Part 1 of the massive onslaught of house guests have just left! That’s right, the Warners: consisting of Jaime, Max, Leanne and Tim arrived September 19th and were wowed by Barcelona for a total of 8 days. It was great having such a full house, even if we are still finding little dirty paw marks on the walls! (Jaime, I am measuring your feet ’cause I think they were from you!!). We upped the anti and made a 42cm paella which turned out well. In fact it turned out so well that we made it 2x!

Leanne and I took a cooking class where we learned how to make numerous Catalan and Spanish dishes including…you guessed it, paella. Leanne managed to pack the 42cm pan into her suitcase since it is such a fun dish to make.

The timing of their visit was perfect as it coincided with La Merce which is a 3-day festival where the city remembers their patron saint, the Lady of Mercy. Fireworks, concerts and paper-mache giants filled the streets and it was an incredible sight to see. The city didn’t sleep for 3 days and neither did we.

The highlight though was a Saturday night Barca game where we witnessed the 50 yr anniversary of Nou Camp and were delighted to see Messi put in 2 goals in a 2-1 win over the fluorescent pink Sevilla. Max, who was fully kitted out in a Messi jersey was ecstatic to see his favorite player play so well. The atmosphere was incredible and the seats, which were maybe 20 rows off the pitch, could not have been better!

A close call. Messi just misses the net before putting 2 in.

In addition to cooking some paella we wolfed down plenty of tapas, both in-house experiments as well as at some local restaurants. Especially noteworthy for Max and Jaime were the ‘toothpick’ tapas or pintxos that have been made famous from the Basque Country. Yum!!

No visit to Barcelona is complete without stopping in at La Boqueria market for some fresh produce and fish and of course some high brow shopping on Gracia.

The first night the Ws arrived Jaime brought a really nice sounding whooping cough that went from bad to worse just past midnight. Scared and pretty much unable to breathe, we rushed her to the emergency room where she sat on the hospital bed and breathed into an oxygen mask which was administered by a hunky Spanish version of George Clooney (circa early ER days). If it wasn’t for Jaime’s tears running down her face I would have thought that by hour 2 she was better, only her symptoms were not getting any better because she wanted to see more of the young Dr. Jorge Cloonistia.

*important to note that I am only relaying what I heard from Shanti, Leanne, and Mary.

Mary and Demian were gracious enough to meet us at the hospital to assist in explaining what was going on and how the treatment would be prescribed. Without them I am convinced Jaime would have walked out of the hospital with her tonsils removed.

Tapas feast with the Warners and Mary and Demian.

We sure enjoyed having them share our Barcelona experience!