We didn't have time to visit the History Museum of Barcelona (Museu d'historia de Barcelona MUHBA), so that was our first stop for today.

MUHBA (History Museum of Barcelona)

This museum has a wealth of information, and I felt like I have just taken a history lesson on Barcelona and Spain!  The coolest part was that this museum was built right on top of an archeological site which dates back to the Roman Empire.  There was a whole building devoted to wine making and another one for dying clothes.  There is also a public bath building with a cold bath, a warm bath, and a hot bath.  The hot bath was built with an underground heating system (kinda like our radiant heat system in houses, but with hot air instead), which I was quite amazed to know that this kinda of "technology" existed for people at that time.  The people also developed techniques for dying and setting dyes in fabric.  Who would have thought urine was used to set dyes at that time?  Women, AND men, at that time all seemed to be very concerned with their looks as both genders put on make-up to whiten their faces.  Overall, I really enjoyed exploring the archeological site underground at this museum.  The rest of the museum housed different artifacts and displayed historic information as we move through times from the past to present.

MACBA (Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Arts)

I personally would not re-visit this museum.  The art in there just didn't sit right with me; they are actually quite disturbing with a lot of political content.  It's definitely not my kind of art.

Guell Palace

This building is Antonio Gaudi's work from start to finish.  Guell respects Gaudi's work and he got Gaudi involved in building not only the Guell Palace, but also Park Guell, which we will visit the next day.  During the planning of this trip, I read reviews about all the places that we will be visiting and this one about Guell Palace sticks with me, "It's Dr. Seuss came to life", and so I have been anticipating this visit to the palace.  Well, it did not disappoint.  

The most exciting part has to be the roof, the chimneys were of different designs, one remined me of an ice cream cone and gave me the idea of taking a picture of it from a distance with me licking from "the cone".  Well, that attracted a lot other tourists doing the same thing.  A couple from Boston saw what we were doing and asked us to help them take a picture doing the same thing.  They were really nice people and we were chatting about where we have been in Barcelona, and they forwarded their itinerary for Lisbon to us because they were just there.

It was here that I thought, if Gaudi, Tim Burton, and Dr. Seuss were born around the same time, they could be really good friends.  Just a thought.

The highlight of the day was that we found a really good restaurant in the neighbourhood.  It's called Cera 23.  It's hidden in a sketchy area, and it looks like mostly locals would go there.  We came across many Middle Easterners and convenient shops owned by Middle Easterners on the way to the restaurant.  The restaurant doesn't have that many seats and we tried to call and reserve but no one answered, so we thought we will just head out there before it's open.  We were lucky enough to be the only ones who were able to get a table (even though it's only for 1 hour) without reservations.  There were many others who showed up later without reservations and they were all turned away.  

The best dishes we had there was the black seafood rice (paella made with cuttle fish ink) and the  beef cheek with white truffle sauce, and the white truffle sauce trumps it!  They also have really good mojitos, I had mango, and Cindy had the famous black berry.  We had a very enjoyable meal there and the restaurant owner was very friendly and gave us free shots after dinner.  =)