Month: September 2021

This morning we had the breakfast buffet in our Parador. It is included in our room rate. We have had a lot of Parador breakfasts over the last few years so it was interesting to see how they have changed because of covid. The first difference was that each person had their own set of tongs to use at the buffet.

The other big difference was that there were no communal serving dishes, no pitchers of orange juice or bowls of fruit. Everything was packaged individually.

Monday is the weekly market in La Seu d’Urgell so after breakfast we walked through the market.

La Seu d’Urgell Parador is built around the cloister of the ancient church of Saint Domènec which was originally built in the 14th century. We were able to tour the church and the nearby Cathedral of Santa Maria which was constructed in the 12th century.

The parador gave us a map of hiking trails in the mountains nearby. We chose a hike that was described as relatively easy. To get to where the trail started we drove up the steep side of a nearby valley on a narrow switchbacking road to the tiny village of Ansovell. From there we hiked about a mile further uphill to the Santuari de Bascalt. The scenery was gorgeous. The cow bells serenaded us much of the way. And the old church or sanctuary was interesting.

After our hike we stopped for a picnic on our way back down to the main road.

It was a short drive from Ansovell to the Hotel Parador de Canolich in Andorra where we are staying tonight. Duke and I have stayed here twice before. The proprietors remember us which is fun. It started to rain as we were arriving and rained for most of the rest of the afternoon and evening. We played cards and then had another great dinner.

This morning we started our day as we did yesterday with coffee at the cafeteria at the top of the Corté Inglés department store.

Corté Inglés doesn’t have much of a selection so our next stop was a nearby cafe where we had breakfast.

Next we went back to our hotel, checked out and took a cab to the Sant train station where we rented a car. Driving out of Barcelona was fairly easy. We headed north and started looking for a grocery store. When we found one, we all went in to shop for some water and snacks. I think foreign grocery stores are always interesting. The meat department had a big pork section, a much smaller beef section and several other meats including rabbit.

Our final destination was a Parador in La Seu d’Urgell, not far from the border with Andorra. The further north we went the more mountainous the terrain became.

Duke and I have stayed at more than half the Paradors in Spain. As a result we get a special treat when we arrive.

A bit later we went down to the bar, had our welcome drinks, and played five hundred.

La Seu d’Urgell is where the Olympic kayaking and canoeing events were held for the 1992 olympics. We walked through the old town down to the Olympic park.

We ate dinner at the Parador.

We both woke up early this morning due I suppose to jet lag. We were at the doors of the Corté Inglés department store on Plaza Catalan at 9am when they opened. The cafeteria on the top floor has great food and a stupendous view.

We hadn’t walked around the old gothic quarter yet on this trip so we explored the narrowing winding streets for a bit and then had breakfast number 2. I love croissants. This time we had something called fartós. They were kind of like croissant sticks, so good! And the chocolate croissant was just as heavenly.

This afternoon we went out to the airport and met Brian and JoAnn who will be traveling with us for the next two weeks. We are staying at the Avenida Palace Hotel here in Barcelona for one more night.

After Brian and JoAnn got settled we walked around in the Gothic Quarter some more. The facade of the Barcelona Cathedral is pretty amazing.

We ate dinner at a place called el Concepto. The service was exceptionally good and the food was too.

My desert was a chocolate torte with whipped cream. I’m not sure what the red things were on top but they were very good.

We were all pretty exhausted by the time we made it back to the hotel. Monday our plan is to rent a car and leave Barcelona.

Today is our first full day in Barcelona. We slept in a bit and then went out to find coffee and croissants.

Rick Steve’s does some wonderful, free audio tours. Today we decided to do his tour of the Barcelona Eixample district. The Eixample is an expansion area that was added to Barcelona in the mid 1800s. Eixample is the Catalan word for expansion. the neighborhood is very upscale. It includes many of Barcelona’s Modernista buildings. The first one we stopped at was La Pedrera (also known as Casa Milà) it was built around 1906 by Antoni Gaudi. We toured the building with our friends Ray and Linda on another trip to Barcelona.

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Further along we stopped at a block with three modernista buildings in a row. It’s called the Block of Discord. The first building is another Gaudy building, Casa Battló.

I love the detail in the carvings and balconies

The building next door, Casa Amatller , was the work of another Modernista architect, Josep Puig i Cadafalch.

Today is Catalonia Day. There are no big events because of covid but we did see lots of flags and T-shirts.

Another pretty stop on our walking tour was the Navarro Flower Shop. According to our tour it is open 24/7.

For dinner we ate at a restaurant on Las Ramblas, the pedestrian promenade that goes from Plaza Catalonia near our hotel down to the coast. The restaurant, Louro, is up some stairs and towards the back of a building. The approach is not propitious but the restaurant, the service and the food were excellent.

We started with scallops.

For our main course Duke had octopus and I had turbot.

For desert we had the house special cake.

The food and sangria were all excellent. The walk back to our hotel along the Ramblas was a perfect ending to a great day.

Duke and I are at the start of a two month European adventure. Wednesday we drove from Reno to my daughter’s house in Walnut Creek. Thursday afternoon Allison drove us to Bart and we headed to San Francisco airport. We had a very comfortable flight from San Francisco to Barcelona on Level Airlines.

Entry into Spain was easy. After they checked out passport we went through a check where we had to show our QR codes. A couple days before we left we had to go on a Spanish website and provide our vaccine details and flight information. It was reviewed and we were sent a QR code which proved we were good to enter Spain

We are staying at a very nice hotel a couple of blocks from the Plaza Catalana. After checking in we went up to the rooftop terrace. They have a wonderful view.

Although jet lag is definitely closing in, We were determined to stay up until at least 10. we went for a short walk. It is interesting to see that everyone here wears a mask inside. When people aren’t wearing their masks they have them pushed up on their upper arm. Given that we have only been in Spain about 6 hours this is a small sample size, but there don’t seem to be many Americans here.

This sign we saw outside a pharmacy advertises covid tests for €8.50 and 50 masks for €10.

We had great steaks for dinner at Patagonia restaurant. They started us off with three breads and three sauces. Yum!

Our steaks and wine were great too and the bill was about $90.