Elle’s in Europe 2025 - Day 2 - Don’t Eat the Tuna
The biggest win of the trip so far was deciding to stay at the Renaissance Barcelona last night. It is going to be on average 85-90 degrees every day we are here this week, and the Renaissance understood how to keep a room cold. We all slept incredibly well and weren’t out of bed until close to 11 AM. Fortunately, we had very little planned today, wanting to allow Elle to sleep as much as possible and get used to the new timezone. The good news was that the Renaissance is more city-centered than the beachfront W Hotel. We were able to walk to the beautiful Basílica de la Sagrada Família from the hotel. On the way, we stopped at a coffee shop for me and a pastry shop for a quick breakfast/lunch before making it to the Sagrada Familia. It was packed at the beautiful cathedral, which is finally near completion. Having toured inside before, we opted not to this time. Instead, we walked the outside of it, snapping photos and letting Elle enjoy both it and the nearby park.
Given our late start to the morning, we had to rush back to the Renaissance to check out by 2 PM. We got a taxi and went back to the W Hotel, where we were told the air conditioning was working again. Unfortunately, that was not the case. The good news was that most of the hotel had AC, just not the 20th floor. After far too much back and forth with the hotel, we were able to get a new room with working AC at 4 PM. We moved our suitcases and crib up 4 floors to a cooler (not cold) room. Fortunately, both rooms have stunning panoramic views of the beach, which we enjoyed before heading out to dinner.
We left the cooler room at 6 PM and walked the boardwalk. We found a restaurant that didn’t take reservations city center, so we decided it was a nice enough evening to walk there with Elle in our stroller. When we arrived, the restaurant was packed and we joined a queue for dinner. After waiting 15 minutes, we decided that this wasn’t going to work and decided to walk back towards our hotel and find a restaurant along the way. We landed at the seafood restaurant called La Gavina. The meal started well, everyone was saying “Hi” to Elle, and she was loving the outdoor seating. Before our first course of tuna tartare came out with massive pours of wine (usually a bad sign) and the chef’s complimentary welcome dish (later charged for), sardines. Jenn had a few, but I am still not a fan, so I passed. From there, we got some bread for Elle and our Tuna Tartare that just didn’t taste right. I immediately told Jenn to stop eating it (worried about her stomach) and not to give Elle any of the avocado from the dish. We thought maybe we ordered wrong, and our seafood and meat paellas would make up for it. Sadly, that was not the case, and both dishes were terrible. Fortunately for Elle, her taste buds haven’t fully developed yet, and she loved stuffing the paella in her face.
We left and walked back to our hotel before getting back to our room, unpacking in our new room, and getting Elle to sleep at around 11 PM. Even with some curfuffles, it was a great day in Barcelona and we can’t wait to get out and explore more tomorrow.
