Barcelona - Sunday
Hi all blog readers, sorry for the delay. Our hotel in Madrid only had webaccess if you could get there system to send you a text message. I don't have a mobile to text. So this blog is somewhat delayed. It was written last Tuesday, but only being sent now (Friday).
Sunday seems to be the day we do things that end up
exhausting ourselves. Last Sunday it was walking around Rome until 4.30 p.m.,
today it was something similar.
One of the challenges of Barcelona is being in the capital
of Cataluña while being much better at understanding Castiliano (Spanish) than
Catalan. Indeed I remember a visit to Cataluña back in my 20s when I went to
Mass only to find that my school boy Spanish was no use and I couldn’t
understand why – of course the Mass was in Catalan! Based on this fact I’d
checked to make sure I could go to Mass in Castiliano (most Churches offer masses
in both). The nearest Church to our hotel, Señora de la Merce, the Church of
Our Lady of Mercy, had a Castiliano Mass at 11.00 a.m (note the church name in Castiliano would be Señora de la Merced). We left the hotel at 9.00
and walked down to Placa de la Merce where we stopped in a little Cafe for
breakfast. The Cafe was called Pastissia
Granje. Drew opted for a Croissant rellanos con queso y jamón while I had a
Bocadillo de Jamón we both had with coffee.
We then walked across to the smart port area of Barcelona,
Port Veil. I left Drew there at 10.30 and walked over to the Church. The Mass
was a very nice celebration with only 40 people attending, I suspect the
Catalan masses were more popular. The priest had a lovely singing voice and most
of the parts of the Mass were sung. While I had opted to attend Mass here because
of the time and the language, it turned out that this, the nearest Church, is
also the Shrine of one of the two Patron’s of the City of Barcelona – Our Lady of Mercies. The statue which is processed through the streets on the feast day
is in an alcove above the high alter of the Church. After Mass I was able to
climb the stairs behind the high altar to get to the statue which is very
picturesque, but Drew had the camera with him.
I then went to meet Drew back at the Port. We walked further
along the Port passed the Museum of the History of Cataluña and into the part of town called
Barceloneta. This is a very pretty development which proves that urban
redevelopment can really breathe new life into a rundown part of a town.
Barceloneta had been a rundown former docks area, but now is a busy area of
cafes and bars running down to some lovely beaches.
In Barceloneta is the start of the Cable Car that links this
part of town to Montjuic which we had visited last night. Having read that
Montjuic, in addition to the fountains, had lots more to see I managed to
persuade Drew, who is scared of heights, that he could keep his eyes closed as
we took the cable car ride. The ride was spectacular, right over Barcelona bay
with lovely views of the City and of the sea.
After 40 minutes we came to a small shack that did snacks
and stopped and I had a Bocadillo de jamón while Drew had a Bocadillo con jamón
y queso we both had bottles of Coke
Light. 
We then continued to climb the hill until we came to the Barcelona
Olympic stadium. We visited this and spent some time reading about the history
and impact the Olympics had on the City.
From the stadium we walked down to the Palau Nacional, which
doubles up as the Art museum, we then, slowly, walked back down the route we
had been looking up towards last night while enjoying the Magic Fountains. The
heat, or rather the sweat, had just become too much for us by then, so it was
down to the Placa Espanya and on to the metro back to the bottom of La Rambla
and in to the hotel. I’m so glad the air-conditioning is so effective in this
hotel, we would have struggled otherwise.
Having had such a tiring day we didn’t rush out for another
walk before dinner, but went directly to the restaurant we had booked for
tonight – Siete Portes, Seven Doors. We had booked this at the recommendation
of my sister. It was lucky we had booked as there were 40 people outside
looking for a table. Some of them had two hour waits before they were sat down.
The menu for Siete Portes was in Catalan and Castiliano. I
could manage the second, but would have struggled with the first. Drew began
with Ensalada de Habas, a salad of lovely, small broad beans with a vinaigrette
dressing. A version of this with meat, habas con jamon, is Drew’s favourite
Spanish food, but he thought this version came a close second. I opted for Trinxat
con botifarra de perol, a very Catalan dish of potatoes, cabbage and sausage
fried together. This was served in a little frying pan and the flavours from
each element really enhanced each other. I was unsure when ordering the dish - the Catalan nature of the dish meant the translation into Spanish wasn’t that
clear. But I’m glad I took the risk. 
Drew then opted for Espalda de Cordero al horno con Patatas
panadera, a lovely leg of lamb that was cooked perfectly in its own juices with
a hint of garlic, wonderful. The potatoes also had roast red peppers and garlic
with them. I opted for one of the house specials, Espaldita de Cabrito asada al
horno. Goat is not something that is frequently on my menu, so I had to have
this. The flavour was excellent, and though the poor baby goat must have died
young to provide this shoulder, it was a worthwhile effort from my perspective.
For desserts I had opted for the seasonal fruit, Drew for surtido
de golosinas de chocolate
The seasonal fruit was Melón and two lovely fresh pieces
(about a 1/4 of a melon) were served. Drew however got Sorbete de Limón not
what he had asked for. I was about to raise the issue, but Drew said it was
fine. After we had finished the dessert, and the coffees we had after the waitress
noticed in her notepad that she had served the wrong dessert, so provided the Surtido
de golosinas de chocolate to Drew on the house. Drew was in his element, 9 or
10 items of different flavoured chocolate, including chocolate truffles, cheery
coated in chocolate and chocolate cream. Drew absolutely loved this.
On the wall of the restaurant are little plaques which
indicate the famous people who have eaten here since it was founded in 1836.
When the bill arrived it told us that Manolete Torero (1917 - 1947) had eaten
at the same table as us!
Having sat down at 8.30 we finished the meal at 10.50 and
decided, as it was a little cooler, to take a walk after dinner, we again
walked down through Barceloneta and on to the sea front. We got back to the hotel
at around 11.30 and to bed soon after.
An exhausting start to the day, but a wonderful end. 7
Portes is on my list of favourite places to eat from now on.
The Catalan-Castellano tensions are a reflection of problems throughout Spain. Franco's regime tried to suppress the widely spoken regional languages including Basque and the Gallician, and you will hear a lot of Valenciano now in the south east. But as we find in Britain, the xenophobic rhetoric of the regimes is often shared by the majority populations. In Spain audiences used to taunt Jordi Pujol (Catalan president for 30 years or so) with "Pujol, enano, habla castellano" and this slogan was credited with helping the right wing back to power in 1996.
ReplyDeleteNasty.
DeleteAs I spend more time in Andalusia than elsewhere in Spain I'm less aware of it. Of course when I was first in Catalonia in 1979 the freedoms were just emerging and while Mass was in Catalan, there was less evidence of it in other ways.
When you were on the hill did you see where the diving took place? It was breath taking! You would have to be mad to do that I thought when we were there! We met a cheerful cat when we were on the hill infront of a museum I think!
ReplyDeleteYes, but with Drew's fear of heights we were not going to close to the edge after he had managed the Cable Car :-)
Delete