcelona’s center and said to be where Catalans gather in their thousands to demonstrate Catalunya’s desire for independence from Spain.
Today there were a lot more pigeons than people.
Placa de Catalunya
From here we wandered down La Rambla, with its junk shops, eateries, vibrant jugs of bevvies and a surprising number of other tourists, given the Coronavirus situation. This area is also known for pickpockets so we kept a close eye on our bags.
As we moseyed along we looked for the landmarks highlighted in the itinerary…the inverted staircase monument, the Fountain of Canaletes, wavy tile work, the skinny balconies, the fixed chairs, the dick waffles…Say what?
No, that one wasn’t on the itinerary. Donna suddenly exclaimed “dick waffles!” and pointed across the street. Dick who?
Of course we had to investigate. How could we not? How often do you find a shop selling warm willies on a stick? We bellied up to the bar, each ordered a cappuccino and a waffle dipped in our choice of chocolate and had ourselves a giggling good time. The waffles were very good, and of course we entertained ourselves by taking a lot of silly photos, but I don’t dare post any of them here; I’d rather not get banned from Fodor’s thank-you-very-much.
https://www.facebook.com/DWaffleBarcelona/
As Donna said later, it wasn’t quite the same experience as the cloistered nuns selling cookies in Madrid that she wanted to surprise me with, but it was a good substitute. We both needed a good laugh right about now, especially after seeing this headline, which one didn’t need to know Spanish to understand.
Back to our wander, we explored the Baroque Betlem Church
Betlem Church
The Rambla of flowers
Flower market
Flower market
And my absolute favorite, La Boqueria Market
La Boqueria Market
La Boqueria Market
La Boqueria Market
La Boqueria Market
La Boqueria Market
La Boqueria Market
La Boqueria Market
And of course we had to ask for a photo of Juan at the Pinotxo Bar!
Juan
I love food markets and was like a kid in a candy shop. I could barely keep my eyes in my head. This place was something else. Those strawberries! The chocolate! The chiles! That wonderful looking produce! Unfortunately, we were too full from the willie waffle to partake and unwilling to purchase supplies we might not be able to use, so we settled for having a glass of cava while watching the activity around us. I would love to have a market like this at home.
We eventually tore ourselves away and explored some of the side streets, finding Placa Reial and the helmeted lamp posts, Gaudi’s first public works.
Placa Reial
Placa Reial
We also locatedPalau Güell, the first of Gaudi’s modernist buildings, sadly closed.
Palau Güell
Palau Güell
We eventually ended up at the waterfront, where we explored the Christopher Columbus monument, walked alongside the port and watched the Montjuïc cable car glide overhead.
Here we turned right, and ended up wandering down a paved path, looking for the beach, but never finding it (we figured out very recently that we should have turned left!). We bought a scoop of gelato from a lone vendor and sat down on a bench for a while trying to get our bearings.
We gave up on finding the beach and hailed a taxi, asking the driver to take us to Tosca Palau, the place we’d hoped to find on our first night in Barcelona.
We were the only people in the restaurant; granted it was 3 pm, but it was a little eerie. We asked our waiter if the restaurant was closing; he said they would remain open until Monday and then close temporarily due to the Coronavirus, but today we could stick around as long as we wanted to.
So we shared a round of tapas, ordering Montaditos with cured ham, rocket salad, parmesan and carmelized balsamic oil, as well as an encore of the empanadas filled with carmelized onion, walnuts, goat cheese and mozzarella, the salad with goat cheese, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, almonds, honey and lime vinaigrette and the grilled potatoes topped with cured Spanish ham. And of course a bottle of local red and a bottle of water, €44, and once again thoroughly enjoyed by both.
Montaditos with cured ham, rocket salad, parmesan and carmelized balsamic oil, Tosca Palau
Here we wiled away the afternoon, watching people outside the window walk by covered up in face masks, scarves and gloves on this brilliant warm spring day. It felt surreal.
And yet when a young woman entered the restaurant and shared an enthusiastic round of hugs and kisses with the employees behind the bar, I couldn’t help but cringe.
We eventually tore ourselves away from Tosca, knowing this would probably be our last round of tapas.
Donna was anxious to cross another item off her wish list while we still could, so we followed the GPS to Els Quatre Gats (4Cats), the former refuge of inspiration for Pablo Picasso and the gathering place for intellectuals and artists of the time.
We found it easily enough, just a three or four minute walk from Tosca.
Here we settled in for a drink and dessert and to just soak up the atmosphere. I’d imagine this place is normally pretty busy, but today there were just a few customers.
On the recommendation of our waitress we shared two desserts; the “chocolate Tulipan with Filipinos cookies ice cream and mini donut” and the “Turron de Jijona, nougat with glass dust”. For €9 each I was expecting something pretty wonderful, but was bitterly disappointed. I didn’t care for either of them. I had a glass of cava and Donna had a cappuccino, which she said was also disappointing, €25 total. Sometimes wish lists are like that.
However, the building was very interesting, the ladies room photo worthy and the loo sink, made by Thomas Crapper and Company, worth a smile.
Els Quatre Gats
Els Quatre Gats
Then we wandered around looking for a grocery store, somehow ending up at the same one we’d been to the night before completely by accident. I was still struggling to get my bearings in Barcelona, and finding the winding streets and alleyways confusing. I’d learned to appreciate the abundance of taxis though.
Our experience at the grocery store was similar to that of the previous night, very busy, but the number of empty shelves had increased overnight. Few paper products, no eggs, and pretty much no meat.
There was plentiful cheese and booze though. While I wandered the store looking for fig jam, Donna queued at the cheese counter for ages, finally managing to score some Manchego. Our plan was to have sufficient supplies to hunker down in the apartment for the next day or two if necessary.
We then caught a taxi back to the apartment.
The whole atmosphere of Barcelona seemed to have changed in the last 24 hours.
Things were getting very strange.
That evening over blue G&Ts we learned from Donna’s Facebook friend in Madrid that Madrid had pretty much shut down and was awaiting an announcement regarding how extensive the closures would be.
Later that night she informed us that restaurants, schools, shops and of course tourist attractions were closing. She did tell us that supermarkets would remain open and that if we continued to Madrid there were some food delivery services that would be operating. She warned that things were fluid and changing by the minute.
We also received another message from our Air BNB host in Barcelona telling us that a State of Alarm had been declared in Spain that afternoon and that “The situation in Barcelona is very complicated and that in the next few hours/days the total confinement of the country’s inhabitants in their homes will be declared. For this reason when this confinement is effective, we will be forced to close all our apartments. At the moment the trains are running but we don’t know what will happen tomorrow. We recommend that you leave Spain for the USA as soon as possible”.
Easier said than done.
To be continued…
We’d booked an 11 am tour at Sant Pau Recinte Modernista for today, but had learned the night before that it had been cancelled.
Donna had found a walking itinerary, so we decided to ramble the Ramblas, Barcelona’s main tree-lined pedestrian street. La Rambla runs 1.2 km through the heart of the city center and connects Placa de Catalunya with the Christopher Columbus Monument near the waterfront harbor of Port Vell; it’s tourist central.
Wanting to take the metro at least once, we took it from the Sagrada Familia station to Placa de Catalunya. It was easy to navigate, clean and eerily deserted €2.40 each.
Placa de Catalunya is Barcelona’s center and said to be where Catalans gather in their thousands to demonstrate Catalunya’s desire for independence from Spain.
Today there were a lot more pigeons than people.
Placa de Catalunya
From here we wandered down La Rambla, with its junk shops, eateries, vibrant jugs of bevvies and a surprising number of other tourists, given the Coronavirus situation. This area is also known for pickpockets so we kept a close eye on our bags.
As we moseyed along we looked for the landmarks highlighted in the itinerary…the inverted staircase monument, the Fountain of Canaletes, wavy tile work, the skinny balconies, the fixed chairs, the dick waffles…Say what?
No, that one wasn’t on the itinerary. Donna suddenly exclaimed “dick waffles!” and pointed across the street. Dick who?
Of course we had to investigate. How could we not? How often do you find a shop selling warm willies on a stick? We bellied up to the bar, each ordered a cappuccino and a waffle dipped in our choice of chocolate and had ourselves a giggling good time. The waffles were very good, and of course we entertained ourselves by taking a lot of silly photos, but I don’t dare post any of them here; I’d rather not get banned from Fodor’s thank-you-very-much.
https://www.facebook.com/DWaffleBarcelona/
As Donna said later, it wasn’t quite the same experience as the cloistered nuns selling cookies in Madrid that she wanted to surprise me with, but it was a good substitute. We both needed a good laugh right about now, especially after seeing this headline, which one didn’t need to know Spanish to understand.
Back to our wander, we explored the Baroque Betlem Church
Betlem Church
The Rambla of flowers
Flower market
Flower market
And my absolute favorite, La Boqueria Market
La Boqueria Market
La Boqueria Market
La Boqueria Market
La Boqueria Market
La Boqueria Market
La Boqueria Market
La Boqueria Market
And of course we had to ask for a photo of Juan at the Pinotxo Bar!
Juan
I love food markets and was like a kid in a candy shop. I could barely keep my eyes in my head. This place was something else. Those strawberries! The chocolate! The chiles! That wonderful looking produce! Unfortunately, we were too full from the willie waffle to partake and unwilling to purchase supplies we might not be able to use, so we settled for having a glass of cava while watching the activity around us. I would love to have a market like this at home.
We eventually tore ourselves away and explored some of the side streets, finding Placa Reial and the helmeted lamp posts, Gaudi’s first public works.
Placa Reial
Placa Reial
We also locatedPalau Güell, the first of Gaudi’s modernist buildings, sadly closed.
Palau Güell
Palau Güell
We eventually ended up at the waterfront, where we explored the Christopher Columbus monument, walked alongside the port and watched the Montjuïc cable car glide overhead.
Here we turned right, and ended up wandering down a paved path, looking for the beach, but never finding it (we figured out very recently that we should have turned left!). We bought a scoop of gelato from a lone vendor and sat down on a bench for a while trying to get our bearings.
We gave up on finding the beach and hailed a taxi, asking the driver to take us to Tosca Palau, the place we’d hoped to find on our first night in Barcelona.
We were the only people in the restaurant; granted it was 3 pm, but it was a little eerie. We asked our waiter if the restaurant was closing; he said they would remain open until Monday and then close temporarily due to the Coronavirus, but today we could stick around as long as we wanted to.
So we shared a round of tapas, ordering Montaditos with cured ham, rocket salad, parmesan and carmelized balsamic oil, as well as an encore of the empanadas filled with carmelized onion, walnuts, goat cheese and mozzarella, the salad with goat cheese, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, almonds, honey and lime vinaigrette and the grilled potatoes topped with cured Spanish ham. And of course a bottle of local red and a bottle of water, €44, and once again thoroughly enjoyed by both.
Montaditos with cured ham, rocket salad, parmesan and carmelized balsamic oil, Tosca Palau
Here we wiled away the afternoon, watching people outside the window walk by covered up in face masks, scarves and gloves on this brilliant warm spring day. It felt surreal.
And yet when a young woman entered the restaurant and shared an enthusiastic round of hugs and kisses with the employees behind the bar, I couldn’t help but cringe.
We eventually tore ourselves away from Tosca, knowing this would probably be our last round of tapas.
Donna was anxious to cross another item off her wish list while we still could, so we followed the GPS to Els Quatre Gats (4Cats), the former refuge of inspiration for Pablo Picasso and the gathering place for intellectuals and artists of the time.
We found it easily enough, just a three or four minute walk from Tosca.
Here we settled in for a drink and dessert and to just soak up the atmosphere. I’d imagine this place is normally pretty busy, but today there were just a few customers.
On the recommendation of our waitress we shared two desserts; the “chocolate Tulipan with Filipinos cookies ice cream and mini donut” and the “Turron de Jijona, nougat with glass dust”. For €9 each I was expecting something pretty wonderful, but was bitterly disappointed. I didn’t care for either of them. I had a glass of cava and Donna had a cappuccino, which she said was also disappointing, €25 total. Sometimes wish lists are like that.
However, the building was very interesting, the ladies room photo worthy and the loo sink, made by Thomas Crapper and Company, worth a smile.
Els Quatre Gats
Els Quatre Gats
Then we wandered around looking for a grocery store, somehow ending up at the same one we’d been to the night before completely by accident. I was still struggling to get my bearings in Barcelona, and finding the winding streets and alleyways confusing. I’d learned to appreciate the abundance of taxis though.
Our experience at the grocery store was similar to that of the previous night, very busy, but the number of empty shelves had increased overnight. Few paper products, no eggs, and pretty much no meat.
There was plentiful cheese and booze though. While I wandered the store looking for fig jam, Donna queued at the cheese counter for ages, finally managing to score some Manchego. Our plan was to have sufficient supplies to hunker down in the apartment for the next day or two if necessary.
We then caught a taxi back to the apartment.
The whole atmosphere of Barcelona seemed to have changed in the last 24 hours.
Things were getting very strange.
That evening over blue G&Ts we learned from Donna’s Facebook friend in Madrid that Madrid had pretty much shut down and was awaiting an announcement regarding how extensive the closures would be.
Later that night she informed us that restaurants, schools, shops and of course tourist attractions were closing. She did tell us that supermarkets would remain open and that if we continued to Madrid there were some food delivery services that would be operating. She warned that things were fluid and changing by the minute.
We also received another message from our Air BNB host in Barcelona telling us that a State of Alarm had been declared in Spain that afternoon and that “The situation in Barcelona is very complicated and that in the next few hours/days the total confinement of the country’s inhabitants in their homes will be declared. For this reason when this confinement is effective, we will be forced to close all our apartments. At the moment the trains are running but we don’t know what will happen tomorrow. We recommend that you leave Spain for the USA as soon as possible”.
Easier said than done.
To be continued…
Last edited by Melnq8; Mar 28th, 2020 at 09:13 AM.
Mar 28th, 2020, 09:47 AM
#92
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I can only imagine how surreal all of it must be. Seems like you and Donna did a very good job sampling the food and the sights of Barcelona. You probably walked away with a very different connection to the city that most of us could only imagine. Hope you took away good memories and that you get to return to do the things you may not have had the chance to do so on this trip.
Mar 28th, 2020, 11:55 AM
#96
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"At the moment the trains are running but we don’t know what will happen tomorrow. We recommend that you leave Spain for the USA as soon as possible”.
What a report! Makes me think of 1980s "The Winds of War" - based on Herman Wouk's work.
What a report! Makes me think of 1980s "The Winds of War" - based on Herman Wouk's work.
Mar 28th, 2020, 02:51 PM
#98
That Market! I wondered if markets will change after this? I hope not. It is just weird seeing no salad or olive bars and my wing bar is close at grocery/ I have never been a buffet fan so that can disappear. I loved the waffle bar.
