A Couple of Days in Barcelona

We flew back to Barcelona on Sunday night.  Since we were getting in late at night, we decided to stay near the airport and go to city on Monday morning.  We stayed at the Barcelona Airport Hotel which I recommend.  Convenient to the airport with a free shuttle, a good beakfast and everyone was very accommodating.

We took a taxi to the apartment in Barceloneta that we rented through HomeAway and were so, so pleased with what we found.  It's a modern one bedroom flat on the fifth floor (yes, there is an elevator) in a good location with great views of the harbor.  We can even see the cruise ships from here.

After settling in, doing some laundry and a bit of walking around, it was time for dinner.  We headed for our favorite tapas restaurant in Barcelona, Sensi.  We had eaten there the 2 previous times we were in Barcelona, the last time almost exactly 2 years ago.  To our amazement, when we walked in the manager and a waiter recognized us immediately and said, "welcome back!".  Of course, we ate there three times in April of 2016 and will do the same this time.  As usual, the food was delicious!

For Tuesday, we booked a "Three Countries" tour through Viator.  It was an all day tour for which we had to be at the tour company office at 7:00 am.  We wondered if we had done the right thing, having to get up so early but it turned out to be a good one.  From Barcelona we were driven through Catalunya to the village of Baga.  Some of the structures in the town date back to medieval times.   Our guide showed us through the village and then directed us to a pastry shop for a local delicacy.  Linda and I went for a much needed coffee at a little local coffee bar and enjoyed the pastry.  As you can see, it was quite cool that morning.

After that it was off to country number 2 for the day, France.  We crossed the now non-existent border and drove to Ax les Thermes, a village with hot springs.  Fortunately for us, there was a market going on.  We walked through the market and then grabbed a sandwich for lunch.  Found a nice bench on a hill overlooking the village.  By now, the weather had improved and it had warmed up nicely.  After lunch we bought a local "pin cake" at the market and then went for another coffee!  It is a charming village and it was good to be back in France.

From there, we were off to our next country, Andorra.  Visiting Andorra was the main impetus for us to book this tour as we had not been there.  Have you?  Leaving Ax les Thermes we began to really climb the Pyrenees.  Eventually there were snowed covered mountains all around us.  We arrived at the border crossing (and it is a real border crossing as Andorra is not a part of the EU) and made our way through.  As our guide got our passports stamped we had the opportunity to take some photos.  Andorra is in a large region that is considered Catalunya and Catalan is the official language.  It is a major ski area and driving through the mountains and the ski resorts was beautiful.  We stopped at a little mountain village to see how things might have been before the country was developed into what it is now.  We then headed for the capital city of Andorra La Vella which was the least impressive part of the country.  It is not very attractive and is just basically a place to shop - not for us.  But, we made it to Andorra and country number 87 for us to have visited.  My guess is we'll never go back.

After an exhausting day we had time to relax a bit before returning to Sensi for dinner.  We had a 9:00 pm reservation which allowed us enjoy the sunset from our apartment.  Dinner was again wonderful.  We tried all different tapas.  I enjoy the Duck Parmentier in Jacques on the Riviera but I have to say that the Duck Parmentier at Sensi is superior (as is the Rosemary smoked tune tartare)!

Today we've taken it a bit easy.  We made the obligatory walk to La Rambla and then went to the Boqueria Market to have lunch and buy some fruit.  As we walked back to the apartment, we were astounded by the number of vendors displaying their wares on the street - everything from purses to shoes to magnets.  It seemed that previously they were really cautious about being challenged by the police but now it is blatantly out in the open.

Tonight we are going to try something different for dinner - a flexitarian restaurant (combining vegetarian with some fish dishes) run by a chef whose vegetarian restaurant was recommended to us.  The menu looks really good.  We'll see.