Thursday, June 30, 2016

Spain: Barcelona Finale

After a few hours wandering The Sagrada Familia, we were exhausted and famished, so off we wandered to find dinner.

More apartments to love

Make sure to stop in and feast at Palo Santo, it was some of the best tapas of the trip, and that is really saying A LOT.  First, their pitcher of sangria is a *spiced* sangria and it is fantastic. Enough such that we JUST HAD TO get a second pitcher. I sampled A. LOT. of sangria on this trip. This was the best one of not only the trip, but the best I have ever had. And I make a killer sangria! We enjoyed gorgonzola and salmon croquettes, potatoes in red sauce, shared a burger, and a few shots of palosanto. What is this shot you ask? Why it is happiness in a small glass of course! It is freshly pureed mango, passion fruit, and an untranslated fruit liquor. A great end to the meal.

Palo Santo: Spiced sangria pitcher #1 of 2

Palo Santo: Potatoes and red sauce

Palo Santo: Gorgonzola and salmon croquettes

Palo Santo shares on of our life mantras

Falling into a heavy food coma, we slept in the next morning. We opted for an active and outside final day, especially as it was the most cerulean the sky had been since our arrival in Barcelona. So we walked all the way to and hike up the mountain to Monjuic Castle. The castle complex is neat, the canons surround it, and the fountains and gardens all around it and on the mountain.








Wanting to get some good arial views of the city, we opted to pay for the tram ride down the mountain.




Lunch was a La Tasquerta de Blai, and it cemented my obsession with all things tapas and sangria.

La Tasquerta

La Tasquerta: What to pick for the next round!!??!!

La Tasquerta: My first pick is always the sangria!

La Tasquerta: Why Adam had such decision difficulty....

La Tasquerta

La Tasquerta

La Tasquerta: We made a friend. Well, Adam made a friend. He LOVED Adam.

La Tasquerta

La Tasquerta

We then went back to our hotel to pack up for an early flight out and take a small nap (a.k.a. land in a food coma) for the afternoon. The evening was spent leisurely strolling the neighborhood and highlighting the trip. Due to still being mostly not hungry from lunch but knowing the was no time for breakfast in the morning, we stopped of for a small final appetizer before saying farewell to the day and the country.

La Clara Restaurant: Shaved jamon iberico, mozzarella cheese with basil tamponade, and a rocket salad

And miraculously we did not come back from this trip morbidly obese. I fully credit that to the fact that we walked absolutely everywhere. We averaged 25,000 steps (10+ miles) per day, so that helped negate all of this delicious and un-regretted gluttony.

But yes. An amazing trip to say the least. I continue to be grateful that we are able to experience all of this amazingness that the world has to offer, granted we work our butts off in order to be able to.