What we did...

by Narelle

Friday

As the expression goes, the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray. This could not have been more true for Yves and me, when on Friday morning our well-intended plans of leaving Toulouse at the crack of dawn were cashed in for waking up without an alarm, a leisurely breakfast, some mucking about on Facebook and a 20-minute detour through the city centre to pick up my cash card, which I'd left at Xavier the day before.

And so it was, that at midday, cash card firmly in hand, we eventually tottered off on our long weekend to Barcelona.

Our first stop was the charming little Spanish town of Figueres, home of Salvador Dali and just an hour's drive north of our destination. We pulled into a carpark at around 2pm and followed signs for said artist's museum — the one with the building that looks like it's covered in giant eggs.

At the bottom of the street, we found a tapas restaurant with a sunny terrace (Le Bistrot de Paris) on the square. The prices were cheap and the staff friendly. We wasted no time in taking a seat and mulling over the menu.

We chose a random selection of tapas and prided ourselves on our ability to order dos cervezas, por favour, which I had been led to believe by my Aussie friend, Kev, would get me two beers, please — he was not wrong.

We sipped our beers in the abundant sunshine and felt that life was good.

The food arrived quickly, each dish coming out as it was ready, in no particular order. We munched happily on grilled fresh chorizo that melted in our mouths; tender calamari rings in a light, tempura-style, crunchy beer batter; toasted bread topped with grilled red peppers and finely sliced smoked Iberian ham; and the nicest patatas bravas I've ever eaten!

Coffee followed a very satisfying lunch, and we had a disjointed chat in English with our waiter about my fancy camera with the elastic band holding it together, before walking up the hill to the Salvador Dali museum, where we marvelled at surrealism for the next two hours.

After the museum we headed back to the car, drove the rest of the way to Barcelona and checked into our mystery 4-star hotel (Hesperia Sant Just, c/ Frederic Mompou, 1, St. Just Desvern, 08960, SPAIN) which we got for a steal on lastminute.fr at 98 euros for two nights!

At the hotel we took a long hot shower, had a change of clothes and walked two minutes to the tram station which would bring us to the city centre. Twenty minutes later we were exploring Las Ramblas, Barcelona's biggest tourist street, and Placa Reial, one of the most popular squares in town.

Lunch being some time ago, at around 9.30pm we wandered the streets around Las Ramblas looking for La Fonda, one of the restaurants which had been recommended by our friend Charlotte, who had recently spent a year of her life living it up in Barcelona.

The restaurant was very good, cheap and nicely decorated. It seemed like the kind of place to go on a date. We were happy with the choice especially as we were celebrating 10 years since I moved to Europe — time flies when you're having fun!

We got paella, which restored my faith in this typically Spanish dish, and a nice bottle of rosé, followed by crema catalana (Yves) and chocolate cake (me). After our meal we strolled around the old streets near Las Ramblas a bit more and crashed back at the hotel at around 1am.

Saturday

This morning we jumped on the tram at around 9am-ish and headed to La Ramblas again. This time we strolled down to the end and along the port (Ronda de Littoral), towards Barceloneta beach (Passage de Joan de Borbo Comte de Barcelona).

After about an hour of strolling we decided a coffee was in order and found a café on the beach (Chiringuito del Sol). We sat in the sunshine and watched the world go by.

Some time later, still mesmerised by the warmth of the sun on our faces and unwilling to leave our little slice of heaven, we ordered mojitos and continued the strenuous activity of people watching.

At around 2pm we thought about getting lunch and headed over the road to Restaurant Barceloneta, which our friend Jacques had recommended. We were not disappointed! It was fantastic, although rather expensive and the entrance was a bit daunting (four waitresses lined up at the entrance, waiting to take your coat and show you to your seat up stairs — what pressure!).

Lunch for two put a sizeable dent in our bank account at a cost of 101 euros. We were consoled by the fact that we had eaten very well and whiled away a good deal of the afternoon relaxing, which, after all, was the point of this little getaway.

We ordered a bottle of white wine, shared an entrée of calamari and were given two servings of amazingly good tomato bread (pan con tomate) on the house.

For the main course Yves had (?) and I had grilled monkfish — which was very tasty indeed. Yves then chose his dessert-de-weekend, Crema Catalana, and I went with my usual of chocolate cake, which we followed with coffee.

By the time we had eaten our way through the afternoon, it was already 5pm and we strolled back to the port, now bustling with Spaniards enjoying a late lunch on the many sunny terraces overlooking the water, and pondered over what to do next.

We decided we should probably see some sights and settled on Casa Batllo. We took the metro and a few stops later were lining up to see this amazing piece of architectural genius by Gaudi.

Sunday

We checked out of our hotel around 1pm, had coffee at the piano bar and drove to the Gracia area. We found a park across the road from our destination for the day (Casa Mila), and had some very nice and cheap tapas at Moncho's: Costa Gallega.

Afterwards we headed up the street to Casa Mila and spent a few hours wandering around, admiring some amazingly creative 1920's architecture — again by that genius, Gaudi.

We returned to to Moncho's for coffee on the terrace after the visit and then jumped in the car headed for home, stopping via Segrada Familia for a quick peek from across the road and just enough time to buy some souveniers. We'll have to visit that one next time!

We left Barcelona around 6pm and, after getting very lost, finally found our way out and arrived in Collioure for dinner at 10pm.

We arrived back in Tournefeuille around 1am and crashed in bed for a long, well deserved sleep.

Bar and restaurant recommendations

Our friend Charlotte lived in Barcelona for a year and these are her recommendations and comments on bars, clubs and restaurants