Day 243 – Barcelona Inspiration Part 1

Posted by Life with Lizzi on September 4, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Such bliss…… a 2 hour flight with an iPad loaded with BBC iPlayer downloads, magazines, and podcasts….. accompanied by a Starbucks coffee and a BLT! I was seriously considering hijacking the plane to prolong the pleasure!! This is what happens when you’re let loose for 48 hours with no kids, no Hubbie, and no responsibilities (except running a meeting and coming to a conclusion…..child’s play compared to juggling everything at home at the moment).

Flight over (and a few tears shed over the ending of Bridget Jones, The Edge of Reason), and I trotted off the plane to face a wall of heat………28 degree’s (not seen all summer in my part of Europe) and humidity set at a constant sweat level. Uh oh, I have an afternoon around the shops! Flip flops on, hair tied back, I started my tour (accompanied by numerous liquid breaks to keep hydrated) I pounded the streets, and had a great, if rather exhausting, time. My route took me around El Born, the University area (Vintage), the Ramblas (of course) and around Placa de Catalunya, followed by a taxi ride up to the more exclusive shops on Diagonal.

So here’s the start, of my Spanish Inspiration……….

things to do with old Mannekins! (I’m seriously thinking of putting one on our scaffold-supported facade for the autumn!)

I love the mix of old shops and new in Barcelona, here’s some great old facades to be found in the back streets…….

These were some of the watering holes on the tour……

this one was my tapas lunch date

and this one was my afternoon tea with wifi!

No trip would be complete without a wander through the market…. (with a special focus on the egg-selling stalls -> after all we are on 3 eggs a day now from our chickens and swopping for home grown veg with the kids friends at school!))

Later on, I focused on graffiti. It’s incredibly artistic in it’s execution in Barcelona, and just somehow suits the creative vibe and the flavour of the streets….. (whether it’s deliberate or not). Such a different blend to Brussels, and somehow it seems right here…….