Wandering Around Barcelona

The Mysterious Chinese Woman and her Mysterious Sister decided to visit some museums today so I just wandered around a bit on my own. I went with them as far as the general area that they wanted to visit and had a bit of lunch with them before setting out on my own.

863) Taverna El Glop



I just couldn’t resist the name of this place, I had to stop in. It had a long bar with a heavy wooden planked top and a wooden front with square patterns on it. There was a silver foot rail and light wooden chairs. There is a copper colored beer station on the bar with six faucet like spigots with black handles. There is fairly elaborate shelving behind the bar with four sections. Three of the sections have mirrored backs but the one behind the espresso machine is backed with wood. A pretty decent selection of liquors along with glasses fill the shelves. To the left of the shelves is a section of bright red ceramic tiles with another four spigots protruding from it. It looked like they were pouring sangria out of these.

Three huge light fixtures hang over the bar from the ornate wood ceiling with large diamond shaped sections above each light. These sections look like a decoupage of old newspapers. The light fixtures look like inverted umbrellas with ezch section a translucent panel that is rounded at the top. Each section is defined by a narrow metal band and at the top, between each section, hangs a small lamp with a glass shade. Twelve lamps in all on each fixture.

The walls are a dusty rose with a border of smeary turquoise pant above wood paneling. The border is decorated with paintings of cups, teapots, pitchers, bottles, and fruit.

In the back is a dining area separated from the bar by the open kitchen. A large circular rack above the kitchen has hams and sausages hanging from them. There is a fairly large outdoor area as well.

I had a glass of beer.

864) Cafe Zurich



This is a large place with high ceilings. A very noisy place on a major square in the heart of the fashionable shopping district. The square is Plaza Cataluna and it seems to be a very popular place to just hang out. The bar itself is dark wood and fairly small, just a stand-up place with a thick silver foot rail. Lamps with large orange fabric covered shades hang from the ceiling and smaller versions hang from the sides of pillars in the dining area.

There is an upstairs dining area that is kind of a balcony hanging over half of the bar and restaurant. This makes the ceiling lower in that area of the place. The bar back is mostly glass shelves mounted on the pale yellow wall and a couple of espresso machines and a juice squeezer, the kind where you load a bunch of oranges into the top. The area behind the bar that has the higher ceiling has a large mirror mounted on the wall. Large French doors on two sides let you gaze out at the square and busy street and at the people who chose to sit out there and have a drink.

I had a bottle of San Miguel.

865) Teranga



I headed back to the area where I was going to be having dinner with the Mysterious Chinese Woman and her Mysterious Sister. Our meeting spot was going to be Paddy’s Lane where I was at the other day. I decided to wander around a bit and ended up in some back streets with a lot of graffiti covered walls. I also found Teranga, just a little hole in the wall. The people in there were all from Nigeria or some such place and they seemed to be a bit bemused when I wandered in. They were even more bemused when I decided to stay and have a drink. I got the distinct feeling they didn’t get many tourists in here.

The bartender spoke English fairly well so we chatted a bit and she tried to explain how to find my way out of the warren of streets I had gotten into and get back to Paddy’s Lane. It wasn’t that hard to do actually.

This was just a very small bar without much in the way of decorations. The overhang above the bar was made to look like wooden beer barrels separated by wooden mugs. The mugs were actually light fixtures. Just one beer spigot and shelves of liquor behind the bar. An old, but good sized, sound mixing board was next to the window and there were a couple of CD players. The place didn’t look like it could hold more than a dozen people but who knows. There was a set of stairs heading down to somewhere so maybe they had a lounge down there or something.

I had a San Miguel.

866) La Bolsa



A small corner place that was narrow but fairly deep. The metal topped bar could accommodate at least a dozen black metal bar chairs but most had been pulled over to the small round tables against the windows where people seemed to prefer to have their drinks. The front of the bar was a combination of wood, black marble, and white ceramic tiles with brown circle and star designs. Round globe lights hung over the bar.

A cupboard behind the bar held the liquor, an espresso machine, and a refrigerator with a glass door that held the beer and wine. There were three copper colored beer spigots on the bar. City scenes painted by local artists adorned the walls. The wall opposite the bar with the windows was white stucco on top and kind of a light and dark brown patterned tile below. To the left of the bar, next to the door, is a large window and a cooler with ice-cream treats.

The walls in the back are covered with kind of a carmel swirled patterned paneling. There is a television in the back that was showing indoor soccer. There was a large aquarium in the back and when I checked it out I saw that it held a large boa constrictor. There were also photographs of some kind of an acrobatic team on the walls in the back.

I had a glass of red wine.

867) Taller de Tapas



This is where we had dinner. I was late getting back to Paddy’s Lane so my punishment was that I could not linger at the bar here before dinner. All I can tell you is that it was a fancy place with a nice wooden bar and lights with large white shades hanging over it.



I was going to take more notes on the way out but kind of lost focus and forgot. Bar Man is falling down on the job.

I had a quick glass of red wine and then headed to the back for dinner.

Five bars for the day making 867 for the year and leaving 133 to go. I just need eight more in Spain to hit 875 for the year. I might exceed that although one day I will be spending a bit of time on the train back to Madrid and then only one more day in Madrid before heading home.