Day 6 in Barcelona: Barceloneta on our Last Day

With our trip coming to an end, on the last day we decided to do some more shopping in the morning then head out to Barceloneta. We were continually stumped by the recommended shoe stores and ended up buying jewelry and leather goods. We definitely saved Barceloneta for the best day, even if it was the last. Monday was by far the warmest day and it was wonderful to walk down by the water. (That copper-y looking building in the distance on the left is part of the Olympic stadium).

We started our time in Barceloneta by having a late lunch – very Barcelonian of us… we were learning. We went to la Mar Salada. We had saved our big paella meal for last and it was great! We shared soup, paella, a bottle of wine and 2 cortados (essentially macchiatos). We even made friends with the old men on their lunch break… all while the women they knew at the table next to us made fun of them for flirting with the young Americans (okay, so I don’t know exactly what the women said, but I could imagine).

After lunch, we walked off the paella on the beach. We even stuck our feet in the water – my educated guess is that it was about 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Chilly, but it felt good with the hot sun (which I later realized burnt me a little). After, we went to (new) W hotel on the water that’s meant to remind you of a sail on the ocean. Some Barcelonians don’t like it, but I think it looks nice against the horizon (check out the windsurfer on the left!)

We took a Teleforic back to a point closer to our apartment (pictures below). We walked the rest of the way back and found a shoe store just down the block from the apartment and we actually found shoes that we liked! This may not sound like an amazing feat, but it perfectly ended a great week in Spain. Since we had done the research, we wanted to see if we could find Café de l’Academie for dinner, since it was the only destination that had eluded us during our trip. Though we were able to find it, they were fully booked, so we went to another place that the book recommended, Taller de Tapas. We went with the basics – patatas bravas, croquettes, a lamb dish and chocolate sin for dessert.