Barcelona, Spain, Day 15

Day 15, May 26, 2014

We woke up to heavy rain and thunderstorms. Our plan was to go to the Boqueria Market first thing, but we waited until the rain eased a bit.  The market was packed. The presentation of produce was outstanding. 

Some of the largest fresh shrimp I have ever seen.  Now this is tapas on steroids.

We decided to make seafood pasta for lunch so we picked up a half pound of white prawns and two squid and all the fixings. 

Sweet white shrimp

When you buy fresh squid and shrimp, cleaning takes time but the reward is outstanding flavour

The tomatoes tasted as good as they looked. 

We also bought an assortment of olives including some green Catalan olives for our light dinner tapas. We are into eating a light breakfast, a big lunch and a light dinner. The fresh figs looked amazing and the huge cherries could not be passed up. I also could not resist buying some blood sausage for a snack and several slices of black pig prosciutto.  These wild boars feed on acorns which gives their meat a distinctive flavour. The butcher said he hopes to have fresh black pig tomorrow and I hope to prepare for one of our meals.

We stopped at the grocery store and stocked up on all the essentials, wine, beer, sparkling water, pasta, cheese and Catalan salami, Fuet de La Garrotxa.  

  

Incredibly tasty

Prices for beer and wine are cheap. I figure that what we saved on beer and wine covered the cost for our groceries. Crazy. 

Lunch was outstanding, but I required a siesta. 

The rain stopped around 4pm and the sun came out and so did the sellers of counterfeit bags and sunglasses. We watched them from our fourth floor apartment. They laid out their wares on blankets that were attached to ropes like a puppeteer. When they got a call that police were approaching the ropes were pulled, the sunglasses were rolled and they were off to scout out another location. Sometimes this ended up being just minutes of selling time before they got another call and had to pack up again. We had a great vantage point to watch the cat and mouse game. 

Always ready to pull the strings

 

Getting the call that police were coming in their direction

Packed up within seconds

...and on his way

A clean getaway

Our afternoon was dedicated to searching more Gaudi architecture. We found two buildings; one was under renovation, while the other was fabulously bizarre. I will let the pictures tell the story of this man’s warped brilliance.

A Gaudi building wrap to hide the renovations from view

Top of Gaudi building under renovation

Folks were lined up to by tickets to view this Gaudi building

Looks like bone like columns

...and bone railings

The architecture at every turn was beautiful as we walked along wide boulevards.

One of many white mosaic seats along the boulevard

A row of Jacaranda trees

Shopping was also a goal as Jill has been looking for Teva type sandals for the past two years and as a result we have not passed a shoe store without checking it out.  Jill has a very narrow foot and needs good arch support so how lucky were we to find the perfect sandals in red that ticked all her boxes and at a reasonable price to boot. She was a happy camper, pun intended.