Hotel 1898

[tauntoncheer]

Could anyone recommend a good restaurant for either lunch or dinner near this hotel. Thank you very much. 

[onyx007]

In which city is this hotel ??? 

[edinburgher]

14 hours ago, tauntoncheer said:

Could anyone recommend a good restaurant for either lunch or dinner near this hotel.

Irrespective of where(?) it is to be found you could go onto Tripadvisor and to the restaurant/where to eat section where you can use the filters to help you decide which would suit your personal preferences and price range...

 

From there you can choose  by neighbourhood, indoor or outdoor seating, vegetarian or fish or other, different price ranges and many other filters which will help you narrow  down the choices before reading reviews of the ones which might be to your liking.

 

Remember that Spanish evening dining hours are late(9 or 10pm), the reason they snack on tapas to keep them going until then, but you could always choose to have your main meal earlier in the day  (lunch can be 2-3pm or a little later) and only requiring a lighter snack later in the evening.  This has the added advantage of making you sit down for an hour or so for a rest  during a busy sighsteeing day.😀

Edited May 1 by edinburgher

[tauntoncheer]

Sorry Hotel 1898 Barcelona!

[alserrod]

Hello:

Tapas.
ANYWHERE, no matter where. Search on Google, TripAdvisor or wherever.
If you want something quite genuine, don't expect to sit at the table but rather stay at the bar counter (maybe in a chair there but at the bar), small places and certainly not luxurious.
If what matters to you is having good tapas, don't go for ostentatious places but for places with a lot of bustle.
Although it may seem strange to you... if they only have the price and product menu written in Spanish, the better (you translate it with your mobile phone or simply point out what you want from the bar). It means that they are mainly aimed at a Spanish client (and if they only have it written in Catalan, even better).

Remember that in Spain you eat at 2:00 p.m. and have dinner at 9:00 p.m. According to customs, before that time, ONE tapa is taken to wait for lunch/dinner time.

What I mean by this, if you go to dinner at 10:30 p.m. (don't be surprised at the time, they will give you dinner without any problem) at a place where the menu is not in English and you have to take out your phone, it will be very different from if you come at 7:00 p.m. and the menu is in four or five languages.

There will be tapas in everyone, but it seems to me that you are looking for something more specific and to taste the entire cuisine.
From there, let yourself be carried away by all the flavors they can offer you.
Remember that it's okay to move from bar to bar, and it's okay to spend the whole night in the same place. That is your choice.

[alserrod]

About dances and flamenco. You have to keep in mind that looking for flamenco in Barcelona is like looking for a place in Venice that offers you a Tarantela show.
Is tarantella Italian? Yes, but from the Calabria area, quite far from Venice.

I mean by this.... you have to know that flamenco is a dance typical of southern Spain (Granada, Seville, Malaga, etc...), an area where this type of dance is more present in popular celebrations and has a lot of roots.

In Barcelona, families do not learn or teach this dance, there are no popular flamenco festivals, nor are there flamenco schools (beyond private teachers who can teach it).

Since there is interest in demanding this show, there are those who offer it (also in Madrid and it has no roots in these cities) but.... yes, you can have a pleasant time but know that they will not exactly be the best dancers in the world and neither will they. They are continually learning since there is nowhere to practice it outside of tourist sites.

With absolute certainty there will be no Spanish tourists among the public.
However, in Granada there is a neighborhood with a multitude of cave restaurants and flamenco shows where you will see Spanish tourists. It's quite popular there.

(the dance of Barcelona and all of Catalonia is the Sardana)

[edinburgher]

58 minutes ago, alserrod said:

It's quite popular there.

(the dance of Barcelona and all of Catalonia is the Sardana)

We watched some local residents dancing this outdoors next to the Cathedral.  It is performed 2 or 3 times a week in public places.  Google for info on the where and when.

 

And if you  are in the Montjuic Park, look for the sculpture which depicts a group of sardana dancers. You will probably recognise it from images on postcards and from souvenirs.

[marazul]

The sardana is danced every Sunday at 11 am in front of the Cathedral. 

[alserrod]

It is not easy to know when and where you will have them (and definitely there will not be under a private spectacle, nor with a dinner on table for visitors) but real heritage in Barcelona (and all Catalonia) are "castells" (castles in Catalan).

 

They are human towers, not easy to build. There are a lot of very important parts. For instance, the force done by people in the base, accuracy of people climbing and.... they have a director who gives indications through drums sounds (people in the tower cannot understand voices but can hear drums, according to drums they will know what to do).

 

You have more information in wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castell