Europe Day 26 of 59, Madrid to Barcelona

Our last morning in Madrid. It seemed to make sense to share what I have started every day with...

Iced coffee and a vanilla y chocolate-chip muffin. I love iced coffee on a hot day. When I get home I'm thinking maybe I'll plan ahead and brew coffee and then put in a pitched in the refrigerator.

After the morning Starbucks run, it was all about getting to the airport. I assume we were just lucky, but the Madrid airport was incredibly quiet. No lines anywhere. We walked straight through security. When compared to the average airport experience it was as pleasant as a foot massage.

Madrid's modern, attractively designed airport.

Nerd Corner. (Skip the next paragraph if tech bores you. Seriously, skip to the words, "Welcome back.")

Many of you heard that I upgraded my iPhone to the 3.0 software and lost all of my music, and then called out for help on Facebook for people to email their favorite songs. (I also had David Scharf upload 12 key albums to his website for me to ftp.) Anyway... nerds understand that I received lots of great music but in different file formats and different bit rates. I waited until today to load up the iPhone with music, and this morning in the car ride to the airport I started converting everything that wasn't a mp3 at 128 kbps to that format. (Extensive testing shows that earbuds don't need anything better than that.) In the airport I did some more converting, deleting the old files as I went, and around 15 minutes before boarding time the task was complete, I sync'd the iPhone and bam! - minutes later there was 11.5 hours of music for me to shuffle on the flight. To me, this is a marvel of modern technology. With a single click I was able to ask people worldwide to send me music, many did, and then while in moving vehicles and public areas I was able to take what they sent and convert it to my preferred digital format and load it on my portable music player -- which is also a phone, camera, and web browser. In my book, that is about as kickass as it gets.

Welcome back, non-techy types.

Barcelona from the sky.

Our driver did not hesitate to find a pen and paper, while driving, and start writing down restaurant recommendations. While driving on a highway. I had to take this picture, to prove it to you. This car is moving.

We got to our hotel, the Hotel Arts Barcelona. It's part of the Ritz-Carlton chain, which means it meets the standards I would have never had had I never met Barbie, but I did meet her and I secretly do.

The view from our room towards the city. See the Torre Agbar? The tall building left of center that looks like a tube of lipstick? Why am I forgetting to point? Want to read the funniest Wikipedia sentence ever about a building? As a result of its unusual shape, the building is known by several nicknames, such as "el supositori" (the suppository), "l'obús" (the shell) and some more scatological ones. Closer pictures are sure to come. The real question is will I continue to think of it as a lipstick tube or will the suppository image take hold.

The view from our room towards the sea. I really should have taken pictures of the room when we first arrived. Sorry. It's modern and very, very posh.

Travelling with Barbie means you get upgraded to Club Level, which means we get this lounge on the 33rd floor. (We're right below it on the 32nd.) They even had us come up here to a separate reception desk to check in away from the riff raff. You know, these Rtiz-Carton's are rife with riff raff. Free drinks and snacks all freaking day in El Club.

The man who brought up our bags surpassed the driver on the "I'm a native of Barcelona let me tell you where to eat" meter. He then picked up our phone and got us a reservation at an up and coming restaurant that he insisted we had to try.

The unassuming exterior of Restaurant Embat.

The welcoming, unpretentious interior of Restaurant Embat.

We went ahead and chose the testing menu, since our goal was simply to try what the chef does best. Four courses for €40. ($60.) The light was not great for pictures, but I am still going to share every plate with you.

They started us with an "aperitive" of Parmesan Biscuits. You cannot really know me and not know that parmesan cheese is my favorite substance on Earth. So far, so good.

A second "aperitive" of, get this, potato foam with anchovy eggs and apple. It was delicious. There were dark anchovie eggs at the bottom. It wasn't photogenic, but it tasted great.

The first course was, "Scallop with pork double chin and celery." Yes, you read that correctly. (Upside down pic. Hate me for it.)

The second course was, "Truffle duck cannelloni." Almost licked the plate on this one.

Third, "Sea bass with cous-cous and cockles."

Fourth, "Pork shoulder with aubergine and figs cooked in red wine." No joke, this was the best pig meat I have ever tasted.

This is how every plate looked after I was through but this shot is the only empty plate that makes the blog. Between you and me, I like the composition of the silverware.

For dessert, "Lime sorbet with basil-flavored soup, ginger and green apple." I wish the lighting had been better. This dessert had a bit of lime flavored sorbet in the center, with shredded apple and ginger over it, and after it was set in front of us she poured the basil-flavored soup around it. There was also a dollop of cream in there. It was, honestly, amazing. Just a touch sweet, just a touch tart, with the kick of ginger. Delicious and refreshing, I had never tasted these flavors before and, dios mio, I may never again.

Petit-fours.

The hostess/waitress had the casual manner that made us think she was the chef's wife, managing the front while he worked in the kitchen. I had been typing onto the iPhone what each course was, but it was hard to understand and remember. We loved it so much that we asked to see the menu again so that I could correct what I had typed, and she asked, "In English?" We said yes and she disappeared for a while. When she came back, she had printed out the menu of what we were served for us to take home. This was not the menu we saw, she went back there and copied/pasted for us. How great is that?

How happy does she look?

And thus ends our first night in Barcelona. Yes, all we did was eat dinner and go back to the hotel.