The Afternoon we Fell in Love

...with Barcelona.

Who wouldn't fall in love with this view?

And what made it even better? Our lunch table got the same view!

We were then delighted to hear that they had a 10 euro per person three-course lunch menu. That's our kind of place!

And this is one very happy traveler.

And then it got better. Wanna know why?

Because the food started coming. We got giant glasses of Gazpacho, and some kind of bruschetta.

But wait, there's more! Then they brought out a giant salad, and a similarly giant pot of mussels!

My face says it all.

Surely there couldn't be more. Ah but there was! Enormous pan of paella, anyone?

We sat there for literally hours trying to make our way through all this food.

And then... there was dessert! Tom's nemesis.

With drinks included too, that massive feast (with gorgeous view) cost us a total of 20 euros. Amazing.

We enjoyed it so much we decided to hang around for a little while absorbing the ambience (and perhaps digesting some of the food).

What can I say? We heart Barcelona.

As much as we wanted to just stay there forever, we decided we absolutely had to keep sight-seeing. Must get value out of that hop-on-hop-off bus pass!

Here's Tom checking that the bus is in fact going the right way.

We hopped off to explore a little bit on foot.

Tom couldn't resist stopping to read a giant book...as you do.

We found another of Gaudi's famous full-of-character buildings...

And then walked up the street a bit more to find another one.

There are hints of Gaudi's influence all over the place.

This is perhaps not Gaudi-influenced.

Tom had a face-off with a bull.

And then gave him a scratch, of course.

We then decided to take a wander down the very popular main shopping street, La Rumbla.

Time for a bit of sustenance...

The street performers provided a bit of entertainment...

This guy would stay completely still and then leap up, frightenin every tween girl in sight. It was better fun watching them scream than watching him.

We walked the length of La Rumbla, and ended up back near the waterfront again (a bit further down from our earlier long lovely lunch).

We found a little bar that the guide on the tour bus recommended, and decided to give it a try for dinner.

And we had The. Best. Steak.

A happy traveler again.

And that was it. After such a huge lunch, half a steak each for dinner was plenty.

We made our way back towards the hop-on-hop-off bus route to try to catch one of the last buses to take us as far towards our hotel as we could make it,  satisfied that we had well and truly enjoyed our first day in Barcelona.