days 5-6: barcelona

torta de crema
I decided it was high time to give chocolate a break in favor of exploring local pastries. I'm a sucker for things with pastry cream so I loved this giant danish with pastry cream and a maraschino cherry in the middle.


ensaimada This tasted fried like a donut but with the texture of a unpleasantly dry danish. It was unmemorable.


totally-forgot-to-write-the-name-down cake
A thin yet moist vanilla cake with a center of whipped cream. I could never have anything bad to say about a pastry with that much cream. Yum.

magdalena
I found these most often in cupcake form, but sometimes as a giant cake where you could buy pieces by the gram. The cake is sweet, moist and has a slight citrus taste to it. Overall, the pastries here fail to impress. The puff pastry lacks taste (they have croissants here but they taste awful) and any kind of danish or cake is usually too dry for me. Best to stick to the savory side and embotits I guess.


basilica santa maria del mar
I couldn't get inside today because there was a wedding going on. Rose petals were scattered on the stairs and carriage with horses waited outside. I came back in the evening but there was a mass going on so I didn't take any pictures of the interior. No offense, Gaudi, but I much prefer this church to the alien invasion of Sagrada Familia.


the beach
I wandered down to the beach in the afternoon. There have been occasional thunderstorms today so I didn't try to sit out on the sand. This beach is at the tip of Barceloneta, a triangular-shaped spit of land just south of my hotel. It's filled with restaurants and there is an ice cream place every fifty feet it would seem.


park de la ciutadella
This park is situated directly to the left of my hotel. It was filled with couples and families sprawled on benches and on the grass enjoying the sunshine.

I won't be posting any more from Barcelona mainly because I can't reliably connect to the internet at the hotel. Check in next week for a new post from home sweet home.