The best chocolate fudge cake in Barcelona

After the Sagrada Familia, we headed up the Carrer de Provenca and discovered Cafe Chill. Time for a coffee, we decided. I spotted chocolate fudge cake on the menu. No harm in trying a bit. Conclusion: the best chocolate fudge cake in Barcelona.

Sagrada Familia

After breakfast we walked to the Sagrada Familia, famously known as the Unfinished Cathedral. Designed by Gaudi, work on building it has been going on for decades. When we saw it, much of it was covered with tarpaulins and scaffolding. Sorry if this offends, but I was not impressed by the bits of the building that were finished.







If you feel the need to buy souvenirs of Barcelona, there is a market next to the Sagrada Familia. We had a look around. No purchases made!

Breakfast at the Cafe Mocay

Our first day in Barcelona last week and we decided against breakfast at the hotel as we wanted to try out as many eating establishments as possible. Se we headed off and found the Cafe Mocay on Avinguda Gran Via de les Corts Catalana.





Pleasant enough.

Our first tapas

Go to Spain and eating tapas is a requirement. We were also hungry so in the evening we found the Campeon Restaurant on Carrer de Diputacio.







Mushrooms, peppers, octopus and squid - very nice.

Osbar

Having had a coffee at the El Nogal cafe, we went for a walk around the city, sticking mainly to Carrer de Diputacio. We ended up after a while at Osbar, a gay coffee bar where another coffee beckoned.



It was quiet when we visited (had people heard we were coming?) The music felt like a rerun of Smooth Radio back in the UK. Pleasant enough.

El Nogal Restaurant

Okay, so we had arrived at our hotel and I was gasping for a tea or coffee. We headed out into the city and one block along Carrer de Diputacio we arrived at El Nogal restaurant.



It was in El Nogal that we discovered most bars and restaurants have hams hanging up.



We also found something that was typical of all the bars, cafes and restaurants we visited in Barcelona - service was pleasant and helpful (though one minor example a couple of days later at a different restaurant was a small fly in the ointment on our visit.)

The journey to Barcelona

I am just back from a five day visit to Barcelona so for the next few days I will be posting up about the trip. It started on Tyneside on 8th December where I live rather than from London (which I visit often as I have a flat there). I rarely drive to London. I let the train take the strain so for me the first leg started at Newcastle Central Station. Once at Kings Cross I took the tube across London to Victoria and then an overground train to Crystal Palace to stay in the flat overnight.



A taxi at 6.30am took us to East Croydon station from where we took a train to Gatwick. We were greeted by the sunrise as we arrive at North Terminal.



We were flying BA so we knew there would be food served during the flight. However, we were not expected to fly until 9.40am so we made our own refuelling stop at the Armadillo cafe, which appears to serve up food of a Mexican nature.



Despite not being a lover of retail and restaurant chains, Armadillo turned out to be reasonably priced and the food of a reasonable quality. Deciding to eat at this point also turned out to be a good move. We boarded the plane and then got stuck on the reserve runway for two hours. Barcelona had a storm blowing and were restricting landing slots. Eventually we took off, headed south and then on the run in to Barcelona we discovered just how stormy it was. I thought it was fun but lots of other people were reaching for their sick bags.



The best way to get from the airport to the city centre was by bus. It cost 5.9 euros each, much cheaper than a taxi. The terminus was in Placa de Catalunya. It took about 15 minutes to walk from there to the Hotel Antibes at 390 Carrer de Diputacio.

And so began our bargin holiday - booked via eBookers for £170 each.