TravelDay buddy

Tomás

@plumbline · he/him · Sao Paulo, Brazil

One building a morning. The rest of the day is for the street it stands on.

  • Architecture
  • Cities
  • Daylight
  • Slow pace
  • Mid range

Tomás is a drawn, fictional companion written by TravelDay. The places below are real entries in our catalogue, and each one names the guide it came from.

How Tomás travels

I read buildings the way other people read menus. Plan first, then section, then the way the light lands at four in the afternoon.

I grew up under concrete that was meant to be honest, so I am not sentimental about ornament. Then I stand in front of Gaudi for an hour and lose that argument all over again.

I walk a city in straight lines and then break them. One building a morning is enough. What I really want to know is what the building did to the street outside it, and whether anyone sits there.

  • Architecture
  • Walking
  • History

Cities Tomás keeps going back to

  • Barcelona

    Spain

    Six blocks of the Eixample teach more about a grid than any book.

  • Chicago

    United States

    The tall building was worked out here, then argued about for a century.

  • Copenhagen

    Denmark

    Brick, daylight, and handrails you actually want to touch.

  • Kyoto

    Japan

    Timber joints, deep eaves, and gardens built as rooms.

  • Brasilia

    Brazil

    A whole city drawn in one gesture. I go back to see how people have softened it.

  • Rotterdam

    Netherlands

    Flattened, then rebuilt arguing. Nothing here is shy.

What Tomás recommends

Barcelona

  • Can Culleretes · Restaurant

    Tiled walls, photographs of everyone who ever ate here, and Catalan cooking at a price that still makes sense.

    • Seen in Time Out Barcelona. Described as Barcelona's oldest restaurant, serving traditional Catalan cooking in the Gothic quarter

  • 7 Portes · Restaurant

    A nineteenth century dining room with a different rice each day of the week. Order the one the day gives you.

    • Seen in Time Out Barcelona. Listed as an elegant nineteenth-century restaurant serving regional specialities including paella in large portions

  • Restaurant Estevet · Restaurant

    Slow-cooked food in the Raval, unchanged for a long time. Good after a morning of standing in front of stone.

    • Seen in Time Out Barcelona. Listed as a Raval restaurant operating since 1890, known for slow-cooked Catalan dishes

Chicago

  • The Rookery · Sight

    Walk in off LaSalle Street at midday and stand in the light court. Two architects, twenty years apart, and you can see the seam.

  • Frederick C. Robie House · Sight

    Interiors are guided tours only, so book. Outside, walk the long south side twice and watch the roof do all the work.

    • Seen in Frank Lloyd Wright Trust. Completed in 1910 and described as the fullest expression of Wright's Prairie style, open by guided tour only

  • Chicago Architecture Center · Museum

    The city model on the second floor is the best hour you can spend before you walk anywhere else.

  • Manny’s Cafeteria and Delicatessen · Restaurant

    A tray, a queue, a carver who does not need your indecision. Corned beef, potato pancake, done.

    • Seen in Time Out Chicago. Listed among Chicago's most famous restaurants as an old-school Jewish deli in the South Loop

  • Calumet Fisheries · Restaurant

    A shack by a bridge, smoking fish on site, cash and a picnic on the seawall. Worth the drive south.

    • Seen in Time Out Chicago. Listed among Chicago's most famous restaurants as a smokehouse that smokes its fish on site, named a James Beard American Classic

  • Lou Mitchell's Restaurant · Restaurant

    Breakfast before a long walking day. Sit at the counter and watch the skillets.

    • Seen in Time Out Chicago. Listed among Chicago's most famous restaurants as a West Loop diner on the National Register of Historic Places

  • The Berghoff Restaurant · Restaurant

    Dark wood, white tablecloths, and a stand-up bar at the side for a beer and a sandwich if you are alone.

    • Seen in Time Out Chicago. Listed among Chicago's most famous restaurants as a Loop landmark, family-owned for more than 120 years

Copenhagen

  • Dansk Arkitektur Center · Museum

    Inside BLOX, which is itself the argument. Go up through the building before you look at any exhibition.

  • Danish Museum of Art & Design · Museum

    The chair corridor is the reason people come. The rooms on posters and prints are the reason I stay.

    • Seen in Designmuseum Danmark. Museum at Bredgade 68 with collections of furniture, posters, prints and drawings, telling the story of Danish design from the 1920s

  • Restaurant Alouette · Restaurant

    You take an industrial lift up to a plain white room. The plainness is the point.

    • Seen in Time Out Copenhagen. Listed among the best restaurants in Copenhagen for seasonal dishes with global influences

  • Alchemist · Restaurant

    A theatre set with dinner in it, five hours long and priced accordingly. Once, and only if you want the spectacle.

    • Seen in Time Out Copenhagen. Described as an experience of around 50 small courses from chef Rasmus Munk

Plans you can copy

Barcelona in section

4 nights · April to June · Slow pace · Mid range

Four days of Gaudi and the people who argued with him, one building a morning.

  1. Day 1

    The big one, and the shed beside it

    • Sagrada Família · Morning · Sight

      Book the first slot. Sit on the east side for the hour the glass turns blue, then move west and watch it go orange.

    • Sagrada Família Schools · Midday · Sight

      A tiny school building with a warped roof made of flat tiles. Le Corbusier drew it. Most visitors walk straight past.

    • La Pedrera - Casa Milà · Afternoon · Sight

      Go for the attic and the roof. The parabolic brick arches explain the whole building in one room.

    • 7 Portes · Evening · Meal

      Long dinner, rice, and a room that has seen a century of them.

      • Seen in Time Out Barcelona. Listed as an elegant nineteenth-century restaurant serving regional specialities including paella in large portions

  2. Day 2

    Two houses and a concert hall

    • Batlló House · Morning · Sight

      The light well is the lesson. Tiles get darker as they climb so the bottom of the shaft is not gloomy.

    • Casa Vicens · Midday · Sight

      His first house, and the least like the others. Tile, brick and a Moorish smoking room.

    • Palau de la Música Catalana · Afternoon · Sight

      Not Gaudi. Domenech i Montaner, and a hall made of coloured glass. Take a tour or, better, a concert.

    • Restaurant Estevet · Evening · Meal

      Short walk, small room, slow food. Nothing here needs explaining.

      • Seen in Time Out Barcelona. Listed as a Raval restaurant operating since 1890, known for slow-cooked Catalan dishes

  3. Day 3

    A hospital built as a village

    • Sant Pau Recinte Modernista · Morning · Museum

      Twenty-seven pavilions, gardens between them, tunnels underneath. The best two hours in the city and rarely crowded.

    • Mercat de Sant Josep - La Boqueria · Midday · Market

      Go to the back, where the stalls still sell to cooks rather than to phones.

    • Palau Güell · Afternoon · Sight

      Dark, vertical, and the chimneys on the roof are where he first let himself play.

    • Can Culleretes · Evening · Meal

      Two minutes from Palau Guell. Order the cannelloni if it is a Thursday.

      • Seen in Time Out Barcelona. Described as Barcelona's oldest restaurant, serving traditional Catalan cooking in the Gothic quarter

  4. Day 4

    Montjuic, and one pavilion

    • Pavelló Mies van der Rohe · Morning · Sight

      Small, empty, and worth an hour on its own. Stand where the onyx wall meets the water and do not take a photograph for ten minutes.

    • Montjuïc Castle · Midday · Sight

      Go for the walls and the view back down onto the port, not for the rooms.

    • Park Guell · Afternoon · Sight

      The monumental zone is ticketed and timed. The free woodland above it is where the viaducts are, and they are the better structure.

  • Seen in Time Out Barcelona. Time Out's current review list of where to eat in Barcelona, used to check which classics are still open

Chicago by the river and the grid

3 nights · May to October · Medium pace · Mid range

Three days on foot through the Loop and the south side, ending at the lake.

  1. Day 1

    The Loop, slowly

    • The Rookery · Morning · Sight

      Free to walk into the light court during office hours. Look up, then look at the stair.

    • Chicago Architecture Center · Midday · Museum

      The model rooms first, then out onto the bridge to find the buildings you just saw in miniature.

    • Chicago Water Tower · Afternoon · Sight

      One of the few things that stood through the fire. Small, odd, and the reason the street bends around it.

    • The Berghoff Restaurant · Evening · Meal

      Ten minutes from the Rookery and the right kind of loud after a day of looking up.

      • Seen in Time Out Chicago. Listed among Chicago's most famous restaurants as a Loop landmark, family-owned for more than 120 years

  2. Day 2

    South side, Wright and Richardson

    • Frederick C. Robie House · Morning · Sight

      Tour tickets are timed and sell out. Walk the block first so you see it from the corner before you go in.

    • Glessner House Museum · Midday · Museum

      A fortress on the street and a sunlit courtyard behind. Richardson turned the house around and the neighbours hated it.

    • Lem's Bar-B-Q · Afternoon · Meal

      Rib tips and hot links through a window, eaten in the car. Cash is easiest.

      • Seen in Time Out Chicago. Listed among Chicago's most famous restaurants as a South Side smokehouse celebrated for its rib tips

  3. Day 3

    Lakefront, and the edge of the grid

    • The Art Institute of Chicago · Morning · Museum

      Go straight to the Modern Wing for the daylight, then back through the old building for the American rooms.

    • Millennium Park · Midday · Walk

      Cross the bridge slowly. It is the only place you see the whole wall of the Michigan Avenue street front at once.

    • Manny’s Cafeteria and Delicatessen · Afternoon · Meal

      Late lunch, a tray, and no decisions left to make.

      • Seen in Time Out Chicago. Listed among Chicago's most famous restaurants as an old-school Jewish deli in the South Loop

    • Charnley-Pesky House Museum · Afternoon · Museum

      Sullivan's office, young Wright's hand, and a facade with almost nothing on it. Tours run on set days only.

Tomás is a TravelDay buddy: drawn, fictional, and not an account in the network. Research edition 2026-09-17.