Els Porxos

I arrived back at the hotel from the conference shortly before 7:00 pm. After Majella and Sam had described their adventures for the day we set out for Sagrada Familia which they had seen already and recommended as one sight I should see. We rode one Metro line to the next station from Placa Catalunya, changed line and rode the next to Sagrada Familia station.

We walked round 3 sides of the building – the 4th was shrouded in scaffoling and screens, offering no clear view of the structure. I snapped a good number of photos on the way around.

From there we walked down to Avinguda Diagonal to see if we could get a view of the cigar shaped building, Torre Agbar. We did manage a clear view along the diagonal road and decided that was as good as we could do until dark which was still several hours off. 

We walked back toward the metro station at Sagrada Familia. Sam and Majella stopped at a shop where the struck a package deal to buy a Spanish flag and a pair of sunglasses for 11 euro.

A little further on we found a restaurant, Els Porxos, across the road from Sagrada Familia on the 4th side we had not walked previously. We decided to see if tapas might satisfy our collective hunger. Because we had missed on the Patatas Bravas on our first try at tapas, I was determined we should have that which turned out to be chunks of fried potato with a spicy mayonnaise. To the patatas we added Tortilla Espanola, an omelette with finely chopped potato, and Jabuguitos al ron, which the menu described as sausages in ‘run’ but we assumed might have intended ‘rum’. On the recommendation of our waiter we added Mejillones al cava, mussells in a creamy onion sauce. All of the dishes were served in generous portions and the combination, with the bread that was added, was more than enough to fill 3 of us. For drinks we had sangria (Majella), orange juice (Sam), and beer.

After dinner we caught the metro to a station where Sam hoped to buy a dragon fruit and coconut drink but the market had closed for the night. We walked back up La Rambla to our hotel where Majella and I drank some packaged Sangria she had bought earlier in the day. We turned in early to prepare for our next day of driving to Avignon.