offerendum

Santa Maria del Mar is a gothic church from the 14th century. The purity and unity of ist style is special.

offerendum

As frequent Readers may know food is not unimportant for me and I´m mostly inspired by Guide Michelin. While one dinner at the Mandarin Orientals gastronomic restaurant was set also the other 2 evenings were relative clear. Barcelona has 2 restaurants with 3 stars at Guide Michelin, so this 2 were my "natural" choice. First I wanted to try Lasarte at the second evening but no table was available. So we went on the first day. I had heared mixed reviews on this restaurant so I was a little sceptical. But 3 stars are still "magical".
We arrived at 8:30 and were the first guests. It was a sittle wired and we feeled somewhat monitored. It was much better when other guests arrived, the restaurant was sold out later when I´m right. The room is decoratedmodern and in bright colors.



Some art at the table:


Normally I decline the usual non-alcoholic cocktail as aperetiv, as I see no sense in paying overcharges prices for some fruit juices. This time I accepted and a few Moment later 2 guys stood in front of our table and mixed our cocktails. Definitively big cinema if needed or not The cocktail tasted good.



Beside an a la carte meal they offer 2 differnt menues., The Tasting Menu (235,00 €) and the Lasarte menu (205,00 €). They were able to offer us the Lasarte menu in a pescarian Version so we went for it.

First came 3 different appetizers, all creative and of great quality:






The bread and butter (more cream) selection:



Further appetizers were an Oyster and some green cream, both very nice.





A highlight was the „Queen Scallop with mushrooms, quail egg, cauliflower and truffle“. One oft he best dishes I had over the last months.




„Crayfish and sweede and lemon“ – normally this dish comes with cow shank broth cubes, but the changed it for us. Nevertheless very good.




„Red tuna belly, kaffir lime, watercress and raw fennel“. The tuna was perfect done, the texture matched perfect. Even if I´m not a fan of fennel I liked it.



Sea bass with mantis shrimp broth on a vegetable purée with truffle and clams mayonaise“. On the menu this dish comes with snails stew, they served us a beautiful asparagus arrangement.




Last main course was „Virrey fish with iodized sauce, king crab, raw tomatoes and saffron“. Delicious.




First dessert: „Ginger and passion fruit sorbet with coconut, carrot and papaya“. I avsolutely liked it.




„Coffee creamy, cocoa, black garlic and raspberry“. Sounds strange but tasted good, even if it wasn´t my most favourite dessert.



Last but not least: Petits-fours:



I was really impressed by our visit. The food was outstanding, the service flawless. The restaurants design is modern and elegant. Form e absolutely worth 3 stars.
Only one thing was not to my liking but not the restaurants fault. In the middle of our meal the table behing us was occupied by 2 Russian speaking couples. It is fascinating how loud you can speak in a restaurant and I would never watch videos on my mobile with full turned up sound……

offerendum

Next Gaudi-house was Casa Batlló, which was build in 1877 and was transformed by Gaudi between 1904 and 1906. It´s one of his most famous Building. Ufotunately I only took a picture at night (don´t know why).

Entrance fee was a bargain with 24,50 € (OK, not really), but everything related with Gaudi is expensive in Barcelona.
During your visit you get an audioguide which also illuminates the rooms in historic furnishings or with animals:

The tour starts and the stairs to the first floor:



First Floor:

View to the main-staircase:

Office with the famous fire-place:



Living and dining room with view to the Boulevard:




Elevator:

Gardenroom:

Garden or better terrace:


House from behind and surrouinding buildings:


Atrium:


Attic with laundry rooms:


The Roof:



View to the Mandarin Oriental:

offerendum

After Casa Batlló I visited Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) which was part of our Art-Pass (good pass with 6 Museums and a nice saving). They had some Exhibition about the enviroment. No must-sse, I needed around 15 minutes.

roadwarrier

Stunning as always!! Been to Barcelona many times and enjoy any report on it. I cannot do the Michelin places, but as mentioned earlier, a glass of wine and tapas and people watching does it for me.

offerendum

offerendum

The museum of contemporary art was also part of Art Pass so I gave it a try. In my eyes main attraction is the building itself.





The collection may be of high quality, but it´s simply not my favourite art. So it was a short visit.

offerendum

Santa Maria des Pi is beside the Cathedral and Santa Maria del Mar one of the important gothic churches in Barcelone. The church is massive from outside.


From inside has some baroque elements.





You can also visit the small treasury.

offerendum

The Museu Frederic Mares is a very interesting one, as it house the private collection of the sculptor which he donated to the city of Barcelona. The collection is diverse, it´s more easy to say what Marés not collect than the opposite. There are sculptures of many times, stamps, keys, cigars, fans, religious things and so on.
One funny thing happened when I baught my ticket. The woman told me that I get a Discount if I´m unemployed. OK, that I wasn´t never told before. Would have been very nice of her if she had asked if I´m still a Student.......

offerendum

Perhaps some remember about my report about Mallorca. One of the things I liked most was Fundació Pilar i Joan Miro. Of course the Fundació in Barcelona should also be a highlight.
The Museum is situated at the foot of mount Montjuic. Our art-pass was woth a lot in this case as we could skip the line (one guy looked so angry when we walked past).
The collection is extensive, it contains around 10.000 works.






















The Location is stunning, here a look out of the window:

On the roof some sculptures waiting for visitors:



As before on Mallorca I liked my visit a lot . I absolutely recommend the visit, one of my highlights in Barcelona.

GSBtravels

offerendum, great pictures as always. I love seeing the restaurant reviews sprinkled in. Barcelona just moved up a bit on my list of places to visit.

offerendum

offerendum

One of the nicer areas of Barcelona is the port. We arrived at Columbus monument.

The area house some historic buildings and the passeig del mar. Tomorrow we will visit the Aquarium.

offerendum

As you can expect Barcelona has a special concert hall. It is part of UNESCO world heritage and can normally be visited with a 20 € guided tour. I found a choir concert which was only 15,00 € on all places. So it was an easy decision. From outside the palau was richly ornamented.

Inside there are also many Ornaments, really some of the most exceptional concert halls I have ever visited.












The concert was interesting with 3 differnt choirs.

jmj9905

offerendum:

Thanks for the review of Lasarte. I was suprised to see that you had an 8:30 reservation.. I will be trying that when we are there in may. Can't wait to see your next food posting.