Barceloneta

Our trip was coming to an end.  We had a flight to catch that night.  I was able to arrange for a late check out at the hotel, so we packed our things up as best we could and decided to enjoy the little time we had left.  Phil had enjoyed a big night, so he was nowhere to be found.  Whilst we waited for him, we went exploring the small streets and alleys around the old Gothic Quarter and El Born.  It was relatively early in the morning, so the crowds were only just starting to gather.

We walked past an old looking cafe and went in for breakfast.

The food in Barcelona had been good, but the small style cafes we had enjoyed visiting in Madrid didn't seem to be as good here.  Everything seemed so tourist oriented it was hard to work out what experiences were actually a slice of everyday life and what were just an inauthentic recreation for visitors.  Inside the cafe, everything was fine.  Nothing spectacular or memorable.  Just all fine.  

Later in the morning, with Phil finally awake, we went in search of somewhere for our last lunch of the trip.  Chatting with Phil about our previous visit, I remembered that we had never visited the beach.  Our trips to Barcelona had always been during cooler months, so the fact we hadn't been here was less of a surprise.  However, given the fame of Barcelona as a party town by the beach, it was still somewhere we thought would be worthwhile to visit now.

The part of Barcelona closest to the beach is called "Barceloneta".  It's quite an appropriate literal name for this place as it does feel like a small miniturised version of Barcelona next to the beach.  Within the built up parts of this neighbourhood, the streets were all aligned in a strict grid pattern. Off in the near distance was the ocean.  It was quite a surreal image to see the tight rows of houses, the regular patterns of the streets, and then suddenly all opening up towards the ocean and the sky.  It seemed to make all the buildings float.  I wondered whether this was part of the inspiration for so many of the famed Spanish surrealist artists or even for Chris Nolan.  Were they really such imaginative geniuses or were they merely blessed with inspiration staring them in the face?

 

It was a fantastic (and in some ways fantastical) place to visit.

It was easy to walk.  Everything was close by and there was a more laid back vibe to the place than in the other parts of Barcelona.

It was nearly lunch time, so we found a popular paella place that would take us in.  Once again, looking for a place to eat with the baby Pickle wasn't a problem at all.  The upstairs dining room was not an issue at all, as the staff hurried down to help us carry the stroller up.  There was never a complaint or any hint of annoyance with it.  It was always friendly and always a seemingly normal thing to do.

Baby Pickle was fast asleep.  He was well fed and comfortable.  The long walk had soothed him and so even the move upstairs hadn't been enough to wake him.

For us we were hungry.  We had been eating paella in various locations, but we had been most surprised by the "fideua", which seems best described as being a paella with the rice replaced by noodles.  Whereas the paella was something we could get overseas (albeit to greatly varying degrees of quality), the fideua was something far more special and unique to this part of the world.

Everything was washed down with big jugs of sangria.  All freshly made and full of fruit.  It wasn't particularly refined, but it all tasted great.  Everything was shared, and we pressed spoonfuls of the food onto one another's plates as we quickly and happily ate. 

I was sad to leave, but also keen to get home.  The trip had given me everything I could have hoped for with my new family.  With all the rush and excitement of a new born, in particular with the rush of people constantly around us, it felt at times like we weren't able to spend so much time together without interruption.  This trip was the break from all of that.  It was just us.  Just the three of us.  Our new family, exploring the world together.