Barcelona - Palau Güell

One of my very favorite things about Barcelona is the architecture of Antoni Gaudí; a visionary architect whose works include La Sagrada Familia, La Pedrera, and Casa Batlló. I had visited all three of these sites on previous visits to Barcelona, and my personal favorite is Casa Batlló. In the not too distant future, I will devote an entire blog post to that dragon-shaped building. On this previous visit, I went to perhaps one of the lesser known Gaudi sites in Barcelona, Palau Güell, a building located right off Las Ramblas that was recently restored in 2011. I found this building to be unlike Batllo or Pedrera. The Palau literally is a palace, a monument of iron and stone with a mutli-story central hall. Although the interior is as organic as the rest of Gaudi's work, it was very dark and heavy, characterized by touches of art nouveau with a heavy hand of gothic architecture. In this house more than the others, I found myself breathing a sigh of relief when I got up to the rooftop terrace, which in typical Gaudi fashion, is characterized by a series of colorful tile mosaic chimneys.

One of the tile mosaic chimney vents on the rooftop of Palau Güell

My favorite chimney in the foreground, with a view of the Barcelona skyline behind.

A close up of one of the mosaics.

After spending the morning in Palau Guell, I walked across Las Ramblas to Plaça Reial where I kicked back with a big, fat, delicious glass of sangria and watched the world go by. This is an awesome place for a pit stop in the city.

Barcelona Market

This last visit to Barcelona, I finally managed to visit the Mercat de la Boqueria, a huge food market that sits right off of the Rambla. Don’t make the same mistake I did and go to Barcelona twice before making the market a stop on your third trip! This place is a veritable paradise not only for foodies but for photographers as well, with colorful displays of food that are artfully presented. Between the sights, sounds, and smells (not all of them nice) be prepared to for your senses to be overloaded when you walk into the market. Unfortunately, the hotel I was staying at (NH Barcelona Centro) did not have kitchen facilities; otherwise I would have been able to get into real trouble here in terms of purchasing all sorts of good food. As it was, I settled for a treat at one of the many pastry vendors, and stopped at a spice vendor. In addition to every kind of ground pepper you could imagine, they also sold large quantities of saffron at VERY reasonable prices. I bought a small 2 inch box jam-packed with it for all of 5 euros as a gift for my father, the cook in the family.

As a side note, if you are looking for reasonable accommodations in Barcelona, NH Barcelona Centro is a very good option. Though lacking in kitchen facilities, this hotel provides reasonably priced rooms in a centralized by (fortunately quiet) location on a side street of the Rambla. Anyone who has traveled in Spain before knows that the Spanish love to carouse till all hours of the night. This hotel provides you the opportunity to be close to all of the action, but still be able to sleep!

 

Barcelona Flea

Back in May, I decided to celebrate my birthday in one of my very favorite places, Barcleona. If you've never been here, I encourage you to add it to your bucket place. The art, architecture, weather, and shopping make it one of the most vibrant places to see in the world. I always find something new when I go there. This last visit, I made a point of spending a morning at one of the oldest flea markets in Europe, Mercat Del Encants. This nondescript parking lot of vendors and stalls is about to undergo a big transformation, which means I will be heading back to see the update in the not-too-distant future. In the meantime, here are some of the items that I found:

A vintage Spanish coffee grinder,

An ornate Rococo solid brass plant stand

All in all, it was a very interesting experience to try and navigate this market by myself for the first time, but I feel like I scored some good deals on some interesting stuff. A word of caution; all the web research I did prior to my visit to El Encants indicated that I should try and bargain with the vendors. My experience? Not so much. I'll be the first to admit that my Spanish is not great, and unless you can speak it fluently with a Catalan dialect, I would refrain from trying to bargain. I felt and (undoubtedly) looked silly. Despite the language barriers, there was one vendor in particular I found, Jose Robles, who was particularly willing to listen to my broken Spanish. Jose also had two of the best stocked booths at the market, packed with very interesting things at reasonable prices (or at least prices that an inexperienced American was willing to pay). He was the source for the 2 items I purchased above. If you want a glimpse at what you'll find at El Encants, check out his website: www.joserobles.com.

In the meantime, happy hunting!

                                                     Image source: ca.wikipedia.org