You wake up one day and realise that life has balance. So as yesterday turned out to be disappointing, today was fulfilling.

Our day began at the unearthly hour of 10am, with our Runner Bean walking tour ‘Pre Spanish Civil War’. Our guide was Catherine, a young lady full of knowledge, enthusiasm and personality. We wandered around Raval, the area where much of the seeds and causes of the Civil War were sown. We learnt about slum tenements, riots, mobs, anarchists and trade unions. We even visited Barcelonas ‘red light’ district….

I know it doesn’t look seedy but that’s what Catherine told us. The tour finished at 1pm, in the courtyard of the Maritime Museum. We have Catherine again tomorrow for part two : Spanish Civil War….and yes it’s at the same time. Our alarm is set.

We got back to the apartment to recuperate (today was sunny and in the low 20’s) then suitably refreshed, we were ready for Spoonik .

We’d been to Spoonik last year and on balance we think it was the best experience we’d ever had. This evening was just as good. Some brief highlights. You are invited into the kitchen before your meal to sample three outstanding hors d’ouvres. The chef introduces each course in his own super friendly way, if you don’t want wine with each course (and we didn’t) they pair up fruit juice mixtures which complement the food perfectly. I could go on but perhaps the best thing was that the chef remembered us from last year. A couple of photos…

No Susie hasn’t suddenly taken to listening to hip hop. We were presented with four different sea food dishes on one plate. The headphones played ocean sounds while we ate. The sea food was exceptional.

The chef later prepared coconut and rum ice cream, using liquid nitrogen to a backing track of Pink Floyd during a laser light show….sorry, but you had to be there and we’ve promised ourselves we will return next year.

You may be familiar with the expression, ‘we arrived home tired but happy’…well we were and we are….