A day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday is Happy Shopping Saturday. The city felt alive with shops were opened with people filled on the streets. Knowing shopping in Spain is better than shopping in London, and possibly better than the North America as well for some brands, of course, we didnt miss our only one day shopping. We looked at Campers shoes, but we wouldnt find anything we liked. It was kind of ashamed. Zara on Passeig de Gracia is very big. I wished I had more time to see other products they carried. I never knew that they have home section. Since time was kind of limited as we needed to do other sightseeing, we only concentrate on clothing. Kevin and I tried on many clothes. As we lined up ready to check out, I found my only size available top had a defect. We dropped everything and decided to buy those later at one go. Besides, we didnt really want to carry our shopping to all sightseeing.
Before our shopping venture, we visited La Pedrera, one of the many Gaudis buildings. Line up to any Gaudis buildings was long. This one was no exception. In La Pedrera, we learned a little of Barcelona history mainly between 1850 to 1950, which was the time most of the buildings were built. On the top floor, before getting to the roof to see Gaudis famous beautiful designed chimneys, they displayed many Gaudis projects, including drawings: plans, elevations and sections, building models, and articles of some of his theories. We stopped at their gift shop. I really like the graphic / symbol design for La Pedrera on their souvenirs, very simple, clean and stylish. In general, most of souvenirs I saw in Barcelona were beautifully designed. They could be stylish or playful very well done!
After La Pedrera, we walked down Passeig de Gracia to La Rambla to market Mercat de la Boqueria. It took us very long time getting from one to the next, because we got ourselves stuck in the Zara store. Very lucky we managed to get ourselves out of the store and visited the market before it closed. It was our only chance to see it, as the market was closed on the holiday. We had our late lunch there some pasta and baby squids. I guess we would have something more exciting, but there was no English menu. The food was good. I was very exciting when we passed by the seafood section. There were many different kind of seafood on the table. They were all very fresh. I wished that I could have bought some. Fresh fruits stores were very busy selling pre-cut fruits or juices to people. We had some strawberries, which were very sweet. The market had many different kinds of fruits, and for some, Kevin and I had never seen before. Many stores in the market were not opened. We were not sure if we got there too late, so most stores were closed, or they closed for the entire weekend and enjoyed their long weekend.
After some food, we followed our guide book and did an architectural walk of the Modernisme. Modernista buildings are everywhere in Barcelona. This walk showed us a selection of lesser known Modernista creations. All of them were built between 1850 to 1930. With some history and story background, we felt that we witness Barcelonas architectural designs evolvement.
By the time we finished the walk, the sky was getting dark. We hoped that we were in time to go to another Zara, which was closed by our hotel. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the store, it was 10 minutes to their closing time. They didnt allow people to go in. I was a little disappointed. Kevin took me to another clothing store, Mango, to shop. I bought a colourful and feminine blouse, and the best part was the price. After the shopping, we tried to find a restaurant nearby for dinner, but our luck wasnt good at all. We were very stubborn that we wanted to go to a restaurant that was recommended by our guide book, and not randomly picked one as we passed by. We tried 5 or 6 restaurants using the guide book, one of them was opened, but it was fully booked, and the rest were closed for the holiday. Before we gave up, we tried to go to a hotel restaurant at Hotel Omm. We walked by it another night, and I was attracted by its cool modern clean interior. I really wanted to have dinner there to have more time to appreciate the interior, and thinking their food should be decent, but the night was fully booked. In the end, we just couldnt walk anymore. We went to an Italian restaurant at the tourist area, just across the hotel.
The dinner was more expensive than the other night with similar food as expected. The food was delicious. We planned to go back to the cool hotel to have a drink after the dinner, so I would get my time to see the interior, but we were too tired from all the walking. Having said that, we some how walked to an ice-cream place, Farggi, to have some good ice-cream and hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was no ordinary chocolate milk, but very rich and very chocolate. I tasted that once in a specialty chocolate store in Paris, but it was Kevins first time to taste real hot chocolate. He was surely impressed.
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