A weekend in the life…

Another wonderful weekend here. Saturday, we started the day with a stop at the local bakery in Canyelles, Cafeteria Fleca Bertran. We had coffee and a pastry and bought a loaf of bread all for €6 ($6.70). The bakery also sells wine, cava, olive oil and jams. This lovely little gem is five minutes from our casa.

Then off to Vilanova to the market to buy the ingredients for paella. We absolutely love being able to buy fresh fish…as in caught that morning fresh. Love going to the market and having all of these fresh ingredients available. We also bought a few bottles of local cava.

While in Vilanova we wandered around the shops. A gorgeous Saturday with people out shopping, meeting family and friends and dining al fresco. Shopping made us thirsty so we stopped at La Sidreria for an adult beverage.

As much as I have always loved shopping I have always preferred boutique shopping over shopping malls. I love little shops with the unique touches of the people who own them. Well, Spain is the perfect place for this. So many wonderful independently owned shops. And when you can wander around a corner and see a plaza like this…well I think it is just paradise.

Sunday we had another 5.5 hour lunch with our wonderful neighbors Kim, Virginia and Gloria and her friend, Belén, who was visiting from Madrid. It has been a while since we have gotten together and it was well overdue. So much fun. We are all still learning each other’s languages. The phone on the table in the photos is to access Google Translate when we got stuck. It was our turn to host. Bob pulled out all of the stops with Pan Tomate, Paella, and Crema Catalan. To cook Catalan dishes for Catalan people can be a bit daunting. Especially making paella for Virginia who is from Valencia where paella originated. I just told Bob that if they didn’t like any of it then there would be more leftovers for us. 😉 Truthfully, he has made these dishes many, many times and they are always incredible. Everyone seemed to enjoy the meal so Bob’s cooking passed the test!