Despite the need for an early night, I worked out a route from the hotel, past a number of famous Gaudi and Cadafalch buildings before wandering on to chef Charles Abellan’s famous tapas bar, Tabac24.,

Despite looking some distance on the map, the actual route was probably only 10-15 minutes worth of walking.  Reaching Placa Joan Charles I set off down Passeig de Gracia and within a few minutes reached the first of the Gaudi buildings, Casa Mila, and here I was hit by a slight surprise.  Despite the fact these buildings were created to show off wealth I had assumed they would be on some quiet square or back street, not one of Barcelona’s main arteries,  It was a slightly sureal feel to find (an equally sureal building) forced in your face.  Wandering further down I then came across, next door to each other, Gaudi’s Casa Batllo (which at €18 means I’ll not get to see inside, with Cadafalch’s Dutch inspired Casa Amatller quite literally next door.

Proceeding onwards I found Tabac24 and was able to get a seat at the bar straight away (when I left ~1.5 hours later there was a queue to get in).  This place has been described as an atypical tapas bar, but with it’s own special twists, and it was these I mainly went for.  I started with  Croquetes de Pernil Iberic – your standard ham croquet, but with Iberico ham, Bikini C24 – a cheese and ham toastie, but with Iberico ham, mozzarella, and a small grating of black truffle (noticeable both in smell and taste), and the McFoie burger – a small high quality burger served with a black truffle and foie gras mayonaise.  These were accompanied by a bottle of water and a glass of red win.  I then followed with Bombes de la Barceloneta, and deep fried peppers, along with a second glass of wine.  The bill ended up coming out at just under €36, a lot less than I expected.

Tomorrow, depending on time, I’m going to hit the Sagrada Familia – should only be ~5 minutes walk from the hotel, then work out how to take public transport up to Parc Guell