Month: January 2024

Found a great coffee bar here in Eixample, just a block from our apartment. All they do is coffee (plus one or two pastries) so they have to be pretty good, they have nothing to hide behind. This morning was a lovely sunny morning (although brisk being winter). So I had my coffee sitting in this lovely little square near Girona metro station.

We booked a tour that took us out of Barcelona for a day, out to the Montserrat area (Serrated Mountain) where there is a Monastery / church a few cafes, an art gallery / museum and some amazing walks.

The tour walked us around the area for 15 minutes showing us what we could do, then let us explore for 2.5hrs. We had a Quick Look in the church (Surprise! It’s a massive European church), then we had coffee. Sharon went into the Gallery, Emma and I chose a walk around some of the paths and views are stunning.

Bus then picked us up and took us to a winery for lunch and wine tasting. The property has been in operation for over 1000 years, but only making wine for the last 30.

Lunch was served in a modern building and the food was fantastic. Then a look around the wine cellar and tasting was in a building that’s a few hundred years old. The atmosphere of being in a castle like building drinking wine was fantastic. All the others on the tour were fantastic and we had an amazing day. Our guide Lesly was fantastic, telling us all the local history, about the wine, the food and her own amazing stories about moving from Cuba to Spain.

This tour was through https://www.castlexperience.com/en I would highly recommend a tour if you are coming to Barcelona.

After our food tour, we did a tour of the Gaudi designed church, Sagrada Familia.

Personally, I’m not a massive fan of the outside design, it’s very “busy”, but the inside with the light coming through the stained glass is stunning. I read the best time to see it was near sunset, so we did just that.

One of the most interesting things was the school Gaudi built for the workers children. It was only designed to be temporary but the building is such a great design and example of his work they have kept it.

Our first day in Barcelona was a busy one, we started with a local food tour. Our guide Ricardo is a born and bred local Barcelonian who is both passionate about his food and his city. We started our tour with some local pastries, best described as a long but thin donut filled with custard that has a very subtle citrus flavour. This particular shop does the best ones in Barcelona. The city recognises the best of the best with plaques embedded in the street outside shops like this one.

We then went to a local market (there is one in every district) and had a selection of cheeses and Jamons. Ricardo explained the difference with the pigs and what they eat and how it impacts the flavour of the meat.

Then to his favourite local for some awesome tapas, then onto a restaurant for some Paella. Walking through the various districts Ricardo explained the local history and how it’s impacted all the foods as well as how all the various cultures since Roman times have added various layers to the gastronomic culture.

One of the local Tapas specialties is the “Bomb” it’s a round ball of meat covered in mashed potato then deep fried. These were amazing. This sweet peppers were also amazing.

This would be the seventh or eighth tour I’ve done with secretfoodtours.com and this was just as awesome as the others. Put this on your list !

A few more pics from our brief stay in Cordoba