The Barcelona El Born Barrio was a fantastic find! Our visit to Barcelona was awesome on the whole. Everything from the sights, to the shops, the hotel and the food…the glorious food! Our hotel was very central and had lots of restaurants and cafés close by. We ended up eating a lot of tapas at places that were a little off the beaten path. Most were very reasonably priced too. More often than not, we finished eating before thinking about photographs of the food.
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We ended up discovering the El Born neighborhood. It was quite the accidental discovery as there were so many tourists around the Barcelona Gothic Quarter, that we kept taking different turns, until we wound up there. El Born is definitely one of the best places to visit in Barcelona.
Related Reading: Poblenou barrio
Barcelona El Born CC – Roman Ruins and more discovery:
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It was great as it was not as suffocating as Las Ramblas. There were lots of funky cafes and shops. The streets were narrow and inviting. There were a lot of locals sitting at the cafes whiling away time, and we joined them some! Inside of this building are old ruins like this:
and this..
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The ruins l understand are from the Spanish Succession from 1701-1714, a painful period in Barcelona Catalan history. It effectively put an end to Catalonia’s independence. Independence that is still on their mind till today, as Catalonia wants to split off from the rest of Spain once again.
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The El Born used to be the Mercat del Born, but is now a cultural center. It was interesting to see, and it was free. The building itself is quite impressive, with it’s huge cast iron and glass. It is often the site of protests and calls for independence. They also put on concerts and plays there. I definitely recommend a visit. The whole La Ribera Born neighborhood is quite cool in my honest opinion.
FIND HOTELS IN BARCELONA CITY CENTER
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From there, it was about a 10 minute walk to Parc Ciutadella which is just beautiful. There is nothing quite like getting lost in a big city. The flowers were blooming and families were out enjoying the lovely sunshine.
Places of interest in El Born Barcelona:
- Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar. Right by the Passeig del Born. We skipped it because we had just visited the most famous church of all, the Sagrada.
- Santa Caterina market. One of the first covered markets.
- Born Cultural Center for a glimpse of the ancient ruins. Free to enter.
- The Park – always a good idea to see locals enjoying themselves.
- Picasso Museum – It was such a long line, we skipped it. We had happened there on the one day with free entry. Did you know that Picasso moved to El Born at the age of 15?.
Now for the food in Barcelona:
Where to eat in Barcelona:
There are two special places l would like to tell you about . One, we discovered while walking down Avenue Diagonal. We went off on one of the side streets and spotted this little Tapas place called Trotamundo. It looked so inviting, we decided to quench our thirst. The tapas were very good, really fresh and tasty.
*Updated: Permanently closed* What a shame!
The hummus at Trotamundo was the best l have had in a very long time, period. It’s a shame they are gone forever, unfortunately one of the risks you take opening tapas places in Spain.
There are so many that it’s hard to stand out. l love hummus, going back to my days in college, some of my friends were middle eastern and made the best hummus and Falafel. We made sure to try many places as we walked along, a different tapas at each stop.
The mussels we had at another place whose name eludes me now was excellent and drenched in marinara sauce. The only thing that was annoying was that neither one came with bread!!! You had to order that separately, which l think is taking the tapas thing too far. I mean how can you give someone marinara sauce, and no bread? What are you supposed to lap up the sauce with? And hummus without pita bread? My husband made his feelings known in no uncertain terms. Other than that, we loved it.
Our favorite restaurant was “Buenos Aires Grill“. We chose it based on reviews on TripAdvisor, my favorite go to. I spotted a signed Barca jersey in one of the photos posted by a previous reviewer. It is located in the L’example neighborhood, where we stayed. From the minute we walked in, to when we left, we were given excellent service.
The food was absolutely delicious. We shared the shrimp in garlic starter. It was so freaking good, much better than the one we had in Madrid, and that was great..
I had a medium rare Rib Eye steak as my main course, and it was done to perfection. He had the grilled Ribs and they were succulent. We chose fries as our side.
We shared a dessert of pancake with strawberries and vanilla ice cream. It was heavenly!
All this was polished off with a lovely bottle of Spanish wine.
and this refreshing lemon sorbet.
The owner came by to say hello. Turned out he spoke Italian, and loved football. So began a lengthy conversation.. :o) We had missed Messi’s visit by two nights it turned out, and the signed jersey belonged to Yniesta. He showed us his personal cell phone pictures of Messi and some other players at a BBQ he had in his house! He had known them for a while as this grill was a recent addition to his original grill in Argentina! I highly recommend this restaurant. It was €80 for our dinner, but it was worth it to us. We like to eat cheaply when we travel, but we always make sure to have a splurge dinner.
The El Born area of Barcelona is wonderful. In the old days, this was where the noblemen stayed and had seaside properties. It is still a wonderful, artistic area with quirky and stylish boutiques, not to mention the wonderful cafes and restaurants. I think it is one of the best places to stay in Barcelona.
The thing to remember is that Barcelona city is more than the usual suspects. It’s nice to visit the touristy areas such as the Ramblas and Sagrada Familia, but part of traveling is discovering how the locals really live by visiting the normal barrios such as El Born.
Inspired? Pin it for later;
We Loved the Barcelona El Born barrio! Have l convinced you to go there? Is it going on the bucket list, or are you scratching it off the list, thanks to me???
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Wow, I will have to ‘savor’ this post! I used to dislike hummus and then, one day, found myself wondering why it’s not served with every meal! Such a versatile side, maybe the key to FI? Enjoying the World Cup for now, but will certainly come back again soon. Go Underdogs!!! 🙂
The key to FI indeed! Would work for me..lol! I could eat it every day. We just finished watching the Costa Rica – Uruguay match. Fantastic win for the underdog. Muslera used to be the Lazio goalie and l always called him butterfingers. He hasn’t changed one bit. I was glad when they sold him! It’s shaping up to be good FIFA. Enjoy it!
Looks like you guys had a fabulous time in Barcelona. It’s a city that I have yet to explore. If only we lived in Europe it would be so much easier to get to all of these places. Your splurge dinner looks like it was well worth it too! And I love your pics of those alleyways. I could wander around for hours.
Living here definitely makes it easier to travel around and explore. One of the reasons why we did it, among others. It was nice wandering through the neighborhoods. You know l love food. It was supercalifragalisticexpealidocious !!! :0))
Barcelona appears to be absolutely gorgeous! I would love to go one day. The food looks amazing. Thanks for taking such great photos.
Thanks for the compliment. It really is a beautiful place. I am so glad we went. I love your handle “yes, l’m cheap’… My husband says that all the time..lol! Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
I think I could smell and taste all the food from the pictures. You guys certainly know how to live it up! I’m so jealous of all your travels. I don’t know your complete story, but I’d love to know how you guys travel so much!
Lol! We try to. One of these days, I keep saying l will write my accidental REFI story. I am no authority on it, l just made a series of decisions, some good, some bad. I certainly wasn’t thinking of that, not in those days. Luckily, the good outweighed the bad. Of course, living on this side of the pond, it’s hard to resist the call of a €19.99 flight etc.
Great pics. The food is one of the things I’m looking forward to when I visit Spain. As I understand it the Tapas are almost all included with drinks, correct? Too bad about missing Messi by a couple of days. He did well for Argentina on Sunday. La Pulga as they affectionately refer to him. Italy did well too. Great World Cup so far.
I tried to stay up till midnight to watch the Italy game, but it wasn’t happening so he watched it by himself. I’m glad they played well. Now, Barlotelli has that monkey off his back. From the way they’ve been relentlessly covering him on tv here, l thought he was going to choke. The pressure is off now, let’s hope they keep playing well. We didn’t get any tapas included with our drinks anywhere. I know people say they do that in Seville, but we didn’t see it there. Perhaps we went to the wrong places?? ;0(
I miss Baaaaaarcelona! Yum, yum to tapas and I can just imagine what “F” would have to say to the waiting staff LOL! That 2nd restaurant looks amazing though.I’m not big on dessert but pancake with strawberries and vanilla ice cream is dreamy!
Very nice. 🙂
Yep! You can just imagine what he said..lol! Never holds back. The dessert was great. It wasn’t just vanilla, it had some hints of like dulce le leche king of caramel. I’m drooling just thinking about it..:0)
I always love photos of food and for some reason I happen to read your blog when I am already hungry. So note to self: read immediately after lunch 🙂
80 Euros sounds like quite a bit for dinner, but if Messi eats there, it’s clearly delicious!
Hah hah! Don’t make me start posting it on your blog! I’m glad you find them appetite stimulating :0) and you’re right, it was a bit pricy, but the quality of the meat and everything else was so good. We do a lot of kebabs etc for lunch and have breakfast at the rental place, so we always like to do one big splurge. A lot of locals were there too, always a good sign.
Your pictures are beautiful as always. They made me hungry too! =)
Awwhhh shucks! Thanks Holly :0))
Your pictures are so pretty – I love the one with the Sagrada Familia. We went to Barcelona 2 years ago and the city was just beautiful. But I remember the food…. mmm
Awwhhh..thanks so much for the compliment. I agree with you about the beauty of Barcelona. Amazing how food always manages to be remembered vividly!!! I’m sure you remember the desserts especially don’t you??? :o)). . Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
I love Barcelona, I have visited twice. I think it is a city you can go back to many times and never get bored. Your photos are beautiful and make me want to visit again soon.
It grew on me even more on the second visit. Federico didn’t love it, but my second time was with the Barcelona tourism office so we saw so many things and l think that upped it for me. Thanks. Hope you get back soon in your home on wheels.
I am so intrigued by those ruins, I have been studying about them for our trip (that was canceled), and planned to go. We will get there next year. We had planned on staying on Las Ramblas, it looks like the Born Barrio is a quieter choice.
So sorry to hear about the cancelled plans Jenny. That must have been hard.With the way time seems to be flying by, you should be back there soon enough. OMG, you definitely don’t want to stay in the Ramblas. It is noisy, but of course if you like that, it’s okay. I actually like the L’Example area best out of the three times we visited as the walk to the Ramblas is nice and long (about 30-40 min). This is a little bit quieter so you can actually get some rest.. :-). Thanks for the comment and for reading.