Barcelona Friday- Day 1

I got back from Barcelona on Tuesday after visiting for a long weekend.  I've decided to break down my review into each day. So, here is day one!

We arrived in Barcelona around 11am, and as we only had hand luggage it meant we didn't have to wait around (I love passport control in Spain- so much quicker than the UK!), so we headed straight for the train station at the airport to catch a train to Sants Estacio- which is the main train station in Barcelona and connects to the Metro,  They also have luggage storage (Left Luggage) at the station, which allows you to store your luggage in a secure locker whilst you explore the city.  As we couldn't check into our apartment until 3pm, this was really handy.

After dropping off our luggage, we got on the Metro to take us to the heart of the city, as The Boy had been to Barcelona before I let him act as the guide, and we headed to Catalunya Metro stop.  I had one thing on my mind- and that was ice cream from Gelaati Di Marco.

This ice cream place does various flavours of vegan ice cream as well as fruit sorbets. The lady at the counter pointed all the fruit sorbets and the various flavours of vegan ice cream, which were either soya or rice based. When I visited, they had rice, coconut, licorice, and cinnamon flavours.

 As both a chocolate and cinnamon nut, I obviously went for a scoop of each of those two.

The chocolate ice cream was probably the best chocolate ice cream I have ever tasted, it was so rich and dark. And in my opinion, (vegan) cinnamon ice cream should be more widely available!

After wondering round the city, we headed back to Sants to pick up our stuff and head over to our apartment at Hesperia Fira Suites which was located near the Hospital de Bellvitge metro stop at the end of the red line.  We chose this hotel purely as it was a five star and pretty cheap. Looking back on it, if  when we go back to Barcelona, we would probably go with something more central and pay more attention to good reviews on sites like Trip Advisor etc rather than the star rating. However, the apartment was perfectly OK. 

After checking in, dropping off our stuff and recovering a bit from the heat (it was very melty).  We headed out for tea, which again I had all mapped out!

We headed over to Jaumes I (apparently pronounced James the First) metro stop and after going the wrong way for a bit, we found out destination for tea- CAT BAR!

I'd heard so much about this place and it awesome burgers, and I was really excited about finally getting the chance to go. We walked in and was given a 'menu' and was asked to take a seat.  When I say menu, we got given a piece of paper with the options printed on it and you mark off which burger you want, along with sides etc. and take it to the bar to order. We both went for the black bean burger, with a side of fries/patatas bravas.

The burgers were extremely yummy, and we both agreed the patatas bravas were the best we'd every tasted. They came with a pot of garlic veganaise- I'd forgotten how much I love garlic mayonnaise and I was totally smitten.

Not pictured are our drinks- The Boy went for a lager and I ended up with a white wine. I was disappointed that they didn't sell cider as that is what I would have prefered with a burger- wine and burger don't really go and I hate lager/beer unless it's fruit beer.

After the meal, we went for another wander around the city and picked up some cakes for breakfast before heading back to the apartment.