THE CATES: W13 of Y2

Barcelona

Jeremy and I got to celebrate our 16 year Anniversary in Barcelona this week!

Our beautiful apartment in the Gothic quarters of the city

The view outside our apartment included some Roman ruins.

The graffiti on the buildings around our apartment.
It's hard to see but the one of the right says Tourists Go Home in English and Catalan.
Fortunately we never felt unwelcome at all during our entire stay!

This is how the locals in our apartment complex open the main door below.
They pull the chain to take the bar off the door to open it.

Tapas!!!

Tapas!! And more Tapas!!! I just LOVE Tapas and they are everywhere in Barcelona. It was wonderful!!
This restaurant was interesting.... you walk in and just start helping yourself to a buffet of Tapas.
When you're done the cashier just counts the number of toothpicks on your plate to know how much to charge you.
Each Tapa was 2 Euro.

La Boqueria

This is a huge market with everything type of food you can think of! It claims to be the largest open air market in the world and has been around since early 1200's!

It was right after this picture that Connor called me on my phone. I was so excited to talk to him that I threw my camera and broke it! The rest of my pictures were taken with my phone (which isn't as good!) :(

The crabs and lobsters were still moving!

This ham is INSANE!!! The one on the right that our guide is showing up costs 189 EURO per KG!!! This is called Iberian Jamon. The black, Iberian pigs are raised in a beautiful field full of Oak trees and eat nothing but fresh grass, herbs, acorns, and olives and are said to have the healthiest meat. We got a few thin shavings to try for 8 euro!!

Walking Tour

We spent the rest of the morning taking a tour through the city with our very knowledgeable guide!

A delicious chocolate store!

This is the walking bridge for the priests so they don't have to walk on the street with commoners.

Apparently it is good luck to always have a pooping shepherd as part of your nativity set as it shows fertility and wealth. They had a store where everyone you could think of was pooping!

Our walking tour ended at another Tapas bar. Yum!!! This little dessert tapa was amazing! A little dallop of chocolate mousse on top of toasted bread with olive oil and sprinkled with salt. O. M. G!!!

After all that walking and eating we went back to the room to relax!

Walking by the beach looking for somewhere to eat for dinner. The yachts were incredible!!

We found some dinner!!! Spanish Paella and steak with Foie Gras. Heaven!!

After dinner we enjoyed several street performers. This one was especially entertaining! He was singing Figaro beautifully and then broke out into the Whip and Nae Nae while he sang!

It was finally time for the game!!! Jeremy found a place here that was willing to play the Chiefs vs. Patriots game for us. Because of the time difference it didn't start until 10:30. We ended being there with one other Patriots fan. Later in the night though there were 4-5 more Patriots fans. It didn't help that we were losing the entire game right up until the end!

After a late night we slept in and then ventured out to see some of the sights! Placa Espanya1

Sagrada Familia
One of Gaudi's most famous peices of work and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Gaudi died before he finished it in 1926 and it is STILL incomplete and under construction today!!

This place was massive!! I was always too close to get a decent picture.

They really like Obama here! lol!

We LOVED the metro system there. It was so clean, well lit, easy to figure out, and always on time!!!
Things I took for granted before living in Italy I guess.