Barcelona Day 2: Bike Tour and Cooking Class

Day 2 was busy! We woke up early, grabbed a quick bite to eat and then we were off our our bike tour of the city with Fat Tire Bike Tours. We couldn't have asked for better weather...sunshine and 65 degrees! Our tour guide was great, she knew so much about the city and we learned lots of Spanish history along the way. Some of the highlights of the bike tour were Sagrada Familia Cathedral(we actually go in to the cathedral on Day 3, so stay tuned for more info), Arc de Triomf, and the beach. We passed so many things along the way that it was hard to keep track. The bike tour, however, was one of the best ways to see the city; I'm hoping to do another one in the next European city I visit!

The stairs you see in the bottom of the collage were the stairs Christopher Columbus proposed his trip to Ferdinand and Isabella that would discover America! Arc de Triomf fun in the top pictures and the amazing Sagrada Familia in the bottom left. Riding bikes around the city made us feel like kids again!

Cruising around the city.

After the bike tour, we head over to a cooking class at Cook and Taste. We worked up quite the appetite during our bike ride so it was hard to wait to eat our yummy meal. Luckily, at the market, we were able to sneak a few snacks in. Part of the cooking class was a tour of the local food market...talk about impressive. I've never seen so much color in one place. There was everything from fruits and nuts to fish, meat and eggs; visiting the market is a must when in Barcelona! And our cooking teacher explained to us the different qualities of fish and meat which was quite interesting.

Kristin and I with our new Irish friend, Paula, that we met in the class. She was fun and ended up hanging out with us the rest of the weekend. Check out the beautiful fruits!

On the menu was Creme Brulee (made a little bit different than the French version but just as yummy and served chilled), seafood paella (paella is a spanish rice dish that is oh so good), tomato bread (simple yet divine, it's all in the type of tomatoes you use) and some sort of soup (I can't remember what all was in it, but I do remember it was yummy). Everyone was able to participate in cooking part of the dinner. I helped with the dessert and paella...SO MUCH FUN. And the good thing about this class is that most of the dishes can be made in your own home and we were given all of the recipes. Endless wine was provided and the dinner turned out fantastic. I would definitely do this again. Oh and I finally learned how to dice an onion (correctly)...who would have thought it would take going to Spain to learn than that!

Fun in the kitchen.

Next up: Bus tour!