Barcelona on June 15th

This morning we took the Metro from the Poble Sec stop to Lessups to visit Parc Guell. It felt like 80 degrees with significant humidity as we climbed the relatively long, steep hill to Gaudi's park. [We found the shorter, tourist filled walk on the way back.] Parc Guell's views were impressive. While Mr. F loved all the natural beauty, I adored all the beautiful mosaics.  The park was charming with interesting sculptures and phenomenal views of Barcelona. I read in the guidebooks and Wikipedia, "The park was originally part of a commercially unsuccessful housing site, the idea of Count Eusebi Güell, whom the park was named after. It was inspired by the English garden city movement; hence the original English name Park (in the Catalan language spoken in Catalonia where Barcelona is located, the word for "Park" is "Parc", and the name of the place is "Parc Güell" in its original language). The site was a rocky hill with little vegetation and few trees, called Muntanya Pelada (Bare Mountain)." 

The colors in the serpentine bench and the gingerbread like houses reminded me of Candy Land! In addition to the amazing views of the city, I loved the marketplace space. The mosaic tiles were mesmerizing. 

After a few hours in the park, we were starving so we took the Metro from Lessups to Jaume, in the Barri Gotic and La Ribera neighborhoods. 

We went to Bacoa at my high school friend, Emily's suggestion.  The Manchego burgers hit the spot. It was so delicious and it was fun to have something familiar. 

We were serve a 2/3 lb ground chuck patty, topped with beefy Worcestershire, onion and bacon jam, with a thick slab of manchego cheese. 

We were very close to the Picasso Museum, so we just had to tour it, even though we were exhausted from our long day. We took the windy streets back to our hotel and around 3pm, we had a long and refreshing siesta.

For dinner we wandered through the Poble Sec neighborhood before we found La Tomaquera. The speciality was snails and they were surprisingly tasty! Mr. F said eating all those snails must have killed a whole snail village.  He also said he felt like GODZILLA! 

My favorite part was the heavenly, deliciously, divine flan. If I could only have one food for the rest of my life, it would be flan.