'30 Years!' - day Five

I left Cathy snoozing this morning and popped out for some victuals - eggs, mineral water and bread.  Breakfast done we took the short (1 minute) walk to the beachside promenade and spent an enjoyable hour sat in the warm sunshine.  We returned to the apartment to pick up a couple of things and headed off to wander around Parc Cuitadella.  We found a sunny spot on some steps and sat there for half an hour just chilling out.  Feeling a bit peckish we returned to Mercat de Santa Caterina to buy some of the excellent Iberican ham - 5J - that we had in Lanzarote, then carried on to Mercat la Boqueira.  We walked around the food stalls, planning to stop at one of the little bars for some tapas, but they were all very expensive (tourist Central), so instead we decided to try a glass of Cava (Cathy) and Rioja (me) at one of the 'try before you buy' wine merchants (how civilized!) and look in our little book for a lunch stop.  A place called Elizabet's looked OK - local home-cooked food and only a short walk away.

We went in and grabbed a table.  The menu was all in Spanish but we managed to order OK. Cathy had a ravioli starter and I had eggs baked with tomato sauce and chorizo - both very tasty. For main Cathy chose veal cheek on the bone with chips, I had a beef stew, again both excellent. The service however, was chaotic, each one of the 3 waiting staff served us, none of them knew what we had ordered! In the end a two course meal with a bottle wine came to €20 - not bad for the centre of town.

When we left the bar it was decidedly colder with a strong easterly wind.  We quickly walked back to Barceloneta, stopping for a very tasty ice cream on the way.  Turning the corner of our apartment block we could see that the sea had whipped up in the wind, the palm trees were bending and a sandstorm was blowing a hooley, so we ducked back into the apartment for a brew. Our intentions of heading out tonight for a bite to eat have probably been thwarted by a combination of the weather and a larger than planned lunch! So we're planning a quiet night in watching TED talks on the iPad - rock & roll!

An early coffee for me by the beach - peaceful

Chilling in Parc Cuitadella in the winter sun

I know exactly what she's thinking...."I want to swim in there!"