Saturday June 29th

Saturday is a special day! We love this day because we get to go adventuring together… As soon as KD wakes up. Today’s adventure included Plaza de Catalunya and Las Ramblas. We wanted to leave a bit early so that we could take out rent. We had tried the night before and it didn’t work. We thought, “uh-oh, There is a block since we are trying to use it in Spain.” Home we went and started a fun customer service e-mail with the bank. They said we could try and use the card tomorrow and it should work. Well, that was today… and it didn’t work. Home again and we made a toll free Skype call. (Who knew you could do that?) After a series of calls back and forth from the bank to the credit card fraud department, it was decided that I really am Nicole Gordon. Also, someone finally had the sense to ask how much I was trying to take out of the ATM. Fun Fact: You can only withdraw $500 within a 24 hour period. Another trip to the ATM and TA-DA. Mulah in the hand.

Highlight of the day for KD: FC Barcelona Spring 2013 Official Futbol Jersey! (For those of you who don’t know, that’s really soccer…. And they happen to be the best team ever!) To add to this highlight, it was 50% off!

 

 

Now! For Las Ramblas! We started off a bit late due to ATM difficulties. However, Las Ramblas were still crawling with vendors and people of all shapes and sizes. There were beautiful flower shops, fans, shawls, trinkets, jewelry, and a host of other souvenirs. (I was slightly offended that  nobody asked me, “Would you like a necklace? A pretty necklace for a pretty lady.”)  We stopped for lunch at Restaurante Oriente for the lunch special! 3 tapas and a Paella. We got patatas bravas, salchichas, and croquettes. For the Paella we got the Paella Valenciana, this includes rice, chicken, vegetables, and delicious spices served hot in a skillet. It was highly recommended from the Rentas family (our friendly Puerto Rican family from Washington D.C.) Needless to say, they make a great recommendation, and it was delicious!

A highlight for both of us was La Boqueteria! Barcelona’s largest outdoor food market. It was closed last time and so we were elated to find it open today! There were rows of fruits, meats, fish heads, candies, ice creams, breads, cheeses, and even Dunkin Donuts! Yep, even in Spain. We’ll have to find an occasion to either lament or celebrate so that we have an excellent excuse to go. Our items of purchase for today were a delicious fruit salad to share, a sour lemon candy for Nikki, and Dulce de Leche/Cookie Gelato ice cream for KD…. Which he also might’ve shared. (What a good husband!)

Peppers

 

Fruit!

 

    More Fruit

 

Chicken and Rabbit?

 

Candies, and Nuts, and Chocolate... OH MY!

 

100% Fruit Popsicles.... unless you get the ones with alcohol in them.

 

Fresh seafood! Be careful! Lobsters still moving on the ice!

 

Giant Fish Heads! Good for soup?

 

Olives!

 

The egg hut! Is she the hen?

 

CANDY!

 

On top: Fruit turned into candy.

On bottom: Candy that looks like fruit.

 

      How they turn fruit into candy! (They soak in sugar water in big glass bowls!)

 

MEAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Our most peculiar find of Las Ramblas is at the end of the street. There are all of these statues that move! They are fantastic! They sit so still until somebody pays them and then they’ll move around. I think we mentioned them last time we went. Our two favorites are probably the golden ange,l who tends to look like she is blessing people when she moves, and Columbus, who has the posture down for the REAL statue that he copycats. They are both very impressive. Overall it was a fun day and enjoyable company!