Sweet street

In the Barri Gotic (Old Town) area of Barcelona, are mazes of streets filled with old buildings, shops and squares. An explorer's dream. It is here we happened upon Placa del Pi, a lovely square in the shadow of a 14th century Gothic church & home to an artisan food market selling honeys, chocolate, biscuits, cheeses and the like.

The market provided a yummy diversion (& I couldn't resist picking up some biccies!) from our destination...Carrer de Petritxol, located just off the square. All along this street are these colourful tiles painted with scenes of old Spanish life.



This street is known as a "sweet street" because of the proliferation of sweet places to eat. My Aussie girlfriend & her hubbie who are working in London met up with us for a weekend in Barcelona last September. We couldn't resist trying the traditional churros (long, sugar-coated crispy doughnuts) dipped in hot chocolate for brekkie. And what better place to try this than at Granja Dulcinea, an old-fashioned "milk bar" where we were served by some nice old guys who look like they've been working here their whole lives! To add to the nostalgic experience, we thought the hot chocolate had the consistency of Yogo (a choccy custard dessert we used to have as kids), but the churros were a revelation....yum!

Further along the street was a branch of Xocoa, a delectable chocolate store where the choc bars are wrapped in really cool retro packaging. Despite the store's modern look, Xocoa is one of Barcelona's oldest chocolate companies circa 1897. They even sell CD's to eat AND to listen to, presumably while gorging on the choccie stuff! That's me in the corner trying to make a decision:

Yes, it was hard with all that choice...thank goodness the hubbie is a patient man! N

Granja Dulcinea: Carrer de Petritxol 2 (off Placa del Pi), 08001 Barcelona

Xocoa: Carrer de Petritxol 11-13, 08001 Barcelona