Barcelona: Boqueria and Batllo

After doing a city bus tour the previous day to get the lay of the land in Barcelona, we decide to go deeper.  Bryce loves architecture, Laurel loves to ride the metro, I love to eat, and Sue enjoys taking photos, so today's itinerary had something for everyone.

After our normal late start at noon, we metroed to Placa Catalunya, and found La Boqueria - Barcelona's famous market.  When searching for places to eat online, two market restaurants surfaced, and I sought out Pinotxo. In amongst the fruit vendors, veggie stalls, meat stands and such are a few eateries.  Pinotxo occupies a corner booth at the entrance to the market, and Señor Pinxoto himself greets you and helps you decide what to get.  He starts by asking "carne o pescado?" (meat or seafood), and you drill down from there.  Bryce wound up with a macaroni dish, Laurel got cheesy croquettes, but Sue and I had the masterpieces: Sue got an excellent Beef Bourginoine-like stew, and I thoroughly enjoyed a baby squid and bean dish which was one of the best tasting things I have had in Spain.  When, Bryce and Sue went in search of a baño, Laurel and I asked about dessert, and Señor Pinxoto recommended a flan de queso (cheese flan) dessert.  If you can:  imagine a combination of flan and cheesecake, and the best attributes of both. The flan was sandwiched between two flaky pastry halves, and when combined into a single bite it's pure heaven.  (The flan by itself was pretty awesome too.)  Laurel and I finished before Sue and Bryce returned, and decide to destroy the evidence from the rest of the family.

 

Overview of La Boqueria Market

 

Eggs anyone?

Yummm. Chocolates...

Sue and the kids picking out chocolates.

  

Pinxoto Bar

 

My amazing bean and baby squid meal from Pinotxo

 

Fruit juice display... lovely.

Next on our plan was a visit to Casa Batllo, a house designed by Gaudi - the world famous architect of Barcelona. You can tour the inside of Casa Batllo, which made this an attractive stop since Bryce is especially interested in interior design.  The house did not disappoint, as the whole design was unlike any building I have ever seen.  The audio guide explained how Gaudi used structures found in nature as inspiration for his designs.  The house has very few straight lines, instead using curvy shapes reminiscent of vertebrae, bones, leaves and water patterns for both aesthetic and functional reasons.  Both kids enjoyed the tour, and afterwards were inspired to try to recreate some of the designs they saw using Minecraft, a virtual building game on the iPad.

 

The Attic. Note the rib-cage shape of the beams.

 

Ceramic work on top.

 

The lightwell. The tiles start dark at the top and get lighter as they go
down, so the entire inside appears uniform.