“Oh, Barcelona! Every spire, every brick, every centuries-old street fills my senses with awe!”
This would be the perfect mantra of every tourist who gets to experience ancient Barcelona. It’s a mantra of pure love to a place even its conquerors adored. The spires at Sagrada Familia and its unbelievable architecture are a testament to humanity’s incredible genius and diligence. A few steps from Barcelona’s famous cathedral is La Pedrera, another architectural marvel and circling around the city’s exceptional sights is Paseo de Gracia, one of the oldest road networks in the world where the most expensive stores in Europe are also located.
And while walking through the bricked city alleys, your sense of smell will lead to you to a most interesting place – the Praktik Bakery Hotel. As you step in, you will be impressed with the modernist ambience with hints of culture and antiquity that only a designer like award-winning architect Lazaro-Rosa Violan can execute flawlessly. They have fully furnished rooms for couples and even for backpackers, with all the expected amenities that distinguish the Praktik chain of hotels in Europe.
But what makes this particular place literally a nourishing shot to the senses is the Baluard Bakery right in the hotel’s reception lobby. Baker Anna Bellsola makes bread like her grandfather used to. She makes kneading and baking a passionate agenda that reminds her of humanity, wisdom and work. What comes out of the oven is, as she puts it, a gift of serenity. It is just bread – pure, unmitigated food that man lives and dies for.
You might wonder if this modernist hotel will make true its promise of a good night’s sleep and wake you to the heavenly scent of freshly-baked bread. Of course! After all, this is Barcelona, the place where heavenly wonders stand at every corner. Would you have guessed that it would be the exquisite aroma of freshly baked bread that will make you love Barcelona even more for its gastronomic splendor?
Heather is a writer, photographer and explorer of the world with bylines in Archaeology Magazine, Porthole Cruise Magazine, Taste & Travel, amongst others. She is addicted to pen, paper, hotels, organisation and hippos. In addition to Travel Gluttons, you can find her over at Cloggie Central. 
