We started the day with our usual coffee at a new café and
this time with something called a Spanish cake.
It wasn’t apple pie but we shared it and it was just enough to fuel us
for our walk. Sue had convinced me that we should investigate a new museum that
just opened last year by the name of the Museu Europeu d’Art Modern or the much
simpler ‘MEAM’. So we headed off to the
El Born district to at least pass by the MEAM and decide if we wanted to go in
or not. After a quick chat with the most
delightful young man at the front desk and discovering that we could view this
museum for just $5 Euro we decided to do it.
Our expectations were quickly exceeded as we went from one interesting picture
or sculpture to another. The subject of
the art was mainly ‘the human experience’ and the works were by mostly unknown
young artists. The art was inspired and
so were we. Have you ever seen the
picture of the guy with the blue face……..it hangs in this museum.
This was going to be our intellectual day so next on the
agenda was the Museu Picasso. Since we
have both seen many Picasso exhibits and since we had just come from the MEAM,
which we had loved it was going to be hard for this museum to impress us and it
was. But we made our way through the art
and tried to make it look to the other visitors like we were interested and not
rushing. I’m really not sure how good we
at this………haha
As long as we were in the El Born area anyway we wanted to
follow a recommendation from the New York Times for a tapas bar called the El
Xampanyet. As usual it was tiny and
crowded but once again some sort of good luck was leading our way and we walked
in just as one of the front tables became available. At this restaurant we walked along a counter
and selected what we wanted mainly by appearance. Sue can’t get enough sardines
and anchovies so she loaded up on those while I favored the largest asparagus
and the tiniest potatoes I’d ever seen along with some cod fish and spicy tuna
wrapped in a red pepper. When offered
desert we both said no and the owner gave us a look that you wouldn’t
believe. The couple at the table next to
us encouraged us and said you must, so we did.
Wow……this desert dish of hard cakes which is dunked in sweet wine was
out of this world. Next time I go there
and there will be a next time, I’m saving lots of room for desert!
We made our way back to our neighborhood going from one
store to another but even the ‘shopping queen, Miss Sue’s heart wasn’t in it
and we certainly didn’t do the damage we had done the day before.
Sue really wants to go to Tickets, one of the most famous
restaurants here in Barcelona. I’ll actually be going there in August when Judy
is here because I was fortunate enough to get the ‘very last reservation’ they
had available for the entire summer.
Well, Sue does not take no easily so she has been going to fancy hotels
and trying to find the concierge who has some pull and can get her into
Tickets. So far that hasn’t happened but
we were referred by one of these concierges to a restaurant called El
Covina. We went there last night, it was
near the port and we both enjoyed our monkfish with spinach and pine nuts very
much but we weren’t very happy with the service. Sue was happy to talk to the manager about it. He never apologized or offered anything but
excuses however he did comp our champagne so alls well that ends well………......
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