Barcelona for a conference and great food

Any chance I get to come to Barcelona, I jump right on it. For me, Spain is "my" European country even over France or Italy (by just a hair though). I was in Barcelona for a conference and of course tacked on a couple days to enjoy this fantastic city.

I ended up staying at the Grand Hotel Central, a relatively new hotel right next to the Gothic district. Literally central and easy to walk anywhere. The hotel itself was modern and hip with nice European city sized rooms.

The bathrooms had all the amenities you'd want when on a business trip.

With that being said, the standout feature of the hotel (like several in Barcelona) was a fantastic rooftop pool, bar and view.

After a long day at a conference, it's always nice on the walk back to stop at one of the fantastic jamon shops.

Why jamon isn't more prevalent in the US, I don't understand. It crushes prosciutto by a huge margin. I can only assume it's the Italian mafia's influence?

That night I went to the nearby Ohla Hotel and the Michelin starred Sauc. Check out this post for the experience.

For the next two days we had work dinners that were good, but not picture appropriate. On the last night however, we did go out. We headed to a gin-tonic bar that was a lot of fun and made great in house infused gins.

Dedication right there.

To wrap up the event and evening, we ended up at the W on the waterfront. Typical W and just not my scene, but fine for those who like it.

Now that I had two days to myself, I wandered to one of the local markets to browse and have lunch.

Amazing produce.

Then found a great small restaurant called La Torna and it just felt right to take a seat and enjoy some fantastic dishes.

Amazing grilled asparagus over romesco and jamon with pan con tomate.

Followed by super fresh and perfectly grilled seafood.

I spent the day wandering around and that evening ended up at Bodega 1900, one of Albert Adria's restaurants (and across the street from Tickets). Check out this post for the amazing meal!

The next day I continued my wandering and stumbled across my favorite museum, The Jamon Museum!

It walked through how the Iberian pigs are special, their acorn diet and curing process.

But what made this museum the best, was getting to try the different varieties of jamon.

That's right, let's try them all!

And a couple extra plates to try!

After an amazing afternoon snack/meal, I needed something sweet to wash it down. What better than a churro and chocolate.

That evening after dinner, I had my final cocktails of the trip at the Ohla hotel's bar. They were beyond amazing, check out this post.

And like that, it was time to return home, sad but full, it was a great trip and I couldn't wait to return.

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Trip links:

- United BusinessFirst SFO-FRA-BCN

- Barcelona

- Sauc

- Bodega 1900

- Ohla Bar