Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona is an amazing blend of the old with the new

So here we are in Barcelona!  The past few days have been a blur of just getting settled into the apartment and getting our bearings.  We are in the Barri Gotic (gothic quarter of the city) which is beautiful, but crowded with tourists during the day.  It's a maze of pedestrian-only streets and narrow passageways.  I'm sure we'll get familiar with the layout eventually, but for now it's just fun to wander around and look inside all the shops, restaurants, and endless gelaterias.

Carrer Ferran, just a block or two south of the apartment

Just like we did in Paris, we bought a City Walks deck and have been working through the walks in our area.  Over the weekend, we did venture a little further afield down to the beach by Barceloneta.

We also stocked up on a few items for the kitchen at a local market as well as the grocery store.  There are definitely some items that are hard to find back home, such as huge hocks of ham, and pulpo (octopus) at the supermarket.

Some of these hams go for 100 euro a kilo

I'm not even sure how to cook this...

We had a nice lazy Sunday today.  There is an art market every Sunday afternoon in the Placa de Sant Josep Oriol which is a stone's throw from our apartment.

Our apt with the church/plaza in the background

And later in the evening we had beers on the terrace at Bar del Pi (also in that same plaza) and watched a parade of buskers come by to entertain the crowd.  Our favorite was the couple doing the tango.