A week in Barcelona

It has always been my dream to visit Spain. Recently we took advantage of our 250K British Airways miles by hopping over to Barcelona for a week long vacation.  Barcelona is an amazing city. I’ve been to many European cities but I can say that Barcelona is definitely one of my favorite city.  Its a great place to visit if you are interested in art, architecture, design  and food. One of my quirks of travel is I feel compelled to explore and seek out the local food scene anywhere I travel. See my separate blog on Barcelona food scene here.

Among the main impressions from Barcelona other than the unorthodox Gaudi architecture and the famous Barcelona sights, I’d like to mention such things as plenty of motorbikes, trees all around the city, and a lot of Catalonia flags on the balconies.I was not aware of the extent of the Catalan pride in this area of Spain until I landed here.

We stayed in an apartment in the Eixample district. The Sagrada Familia is located in this area and admittedly, we spent a lot of time in this neighborhood.  The eixample district is predominantly  a residential neighborhood. It gave us glimpse into the everyday people of the city on a weekday morning & evenings .Sagrada Familia, the Roman Catholic Basilica designed by Antonio Gaudi  is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was good to see in a sense but not really my idea of anything amazing to look at ! It is such an ugly eyesore that should just be torn down. That said, throughout our stay we mostly ate at the restaurants around Sagrada Familia , so we got too see it at various times of the day. Still, something about it is so wrong.

Adjacent to the eixample neighborhood is Parc Guell. It is someplace you must go if you are visiting Barcelona. All that Gaudi stuff in the park makes the place so surreal.  It is crowded but the park has fantastic panoramic views of Barcelona.

The next couple of days, we mostly spent walking around the La Ramblas area.  We really liked this area, other than the fact that it’s very touristy. The famous La Boqueria market is here (See my separate review here ). La Rambla is a popular tree-lined street that starts at Plaça de Catalunya and leads to the old harbor.  It is packed, full of people, predominantly tourists and street vendors trying to sell all kinds of stuff. It’s not the most pleasant place for walking. But there were many adjoining streets connecting to the Gothic quarter or the Old city, and it was really fun to walk randomly into one; The Gothic Quarter is a maze of small streets and alleyways in which one could easily get lost. This is a very concentrated area of gothic architecture with interesting little nooks and streets to explore and you never know where you’re going till you get there.

Within walking distance from the Gothic quarter is Paseo de Gracia. the grand shoping avenue of Barcelona. We walked straight along Paseo de Gracia number 43 where you’ll find Casa Batll, a unique looking building by Gaudi . We did not go inside the building. As you continue by foot walking up Paseo the Gracia , you will get the second famous building of Gaudi,  Casa Mila. These two sites are one of the highlights in Barcelona, so you got to see even if you think they are ugly.


The next day , we visited the Barceloneta or little Barcelona.  We walked here from Las Ramblas, nice stroll, quite clean and but was very busy. Many bars and restaurants are along here. It is well worth a visit if you have the time.

On our way back we saw the The Arc de Triomf. It was simple and underrated and we had a chance to see it but it is not worth a special visit.

Our last day in Barcelona and we decided to spend the entire day strolling around  Mount Monjuic.  Montjuïc is a hilly area and where the Barcelona Olympic park venues were built on. At the entrance, sitting atop a hill is the Catalunya Palace.With the fountains and stairs rising up to the palace this is a very scenic area and the view of the city from the palace is incredible. Plaça d’Espanya is  one of the important square and junction in Barcelona. The towers are more or less like Venetian Tower. 

We continued on checking out various Olympic venues including the main stadium, then headed back to our apartment to pack and getting ready for our 7am flight to London.Till next time Barcelona.

Read More

Barcelona food crawl

Barcelona is a food city and most especially good for eating yourself into a coma. Barcelona has been an experience....the sangria, beer and tapas.We spent most of our time wandering from various tapas bars  sampling more tapas than were probably healthy. Go hungry and open-minded as spontaneity can lead to both hits and misses, as long as you are willing to take the risk. Here are some of my experiences with the Barcelona food scene.  

Xocolata, as called in catalan is  easily the best hot chocolate that I have ever tried in my life.But you can't drink it like a typical hot chocolate, as it is very thick, rich and dark, but not that sweet and is always served with churros for dunking.

Churros con Xocolata

Churros filled with caramel, cream and what not!

There are many types of tapas bar, in most you just order from the counter or the waiter.  Few tapas bar and 'montaditos' kind of bars, the food will be set on the counter with toothpicks, you take a dish yourself and fill it with whatever tapas and 'montaditos' you like, but don't remove the toothpicks from your plate – this is how the bartender will tally up your bill. You  pay a certain amount for every toothpick on your plate.

Tapas at one of the tapas bar

Montaditos or little sandwiches

Throughout the trip, I’ve tried Paella from different restaurants in Barcelona. But sadly, I could not find the best one as they all tasted exactly the same. I suspect they were the pre-packaged frozen paellas or maybe we had unreasonably high expectations.  To drink, we practically had Sangria, Cava and Estrella beer everyday. 

Estrella , the local favorite brand which is served everywhere

 We also ate very well at our apartment. There was a grocery store and bakery nearby .

Read More

Hofbrauhaus @ Munich

Hofbrauhaus is a Must See/Do in Munich!Sure its a tourist trap, but its one of those touristy places that is worth getting caught up in. Munich's oldest beer hall is one of the best experiences in Munich, tradition and history along with great beer, oompah band and decent bavarian food.

 

 The beer hall is is enormous and can seem intimidating at first. The atmosphere is loud, joyous, chaotic, but not always friendly. The been hall is very open with the standard large tables and bench seating. The place does get very busy so find a bench and just sit on it! . There are 3 floors so you can normally find somewhere to sit. You just need to find a spot and claim it! No tables to yourself. Long communal tables basically force you to sit with people you don’t know. But, everyone's fine with that, since people come here to drink and socialize to their heart's content. . Finding a seat is hard work but you can always squeeze in somewhere

It took about 15 minutes to find a spot and another 5-6 for a server to come by. Don’t go here expecting Haute cuisine and attentive service. It is unlikely to be awarded Michelin Stars anytime soon. 

Apparently the locals have their own beer bugs which they lock at the Beer Mug Lockers which was a bit difficult for me to understand, but I don't know the whole story either.

Beer Lockers

We tried the pretzels,  the Hofbräu München Dunkel (dark lager) and  radler (half beer half lemonade). All were amazing

Radler & Dunkel

Read More

Munich and BMW Welt

During my last visit to Munich, BMW Welt was still under construction, and the BMW Museum was in a temporary tent in the Olympicpark . Naturally, on my recent visit to Munich, BMW Welt and the Museum was  on top of my list.

My flight from San Francisco landed in Munich in the evening. I was staying at the Le Meridien, Munich which is right across the Munich Hauptbahnhof station. So I took the S-bahn S8 train from the airport to Hauptbahnhof station which is about 30 mins ride. 

After checking in to the hotel and relaxing a bit, I walked across Marienplatz to Hofbrauhaus for dinner. You can read about it in my other blog here. 

The next morning I took the subway to the Olympic Park station (Olympiazentrum) which drops you right at the BMW Welt. Since it was around 8am in the morning and BMW welt was not open yet, I strolled around the Olympic Park for an hour or so before walking across to the Welt

Looking at the Welt and BMW HQ from the Olympic Tower

BMW Welt and the BMW World Headquarters building

BMW Welt Double Cone

The BMW Welt building is amazing to look at and huge. Contrary to the popular notion, the BMW Welt and BMW Museum are not one and the same, they are two separate buildings on
the adjacent sides of the Lerchenauer Strasse but connected by a pedestrian over-bridge, but both are unique in their own ways and must see whether you are a car buff or not. BMW Welt houses all the latest offerings and the entrance is free whereas the BMW Museum houses the history in a chronological orientated display of its vehicles from past. 

BMW Welt is a massive car complex dedicated to everything BMW has to offer. I strolled around the building for couple of hours and what I realized is that the site is divided into 2 sections. The Welt ("world" in english) on the lower level.....a showcase of BMW's pursuit of engineering perfection and the company's vision for the future  and upper level..... entirely dedicated for the customer experience. This is where you come to pick up your BMW if decide to do the european delivery program, your car will be waiting for you in the building and BMW concierge will go thru a sequential ceremonial steps before you drive away in your new BMW.

Okay I will stop writing now as the pictures do the justice!

After I walked over to the museum from the Welt. You take an overhead bridge. Unlike the Welt, the Museum is not free. It cost 9 euros to get in but  worth the value. You get to see the past 100 years in the history of BMW and its evolution, from the first engine till the newest models including some futuristic designs too. It's pointless to describe, you need to see it yourself.

Read More

Tokyo in 48 hours

My first impression of Tokyo was wow! its busy, chaotic, crowded, kind of surreal.  Its vibrant, fun and full of contrasts. You'll see traditional japanese buildings surrounded by modern skyscrapers, congested blocks of tall buildings but neatly lined with trees everywhere, absolutely clean streets but yet not a single trash can anywhere , toilets that requires an user manual. You can find everything from temples and parks, vending machines that sells everything imaginable, futuristic skyscrapers, fantastic restaurants, designer shops. There is something for everybody.

I spent the first day around Shinjuku & Shibuya. There is nothing touristy in Shinjuku but its very convenient location wise with Shinjuku train station, where you can take a train to anywhere in Tokyo and with all the major American hotels around it.

Shinjuku Buildings

The district of Shibuya is one of Tokyo's more famous regions, with the popular Meiji Shrine nearby as well as neon signs in just about every place imaginable. Shibuya was full of energy, bright neons, people and lots and lots of tiny restaurants and shops! You can spend an entire day walking around the area eating and shopping. And, there is the world famous Shibuya Crossing! My, that must be the biggest and most interesting pedestrian crossing . With one of the busiest subway lines in Japan, the mass entrance and exit of people produces the biggest crossing I have ever, and probably will ever see. Crossing it was pretty exciting, too! With people all around you, it was easy to lose track of which section of the crossing you were planning to go to.

Shibuya Crossing before the light turned green

After

A 10 minute walk from Shibuya you will find Meiji Shrine, as it is called in Japanese. Meiji shrine is in the middle of a huge park which very much feels like walking through a dense forest. It is a Shinto shrine. You could easily recognise that it is a shinto shrine by the torii gates that are found at the entrance and along the walkway leading to the shrine.

Torii gate at the entrance

There were also sake and wine barrels displayed along the way that were offered to the shrine. And an interesting thing was this huge tree which was surrounded by various boards with wooden tables right outside the shrine which was full of wishes and prayers of people from all around the world (judging by different languages)

Add caption

Add caption

Add caption

Wooden prayer cards

Empty donated Sake Barrels 

The next day I visited the Imperial Palace and Roppangi area of Tokyo. 

Roppongi is a nice district in Tokyo, home to most of the upscale hotels and various embassy/consulates including the American Consulate. Roppongi an interesting place for sure, but there's just a different feel to it than everywhere else I went in Tokyo. It's far more convenient than Shinjuku to most business, has a far wider food selection nearby and center to nightlife in Tokyo. I will definitely stay here if I happen to visit Tokyo again.

I guess that's finally all of my trip to Tokyo. Tokyo has been absolutely amazing.

Read More