Day Two - Adventures in Running and Eating
I knew that I wanted to book a running tour of Barcelona before we got here but, as per usual, I dilly dallied and waited until the last minute. I wanted to do the sunrise 10K around the city on Wednesday thinking that Tuesday would be too soon after arriving, but the Wednesday morning tour time was taken up. Omar and I discussed it and just decided that we would suck it up and get up early on Tuesday. I thought this may be a bit challenging, what with jet lag and the nearly two liters of wine we downed at Casa Alfonso the night before. Before going to bed on Monday night we set an alarm on just about every device we have (which is like 20).
Surprisingly, Tuesday morning came around and we both popped out of bed pretty easily. Don't you just love quality wine that doesn't giving you a raging, day long headache? Phew. Our guide, Robin, met us outside out hotel at 7:15 and we did all of the standard introductions and off we went. Robin was clearly an elite runner. I mean, the guy runs all day for his job! He quit his job in Germany and started Go! Running Tours Barcelona when he moved here with his wife. In fact, he leads almost every tour himself. He's like the Forrest Gump of Barcelona.
Would you even believe that I forgot my Garmin!? Ugh. I really wanted to have some cool GPS data to share, but jet lag beat out brain cells. Robin was really fantastic. He ran at our pace (which looked like a nice lope/semi walk for him) and he was extremely knowledgeable about the route and all of the important "big" highlights of the city. In retrospect this was the perfect was to start our trip here. We got a broad overview of most of the barrios and discovered things we needed to come back for and things we could check off the list.
He also stopped several times to take the obligatory photos. He was very intuitive to when we seemed to be getting tired and he would stop and give us a lengthy explanation of something important or neat about Barcelona.
Our running tour took us by the beach and the marina, the Old Town, Gothic and Born districts (my favorite!!). It was a wonderful way to see all of the highlights! Robin ran us back to our hotel entry and then gave us several recommendations on must-dos/eats in the area. Once he left, O and I picked up two big waters and a ham and cheese bocadillo from the little store below our apartment. It was the perfect breakfast to cap off a wonderful run (and cheap!). While I would have loved to have had the GPS data, I'm glad I wasn't tied to my watch for this experience. It was liberating and fun to just take in everything around us. If you are ever planning to visit Barcelona - please, please, please take advantage of this wonderful way to see the sights!
After we both showered and realized - oh, yeah we are really jet lagged - we both laid down for about a 3 hour "nap". Ooops. Feeling recharged though we set off again around 2 pm to find some lunch. We headed back towards the Born district, because we both fell in love with it while running through it. There we found a great Argentine restaurant, El Foro. We discovered here the wondrous thing that is the men del dia (menu of the day). Most restaurants around the area have one and it is the cheapest way to eat - you get a starter, main course, dessert and wine or beer inclusive. We both had a big churrasco style steak and papas fritas, which really hit the spot! Oh - and more wine of course!
We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening strolling the narrow and beautiful streets of the Born district. We loved the quaint streets, old buildings, and Spanish guitarists and musicians we came across along the way. We also visited a couple of museums and archaeological sites which were really cool!
Some how or another we wound up hungry again late in the evening and strolled into a fun tapas bar where tried a couple of weird things (like deep friend anchovies).
We wandered a bit more - right back to Casa Alfonso for some (more!) wine and snacks. I swear we are eating our way through Barcelona! But it is all small things and we snack mostly. Here we enjoyed another couple of carafes of vino, a glass of cava (champagne) and these tasty little chorizo sausages (I like to call them the lil smokies of Spain).
Finally, around 11 pm after too much food, wine and being on our feet, we retired back to our cozy home and called it a night! What a fantastic day!
Thanks for a great start to our trip in Spain, Robin!
Surprisingly, Tuesday morning came around and we both popped out of bed pretty easily. Don't you just love quality wine that doesn't giving you a raging, day long headache? Phew. Our guide, Robin, met us outside out hotel at 7:15 and we did all of the standard introductions and off we went. Robin was clearly an elite runner. I mean, the guy runs all day for his job! He quit his job in Germany and started Go! Running Tours Barcelona when he moved here with his wife. In fact, he leads almost every tour himself. He's like the Forrest Gump of Barcelona.
Would you even believe that I forgot my Garmin!? Ugh. I really wanted to have some cool GPS data to share, but jet lag beat out brain cells. Robin was really fantastic. He ran at our pace (which looked like a nice lope/semi walk for him) and he was extremely knowledgeable about the route and all of the important "big" highlights of the city. In retrospect this was the perfect was to start our trip here. We got a broad overview of most of the barrios and discovered things we needed to come back for and things we could check off the list.
He also stopped several times to take the obligatory photos. He was very intuitive to when we seemed to be getting tired and he would stop and give us a lengthy explanation of something important or neat about Barcelona.
 |
| Sunrise over the Med! |
After we both showered and realized - oh, yeah we are really jet lagged - we both laid down for about a 3 hour "nap". Ooops. Feeling recharged though we set off again around 2 pm to find some lunch. We headed back towards the Born district, because we both fell in love with it while running through it. There we found a great Argentine restaurant, El Foro. We discovered here the wondrous thing that is the men del dia (menu of the day). Most restaurants around the area have one and it is the cheapest way to eat - you get a starter, main course, dessert and wine or beer inclusive. We both had a big churrasco style steak and papas fritas, which really hit the spot! Oh - and more wine of course!
We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening strolling the narrow and beautiful streets of the Born district. We loved the quaint streets, old buildings, and Spanish guitarists and musicians we came across along the way. We also visited a couple of museums and archaeological sites which were really cool!
Some how or another we wound up hungry again late in the evening and strolled into a fun tapas bar where tried a couple of weird things (like deep friend anchovies).
We wandered a bit more - right back to Casa Alfonso for some (more!) wine and snacks. I swear we are eating our way through Barcelona! But it is all small things and we snack mostly. Here we enjoyed another couple of carafes of vino, a glass of cava (champagne) and these tasty little chorizo sausages (I like to call them the lil smokies of Spain).
Finally, around 11 pm after too much food, wine and being on our feet, we retired back to our cozy home and called it a night! What a fantastic day!
Thanks for a great start to our trip in Spain, Robin!
Comments
Post a Comment