Decided to start walking in the direction of one of the Gaudi buildings, hoping to find a restaurant on the way for breakfast. Our first fun discovery of the day was the boqueria, which is a huge, covered food market. And I mean huge. There are at least a hundred vendors: fresh fruit stalls, dried fruit stalls, nuts, produce, ham, fish, candy, chocolates, poultry, cheese -- you name it except for baked goods. Each stall is a work of art, with the wares arranged so attractively that I just wanted to buy everything. Fruits I’ve never seen before -- pig ears -- chickens with the heads still on -- cocks combs -- fish I’ve never seen before -- marzipan animals -- mushrooms I’ve never seen before. And kazillions of people. It was a wondrous place.
We continued down the street and found a nice place for breakfast/lunch with outside tables in a little alley off Las Ramblas. Ordered sangria again and discovered it is a great beverage for washing down my daily vitamin pills. My sister and I shared a salad (we decided that fresh lettuce was probably safe to eat), a chicken soup with a tomato base that tasted great, and a platter of mixed shish kabobs. Quite good. We finally pushed ourselves away from the table and continued on our way to the Palau Gruell.
The Palau Gruell (Gruell Palace) is a UNESCO World Heritage building, designed by Gaudi and built for the Gruell family in the 1890’s. And what an extraordinary experience to walk through it. They give out audio guides so we were able to walk through it at our own pace. The tour takes you through the entire building, from basement to the top of the roof (wouldn’t want to miss those incredibly recognizable Gaudi-style chimney tops), which means lots and lots of stairs up AND down. The huge house-restoration project was completed recently and it is a marvel. The family organ (quite impressive) is played every hour and it is delightful to hear the music of the day fill the whole place. But my favorite things are the ceilings and the chimney tops. Gaudi designed every aspect of the house, down to the intricate wood-carved ceilings with delicate iron-work decorations. The ceilings in every room are different and I would have been perfectly happy to just lie down on a rolling platform and spend all my time looking up.
We spent a good 2.5 hours at Palau Gruell and by the time we walked up and down 6 stories and stood around on hard marble floors, we were both walking like old ladies. Clearly, we needed a bit of chocolate to soothe our tired joints. So we wimped out and took a cab to the next chocolate place on our list, Museu de la Xocolata (love the way they spell chocolate). And wow!
We entered a big chocolate store and my sister bought the tickets for the museum while I stood at the turnstile waiting to enter. She handed me a candy bar, which I thought was a nice gesture and when I looked at her questioningly, wondering where the ticket was, the ticket taker grinned, pointed to the chocolate bar and said “ticket.” The candy bar WAS the ticket. How cool is that. Best ticket ever.
The museum was mildly interesting but the best part was still to come. We exited the museum part and sat down at a table and ordered hot chocolate and a brownie. They added free samples of their dark salted chocolate. OMG!!! Can I say that again? The hot chocolate was A+, maybe even A+++ -- very intense dark chocolate flavor, just sweet enough to counteract the bitterness of the cacao, and very thick. Absolutely beyond description and I think I’ve probably had the closest taste of heaven I’ve ever had. Of course I figured that the brownie was an afterthought, but not so. Quite an outstanding, milk chocolate, brownie, again not too sweet, with walnuts and some kind of faint spice that I couldn’t identify. Between the hot chocolate and the brownie I think I could be cured of most anything that ailed me. And then came the salted dark chocolate samples. Could life get any better? Well, yes, as a matter of fact. Intense chocolate, not sweet but not bitter, melt in your mouth texture, enhanced by the punch of sea salt. I really don’t think I’ve ever had chocolate this good before. I mean really.
I decided that I wanted to buy some salted chocolate to take onboard the ship, so I went to the counter where the ticket taker gentleman was standing and pointed to the free sample plate and asked him to show me which chocolate bar in the showcase was the salted one. He looked and looked and then gestured that they were out, whereupon I looked comically stricken and he laughed. Undaunted, I bought several other chocolate bars and then sat down. A few minutes later he came over and handed me a salted chocolate bar and said something that I didn’t understand, so I just blew him kisses as a thank you. Not quite knowing what to do, I went to the counter to pay for it, but the girl explained that it was the last one and he gave it to me as a gift. So in my enthusiasm I took his hand and kissed it. He walked away smiling and so did I. Life is definitely good.
Came back to the hotel for a little relaxation and reading (well, you know, reading with your eyes closed). Siesta time is truly a luxury.
By 10:00 PM we started walking up the Las Ramblas to a slow food restaurant, MataMala, that was recommended by the hotel. It turned out to be a gem of a place specializing in traditional Catalan food, all organic and locally grown. Our menu choices really required a decent red wine rather than sangria, so we were forced to drink a very nice cabernet franc. Had a cheese plate that provided a delicious variety and I had onion soup while my sister had leek soup. The presentation of my onion soup was interesting -- they brought me a very hot soup bowl with 3 separate piles of things in the bottom: shaved cheese, carmelized onions, and dark bread croutons. Then they poured the hot onion/beef broth on top. Very nice indeed and the flavor was wonderful. I was introduced to the slow food movement a few years ago by a guide in Tuscany and I’ve been a convert ever since. I highly recommend the restaurant -- right on Las Ramblas.
Total score so far: 2 hot chocolates, 3 liters of sangria (shared), 1 bottle of wine (shared). Of course, as these numbers get embarrassingly high I may need to stop announcing my total score just to protect my reputation. J
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