Paella Valencia (my version)

2 Tbsps extra-virgin olive oil
16 ounces boneless chicken thighs, cut into chunks
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup onion, julienned
8 ounces white wine
10 ounces petite canned diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 Tbsp smoked paprika
pinch saffron (crush before adding)
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
10 ounces uncooked short grain rice
20 ounces chicken broth
about 10 medium shrimp (peeled and deveined)
about 12 bay scallops
1/2 lemon, cut into 8 wedges

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a paella pan, heat the olive oil and saute the chicken until it is golden. Add garlic, bay leaf and onion. Saute until onions are transparent. Add white wine, tomatoes, saffron, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil for 3 minutes. Then, add rice and chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add seafood and cover the paella pan with foil and bake in oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Garnish with sliced lemon wedges and serve.

Results: The rice turned out great, but I definitely needed to use more spice overall, so I upped the numbers in the ingredient list above. The seafood was cooked fine; I would probably use sea scallops quartered next time just because I Like their flavor better. Not too shabby for my first attempt! :)

Note: We borrowed a friend’s paella pan for this as you really need a flat bottomed pan to make sure the rice cooks evenly.

One of my favorite parts of visiting Montserrat was the Santa Cova trail. Legend says that the Virgin was found in this cave and when the men tried to transport her to Manresa, she grew too heavy to carry. Therefore, a monastery was built in the location where she was found.

All along the trail to the small chapel are statues that tell the story of Christ’s life. Each one uses the landscape to heighten the affect of the message.

The Santa Cova chapel is built right into the mountainside and is the same pink color of the local sedimentary rock.

Inside is a shrine where people have left items of thanks to the Virgin, including signed sports pennants, an ultrasound photo, and a pair of children’s crutches.

The hike to the chapel was well worth the climb and the outdoor sculptures made stopping to rest for a minute even more enjoyable.

Montserrat is truly nestled in amongst huge pink cliffs. The mountains tower over the abbey and we thought they looked a little like figures watching over the cloisters.

From the outside the abbey is very attractive, but we were blown away by the interior and the detailed sculptures that lined the open courtyard.

The amount of detailing and decoration was incredible. See for yourself…

We did not wait in line to touch the Virgin of Montserrat, or la Moreneta, but we did sit quietly to take in the ambiance and I flipped through a hymn book while Eric snapped several series of HDR raw photos.

For our big trip outside of Barcelona we visited beautiful Montserrat. Instead of buying all the travel portions of the trip separately, we got the Trans Montserrat pass for around 21€ which included round trip transportation on subway, train, rack railway and two funiculars. It took about 95 minutes one way and the views from the abbey were spectacular.

We grabbed a ciabatta loaf and an orange Fanta and headed up the Sant Joan funicular to eat lunch on one of the highest points around. We got there pretty early, so the tour buses full of people we still another hour or two away. :)

Here’s the view we had from our lunch spot.

From here, we hiked over to an overlook point to see the abbey from above. This view made us appreciate the steep funicular ride even more!

On Sunday, after our self-guided tour of Gaudi’s buildings, walk down Passeig de Gracia, and tennis, we headed out to the waterfront to do some exploring.

The Port Vell marina was stuffed with people hanging out, eating picnics and listening to live music. The public art is just fantastic on this stretch, from a giant silly lobster to wobbly boxes (L’Estel Ferit by Rebecca Horn).

We really enjoyed people watching and the fact that there were so many different ages and types enjoying themselves on a beautiful sunny afternoon. It stays light pretty late here, so even though it was nearing 7pm, there were still a ton of folks hanging out on the beach.

All along the beach are little huts and restaurants offering food and drink. And not everyone was lounging around soaking up the sun, there were many volleyball games and even a few jungle gyms for kids.

And I got to dip my feet in the Mediterranean Sea! Brr!

One of the things all the guidebooks tell you not to miss when you visit Barcelona is the various buildings designed by Antoni Gaudí, so on Sunday afternoon, before the (ultimately disappointing) men’s French Open final, we took the subway up to Sagrada Familia and then over to L’Eixample to see Casa Milà and Casa Batlló.

Obviously, Sagrada Familia has been under construction for forever now (they say it will be completely in 30 years, don’t hold your breath), but I was still surprised to see the sheer number of cranes surrounding the church. That, and the fact that several tour buses were parked out front, really takes away from the ambiance, but the architecture is truly unique and still worth a visit.

We didn’t go inside, but based on the facade work, I imagine that the interior is pretty amazing.

Casa Milà, nicknamed La Pedrera or ‘The Quarry’, stands on the corner of Passeig de Gracia and C/Provenca. It’s a huge building composed of wavy walls and highly detailed iron balcony work. It looks like the building is melting, I think.

The next stop on our list was Casa Batlló, otherwise known as the ‘Dragon House’. While it’s impossible to see all of Gaudí’s vision from the street, you can see bits and pieces such as the bone details on the windows and the colorful scale-like mosaic.

On the last day of our trip we took the #24 bus north of town to see Parc Guell. Although it was raining for most of the day, we still walked around the entire grounds and greatly enjoyed the panoramic views of Barcelona. As for the park itself, we were a little disappointed. The mosaic benches were lovely, but the dragon, though colorful, was smaller than I thought it would be.

Another issue was that of restoration again, the first sculpture at the main entrance was completely shrouded and none of the fountains were running, so the overall effect was ultimately lost. I found out later that the dragon was severely damaged by vandals last year, so I guess we’re lucky to see it at all.

Gaudí’s work is seen in many places throughout Barcelona, but there were many other talented architects at work here too, and all you have to do to enjoy it is walk around and pay attention.

Eric’s conference took place in the Palau del Congressos building near Plaça d’Espanya, so I met him up there for lunch and to meander around the Montjuïc area in between sessions. Included in the conference was a daily (and tasty) box lunch: foot-long baguette sandwich, salad with nuts and cheese, fresh fruit, chips, Fanta, water, and a full-sized chocolate bar. Plenty for the both of us to split. :)

Although we never entered the National Museum, the views from the top were absolutely stunning. Thankfully there were outdoor escalators to help folks up the steep incline.

(click on the image for a larger version)

Behind the museum is the site of the 1992 Summer Olympics, featuring a huge torch monument, public sculpture, gardens, and, of course, the Olympic Stadium.

Because of the drought (I imagine), none of the fountains in the city were running. However, on Sunday (the last day of the conference) there was a bike rally and concert in the Plaça de Carles Buïgas, so all the water was turned on. I’m glad we got to see the plaça in its full glory at least once!

On our first day in Barcelona, we walked all over the Barri Gotic, La Ribera and El Born neighborhoods.

We really enjoyed the narrow streets and courtyards sprinkled throughout.

We spent a little time wandering around the Santa Caterina market and after some drinks outdoors at a place on C/Vermell, we spent an hour exploring the Museu de la Xocolata. The museum is dedicated to the history of chocolate in Catalonian culture and features several sculptures from local candy-makers.

Next, we made our way to Parc de la Ciutadella and up to the Arc de Triomf. We missed the one in Paris, but this one was still pretty impressive.

At this point it started pouring, so we worked our way back (using large trees to stay mostly dry) to the Picasso Museum to dry off. Neither Eric or I are huge fans of cubism (Miro and Dali are more our speed), but his earlier works is where the museum really shined. It’s divided into years/periods, so it was very easy to see the progression of Picasso’s style throughout his painting career. The museum is actually spread out between a few gorgeous townhouses, so the building itself is almost as impressive as the collection!

Earlier, I wrote about some of the frustrating aspects of renting an apartment in Barcelona, but this post is about how much we loved having our own little place in the city.

Even though the location of the apartment was on a busy street, once the balcony and bedroom door were closed it was quiet enough to sleep. Plus, we were in a good location for getting to and from Eric’s conference (a 20 minute walk each way), easy access to great markets (two within a ten minute walk), and near lots of good restaurants, grocery stores, and bakeries.

Our view from the balcony to the apartments across the street…

Here’s how we dealt with the apartment negatives:

Problem #1, no wine bottle opener
We had planned on drinking cava most of the time, which is like champagne, so the bottles essentially open themselves, but I wanted some rioja to enjoy with my late lunches. On the way to Eric’s conference location one day I spotted a place that sold wine from a huge barrel for only 1.80E a liter! They just poured it into a bottle, corked it and after 1.35E I was on my way. In other words, the wine in this bottle is in no way related to its label. It was pretty good, btw. :)

Problem #2, no matches to light the igniter-free gas stovetop
Eric came up with a solution to this problem. He took a long piece of cardstock, rolled it up tightly and set it on fire via the pilot light. He then carried the flame from the laundry area into the kitchen while I turned on the gas. All so I could make eggs on two of the mornings. I would not really recommend this method, but it worked for us.

Problem #3, neglectful management
Since we never had the opportunity to make a complaint directly to the manager upon checking out, I happily filled in the booking company with the details of our stay when they emailed us a survey to complete. :)

The experience of renting (and living in) an apartment in Barcelona for a week was both fantastic and frustrating. We booked the place online (of course) and had plenty of contact with the guy in charge of managing the apartment before we arrived. He knew in advance that we didn’t have a cell phone and that we would only call him if our plans had changed or we were running late. We got to the appointed spot a few minutes early but after waiting for almost half an hour, I was worried he was never going to show up!

So I went to the internet cafe next door and called him, he apologized, saying he thought we had a cell phone and was beginning to wonder why he hadn’t heard from us. (sigh) Anyway, after this he was there in a flash and the rest of the check-in process went smoothly.

The apartment itself was fine, relatively clean, and had enough space for us to spread out for the week. The stairwell leading up to the fourth floor (no lift!) was rundown, with many broken floor tiles, but thankfully there was a light at the entrance to the street and our apartment, so we never had to navigate in the pitch dark.

Perhaps it was because we were tired, but we never checked to make sure we had a wine bottle opener while he was checking us in. Once I discovered this a day later, I emailed him to ask about it and he promised to drop one off later that day.

Never. Saw. Him. Again.

We also had many problems with heat in the apartment. For one, the on-demand gas water heat pilot light went out at least five times during our week-long stay, usually right before Eric wanted to take his shower. To relight it involved the slow and tedious process of holding in the button and “very very slowly” (according to the directions) releasing the button to keep the flame lit. Additionally, there were no matches anywhere in the apartment to light the gas stove that didn’t have a built-in igniter.

Finally, we had agreed on a 8am “prompt-check-out-time” (his wording) when we left and two women (we had never met) showed up over 15 minutes late to check us out and give us our deposit back. Thankfully we still made the train we needed to get to the airport on time, but it was certainly not how I wanted to start my last morning in Barcelona.

Despite all of these inconveniences, there was plenty of good, so check back to find out how we got around some of these obstacles!