We made it! Our little band of swashbucklers left Nashville Monday afternoon and landed in Barcelona on Tuesday morning—local time. Imagewest has traveled across Barcelona from the airport to the metro to the train station (and changed trains several times, dragging all our gear). Finally found the right train to our town in the mountains (La Garriga) and walked to our apartment (2 blocks from the train station).

Weather here is usually beautiful and warm, but we’ve had rain most of today. The locals seem to take it all in stride. They’ve been extremely kind and helpful, and we’ve been able to communicate fairly well, in spite of our very obvious lack of language skills (either in Spanish or Catalan).

To kick of this year’s blog, I’m including a recipe for Pa Amb Tomaquet, a kind of tapas, and very popular in Barcelona . . .

Ingredients (for four portions):

4 slices thick good crusty bread
1 tomato, halved
1 clove of garlic, halved
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt to taste
Few grinds of black pepper

Directions:

Grill or toast bread slices, and bring to the table while still warm. Rub grilled bread with garlic halves, then thoroughly rub the tomato halves into the toast to soak the surface. Drizzle with good olive oil to taste, then sprinkle with some sea salt and pepper.

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