Final Images from Spain

We are heading back to Paris tomorrow.  We've had a lovely time, and could certainly have stayed even longer quite happily.  

The highlight of the trip was undoubtedly dinner with our dear friends Jaume and Rosa last night.  We met them at a tapas bar in the El Born neighborhood of Barcelona, Taberna Llamber.  We shared some delicious tomato bread, patatas bravas, black rice with shrimp, black cod, fresh peas, and grilled green onions with some wonderful local wine.  For dessert, everyone insisted that we order Tarta Sara, and of course I agreed.  It was delicious, too.  The best part of the dinner was just catching up with Jaume and Rosa.  We have known them for about 30 years, and remember fondly many lunches and dinners together decades ago, playdates and soccer games with our young children, and just spending time together as young faculty members just starting out.  Over dinner, we were brought up to speed on their families and careers and heard details about what their lives were like now.  One of their sons seems headed for the US to do a PhD, and we look forward to seeing more of them when they are there visiting him.    

Here are a few assorted images of our time in Spain that did not make it into any post but that I would like to share.  The first is a display of funny and clever encaustic tiles at the Adidas store in Barcelona, followed by another interesting commercial item, an elaborate metal plaque commemorating a previous long-existing business.  I wonder if the little icons on the plaque all represented items that Bolo's Farmacia sold.

And here is a photo of a very fancy architectural element on a building in our neighborhood, an elaborate lobby of a residential building we passed on our way to dinner, and rustic paving stones in Girona.

And here, finally, is a photo of the dark sky before a storm in Arenys de Mar.

Back to Paris!