Barcelona

After breakfast we left Madrid around 10:00 Am and we estimated to arrive Barcelona around 4:00PM. The driving distance from Madrid to Barcelona, Spain is 386 miles so it should take us about 5 to 6 hours.

Unfortunately we got a flat tire toward the end of our trip. We called Road assistance but they could not give us a new car so they replaced the flat tire with a donut tire. We were not allow to go faster than 80 kilometer which is very slow so all the cars zoomed by and most of them look at us, some waved and gave us a big smile once they saw the donut tire! Yeah we felt like moving at a snail pace...

By the time to get to Barcelona it was around 6:30 Pm which gave us just enough time to check in our hotel, refresh a bit, and then search for a restaurant for dinner.

Minh selected the La mar Salada located in Barceloneta close to the harbor. Barceloneta is a traditional fishing neighborhood with lots of seafood restaurants.

To get to the restaurant we decided to take the Metro and it took us about 20 minutes to get there and another 20 minutes to walk to the restaurant.

La Mar Salada was recommended in Rick Steve's tour guide and he wrote that this is traditional seafood restaurant with a slight modern twist.

Minh and Hoa selected the Tayimgut white wine and it turned out that this the best white wine we ever had in Spain.

The menu

Coca Cruixent €2.20 meaning crispy cake in Catalan.

Made with a special crispy bread and smeared with tomato. Simple but flavorful and delicious.

Musclo bouchot €10.50- Steamed mussels. The mussels were fresh, succulent and simply to die for.

Gambetes de la Barcelona €15 - Steamed shrimps beautifully arranged in a Chinese bamboo basket.

Arroz de señorito con pescado de lonja al minuto € 44 - Gentleman Paella with wild fish to the minute.

For € 44 they could be a bit more generous with the seafood. There are exactly 4 shrimps and 2 pieces of eels on the whole dish.

The paella turned out to be best paella we have ever eaten in Spain. The broth has a deep flavor, the rice was perfectly cooked, crispy at the bottom and it was so delicious. Wish they gave us more seafood though.

Roasted Monkfish with home made gnocchi in a saffron & tomato stew sauce - €23.30

For dessert we ordered a Vanilla Flan with ice cream and a bowl of home made ice cream specially for Minh.

This is actually the best desserts we had in Spain. The flan was not overly sweet, very good texture, smooth almost like velvet and we simply love it.

Loan and I wanted to order another flan but we got overruled by Minh and Hoa as they thought it would be too much.

Their ice cream is also excellent! Needless to say we polished everything on the plate!

Their coffee is also delicious. We definitely recommend this restaurant if you ever get a chance to go to Barcelona

At night time the beach is pretty much deserted but it is really peacefully and beautiful.