Museu de la Xocolata

February 26, 2014 - This is the only museum Gabby agreed to go to because her mantra is 'I hate museums'.  She took only about five minutes to walk through to the end only to call me and ask me where I was... still near the entrance.  Lucky for Gabby it is a small museum, depending on how much of the signage you read, the museum takes about an hour to go through. 

Museu de la Xololata, Comerc 36, Barcelona, +34 93 268 78 78  www.museuxocolata.cat
Admission - 5 euros for all, under 7 years - free
Open - Monday-Saturday 10am-7pm, Sundays 10am-3pm

Displays cover history, plantations and process, culture, art and advertising, pastry, a few videos, machinery and many chocolate sculptures... some a bit past their prime (cracked, pieces fallen off, dusty). 

What looks very cool is the pastry school attached to the museum... something to come back for?! 
 
A brief history - chocolate, from cacao...

• began as an exotic food for the upper class only, of course
• cacao beans were also used as currency for trading
• the cacao tree, originally from the Amazon, likes a tropical climate (76-86F degrees)
• cacao was first shipped from Mexico to Spain in 1520 by a Cistercian monk to a monastery in Aragon
• the French are credited with creating bonbons in the 18th century.  French court ladies would carry chocolate bonbons in boxes so they could enjoy chocolate any time.  Hence the evolution of giving a box of chocolates for an occasion or a thoughtful gesture!
• classified by the Swedish naturalist Carl Lineus as Theobroma cacao (the god's food).  Perfect, always wondered who Carl Lineus was since at least one street and a cafe are named after him in Stockholm. Really can't get very far without running into a Swede! 
• cocao beans first go through a fermentation process, wrapped in banana tree leaves, then dried, cleaned, sorted and classified
• for processing, beans are roasted making the shells inflate and explode
• next the beans are cut into pieces, and shells eliminated, this process is called triturating
• grinding releases the cacao butter making the cacao paste
• the paste can be mixed with sugar, vanilla, spices, milk, fruit or nuts to create a variety of chocolate
• cacao powder is created when the paste is dried and finely ground 
• cacao was originally mixed with spices and consumed.  The upper class of Europe found the taste too strong so it was reinvented by mixing in sugar, vanilla and cinnamon creating the type of chocolate we know today
• in the 19th century cacao was highly taxed in northern Europe so as not to take away from coffee and tea consumption
• Catholic southern European countries declared the nutritional content of chocolate adequate for fasting days.  Hey, you can justify anything if you need to!
• Barcelona becomes the first to mechanically produce chocolate in 1777
• by the end of the 19th century France and Switzerland got into industrial manufacturing
• powdered cacao was made into tablets for distribution to be mixed with milk or dried fruit for breakfast or snacks

sweet, real chocolate tickets!

metate (mealing stone) - granite or volcanic stone mortar

cocoa bean roaster

dragee machine/chocolate coating sphere

mechanical stone mortar

refiner/conche - conching affects the taste, smell and texture of chocolate.  The length of the process determines the final smoothness and quality of the chocolate.

Gaudi's famous lizard made out of chocolate

Basilica Sagrada Familia chocolate sculpture

choices!

for Unc!

After the chocolate museum we wandered around old town a little more...  

Santa Caterina food market - made a quick tour through here hoping the girls wouldn't notice things like tripe or worse...

cool window grill

Oh happy day!  Chicken noodle soup for lunch at Taverna del Bisbe (Av. Catedral 6-8/www.comybe.com)

my goat cheese, spinach salad with honey and walnuts

I got about 30 minutes of soaking up sun while the girls ran and played in the park by the Arc de Triomf

Gothic Quarter/Old Town - Barcelona

February 25, 2014 - After a morning at Zoo Barcelona we headed out to explore the old town area of Barcelona.  In an attempt to creative a positive attitude toward exploring we stopped in this beautiful coffee shop, Demasie, with a window brilliantly filled with a variety of cookies.  The cookies and coffee were perfect.  The light blue walls included dark panels written on by hundreds of customers.  It was fun to spot the places we know.  The owner(?) was very friendly and let the girls add their writing to the walls.... I finally had to pull them out to continue on our way. 

demasie.es, Carrer de la Princesa 28, 08003 Barcelona, +34 932 69 11 80

Ann Arbor, MI - Go Blue!

Audra's addition

 I had promised Gabby no museums, so we wandered up and down as many old narrow streets as the girls would allow.  Luckily they have no idea where we were so I used that to my advantage... however, Audra and Sofia do have a good sense of direction and always knew which direction 'home' was. 

walking past the Picasso Museum

Esglesia de Santa Maria del Mar

sculpture by a park bench

biggest paella pans ever!

The girls came alive when we discovered the candy store, Happy Pills, you would think they are deprived of candy.  Easy concept with bright packaging:  pick a container, fill it (plastic gloves provided), pick a label, get a lid, pay and you're on your way.

happypills.es, Carrer dels Arcs 6, 08002 Barcelona

Homenatge als Castelle - Antoni Llena - 30 meters high, location - Placa de Sant Miquel

this wonderful sculpture that Gabby declared 'looks like nothing', was a lot of fun for the girls to run and play under

as soon as I had stated there are no Starbucks in Barcelona, we ran across one

Casa Bruno Quadros on Las Ramblas - popular photo op!

I threw the girls a bone last night and took them to eat at the American style restaurant we found walking around the Gothic Quarter.  They happily ate hot dogs, chicken fingers, fries, fried mozzarella sticks... apparently this fried food is okay with Gabby. 

happy girls having dinner at Bernie's Diner, Via Layetana 20, 08003 Barcelona, +34 931 85 77 35

Parc de la Ciutadella and Zoo Barcelona

February 25, 2014 - We only saw a portion of the Parc de la Ciutadella (City Park), it's a beautiful green space filled with paths, a few museums and a lot of people out enjoying the spring day.  We walked from one end to Zoo Barcelona at the other end. 

The zoo is the perfect size (about the size of ZooAtlanta) to explore in a couple of hours.  The paths wind around and above some of the animal enclosures making for great viewing.  There are seal and dolphin shows, reptile house and a wonderful variety of animals.  

It's not cheap but it's a good value for entertainment and happy kids.  Admission: adults 19.90 euros/$27.36  children (3-12) 11.95 euros/$16.43

www.zoobarcelona.cat 

breakfast of champions - fueling up for the day

entrance to the park off of Passeig de Pujades

Park de la Ciutadella

statue in front of Zoo Barcelona

many peacocks roaming freely throughout the zoo

one peacock showing his stuff

kangaroos soaking up the sun

one smelly camel

the hippos were fun to watch, they were actively swimming

all the animals were posing because it was such a beautiful day!