Sounds like the title to a Steven King thriller, eh? Nope. It’s just another day in our Barcelona holiday (Brits don’t say ‘vacation’).
It was a bright, sunny day (actually everyday was bright and sunny while we were there) so despite the gentle chill in the air, we decided to make our very first trip to the Mediterranean seaside, or in other words “we just wanted to say we went to the beach”.
So we put on our shades (actually only Lyana was smart enough to pack shades) and headed to the beach.
The kids were all to happy to roll up their trousers and play in the sand. “You can get your feet wet, but don’t you dare get your clothes wet!”
“What did you say Dad?”
Coincidentally (not) we brought along extra clothes. We had a hunch there might be some “accidental” wettage.
The best thing to do after a long, fun afternoon at the beach is finding a good place to eat dinner. That may sound easy, but then you might not have been to Barcelona before where almost every restaurant’s kitchen is closed between 4:30 and 8:30. And it just so happened that the restaurant we wanted to go to fell into that category.
But that didn’t get us down (much). I asked the worker at that restaurant if he could recommend another place for good Paella. And he did! He told us to go around the corner and we’d find a place called [insert name here when you think of it] and tell them that Hugi (that was the guy’s name) sent us.
And that’s where we went. You’ve probably heard the saying that if there’s locals eating at a restaurant, it’s a good bet that the food is good. Well, I think it should go a little further than that, because earlier in our trip we went somewhere that had locals, and it wasn’t very good at all. My new mantra is that if there a a LOT of middle-aged, definitely non-tourist locals playing dominoes and having a good time in the restaurant, than it’s probably a good place to eat. That certainly played true here.
We ordered several tapas (basically al a cart appetizers) and some paella. We were turned off by the paella we had the other night, but we decided to risk it and try again.
I put this chicken thing on Katya’s plate and at first she refused to eat it, until she realized it was just a ball of chicken/cream cheese-like goodness batter-dipped and fried.
Whenever you order paella, the waiter will want to know how many “servings” you want. He’ll tell you the minimum, and unless you are dining alone, then the minimum is never one. Logically, one would be enough for my family, but they wouldn’t allow it. They were nice enough to allow us to order just two servings, though we had a family of 5 (kids don’t count as much, I guess). Each ‘serving’ of paella, by the way, cost 19 Euro!!
And that’s what this monstrosity is: two servings of seafood paella. Mussels, Prawns, octopus and squid, and maybe some other unidentifiable sea creatures, but who’s checking anyway.
It smelled delicious. It looked delicious. But how did it taste? Was this pan of food worth 38 Euro?
Katya wasn’t so sure at first (just like the chicken thing earlier) but when she actually TASTED it, she liked it. And if she liked it, then that’s the best food critic rating you can get.
Please don’t play with your food.
After dinner, the plan was to head toward the Magic Fountain for the famous show where the water fountain goes in sync to music. We thought it was up a mountain, so we planned to ride a cable car to the top where we would see it. As you can see by this picture, this is not a cable car. We arrived at the cable car tower seven minutes after they closed.
At that point we started up a conversation with a couple of rickshaw drivers nearby and we asked them for directions to the Magic Fountain. Good thing we talked to them because as it turns out, the fountain is NOT up the mountain at all, so had we arrived on time to the cable car, we would have ended up in the wrong place.
Anyway, we hit it off with the rickshaw drivers, as they were both British ex-pats, and we ended up hitching a ride with them (for a nominal fee, of course) and they took us to the metro station we needed to get to the fountain.
Along the way we spotted this lobster statue. I’d never seen a statue of a crustacean this size before, so I snapped a quick photo for all of you blog readers.
This was the road we traveled along. Just a picturesque, palm-tree lined traditional-looking European look.
Short 15 minute ride, but well worth the money paid. Ironically, when we went to Thailand, the land of rickshaws, the only “rickshaw” we rode in was in the back of what looked like a miniature Toyota pickup, but not much bigger then these. At least these rickshaws were powered by human energy (pedaling hard). The one in Thailand worked on Petrol.
We hopped off the rickshaws and headed up the street to the metro station. Along the way, we met our old friend Christopher Columbus (that’s him on top of the column). Hey kids, why don’t you pose like the Columbus statue and I’ll take a picture! Yep, that’s them posing like Christopher Columbus. Sort of a jazzy disco version of Columbus.
Perhaps I was the last person in the world to learn this,which is funny because like most of you, I’ve seen these living statue street performers in cities all over the place. What I didn’t know (until our trip to London several weeks ago) was that they will change position, usually doing something funny for the kids in the process, then allow you to take your photo with them ONLY if you place money in the bucket. Otherwise, don’t take a photo of them. They don’t really appreciate that.
Don’t worry, we gave this guy some change. And in return, he gave my child a revolver.
Finally we made it to the Magic Fountain, found a place sitting on the stone steps in front, and waited. 7:30 rolled around and the magic began. You, too, can experience the magic.
1) put on some Beethoven
2) turn all the water taps in your house on to full blast
3) with all three fountain pictures (see below) showing on your screen, blink really fast while alternating between each of them for 15 minutes. Voila! your very own Magic Fountain.
Actually, the fountains were pretty cool. It was also cool to witness the hundreds of the people who showed up to watch it, and that was just the first show of the evening. The shows continue every 30 minutes well into the night.
These . . . are my children . . . usually.
And this is me and my sweetheart . . . always.
Roberto
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