Back to Escribà!

Christian Escribà finishing up a wedding cake

This week I'm with a group from Epicurean Ways.
I met them yesterday at their arrival and took them eating some tapas for lunch. Tomorrow I'm giving them a walking tour of the Old Town after they're done with their cooking class, and the following day we are going to visit Girona and we'll be having lunch in the Costa Brava.

And today, we had a great customized tour!
We started with a walk across the medieval backstreets from their hotel to La Rambla, where we spent more than one hour exploring the Boqueria Market. Then we took a bus to Escribà, where Xavi Marco invited us to have breakfast in their pâtisserie and then he showed us their showroom where we viewed some great videos of their latest projects and their history, and we also met Christian Escribà who was busy at the time finishing up a wedding cake.
I must say that it is thanks to Jane from Epicurean Ways that I discovered Escribà offers these unique backstage private tours! Thanks Jane for the contact!

Us with Christian Escribà

And after the foody part of the tour, we went another kind of masterpieces: the Sagrada Família church, by Gaudí. No need to say they loved it!
It's been a beautiful day and I'm sure tomorrow and the next we'll have also lots of fun together!

For your delight, here is another great Escribà video:



Find more about my tours at Escribà in this older post.

The Sagrada Família supports official tourguides

After Pope Benedict came to dedicate the Sagrada Família church last November 7th, the number of people that were giving tours inside it without the required license had significantly increased. In order to fight against fraud, they have just created a system to identify entitled guides (official Catalonia licensed tourguides such as myself, teachers with students, and the church staff) so it's easier to spot the unauthorized ones, which will immediately be expulsed from the enclosure.

A notice has been hung at the groups entrance, and since now on every time I take clients inside I'm given a special sticker with my name on it, my official tourguide license number and the date and time I entered.

It's a great idea to promote quality explanations and stop illegal guides from acting against the law.

In the picture, me at the Sagrada Familia with my sticker on, the notice hung at the groups entrance and the sticker.

More from little Hannah Boss

Do you remember little Hannah?
Here is some more follow up via Facebook! Check it out!

Adorable note from the sweetest kid

Isn't she an adorable little girl?
Her name is Hannah Boss, and I gave her family a foody tapas tour. We just fell in love with each other, the three of them and me!

And when we were in our last tapas bar of the tour, Hannah asked me a pen and paper. She spent some time thinking and writing, and then, she handed me her note:

Isn't she sweet?
Plus... she looked at me and she said "I've been with many guides on this trip," (they had been on a cruise) "... and you are the only one to whom I've written a note!"

What an honour! I just loved her! And her parents, Patti and Tony, were also wonderful people to be with. Thank you so much for letting me showing you the foody side of my city!

THANK YOU HANNAH FOR YOUR NOTE.
I'M VERY HAPPY TO BE YOUR FAVORITE TOURGUIDE!
I HOPE YOU CAN COME BACK ONE DAY
SO I CAN SHOW YOU BARCELONA AGAIN!

Sagrada Família Church closed Aug 13-15th!

I just got an update on which days the access to the Sagrada Família Church will be limited or closed due to religious celebrations.

Most of them will be only affecting a few Sundays in the year and only in the afternoon after 1pm, but I can confirm now that the Church will be totally closed to visitors on August 13th, 14th and 15th due to a International Youth Eucharistic gathering.

To see the whole schedule, check here (note that even when the services are scheduled for 5pm, the church will be closing at 1pm so they can proceed with all the required logistics).

At a cake workshop backstage with the Stern

Denise Stern contacted me about some tours for her family trip to Barcelona. I was quite booked up so I got my colleague Sandra to show them around, but I was able to be with them for their "special tour". They were looking for something different, and after discussing our possibilities, they decided on a tour that would include visiting some unique stores in town, then going to the backstage of a famous local cake maker, and then visiting the workshop of the local artist Alicia Cayuela.

The tour was fun, but the very best part was visting Escribà, the cake store.
When we got there, we first visited the public shop and looked at the mouth-watering cakes and pastries. Then we were invited to have a "berenar", the local afternoon snack. We chose some delicious bakeries, chocolates and plus soda and coffee. Yummy!


Then Xavi, one of the main responsibles of the cake store recieved us. He took us upstairs to their private workshop, all decorated in a gingerbread-housy way, and started introducing us to their products, techniques and projects. We got to meet a Brazilian lady who is now in charge of their American-Style cake decoration, then we were taken to their chocolate area to see (and taste!) some of their newest creations. There we crossed Christian Escribà, one of the 3 children of the Escribà family, who is the soul of the cake revolution undertaken by this 4th-generation family owned-bussiness. He promissed he'd join us later, when after an appointment he had with a photographer.

And he did, indeed! We were back with Xavi to the showroom, and he was showing us the most amazing videos on cakes (or should I say... sweet performances?), and he came and spent the rest of our visit with us, commenting on the videos, sharing his experience and even asking Xavi to show us more. We couldn't believe behind a cake could be such a world of creativity!

And because I'm without words to express what we lived there, here is a video of their "Cake of the Future":

The Bennett are back! And they got some special tours!

You might remember Brian and Bev Bennett, that I mentioned in several older posts. Well, Bev's mother wanted to come to Barcelona, so they took her here along with Brian's syster.

We first planned a daytrip to Girona (that's one of my favorite destinations!). I usually combine it with a visit to the Dalí Museum in Figueres, but they thought it would be a too intense day for the old lady so they asked to be taken somewhere in the countryside for lunch. That was an unusual request, but some colleagues recomended me a local restaurant located inside a typical "masia" (Catalan farmhouse). It took us a bit to find, even with the driver's GPS, but we finally got there.

It was gorgeous and the food was great! Traditional Catalan food, beautiful quality and lots of fresh veggie choices (remember Brian and Bev are vegetarian). It was worth the effort of getting there!

Then the next day we wanted to do some touring in Barcelona. We got a minivan, to make it easier for Brian's mother. We used it for 4h, then had the driver taking her back to the hotel while the rest of us continued exploring a little bit more.

They had asked me to do some modernism off the beaten path, but we hadn't really discussed it much, so in the end I improvized an itinerary that was quite a success!

We started by some remarkable buildings by Puig i Cadafalch near Passeig de Gràcia, then explored the Eixample district on the way back to la Rambla (where they were staying). I told them about how Ildefons Cerdà's city plan had evolved to become what the city is now, and saw examples of different architectural styles. We passed 100yo pharmacies, quiet private alleys... even a gothic cloister dismantled piece by piece and taken from its original location to be rebuilt in the Expansion Area. We finished with an early Gaudí work: Casa Calvet, very close to the city center.

I loved that stroll so much that I'm thinking about creating a tour I can sell from my Toursbylocals profile! Keep posted on that!

At the wholesale flower market with French students

Although my specialty are private tours for small groups, occasionally I also give tours for larger groups. And spring is the time when many European and American kids visit Barcelona with their highschools. Most of the time they are only interested in visiting the main sites with me, but from time to time they wish me to take them to some place that is somehow related to the specialty they are studying.

Last month I took the teens of the MFR Hebergement (France) to the Wholesale Flower Market in Vilassar de Mar (Mercat de Flor i Planta) and helped translating the tour that we were given by their staff.

I had already been there, and I find it very interesting. First of all, we are shown a video about the market, its history and how it works. And after a row of questions made by the students, we get on a passarelle overlooking the market from where we can see the stalls and the sellers (access to the sale area is restricted to professionals). At the end of the visit, we were given a plant each.

Special Gaudí tours for the Kerlin

The Kerlin family are Gaudí lovers. Specially Kevin, the father, are passionated about the architect's works, and for their trip to Barcelona they asked me to show them his early works and other sites outside the city center. The itinerary was customized inch by inch to include all the sites they wanted to see!

My driver collected them at the airport, and I joined them at the entrance of the city: at the gate of the gardens of Palau Reial, where we wanted to see a fountain and a pergola designed by a very young Gaudí.

De Gaudí: Minor works

Not far, we also stopped at the famous Dragon Gate of the Güell Pavilions.

Next we drove to Casa Vicenç, in the Gràcia District.

De Gaudí: Minor works

Then continued to Torre Bellesguard, where I was also able to show them a viaduct (sort of a bridge) that has been recently restored.

De Gaudí: Minor works

We then visited the Park Güell - not at all a minor work, of course, but you do need some transportation means to get there, and since we were on the minivan we agreed it was convenient to include it in our tour. To their request, we changed a bit my usual itinerary so they could get to the Hill of the Three Crosses at the very top of the park and we also had some time to visit the Gaudí House-Museum.

So far we had covered all the Gaudí sites we had planned for the day, but before I left them at their hotel we still had some time to stop at the Hospital de Sant Pau by Domènech i Muntaner, the AGBAR tower by Jean Nouvel and the Fish sculpture by Frank Gehry.

Two days later, we were ready to meet again for our next Gaudí adventure, but this time we went out of town: Montserrat and the Colònia Güell.

Since the Kerlin do a lot of research to prepare their vacations and know exactly every single thing they want to see, we prepared a very complete but packed itinerary and we agreed that we'd have to strictly stick to the timings if we wanted to cover it all. I must admit I wasn't very confident we'd be able to make it but... we did! They were very good respecting our schedule because they had very clear goals, and we made it in a way that everything felt fun and not that rushed.

So first of all, we departed the hotel ponctually at 8.45 and arrived to the foot of Montserrat just on time to take the cablecar. Mission 1 completed!
Then we run to the Black Madonna shrine before it closed for morning mass (we really only had to speed up until we crossed the church side door: once inside we relaxed... Mission 2 completed! Good job!

And by the way, on the way to the Shrine we were able to see the Crucifix that some specialists claim it was made by Michaellangelo himself! (guess what, the Kerlin are also Michaellangelo's lovers!)



Now we had to move on quickly to the Funicular of St. Joan, were we arrived 5min before the second funicular of the day departed. It took us up the hill: hour plan was walking down back to the Monastery to enjoy the mountain views. I love this excursion, and it takes only some 45-50min (make sure to wear good walking shoes, though!).

After the hike, we headed to the Museum. Of course, Kevin had a list of pieces he wanted to see! We covered them all except for one Picasso and one Dalí that had been sent to a show somewhere else, but I got to show them other interesting pieces that they didn't expect to see there.

12.30 and we were totally on our schedule. We entered the church, found 4 seats and waited for the choir to sing. We also used this rest-time to discuss a bit more about Montserrat, Gaudí and many other things.

De Montserrat

After the choir, time for lunch! Food isn't specially great in the mountain, but we were fine with the simple dishes sold at the cantine. Our next mission was getting the first Funicular de la Santa Cova of the afternoon (funiculars close for lunchbreak). Gaudí was quite young when we was asked to participate in the construction of the Path of the Cross on the way to the Holy Cave, and he was in charge of one of the Misteries of Glory: the Resurrection. We of course made the funicular, and got to Gaudí's mistery in only 8min. Then they preferred skipping the Cave so we had some time for souvenir shopping before leaving the mountain. We got back to the Funicular and manage to get the one before the one we had planned: that earned us 20extra minutes for shopping. Yeah!

And by 14.55 the driver was picking us up to take us to the Colònia Güell. 5min ahead of schedule! Impressive! So on the way to the Colònia we even had the time to stop over the Walden-7 building, that Kevin was interested in seeing aswell.



We all loved the Crypt made by Gaudí in la Colònia Güell. We spent some 30min visiting, then returned to Barcelona. What a complete day it had been!

Should travellers coming to Spain worry about the E.Coli break?

And my answer is there is no need to worry. In Spain everyone feels safe eating as usual. Here is how the situation is going:

Evidences are being found that healthy and safe cucumbers travelled from the South of Spain to Germany. During the trip, and already in German lands, one of the boxes got broken and the vegetables must have touched the ground at some point and got infected. The party should have been destroyed as it's stipulated, but for some reason it wasn't and it got into the market chain, intoxicating people as a result.

So far, all the people intoxicated are German or had been in Germany recently. Only one Spanish man has been affected... and he had been in Germany aswell.

Spanish agricultors are very angry at the German authorities who immediately blamed the Spanish cucumbers without checking first where the infection had started. And everyone in Spain keeps eating as usual, no panic and no fear. Even the European-Level alert set at the beginning of the emergency has already been removed.

However, it's understandable that you don't want to incur in any risk: you are on vacation!
So if you wish to feel totally safe when you are in Spain here are some tips for you:

First of all, avoid to order Gazpacho (a vegetable soup that usually contains cucumber) and any salad with cucumber on it. Not many other Spanish dishes are likely to include cucumber as an ingredient.

Next, cucumber is a vegetable that is only eaten raw, as far as I know. Washing them throughouly should be enough to get rid of any bacteria or virus in its skin. Peeling them is another way to add extra safety. I trust the local restaurants to be strict with these rules. But if you still need more precautions, just stick to cooked vegetables in general: fried, steamed, grilled... Heat also destroys bacteria.

No infection has been found in other vegetables, so eating everything else but cucumber could make you feel more reassured aswell.

These are just a few recomendations that make sense to me, and that you might want to follow if the cucumber news are making you nervous. After all, vacations are about relaxing, right?
But I can tell you that I totally trust the local produce and the cleanliness of our restaurants and cafés. I'm not changing at all my eating habits because of the E. Coli news. And that's how everyone is feeling around here aswell.

I hope to have been of help!