Location: Barcelona

Author: My Husband

An Air France A320 took us from Paris to Barcelona. For a short flight of just over an hour, they conducted a quick and complimentary meal service, consisting of a sandwich and drinks (which included alcoholic beverages). All this, without having to deal with buy-on-board, all for a fare that was cheaper than flying from Vancouver to Calgary. There are some lessons for Air Canada here for sure.

Air France flights leave from terminal 2 at Charles de Gaulle airport, which is the most modern and likely most efficient of CDG’s three terminals. No tubelike walkways to deal with here, although in typical CDG fashion, they put some ad hoc security measures in place to ensure that passenger traffic wouldn’t flow smoothly. An example: armed guards carrying sub-machine guns were posted in front of the only escalator leading to the departures area from the CDGVAL train, forcing passengers to drag heavy luggage on an elongated detour through the arrivals area with no instructions on getting back to the check-in area. Lots of confused and/or unhappy travellers that day, especially those who didn’t speak French or English.

A word of advice if you find yourself travelling through CDG – get to the airport early, very early. Murphy’s Law has a special affinity for CDG, I tell ya. On a previous business trip to Paris, I was flying out of terminal 1 for Canada; in somebody’s infinite wisdom, a decision was made to deploy only 3 passport control officers to process a line of passengers that must have stretched 400 – 500 deep. After 2 hrs of waiting in line, I was nowhere near the front of the queue, and my flight was about to leave. Fortunately, I was in good company as a group of about 50 other Air Canada passengers were stuck in the line with me. It took the herculean effort of the local Air Canada agent, plus airport personnel, to convince the passport control agents to process us first. That day, the flight was delayed by 1 hr to allow the group of us stuck in the line to make it onto the flight. This, despite the fact that I was checked-in at the airport almost 3 hrs before my flight time. So get to CDG early if you are travelling out of that airport.

Happily, Barcelona airport’s terminal 1 where we landed was a complete contrast to CDG. It is brand spanking new, efficient, and a breeze to navigate. Despite it being a huge terminal, signs were clearly marked, traffic flow was excellent, and the many automated traveletors made things easy and convenient for passengers. Getting off the plane, retrieving our luggage, and getting a cab took no time at all, and it made a really good first impression of Barcelona on us.

Tip: Unlike Paris, Barcelona’s taxis are a bit cheaper. Where it would take at least 50 Euros to get from Paris’ CDG to say the Etoile area, it would take approx 30 Euros to take a cab from Barcelona’s BCN to the city centre. If you don’t fancy taking a bus or a train (especially if you have heavy luggage to handle), cabs are a better idea than airport shuttles.

Our hotel in Barcelona, located in a residential part of the city, turned out pretty well. As you can see from the photos below, it is modern and very clean. What’s more, the staff was very professional and friendly. The closest metro stop was a 5 min walk away, and it only took 10 mins to get to La Rambla on the metro. We were pleasantly surprised, and also quite happy with the hotel.

The hotel has a clean and sleek design that is unabashedly modern and chic. While targeted at business travellers, it also works out quite well for vacationers.

A small and homey neighbourhood cafe near the hotel was where we had our very first Spanish meal. A cafe con leche (it’s really just a cafe latte, but made with a slightly milder roast than in Italy) and a croissant combo was on offer for 1.85 Euros. We got two of those, as well as a seafood paella.

The coffee is very comforting; the beans used are roastly pretty lightly, much more lightly than a typical Starbucks roast. It would be easy to make at home. A typical caffe in Spain costs 1.20 to 1.50 Euros. Spanish croissants are more meaty and less flaky than their French cousins, but are every bit as good.

This is not the prettiest of paellas. It didn’t have a lot of meat or seafood in it, but it was very flavourful. It was cooked with arborio rice, and has a consistency very similar to that of risotto. Many restaurants in Barcelona advertise their paellas using a set of standard photos – much like many sushi restaurants use the same table foldouts to show customers what the different types of sushi looks like.

After our meal, we headed out to La Rambla to check out this most famous street. This area seemed to be popular with both tourists and locals alike, and has the feel of a street carnival. Many buskers and street performers work this stretch, and some command large crowds. The performances tend to be in the vein of acting like statues, or some fairy-taled themed creatures, and reacting to the audience’s cash contributions.

There are many restaurants and stores selling knick-knacks lining both sides of La Rambla. This being Spain, many restaurants have also set up al-fresco areas for customers who want to eat outside, or who want to smoke when eating. Smoking cigarettes seems to be a lot more common in Europe than in Canada, but many tourist-area restaurants have now prohibited smoking indoors.

Walking around La Rambla that afternoon, as well as checking out some of the alleys that lead off the main street allowed us to work up a pretty good appetite. By evening, we had wandered into the narrow alleys of the Barri Gottic section of Barcelona, and we just picked a restaurant at random in which to have dinner. The Barri Gotic is the section of the city in which this Cathedral is located.

We happened across this one place – Xaloc – that specializes in Iberico ham. My wife, who really likes prosciutto, came to Barcelona with the intention of eating through all the differerent types of jamon Barcelona and to offer, and it didn’t take much to convince her to eat here. It turns out that Xaloc was a serendipitous choice, because it was here that we found the most value-for-money Iberico hams. While not the cheapest, this placed served the best Iberico ham, by far, that we had in Barcelona. Food prices in Barcelona are much more reasonable compared to those in Paris, and we felt that we were getting very good value for money for the most part.

Here are the tapas we had that evening:

This was truly good Iberico ham (reserva D.O.Guijuelo). It was nicely shaved by hand, with a good distribution of meat and fat on each thin slice. It has more bite and structure than prosciutto, and it also has more richness and complexity (it has a hint of woodiness to it) than prosciutto. And unlike prosciutto, it is not overly salty at all.

This is a popular tapas item. It’s potatoes and eggs, with some bits of ham in it. It was nice, but nothing very special.

This Iberian Chorizo is also very good – not overly salty, but with the right amount of spice in it. Also, it has a good proportion of meat to fat, and it has a hit of nutty flavour.

This is a catalonian pork and onion black pudding. It is very rich, and does not have any of the coppery taste that some other black puddings have.

Tomato bread. This is also very popular, and seem to be the main carb to have when eating tapas.

Over roasted red pepper and eggplant. It was tasty, but also not extremely special.

This is Iberico loin. It is not as flavourful as the ham – it doesn’t have the same richness or complexity.

Finally, we had some manchego cheese to finish off the meal.

By and large, with the exception of the ham, each tapas cost between 2 and 4.50 Euros. The preparation was simple and yet delicious, a common thread that we would find with all restaurant food in Barcelona. Barcelona tapas may not have the same sophicatication as French food, but the simple preparation allows the tase of the fresh ingredients to shine through. We loved it.

The day after we had the above meal, we went to eat at one of Barcelona’s most popular tapas restaurant, Cal Pep. O.M.G. Stay tuned for that post.