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Barcelona’s mercats are no longer just places to buy groceries—in the last decade, they’ve become dining hotspots as integral to the social fabric as the city’s restaurants. And they’re a major tourist attraction: La Boqueria welcomes more than 45,000 visitors a day with its abundant and artful displays of the region’s finest cheeses, charcuterie, seafood, and produce. For a market experience free of La Boqueria’s bulldozing crowds, wander the aisles of Mercat de Santa Caterina, a true-blue neighborhood institution. Established as the city’s first-ever covered food market in the 19th century, Santa Caterina underwent a major refurbishment in 2005 that crowned it with its signature colorful, undulating rooftop.
Like many of Barcelona’s architectural feats, La Sagrada Família was, and continues to be, controversial. For years scholars have debated whether engineers strayed too far from architect Antoni Gaudí’s original vision (he died when just a quarter of the project had been realized). And while many citizens deem La Sagrada Família the greatest achievement of Catalan building, others view the structure as a glaring, expensive parody of it.
Prosecco and other budget sparklers rely on industrial carbonization to make their wines bubble. But Catalan cava, like fine champagne, gets its effervescence and complexity from bottle fermentation. You can taste some of the region’s best bubblies at La Vinya del Senyor, a cozy, understated restaurant with several by-the-glass boutique cavas to choose from. If you’re lucky enough to snag a table on the plaça, you’ll be rewarded with views of Santa María del Mar’s 14th-century façade.
BARCELONA
Taste Everything at La Boqueria
Barcelona’s mercats are no longer just places to buy groceries—in the last decade, they’ve become dining hotspots as integral to the social fabric as the city’s restaurants. And they’re a major tourist attraction: La Boqueria welcomes more than 45,000 visitors a day with its abundant and artful displays of the region’s finest cheeses, charcuterie, seafood, and produce. For a market experience free of La Boqueria’s bulldozing crowds, wander the aisles of Mercat de Santa Caterina, a true-blue neighborhood institution. Established as the city’s first-ever covered food market in the 19th century, Santa Caterina underwent a major refurbishment in 2005 that crowned it with its signature colorful, undulating rooftop.Gape at La Sagrada Familia
Like many of Barcelona’s architectural feats, La Sagrada Família was, and continues to be, controversial. For years scholars have debated whether engineers strayed too far from architect Antoni Gaudí’s original vision (he died when just a quarter of the project had been realized). And while many citizens deem La Sagrada Família the greatest achievement of Catalan building, others view the structure as a glaring, expensive parody of it.
Academic bickering aside, it’s hard not to get caught up in the magic of this place, which, pending completion in 2026 after 150 years of construction, will be the tallest religious building in Europe. Fusing Gothic and Art Nouveau styles in unprecedented ways, the basilica also draws on nature as a central inspiration. The hyperboloids, bright colors, and unconventional animal representations (e.g., chameleons, turtles, pelicans) epitomize Gaudí’s belief that nature and the divine were inextricably linked. Insider tip: Lines here are notoriously long, so it’s advisable to purchase tickets in advance.
Drink Cava at La Vinya del Senyor and Vermouth at Morro Fi
Prosecco and other budget sparklers rely on industrial carbonization to make their wines bubble. But Catalan cava, like fine champagne, gets its effervescence and complexity from bottle fermentation. You can taste some of the region’s best bubblies at La Vinya del Senyor, a cozy, understated restaurant with several by-the-glass boutique cavas to choose from. If you’re lucky enough to snag a table on the plaça, you’ll be rewarded with views of Santa María del Mar’s 14th-century façade.
On sunny weekend afternoons, neighborhood bars fill up with locals out to fer el vermut, the Catalan ritual of catching up with friends over a few dainty glasses of this aromatic, garnet-red aperitif, customarily garnished with an orange slice and an olive. Barcelona’s best vermouth bars, like Morro Fi, blend their own vermouths by infusing fortified wine with any range of botanicals, but in a pinch, the bottled stuff is perfectly passable, too (just ask the bartender for a quality Catalan brand such as Vermut Yzaguirre).
I hope you liked this post and as always have a chilled day from the Viking.
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