I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
We saw so many pigeons all over Mallorca and Barcelona. How could I not take pictures of them? This is La Platja de Las Ramblas, Barcelona. The only other time I have seen so many pigeons all gathered together like this was in Venice, many moons ago. We gathered at the Platja a few times to meet with our tour groups, and every single time, this is what we saw.
We also saw a lot of green parrots. Not nearly as many as the pigeons, but still quite a few. 🙂
It’s fun to see the world through a birds’ eye view. 🙂
Our last Spanish meal in Barcelona came after yet another very full day of adventures. We ate in the center of Las Ramblas in one of the Platjas. While we waited for our food to arrive, we needed to unwind and relax with some cool, refreshing libations. After all, we had a very full trip with lots and lots of fun adventures.
We ordered another version of pasta del mar, patatas bravas and some garlic shrimp or gambons de ajillo.
After yet another delicious dinner, it was time to go back to the hotel and pack for our trip home.
Spain was indeed very, very good to us. I can’t wait for our next visit. 🙂
On our last full day in Barcelona, before returning home, we hit the waters. First we took a catamaran cruise around the Bay of Barcelona. We saw the city from yet a different point of view yet again. It was very relaxing and we met a very nice family from Portugal.
Sagrada Familia from a distance.
This big statue of Christopher Columbus stands proudly at the harbor entrance, overlooking the sea.
After our catamaran tour, we went to the Aquarium. They did a good job with it. There were lots of rays and sharks, as well as smaller sea creatures, including a lot of seahorses. We have seen many of these creatures on our many dive excursions, from all over. None of our shark pictures really came out well, but we see and dive with sharks all the time. 🙂 Whenever we go to an aquarium, we always point out all the critters we have seen in person, in their natural habitats, through our diving experiences. We dive a lot and we dive all over the world, which means we have seen A LOT!!!!!
The aquarium even had a penguin display. And yes, we have even seen penguins in their natural habitat too, at Phillip Island, outside of Melbourne, Australia. They were the very cute and adorable Little Penguins, that stand about 1 foot high and are blue and white, rather than black and white. They were so cute. I just fell in love with the Little Penguins. 🙂
It was feeding time for the rays.
We don’t see a lot of Seahorses, and we don’t see them often, but we have seen quite a few.
We see Lionfish everywhere, though in the Caribbean waters, where we dive mostly, they are the invaders. They are trying to eradicate these invaders from the warmer Caribbean waters because they are so destructive to the reef and ecosystems. They are very pretty to look at and are very tasty to eat too.
From the Aquarium, we headed over to the Maritime Museum. The Spanish have a very long relationship with the seas and ships. They have been sailing the seven seas for 1000’s of years. This had very special meaning to me, even more so than the Aquarium, because it reminded me of my dad. My dad was in the Merchant Marines his whole life, once he immigrated over to the States from Australia. In fact, it was through the Merchant marines that he was able to emigrate over to the States. So I have always had a very special affinity towards boats, ships and of course, the oceans.
This is a model of one of the big Spanish Galleons. They usually had a crew of about 400 people, with most of the crewsman living their lives chained to their rowing stations for the duration of their days at sea, regardless of the conditions.
This is an actual replica of one of the Galleons, that was made in 1973. I just love all the attention to detail.
Poseidon riding his dolphin on the bow.
Can you imagine living every second of your sea life chained to one of these oars? Everything you did was at the end of one of these oars until you were released from your servitude.
Other than our travel adventures getting back to the airport, this was our last Spanish adventure for this trip. I hope you have enjoyed my Spanish Adventures series from Barcelona, Mallorca and Andorra. At the moment, we have no new adventures on the books, but I know that will soon change. We love to travel and we love our adventures, and we never have too long in between travels and adventures. 🙂
Life is an adventure. Be adventurous and make the most of it. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.
Believe it or not, I only have a few more posts from Spain, and then this wonderful trip will officially be on the books, and it will time to move on to the next chapter. But hold tight. I’m not done yet.
One of the things we did was take a cooking class, learning how to make seafood paella the traditional way. Of course I already know how to and make it quite often, but it is always fun to learn something new. 🙂
We met Chef Andrea at the Traveler’s Nest once again, Back From Barcelona – The Tapas Tour and he walked us over to the kitchens, where we got to play with our food. Once again, we had a fairly large group, mostly Americans, and Californians, but some really fun people from Holland too, who sat with us.
Chef Andrea was so much fun and so full of personality. I asked him if he needed a sous chef for the evening, and told him I am a chef as well. At first I don’t think he believed me, but once he found out that I really am a chef, he kept giving me things to cut up to put into the paella. It only took a minute or two for him to realize I was actually telling the truth. He knew as soon as I picked up the knife and started cutting the vegetables.
I accidentally left my good camera in the restaurant, so I apologize for the grainy pictures. Larry took them from his cell phone. I did get my camera back once we went back to the restaurant for dessert.
When we first got to the classroom kitchen, the first thing Chef Andrea taught us was how to make a “real” Spanish sangria. We were drinking these all night during our cooking lesson.
I love this picture of the bull fight.
Once the drinks were poured, Chef Andrea led us back to the kitchen area, where his “mis en place” was all set and ready for us to start cooking. Chef Andrea is explaining what we need to do and how to do it. These ladies were our new Dutch friends. We were taking it all in in.
Other than Chef Andrea, Larry and I, no one else knew I was a chef. One gentleman was funny. He was taking pictures of his girlfriend, who I guess was standing next to me, and said he was shocked at how fast I was cutting, especially compared to how slow she was. Surprise!!!! I actually know my way around quite well in ANY kitchen, anywhere around the world. 🙂
We started with the squid in the giant paellaria. That took about 20 minutes.
The collection of paellaria pans. As it turns out, one size does NOT fit all.
Next came all the vegetables and some spices, and lots of fun and laughs.
Everyone got a turn to play chef.
We let everything simmer for awhile, while we were cutting up the monkfish and of course, sampling more sangria.
We added the rice and the fish stock, and let it all cook again, for about another 20 or so minutes. More fun and more sangria while we waited. 🙂
Next came the shrimp that had already been cooked before adding it to the pan.
Once the paella was ready, it was time for pictures of the finished product before we all got to dig in and enjoy the fruits of the sea, and the fruits of our labors. 🙂
Time to eat!!!!! !Desfruitas!
It was such a fun evening, and we laughed so hard all night. We really enjoyed our new Dutch friends too. After the paella was eaten, we headed back to the Traveler’s Nest for either a dessert or more to drink. Larry and I both opted for dessert. We had enough libations for one evening. 🙂
Larry chose the Spanish cheesecake and I went for the chocolate tart.
We met up with our new friends again for one last picture for the memory book. Larry and his bevy of beauties.
Again, if you love to cook, and have fun meeting and playing well with others, I highly recommend this fun Spanish cooking adventure. We all had a great time, as well as delicious food.
Larry booked a lot of our tours before we left home, online. I couldn’t tell you what website he used, but if you are interested, just shoot me a line, and I will find out from Larry and will pass it on. 🙂
Again, quoting Wolfgang Puck, “Live, Love, Eat”! Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.
We had a very full and busy day exploring the Parc Guell Back From Barcelona – Parc Guell and Monjuic areas Back From Barcelona – Montjuic of Barcelona. But our day was far from over. We still had the night ahead of us. We did a really deliciously fun tapas tour of the city.
We started the tour at The Traveler’s Nest in the Gothic part of town.
We met our tour guide Laura, and about 15 other new friends from around the world, and toured around the city, going to four different restaurants and tavernas to sample the city’s tapas and traditions.
At The Traveler’s Nest, we all started off with a little sweet red Vermouth, or Vermut Rojo, and some pinchos (Spanish) or pinxtos (Basque) styled tapas. There are four main styles of tapas – 1) The pinchos or pinxtos, 2) cheese and/or charcuterie platters, 3) hot and 4) cold. I love them all.
Pintxos are small snacks eaten in northern Spain and are lesser known internationally. They are offered in skewers and toothpicks. Pintxos vary because they can consist of several foods such as meat, fresh seafood, olives, and peppers. Pintxos got its name from the Spanish pincho, a cocktail stick. A typical snack of the Basque Country and Navarre, “pinchos” consist of small slices of bread upon which an ingredient or mixture of ingredients is placed and fastened with a toothpick, which gives the food its name “pincho,” meaning “spike.” Traditionally, you are charged by the number of toothpicks you have on your plate. Some would think it is easy to fool the bartenders or servers by hiding the toothpicks, but they know. They are counting too. 🙂
After the pinxos were finished, it was time to move on to our second stop for the evening, to try another style of tapas at another restaurant.
We sampled a wide variety of different tapas here while enjoying the company of of our fellow world travelers. We met people from Ireland, Australia and more Americans.
We sampled some traditional Spanish tortillas, made with eggs and potatoes,
mushroom croquettes,
steamed mussels,
and some breaded and fried eggplant topped with cheese. Once again, it was a feast for our taste buds.
We were told to pace ourselves because we still had a lot more to try.
Stop #3 was at a traditional Catalonian restaurant that was so packed, we had to enjoy our tapas and wine outside, Catalonian style.
Laura is explaining how to “drink” Catalonian style. You have to pour the wine from above. The higher you can get the pitcher, without spilling, the more “Catalonian” you are.
Larry has really long arms, so he mastered this style of drinking. He must have some Catalan in him that he didn’t know about. In the end, we all spilled some on us, including Laura.
After drinking Catalan style, our fried salted fish came out and we passed it all around for everyone to sample.
Round #4. More tapas and postres.
Here we sampled some albondigas (meatballs), pane (bread) and patatas bravas, with sangria.
Dessert followed after the savory tapas.
This was a really fun evening, and I highly recommend taking a tapas tour like this. It’s a great way to see the city and to try different places and different dishes that you might miss otherwise. We met some really fun people and we all shared a lot of fun stories and laughs over great food and drinks.
As Wolfgang Puck would say “Live, Love, Eat”, and that we did too. ‘Til next time.
One of the other places we visited when in the Parc Guell area Back From Barcelona – Parc Guell was Montjuic. Montjuïc or Montjuich, meaning “Jewish Mountain” in medieval Latin and Catalan, is a broad, shallow hill in Barcelona with a rich history. It was the birthplace of the city, and its strategic location on the Mediterranean and the Llobregat River has made it significant throughout history. The hill has a medieval Jewish cemetery, declared an area of Cultural Asset of National Interest in 2007. Montjuïc has been the site of various fortifications, including the Castle of Montjuïc dating back to the 17th century. The area was also associated with political imprisonments and executions, and held significance during the Spanish Civil War.
We took the cable cars up the mountain that gave us a spectacular view of Barcelona from above.
We toured the Castell de Montjuic, which today is a museum and a tribute to its very turbulent past. The Castell de Montjuic was built in 1640 as a military enclave. The fortress, which stands on the site of a watchtower, came under royal ownership and, some 50 years later, was one of the key defense points in the War of the Spanish Succession, between 1705 and 1714. It was built at this location because of the 360º views of the city below.
In the middle of the 18th century, the military engineer, Juan MartÃn Cermeño, was commissioned to restore the castle which had been badly damaged during the war, and its current appearance dates from this time. The castle has launched bombing raids on the city on a number of occasions and it has also been used as a prison. On 15th October 1940, the president of the Catalan government, LluÃs Companys, was executed by firing squad at the castle. The castle was used as a military prison until 1960 when it was given back to the city and used as an army base. Three years later, Franco opened a weapons museum in the castle. In 2007, the castle came under the ownership of Barcelona City Council and, as a result, now belongs to all the citizens of Barcelona.
One of the guard towers.
Today, the Castell de Montjuic is used for all kinds of events, and houses a lot of companies within its walls. We actually saw a wedding party taking their wedding pictures as we were there. But not so very long ago, it was still used as a prison that housed mainly political dissidents and military prisoners. The terrors and atrocities that took place within the walls of Castell de Montjuic are still fresh in the minds of many even today. Many people can tell you horror stories of their family members who were incarcerated in the castle, just a generation or two ago.
We toured all around the castle on our own outside, then took the tour of the castle inside.
The Royal Crest.
These are the tunnels leading to the “dungeons” or the cells. We were not allowed to take pictures in the cells because they are temperature and light controlled. There are so many drawings and writings on the walls from the prisoners. I think we were told they found over 600 drawings and writings on the walls during the restoration. Many of them are very graphic and very telling of what happened within the cell walls.
The City of Barcelona, the Catalans and Spain have always had a very tumultuous relationship at best. The Catalans are still fighting for their independence from Spain. Here is one of the plaques on the walls describing the beliefs about Barcelona, from General Espartero.
This was the flag tower on top of the roof. Different flags were displayed to send messages out to Barcelona.
The tour was very interesting and informative. I love history, and I love to learn everything I can about where I go.
The tensions between the Catalans and the Spanish are still very much alive today. We even saw a protest rally being set up in the Platja of Las Ramblas. We left before things got hot and heavy. We didn’t want any part of this battle.
Troubled times, conflict and revolutions have always been a part of history, in Spain, as well as the rest of the world. Unfortunately today, the world is rising in revolution once again. We have to stay vigilant, and stay safe as best as we can.
Few people realize how prolific Antoni Gaudi’s work was until they visit Spain and Barcelona in particular. His work and renovations on basilicas is what he devoted his life to, as we have seen in both his works on the Cathedral de Santa Maria de Palma Back From Barcelona – Mallorca #5 – The Palma Cathedral and Sagrada Familia. Back From Barcelona – Sagrada Familia. But before devoting his life’s work to the church, Gaudi was also a prolific artist elsewhere too. Parc Guell is one such example.
The quirky colorful mosaics and undulating curves of Park Güell are a signature of the legendary Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi, who designed many of the features in this park. Officially opened in 1926 and initially planned as a district for the rich, it is now one of the city’s most popular attractions and a great representation of Catalan modernism. The entrance with two fairytale-like houses and the iconic salamander fountain are the most busy.
Park Güell is an enormous garden with stunning and distinct architectural elements designed by the renowned Catalan architect, Antoni GaudÃ. The park is named after Eusebi Güell, a rich entrepreneur and count that had a great passion for GaudÃ’s work and who became his patron.
Gaudi planned and directed the construction of the park from 1900 to 1914 for Eusebi Guell for a residential park intended for sixty single-family residences. The project, however, was unsuccessful, and the park became city property in 1923. A lack of buyers led to the works being abandoned in 1914, with only two of the sixty houses envisaged having been built. The park thus became a large private garden, which Güell allowed to be used for public events, while it began to appear in tourist guides to Barcelona as one of the attractions of the city. Though never fully completed, it remains one of Gaudi’s most colorful and playful works.
After visiting Sagrada Familia, we decided it would be interesting to see more of Gaudi. Parc Guell it was. It was way up atop a very steep hill, one of many we had to hike before getting up to the park itself. It was most definitely a hiking up steep hills kind of day. Upon entering the park, we had to hike up even more. On the way, we saw the Hill of the Three Crosses. The monument has a circular plan and two ramps of stairs, on top of which are the three crosses and from where there is a magnificent panoramic view of Barcelona. There are two lower crosses and a higher one, that of Jesus; one of the crosses ends in the shape of an arrow. The orientation of the crosses indicates the four cardinal points and the one that ends in an arrow points to the sky, which causes speculation about its meaning. The crosses were destroyed in 1936, during the Civil War, and rebuilt in 1939.
We followed the garden pathways to the park itself, which led us to the winding wall of mosaics and Parc Guell.
Gaudi let loose his imagination. He shaped nature into colonnades, archways, and covered galleries with well-camouflaged artificial structures. It’s a playground for the mind: visual jokes, like columns that simulate palm tree trunks, rubble-surfaced arches that grow out of the ground, and quilts of ceramic tiles. A graceful pavilion is made of twisted angle iron – cheap to make, looks good, and does not lie about its material, yet its shape is as softly curved as climbing vines.
Inside the column room.
These are some of the many mosaics on the ceiling. I liked this one better.
Larry liked this one more.
The column room leads you to the rest of the park. But before entering the rest of the park, you have to pass the famous dragon fountain.
These are the only two houses that were actually completed before opening up the park to the public. We ventured into this one. It was empty, but still very interesting to see.
This house has been turned into a store.
We continued the journey through the gardens. This was actually the house where Gaudi lived until he moved into his studio at Sagrada Familia. We just visited from outside as we were walking by.
Other houses in the area. They were all very creative and artistic, with a special Gaudi flair.
Once we left Parc Guell, we were right by the Barcelona Stadium, or the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys, where the 1992 Summer Olympics were held. This is actually near Montjuic (We went to Montjuic as well, but more on that later). We did not go inside the stadium, since it was closed, but we did get to see the Olympic torch.
As you can see, it was yet another colorful and adventurous day in Barcelona. We covered a lot of ground and saw a lot of very interesting things. Barcelona is full of interesting places to see and fun things to do. I guarantee, you will never get bored in Barcelona. 🙂
Stay adventurous and always have fun. But keep your adventures safe (or at least relatively so) and stay well. ‘Til next time.
We continued our Spanish culinary adventures into Barcelona after leaving Mallorca. Once again, the food was deliciously amazing. We ate a lot of tapas again, as well as other fabulous meals.
On our first day in Barcelona, in between tours, it was lunch time. We knew we had to eat something, but we didn’t want a lot because we knew we had our first night of tapas coming later. Or we thought we weren’t going to eat a lot. Wrong!
We went to a little Peruvian restaurant called La Brasa Roja. We enjoyed Spanish foods from both the old world and the new. Peru was one of the Spanish colonies.
It was a very warm day, so before we ordered our food, we started off with some Sangria. We thought we were going to get a small pitcher, but no. This was our first clue that this restaurant believes in large portions. We drank it all though. It was way too good to leave any unfinished, besides, it’s bad luck:)
The sangria was followed by a little tray of Peruvian toppings, which we added to our meal. I loved the grilled corn. It’s like popcorn.
Once again, we ordered one plate and split it between us. But as you can see, it was still a feast. We ordered a mixed meat grilled platter that came with fries and salad. We had chicken, lamb, beef, ribs, and pork. I certainly ate a little of everything, but left the bulk of it for Larry. Again, we ate almost everything. Everything was mui delicioso!
I have no idea where this was, since we found it by literally just strolling around Barcelona, but we are very glad we did stop in. I highly recommend La Brasa Roja to anyone in the area. The food was delicious and the service was great.
The Gothic Quarter in Barcelona dates back over 2,000 years and is one of the most talked about neighborhoods in the city—full of charm and captivating history. It is the heart of Barcelona. The Gothic Quarter center of the old city of Barcelona stretches from La Rambla to Via Laietana, and from the Mediterranean seafront to the Ronda de Sant Pere. It is a part of Ciutat Vella district. The quarter encompasses the oldest parts of the city of Barcelona, and includes the remains of the city’s Roman wall and several notable medieval landmarks.  Much of the present-day fabric of the quarter, however, dates to the 19th and early 20th centuries. El Call, Barcelona’s old Jewish Quarter, is one of the most beautiful areas of the Gothic Quarter. It is full of shops and restaurants. There are no more Synagogues left in the area, due to destruction in the mid 14th century, but the Jewish Quarter is now marked by gold markers on the streets. These are some of the narrowest streets in all of Barcelona, and they are also filled with a dark history that dates back to medieval times.
Mario, our guide, was originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was us and one other couple on the tour. The other couple was from Brazil. They speak Portuguese in Brazil, and Mario was great. All evening he switched back and forth from English to Portuguese, and back again, without even so much as a hiccup. We all had a great time. There were no language barriers thanks to Mario and his linguistic skills.
We started out by touring around and getting a brief history of the buildings and the area. This building is one of the oldest in Barcelona, and is made up of the old Roman buildings. Mario is explaining it to the Brazilian couple as I was taking pictures. The outsides of the buildings are mandated to keep with the old traditions, but the insides are updated and are modern and new.
These are some of the old Gothic churches we saw, along with many other of the older, very charming buildings.
As I have said many times, I just love all the attention to detail that goes into every single structure. This is one of the La Seu cathedrals. La Seu is a common name for cathedrals in areas where the Catalan language is spoken. The phrase translates into English as `The See.`
This bridge is a very old, very famous bridge. The Canons used to walk from their apartments to the church on this bridge. Today it is walked by both tourists and residents of the area.
This building has quite a story. During WWII, Spain was supposed to be “neutral” since it had just come out of its own civil war and did not want to get involved in another war. However, apparently Franco didn’t quite understand what the word neutral meant, and he made “friends” with two very evil people who were in charge of the disasters during this horrific time in history; Hitler and Mussolini. This building, which was a school, was bombed and the bomb markings are still left on the wall as a tribute and a reminder of the forty-two students died during the bombing.
Government Square. This is the Spanish side.
This is the Catalan side.
The tour also included a Flamenco show. We went to a place called Tarantos, which is the oldest Flamenco tavernas in Barcelona. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Flamenco. It was a great show.
Flamenco, is a form of song, dance, and instrumental (mostly guitar) music commonly associated with the Andalusian Roma (Gypsies) of southern Spain. (There, the Roma people are called Gitanos.) The roots of flamenco, though somewhat mysterious, seem to lie in the Roma migration from Rajasthan (in northwest India) to Spain between the 9th and 14th centuries. These migrants brought with them musical instruments, such as tambourines, bells, and wooden castanets, and an extensive repertoire of songs and dances. In Spain they encountered the rich cultures of the Sephardic Jews and the Moors. Their centuries-long cultural intermingling produced the unique art form known as flamenco. Both the songs and the music are telling a story of the “outcasts” of Spain. One of the things we heard is that Flamenco was about “farmers without a farm”, which makes sense, considering it was originally the music of the Gypsies.
After a very entertaining Flamenco show, we had one more stop to make before calling it an evening. We went to a little club that is famous for its bands, singing, and open mic night, called Craft. Here we enjoyed a round of delicious tapas along with the show. I thought I had taken pictures of the tapas, but I guess I didn’t. We all enjoyed some patatas bravas, chorizo, cheese and croquettes while being entertained by the band.
Mario is also a singer, guitar player and percussionist, so we all encouraged him to sing and perform a couple of songs. He had a lot of fun up on stage and sounded great.
It was a very fun, very full day. We did and saw so much, and this was just day one. We still have a lot more fun adventures ahead.
Have a great day, and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.
Street performers are very popular all throughout Spain, just like they are in every major city around the world. But the Spanish just seem to take it to another level. We saw so many street performers, passionately doing what they do, in beautiful surroundings.
This gentleman just blew me away. He had a gorgeous, rich baritone voice and broke out into some opera. I thought I was listening to Pavarotti or The 3 Tenors. He was singing a duet with another gentleman.
There were also the athletes of the streets. They were fun to watch as well. Good looking men with lots of muscles is ALWAYS fun a nice thing to see. 🙂
As I have said many times before, I just love all the passion and zest for life that the Spaniards all seem to share.
Life is short. Take it all in and have fun. Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.
A Jeanne in the Kitchen 