On the site inspection we checked out a lot of restaurants and hotel space, we looked at potential nightclubs for a club night on the program. We took the City Tour our participants will experience. On the City Tour we visited Parc Guell and Sagrada Familia.
Parc Guell is a park the Gaudi designed. Originally it was built to be a 'Beverly Hills' so to speak of Barcelona. It was to be the first gated community for the 30 most wealthiest families in Barcelona. But it was so expensive to live there and they made the Park so far away from the city, that only one person ended up building a home there (and residents still live there). Then they made the area a park and it is absolutely beautiful, it has Mosaic tile everywhere.
Sagrada Familia is the most famous church in Barcelona. It is still being built and has been a work in progress for over 100 years. This church is the work of Gaudi as well although, the structure actually began as the work of someone else but Gaudi took it over and ran with it.
Enough with the history lesson... the only thing I was not a HUGE fan of in Barcelona was the food. Being the picky eater that I am I did struggle with food a LITTLE bit. Barcelona has tons of seafoood and Paella, neither of which I am a fan of. They did have 'Pica Pica' which is about 4-5 small portion starters (but not tapas-we were told that was totally different!) you order as your appetizer to share with the table. Some of the Pica Pica I enjoyed (fried eggs and fries (aka frites), ham and cheese croquettes and bread with tomato sauce and olive oil). Some I did not enjoy (tuna, bruschetta, shrimp etc). I ate some lobster Ravioli with Sea Urchin Sauce that I was a little bit scared of but it turned out to be really great. One night we went to eat dinner at a restaurant in the Gothic Quarter famous for its chicken and ham. I ordered a quarter chicken breast with fries and it was AMAZING! The restaurant was awesome it had a very old timey feel. There were hams hanging all over the ceilings like a harcore butcher shop. They had a 'Tuna Band' trio roaming around the restaurant that would play the guitar sing and serenade you. It was by far my favorite night. Below are pictures of the restaurant and our table.
I am so excited to go back in May! Below are pictures of the Hotel pool and the views from my room.
Matt and I are going on a little vacay for Thanksgiving and I will post about that as soon as we return. Happy Turkey Day Everyone!!! Until Next Time...
