Barcelona tourism and food

I've been meaning to post this for a few days. This was my second trip to Barcelona so I had already done a number of the main tourist destinations, including Gaudi's cathedral and the delightful Park Guell, also by Gaudi. Both are well worth doing, as are the Roman ruins underground in the old town.

This time I visited the Museum of the History of Catalonia and the Maritime Museum. The first might better be called the Museum of Why We Don't Like Spain. It is a modern museum in old warehouse space right the water. Most of the text is in English, Catalan and Spanish though some things are just in the last two or just in Catalan. I learned a lot from a short visit, including finding out that Pompeu Fabra is actually a person! More precisely, he was a linguist who played an important role in formalizing the Catalan language. The Maritime museum is also a modern museum in a beautiful old space. If you like model ships, this is the place for you. It has less English to read but does have little ipod-like guides that play recorded messages in English for many of the highlights.

I had two excellent meals in Barcelona (plus some very good ones and a couple of mediocre ones). The first, on the recommendation of my friend Nuria Rodriguez-Planas was La Venta. If you go here, spend an hour or two first at one of the bars across the street and enjoy the amazing view of all of Barcelona. The second, in the old town, was at Senyor Parellada. It is more formal than La Venta, and a bit more oriented to classic local cuisine. I had a really scrumptious paella. Yum.