il giovane holden: barcelona

For me Barcelona was a city of contrasts - the old with the new, the quiet and peaceful beaches with the loud busy bustle of a city, the calm empty mornings with the lively nights full of people; it was almost as if no one really came outside until around 5:00 pm and then the streets were packed with people all through the night.

medieval ruins at Mercat del Born

ruins

We stayed in Raval, the gothic quarter, which was relatively close to everything, especially with the metro. Dave's conference was a short walk from our hotel, near the Mercat de Santa Caterina.

Mercat de Santa Caterina

This market, renovated by EMBT, while on Dave's list of architecture to visit also provided all the staples we needed for our picnics in the Parc de la Ciutadella (fruit, good cheese, olives, marcona almonds, bread, and chorizo for Dave). Also, Holden met a little girl from California named Bea at a tapas bar here at the market and they played in the placa in front of the market for the entire evening. Parc de la Ciutadella was a favorite. Holden really enjoyed the park; we spent some time here on a few different days, including one day when we took a rowboat around the lake.

playing in the park

mammoth in Parc de la Ciutadella

rowboat in Parc de la Ciutadella

rowboat

heron we spotted on our rowboat

rowboat

Holden's treehouse in the park

Holden's treehouse

And at the tip of the park was Holden's favorite museum, the Museu de la Xocolata (museum of chocolate).

Museu de la Xocolata

ice cream!

pretending to skateboard outside MACBA

It's strange since I love NYC so much, but in Barcelona the loud neighborhoods of Eixample and the Diagonal were just too much and I preferred the quieter areas. We did take the metro up here to see some of the famous Gaudi works - the Sagrada Familia, Casa Mila, and Casa Batllo.

Sagrada Familia

playground in front of the Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia

Casa Batllo

And while the Passeig de Gracia and the Portal de l'Angel had tons of great shopping, my favorite area for shopping was the quiet neighborhood of Born and Holden and I enjoyed finding cafes and shops here and walking through the Raval neighborhood near our hotel.

shop in Raval with handmade shoes and bags

Most nights we just ate tapas like tortilla espanola and calamari fritti, which Holden actually liked, but one night we did have some paella and we found out he is not really a fan of paella.

tapas at Mercat de Santa Caterina

We had pretty good food, but the restaurant that I really wanted to go to Pez Vela on the beach, was booked the entire time we were there. But definitely our best day was spent on the beach at Barceloneta, quietly floating in the serene ocean, as though we were the only people in the entire world.