Our first stop of this holiday was Barcelona for a night, ready to take a flight to La Palma on Saturday. While we were eating breakfast at home, a message appeared on my mobile saying that the train was delayed, oh dear! Further checking showed that it was currently 5 minutes late, so nothing to worry about, and we set off on the bus to Beziers at the time that we had planned. When booked online, the French train booking system is very joined up: tickets are on our phones, on the SNCF app, we can see any delays, which platform we will board from and the platform that we will come into, all updated as we travel. In the event of a delay, we can make plans about how we might keep the delay to a minimum. This time, however, there was nothing to worry about other than getting to the station on time.
As usual, we took the bus into Beziers and then walked through the park to the railway station, passing the Friday flower market on Allées Paul Riquet. The mimosa was looking particularly good.
The train, which came from Marseille and would terminate in Madrid, arrived just a few minutes late and we were quickly away. The route goes close to the Mediterranean coast and across the lakes where the flamingos stand. Unfortunately, the train was travelling too fast for photos.
When we stopped at Narbonne, about 10 police (both Spanish and French) got on and moved into the bar where we were drinking tea. At first, we assumed that they would be checking passports, but the attendant explained that they have some problems with theft of luggage on that train. At each stop, the police walked down to the exits and then, when the train set off, they returned to the bar.
Security at Barcelona station was high, with armed police on the platform. Because we will be going to the airport tomorrow, we had booked a hotel next to the station and were soon installed. The view from our window over the taxi rank:
Our first stop was lunch aand we walked through the nearby Parc de Joan Miro to the bullring, which is a large shopping centre. We have been there before and did not go in.
We ate at a restaurant that we had been to before, but this time, the food was disappointing. However, while eating, we thought of a restaurant that we had enjoyed on a visit in 2012. We looked at our TripAdvisor reviews and found the name! They couldn't offer us a table without checking, but would ring back. Happily, a table presented itself.
We arrived at Osmosis at 8 and waited outside for a few minutes with a Danish couple. Once seated, we had a waiter for each couple; both were putting on a great show! We started with a glass of cava and this was followed by two apéros: a sweet red pepper 'soup' with bits of well toasted ham followed by cod balls with lime and honey. No menus or talk of menus had taken place yet.
Then it was time for business, in halting English but still no paper menu! You have two options: the short menu (three apéros, a main course and a dessert), or the long menu (four apéros, a main course and 2 deserts). The wine choice was for matching wines or a bottle; we took the matching wines.
Before the meal, started, however, we were presented with bread, salts (sea salt, salmon salt from Australia and olive salt, especially made near Madrid plus two sorts of olive oil. Many of the wines we drank were Penedes - a neighbouring wine area.
Then it was onto the main course : beef with red pepper and onion served with a red wine.
Finally, the dessert was pineapple with a basil sorbet and raspberry accompanied by a Sauternes.
After all that, we were ready for a walk home, but not before a pleasant surprise: the bill came in under €150.
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Excellent dinner !
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