And so it ends as it began: with luggage. Ed unequivocally doesn't want to return home. For the rest of us, it's bittersweet. It is very sad to leave this view behind. A final ping-pong match was obligatory. We went to Sagrada Tapas, a favorite nearby restaurant, for dinner the night before we left. Ed and Lusi left in the pre-dawn hours, flying through Frankfurt - the only option on…
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A friend told me that Zaragoza was very worth a visit, and she was right. This was the last stop on our trip through the Basque Country and Aragon. We returned our rental car on arrival, and traveled back to Barcelona on the high-speed Ave (hitting for the transportation cycle: plane-bus-car-train). We stayed in an outstanding tourist apartment in a former convent in the center of the city. Our…
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I found Sos del Rey Catolico because a Parador is located there – we didn't end up staying in the Parador, but the town looked interesting and it was a good stopping point between the Basque Country and Zaragoza. We picked up a rental car in San Sebastian and drove east through Navarra, where we stopped for lunch in Pamplona (Iruna in Euskadi, which is also spoken in Navarra). La Ruta del Tiempo…
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San Sebastian is an easy bus ride from Bilbao. Our apartment was a very short walk from the bus station, eaasily reached after a stopover for lunch. On the first floor above the busy cafe-lined pedestrian street of Calle/Kalea Reyes Catolicos, it had a glorious bay window and 5 small terraces, perfect vantage points for enjoying the street life. ... San Sebastian is a vacation paradise: beach…
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The Basque Country is a perfect summer destination for a break from the heat. The temperate weather makes it inviting during July and August, although several pincho bars we were interested in were closed for vacation while we were there. We stayed in a gracious apartment in the Indautxu district, a well-heeled neighborhood very close to the Guggenheim. Bilbao is clearly a very prosperous - and…
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Between trips further afield, we squeezed in a day trip to Colonia Guell. An easy ride from Barcelona by commuter rail, this is an early twentieth century company town centered around a textile factory. The factory was decommissioned in the 70s and then sold off in parts; at present an effort is underway to buy back all the condo-ized industrial space and restore it. The town itself is quite…
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I had completely planned and booked an Easter vacation trip to Andalusia in 2020 – needless to say it was cancelled and instead we remained in Barcelona under lockdown. In 2021 I contemplated re-booking it, but travel across Autonomous Community borders was still forbidden for Semana Santa. As our departure date loomed, I decided I couldn't leave Spain without visiting the Alhambra, summer heat…
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On our way to Barcelona we stopped in Montblanc, notable for its very well-preserved medieval walls and for being where Sant Jordi, Catalunya's patron saint, slayed the legendary dragon. A very cool metal fence-like sculpture commemorates the legend, just outside the wall in Placa Sant Francesc. The town is very picturesque, with a nice placa major and a beautiful little Plaça de Santa Maria…
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Ed and I left the kids in Poble Nou and drove to Miravet, another hill town a bit further up the Ebre from Tortosa. The town sits at a sharp bend in the Ebro and seems to hang above it, making it especially striking. Like Besalu,which we visited almost exactly a year ago, the town is clearly set up as a stopping-off point for tourist buses, but it was quiet the day we visited. It has a…
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We followed the Ebre inland from the delta and spent part of a day in Tortosa. The town straddles the river, with the impressive Castell de la Suda at its top. The castle, now a Parador, has great views of the Ebre and the hills beyond. We stopped at the Parador for lunch on its terrace. The castle structure dates from the tenth century Muslim Caliphate, though the site is thought to have been…
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While easier than last summer, travel has still been pretty unpredictable this year. We booked a trip to Sardinia that we had to abandon because Vueling canceled our flights and there were no others to be had. We briefly considered taking the ferry from Barcelona, but decided it was too much for a one-week jaunt. It's a 12-hour ride (overnight from Barcelona to Porto Torres) and its real…
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Mad traveled to Tenerife (Canary Islands) with her class, just after school ended. While she was away, the 3 of us traveled to Madrid by train. Ed and Henry had been to Sevilla the week before, but for me, it was my first time seeing any of Spain beyond Catalonia. It was honestly a little strange. Just before we went, the Spanish government finalized pardons of the Catalan political leaders who…
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Both kids completed milestone years at their school here. Mad completed SO4, the equivalent of 10th grade (she was skipped ahead a year). This is the end of obligatory schooling, so there was a proper graduation ceremony. SO4 is the last grade taught at Princess Margaret, so kids will be moving on to other schools for batxillerat (baccalaureate), the last 2 years of school before university…
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Ed and Henry travel to Sevilla for a European cup match between Spain and Poland. Our first live soccer game in over a year. Desayuno andaluz
Views from around town
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Determined to visit all 4 of Catalonia's provincial capitals, I made a day trip to Lleida by train. It's less of a tourist destination, but very worth a visit. Its towering old cathedral, la Seu Vella, sits atop a hill well above the town center. Today town and cathedral are connected by an impressively tall elevator. I didn't have enough time to figure out how one historically would have…
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My rough and ready translation of the Corpus signboard: Many years ago, the cathedral and the municipality decided to reclaim one of the oldest and most brilliant festivals that is celebrated in the city: the Corpus. They did it starting from the two most popular and participatory elements, products of the heritage of the Barcelones: the dancing egg and the procession. The dancing egg, a…
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Some highlights from our whirlwind visit to the Biennale. Giardini The dramatic roof of the Stirling Pavilion, the first thing you see after entering. It held an exhibit of Rafael Moneo's work. XXXXXX Arsenale Some of my favorite installations at the Arsenale:
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Before the pandemic, I had planned a trip to Venice over the long May Day weekend. Needless to say it was canceled. This year, Princess Margaret took a 4-day weekend over "Second Easter" (Pentecost) instead. So I re-booked the trip in December 2020, hoping for the best. Boy, did we get lucky: around May 10, Italy announced they would drop their quarantine requirement for visitors as of May 1…
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Interior market views (above): Galvany, Llibertat, l'Abaceria during Carnival. Before I started work on this post, I assumed I had been inside most of Barcelona's municipal food markets. . .then I perused the list and was surprised to find that the 9 I had shopped in made up less than a quarter of the roster of 39! Barcelona's markets are impressive in so many ways: in the quality and freshness of…
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The shopping cart is an endearing a fixture in Barcelona (I can't speak for the rest of Spain, we still haven't left Catalonia…). I decided against buying one when we arrived, for a simple reason: our street is reached by 75 stairs from the main shopping street below. And, pre-pandemic, I often shopped on the way home from doing other things around the city, and I didn't want to bring one with me…
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For Mothers' Day, we made a long-awaited day trip to Sitges, 35km south of Barcelona on the Mediterranean. The county closure was lifted on April 26, and the day of our trip, the State of Alarm was lifted, so we are even free to exit Catalonia. We took the commuter rail from Barcelona. The 30 minute ride takes you right along the rocky coast - at times the tracks hug the very edge of the cliffs…
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May 9 is Lusi's birthday - she's 9 years old. It was also the end of the State of Alarm: at 00 hours it expired, after over 6 months in force – along with Catalonia's 10pm curfew. This meant that curfew began at 10 on the 8th, then was lifted 2 hours later! Based on the noise on Friday night (the 7th) many people had already cast it off, so I don't think anyone was two worried about those 2 hours…
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I haven't talked about the pandemic here since school started last fall. It's not really thrilling copy, but it's been interesting to watch the parallels and divergences between Spain and the US. Between Barcelona and Madrid, even. School All students were required to go back in person in September, except with special permission. We have been very lucky; neither Mad nor Henry's class has had to…
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The dia de Sant Jordi celebrates Catalonia's patron saint, with books and roses (symbolizing culture and love). The Catalan flag, la Senyera, also features prominently. Single roses are gifted, often paired with stalks of wheat, and usually packaged with the Catalan colors. The sweet holiday was a victim of last year's lockdown. In a typical year, the main attraction is La Rambla. I didn't go…
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More walking and a new viewpoint, this time from just above the beautiful Pedralbes monastery and the Sarria neighborhood.
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Our tour of the many miradores continues. On the way, we happened upon some outdoor jazz at the Casa de l'Aigua. The mirador iself has a monumental quality reminiscent of the 1920s or 30s, though I couldn't find definitive information about its vintage.
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On the way home from Figueres, we made an express trip to Girona, one of Catalonia's four provincial capitals. It is a beautiful city, known for its colorful river houses, old medieval neighborhood and Jewish quarter. We spent a few hours walking around and ate lunch here. Our stopover convinced us that we want to come back for longer. The siting of the cathedral is remarkable. It sits atop…
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Over Easter vacation (Semana Santa), we spent a long weekend in Figueres, north of Barcelona near the French border. The city is famous for being Dali's home town. Ed and I had been there briefly in 2003 and we thought the kids would enjoy the Dali museum. We ate a couple of good meals in Figueres. At a Basque sidreria, all the desserts were served with a giant pouf of cotton candy as a…
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Another view from Collserola park, just above the Horta Labyrinth and not far from the Mirador de Montbau. On this walk, we also found a hiking signpost for Montserrat: a 12 hour walk. Ed's intrigued, but we're still under a cierre comarcal.
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The cerradura comarcal was briefly lifted in March, and Ed and I took advantage of this by taking the commuter rail to Sant Cugat del Valles. A well-heeled suburb of Barcelona, it is located in the valley between Collserola and the hills further inland. It's home to a large Benedictine monastery, begun in the 9th century and described as the most important in the comarca (county) Barcelonés. On a…
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This is our 100th blog post, and it's almost exactly one year after the covid lockdown began in Spain. How ironically appropriate to mark it with a post about Poble Espanyol, since we still haven't seen any of Spain outside of Catalonia! An "open-air museum" on Montjuic, it's a walled compound comparable in area to a large castle. Built for the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition, it's like…
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Valentine's Day was election day in Catalonia this year. Pro-independence parties gained a majority of the votes for the first time in an election. However, they lost over 600,000 votes compared to the previous elections amidst the lowest voter turnout in history (+/- 52%). The PSC under Salvador Illa won the most votes in Catalonia for the first time in history. Illa stepped down as Spain's…
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Calcots, similar to spring onions, are a traditional Catalan winter food. They're usually grilled and eaten with a Romesco-like sauce. A calçotada is a gathering dedicated to eating them. This impressive display is from the farm-to-table resturant we ate at with Henry's classmates last year. Calcots are sold in large bundles of 25 during the winter, when they are in season. They are really…
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It's orange season again. The street trees on Baix del Turó look beautiful right now. Our street is also lined with orange trees, but they are so small and abused that they are too pathetic to photograph. I've been harvesting the oranges from our tree for juice most mornings. It reminds me of hosting Elizabeth and J here last year at this time - our last visitors pre-pandemic.
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A window display of jamons near La Sagrera For Ed's birthday last year, I bought him a foldable jamonero – a ham stand – because they are difficult to find in the US, and I wanted to support future prosciutto-curing efforts. After we got back from our Christmas vacation travels, Ed decided to buy a whole jamon leg and try it out. In the typical charcuteria (xarcuteria, in Catalan), the variety is…
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I was surprised to see this banner while walking around - isn't the Euro a good 20 years old? Well, yes. It came into use in ... 1999. Pesetas were legal tender until 2002. But it is estimated that €1.6 billion worth of Pesetas are still in out in the world, so the Spanish govenment has extended the final deadline for trade-in to June 2021. Banco de España: Billetes y monedas en pesetas
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Some macro photos along the path from Peramea to Balestui. They are the orignial size, so quite large, but I need to improve my resizing settings to preserve the detail of the macros shots.
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Our second stop, for the last 4 days, was in the town of Peramea. Further north and west but still in Catalonia, it is just south of the higher Pyrenees peaks and the ski areas. Peramea is tucked into the hills above Gerri de la Sal and is the most important settlement of the high plateau called Pla de Corts. Its urban structure is a clear example of a medieval vila closa (walled town), where…
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Vic is the county capital, a city of about 50,000 people with history dating back to the 4th century B.C. The architectural variety attests to this history. We walked a signed tourist route to take in the local architecture while doing some food shopping. The city has a beautiful system of maps and wayfinding aids to guide visitors, both three-dimensional and incorporated into the pavement. We…
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From L'Aguilar, one day we drove to the medieval town of Rupit, about 45 minutes away along a serpentine road through lush terraced fields. Settled in the 12th century Rupit's character and scale is very picturesque, especially decorated for Christmas. But its siting sets it apart. The two halves of the town straddle a small river, and a pedestrian suspension bridge connects them. The town…
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The L'Aguilar Rural house in Tavèrnoles had an "ostentation" — seriously — of Peafowl. I'll save my advice for those considering living with or near Peafowl for another time and place. Spoiler: se cagan en todo. We also barely saved a Peacock Butterfly from the fire.
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After spending Christmas in Barcelona, we left the city for a 2-part vacation in the Catalan countryside. We opted against trying to go farther afield, not knowing where the mobility restrictions might land for the holiday season. This turned out to be a good decision: many autonomous communities kept their borders closed, and two Catalan comarcas (counties) were closed to travelers due to high…
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Happy holidays, dear friends and family!
Since many of you haven't laid eyes on us in over a year, here we are at home in Barcelona. A friend recently asked if I wished we were here at a different time, and my answer is "Of course!" Our biggest disappointments are the lack of travel and social interaction (for the grownups). Sadly, because we took some time to get settled after arriving and…
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I've been slowly working my way through my pandemic-friendly architectural bucket list. I can't believe I've waited this long to visit the Palau de la Musica Catalana, a Catalan Modernist gem by Lluis Domenech i Montaner. Tucked into the dense Ciutat Vella neighborhood of La Ribera, it was originally designed especially for choral performances. In the tradition of the world's great music…
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Earlier in the Fall upon the royal visit of King Felipe VI to Barcelona, Sarah shared some graffiti from our neighborhood. Some time later, this update was applied and remains in place. Catalan pride is definitely felt deeply. Separatism is more complicated and not universally supported even by the people with deep roots in Catalunya.
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Fall details: mushrooms, chestnuts, fall foliage mediterranean-style.
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Getting a different vantage point on the now-familiar skyline. The Mirador de Horta is about an hour's walk from our house. It really feels like you're on the very edge of the city here.
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Our first experience with urgent care - thankfully, my Spanish is good enough that it wasn't nearly as daunting as it would have been a year ago. "Heridas de guerra" as the cab driver and the physician both called them: Henry fell backwards while playing soccer at school, hitting his head on the goal post and cutting himself. School has their own insurance, and it covered our visit to have him…
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In October 2019 I bought a 12-month pass to 6 museums, the ArticketBCN. Pre-pandemic, I only went to the first one, the Miro Foundation. So now, pandemic or no, I have 5 to see in October 2020. Museu Picasso ... MACBA - the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona ... CCCB - The Center for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona ... The Tápies Foundation ... Can Framis - the Museum of Contemporary…
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The three towers of the Central Térmica de San Adrián are omnipresent in our views of the city from our neighborhood – we decided we wanted to get a close-up view of it. The Central Termica, operational from 1973-2011, is now preserved as a landmark. It is part of a huge energy complex, separated from the beach by an esplanade dotted with palm trees. What we can't make out from our terrace…
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Seen in our neighborhood the day of King Felipe VI's visit to Barcelona to attend the the Barcelona New Economy Week innovation awards with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. The king is the head of state and commander in chief of the armed forces. He is also especially unpopular in Catalunya, where approximately 2/3 of the population favors abolishing the constitutional monarchy in favor of a…
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We found a nice bodega where we can buy bulk wine (€2 for a liter). Yet another use for Vichy bottles! The small shop is a feast for the eyes. They offer a mouth-watering selection of pinchos too, which we haven't been able to try yet due to the semi-lockdown of bars and restaurants. Here's a close-up of the pinchos:
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Fake news, Spanish style.
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With the kids back in school (who knows for how long) it seemed a good time to venture forth into the old city again. Thanks to the city bike share ('bicing') I can do this without using public transit. Getting a bike up in the hills is not all that easy these days – I suspect usage has increased substantially, as people avoid buses and subways to a greater extent. After a trek down to Sagrada…
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La Mercé, on September 24, is a celebration of Barcelona's patron saint, Mare de Deu de la Mercé. Sadly, it isn't a great year to celebrate - it's traditionally a street festival with lots of crowds, human towers and pyrotechnics. Last year we were still getting our bearings and weren't organized enough to see one of the correfocs - fire runs - or get in position for a good view of the human…
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School resumed in person here on September 14. Although the photos don't reflect this, both kids seem very happy to be attending school in person. I felt very apprehensive about it, in great part because the positivity rate in Barcelona seemed too high to warrant it. But the case rate here has stayed level and even decreased slightly since school started, in contrast to Madrid. We'll see if it…
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Before the pandemic, we had planned to come home for the month of August, since our tenants would be leaving. As the time to fly home approached, we dithered about whether to make the trip, unsure whether it was necessary enough to warrant it, and whether we'd have difficulty re-entering Spain. But we went, and it was great. The flights home were uneventful, easy even, with both planes just…
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Since the State of Alarm has been lifted we've been able to freely move around the city (at least for now, though another lockdown is distinctly possible). However, we haven't wanted to take public transit, so we've doing some 'urban' hiking. We recently walked to the Sarriá neighborhood and found a little-known Gaudi project, only open to the public since 2013. Built for the Figueres family…
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On the way back to Barcelona from El Serradell, we stopped in Besalú, a beautiful medieval town, approached by its noted Romanesque bridge over the river Fluviá. We walked around a bit, getting a general feel for the place, but didn't visit any of its sights, which include a Jewish synagogue and baths. It is clearly set up to accommodate large numbers of tourists, now conspicuously absent. In…
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On Saturday, we headed back to the Sadernes trailhead, hoping to swim a bit. But the area was mobbed, which was not a little disconcerting considering how narrow and curvy the road is. So instead we visited the nearby town of Olot, Capitol of the comarca (county) of La Garrotxa. Although small (population 35,000), it seemed to have lots of interesting sites and plenty to do, though it was devoid…
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Our longest day hike followed the river bed of Riera de Sant Aniol, up to the hermitage of Sant Aniol d'Aguja (Sant Aniol of the needle). The hike was wonderful, most of it not difficult, but extremely varied passing from low humid valleys into drier rockier areas. The trail crosses an old bridge, and passes by a finca with a visitor center and small café, reminiscent of an AMC lodge in some…
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The nearby Sant Andreu de Gitarriu is just one of many hermitage churches in the Alta Garrotxa. According to the marker, it dates from the 10th century. Its (empty) belfry is simply an open double-arch above its roofline, common to many other Ermitas. We could peer in through the small window in the apse to get a view of the tiny, spare interior. The area is part of Itinerànnia, a network of…
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We finally escaped Barcelona to see some of the country. We had a trip planned with the Oakes for the Pyrenees, Saint Sebastian and Bilbao, but they obviously couldn't come to Spain, and we decided to put off visiting Saint Sebastian this year. The food scene is a huge part of the city's appeal, so it didn't make sense to go there while practicing extreme social distancing. Instead we rented a…
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In June, small kiosks appeared all over the city labeled Venda Petards. City-sanctioned fireworks are pretty exciting for us, coming from a town where fireworks are verboten and dense wood-frame construction predominates. Ed splurged on a Maxi Box for the kids. The eve of Saint John's Day (June 24) is celebrated with a massive do-it-yourself fireworks extravaganza, which starts several days…
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Spain's Quarantine Timeline Mar 12 Most of Spain's autonomous communities (including Catalonia) announced the closures of all schools (nursery school through university). At first, Catalonia's closure was to be effective Mon Mar 16. A few hours later it was amended to take effect the next day. Mar 13 First day, all schools closed. Mar 14 State of Alarm begins. The decree gives the Spanish…
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After 6 months of carrying the heavy bottles up the 75 stairs to our house, and recycling the beautiful and reusable glass, I finally arranged for home delivery of Vichy. Ed in particular has fallen in love with its minerally, dare I say sulphuric taste. It is particularly tasty with an orange or lemon slice. The glass bottles are picked up and reused...hardly a revolutionary model, but one…
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Despite the stringency and relative clarity of the shelter in place order, during the first week, our large neighborhood park was still well-populated. Most people there were walking their dogs but often weren't doing so alone. Many people were out jogging.
Credit: diaridetarragona.com By the end of the first week, police were stopping people in our park, asking them to limit dog-walking. They…
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Around March 15, Madrid and Barcelona residents started a ritual of nightly applause in recognition of medical staff and other essential workers. People come out on their terraces and balconies all across the city and clap together for 5-10 minutes - it's quite impressive. From our vantage point we can hear the applause echoing all around us as it bounces off the buildings that step up the hills…
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On the day the first COVID-19 case was announced in Barcelona, I went in search of hand sanitizer and the 4 or 5 stores I visited were already out of it. So when I started to consider that I might want to wear a mask, or at least have one on hand just in case, sewing one seemed the obvious answer. By some stroke of luck, there were a few remnants of cotton left in the house by a previous…
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The kids attend a private school in Barcelona, and as it became clear during the week of March 9th that schools would close, the teachers and faculty mobilized to teach remotely. I don't know what the situation is with the public schools, and whether there are similar barriers to teaching remotely as there are in the states. In any event, today Spain's Ministry of Education announced that it is…
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The big bad: We have never used the health care system here -- at a time like this, I'd like to at least have first-hand experience with it. We have no family or close friends here to call on in case of emergency. Enough said. The small bad: We don't have a full complement of cooking and baking gear and ingredients, so some kitchen projects are not possible, or are so ambitious as to be…
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What the above photo doesn't show is an orderly line outside, with people spaced 1m+ apart, waiting for their turn to enter. Shopping is not fast in Europe under normal circumstances - it's even slower now. At least the weather is cooperative.
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On Friday a national state of emergency was put into effect, effective Saturday, to stem the spread of Coronavirus. The Spanish government enacted explicit instructions (forwarded to me in English from the US Dept. of State) about what we are allowed to leave the house to do: a. To obtain food, medicine, and basic necessities. b. To obtain medical care. c. To go to and from work (if you cannot…
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It's pretty novel to see real signs of spring in February!
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A few scenes from Carnival - Carnestoltes in Catalan. A week of dressing up and eating special holiday recipes.
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Even in February Casa Batllo is packed.
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Despite being here for almost 6 months, we hadn't hadn't gone out for paella yet since we arrived. Elizabeth and Jane's visit seemed like a perfect opportunity for it. Ed got a restaurant recommendation from a co-worker native to Barcelona. The restaurant did not disappoint! We ordered two types - one with squid ink and the other with shrimp and mussels. They were served with aioli, and they…
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When you are in 8th grade, being in a new school in a new country is not easy. Technology makes it easy to stay in touch, but there is no substitute for being face to face, so we were really happy to welcome Jane and Elizabeth for a short visit.
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They aren't lemons! There had been debate about whether they were oranges or lemons, but now we know.
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Barcelona has a lovely opera house and we got tickets to see Aida. The show was excellent, though I'm not enough of an opera connoisseur to be able to say much about it, except that I particularly enjoyed thw two female leads. The pace of the show was very civilized - an intermission between each of the 4 acts - so the show lasted until midnight. The opera house was remarkable for the verticality…
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Casa Vicens, located in the Vila de Gracia, is Gaudi's first house, built in 1883. It opened recently - in 2017 - after a painstaking restoration, and it's a bit off the beaten path, so it's pleasantly less busy than his other buildings. It's an amazing aggregation of Moorish and Orientalist elements, quite different from his later very sculptural, organic work. The variety and density of the…
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I dragged the kids to the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya to see Osamu Tezuka, God of Manga, thinking Mad would enjoy it. The show was small but beautiful but we didn't have time to see anything else, so I came back alone a little later. The museum building, or Palau Nacional, was built to be the centerpiece of the 1929 Barcelona International Exhibition. It is over-the-top monumental, on a hill…
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We have gotten very used to Barcelona's mild winter weather. Henry is committed to wearing shorts for the whole winter. Meanwhile the locals can often be found wearing bulky scarves, puffy coats and boots when it's in the high 50s. Their commitment to dressing warmly may be in part to facilitate dining outside, which is done all winter. I suspect this is largely to enable smoking, which is…
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Fifth grade is a good year to start going to princess Margaret school. You get to go on a ski trip for the whole school week to a resort called Boi Taull about 4 hours away from Barcelona. You sleep in a hotel room with 1-3 of your friends. For skiers from New England, Boi Taull has pretty impressive stats: At 9,025 feet tall (2751 meters) It is significantly taller than Mount Washington (628…
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Celebrating Henry's birthday started the day before with a cake at school. I was told that store-bought was the norm, which was good because I hadn't figured out how to make frosting without confectioners sugar yet. The cake was expensive - chalk that up to a learning curve about where to buy a kid-appropriate birthday cake, combined with no advance planning! But it was very artful, even with the…
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The Christmas holidays are protracted in Spain, with the official start on December 22 when the Christmas lottery (el Gordo) winners are drawn, and ending with the Three Kings on January 6. On the night of the 5th the Cavalcada de los Reis - the parade of the kings - makes it way through the city of Barcelona from the port, where the kings are said to arrive by boat. It is the traditional gift…
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Henry and I have been going to matches of one of the local terca division futbol clubs, CE Europa. They are not the closest to our house, but are a 15 minute walk away into northern Gracia. They play at a 7000 seat stadium call Nou Sardenya. Henry gets in for free and my ticket is €10. The quality of the futbol is really quite good. On this particular day, we watched the home derby match between…
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We had gaped at the stupendous church from outside many times but hadn't gone in, so having friends in town was a perfect opportunity to do this. Even visiting on New Years morning, there was no respite from the large crowds. Fortunately the vast scale of the church accommodates the masses with ease. Visitors enter from one end of the transept, which is so large I thought it was the whole nave at…
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Though we had been to Park Guell several times since our arrival, we hadn't been into the ticketed area since our Honeymoon trip here in 2003 (before tickets were required). Derek and Danielle's visit was a good excuse to do it. It was mobbed with people, and partially under restoration, but still photogenic. Henry manned the DSLR.
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Derek, Danielle and Nico wanted to do one day out of Barcelona, and we chose Montserrat. We rented cars and a kooky AirBnB above a bar in the village of Rellinars. The house was a riot of tile and stonework, a bit busy for my taste but clearly built with love and patience, maybe by a tile and stone contractor. It had lovely views of the town and the surrounding hills, and a huge wall of…
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We returned to Barcelona right after Christmas to welcome Derek, Danielle and Nico for a visit. It was so great to have friends here for New Years (even though we stayed in that night), and to show them some of what we've discovered about the city. Taking in the vista from the top of Parc del Guinardo.... And discovering a framed view of Sagrada Familia If you come to visit, be prepared for…
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Being in Spain meant it was easy to travel to Rome for Christmas with the Radding side of my family. We found a "residencia canina" for Lusi, suitable for longer trips. There don't seem to be kennels within the city; they are all out in the country, but thankfully they provide transportation.
We joined Chip and Maureen, Jonah, Ashley and Gaia, and Ashley's mom Dee in Testaccio. It was especially…
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Spain is at the western edge of the Central European time zone - it really belongs in the Western European time zone (with Portugal and the UK), and so the sun rises very late in the winter - around 8am! Thankfully school doesn't start until almost 9. This means that even sleepyheads can enjoy the sunrise from our terrace at this time of year. I'm just glad we aren't in Galicia (north of Portugal…
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For a family outing with Henry’s 5th grade class, we traveled to Vinyanova, a farm restaurant at the base of Montserrat, where we ate a traditional Catalan meal. The parent organizers hired ‘monitores’ – sitters – to entertain the kids so the adults could eat in peace! (Mad ate with the adults). The meal was served at a long table in an old stone building and included classic fare: pan con…
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Once we found a dog-sitter to stay with Lusi, we took our first weekend trip out of Barcelona. We chose Tarragona, an hour south on the Mediterranean. It is a city of about 200,000, with walls, amphitheater and forum dating from its time as a Roman capital in Iberia. It's delightful, and though at least one person told us we could see the city in a day trip, we didn't regret spending the weekend…
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By early December, the Christmas season is in full swing. Decorations have been appearing for some time (without the boundary of decency offered by Thanksgiving), but in December the bar is raised. Building decorations are intricate and impressive in the more commercial areas of the city. The city thoroughfares are dramatically lit as well. The Barcelonés, avid container gardeners, buy…
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Since Thanksgiving Thursday is just a regular day here, we celebrated on Saturday. After some searching, I found a whole fresh turkey at my favorite of the public markets, the Abaceria, in Gracia. It was about 10 pounds and not cheap (€40) but well worth it – I thought it was one of the best turkeys I’d ever eaten. Since we don’t have a pie pan, we had an apple tart instead. The only dish…
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For weeks we’ve spied a grandiose-looking church atop one of the mountains on the edge of the city. It is the Temple of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. To see it, we took the train to Baixador de Vallvidrera and hiked up Collserola. Along the way we happened upon a stone cousin of our familiar wooden picnic table.
It was dramatic to approach the church and the small village around it from below…
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The Recinte Modernista is an Art Nouveau hospital that was designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner and built in the early 20th century. It was awarded UNESCO World Heritage status in 1997. It is a collection of buildings across a beautiful campus and sits adjacent to the modern hospital of Sant Pau. There is much to be said about the design and site, but that will be for future posts. One of the…
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After my solo trip to the Miro Foundation, we went back to Montjuic as a family to check out the castle. On the way we found the Olympic pool, with (yet another) sweeping view of the city.
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I started working my way through Barcelona's many art museums with a trip to the Miro foundation. The encyclopedic collection gave me a new appreciation for Miro's importance on the canon of twentieth century art. The building had a familiar air to it – it was designed by Josep Lluis Sert, onetime dean of the GSD and architect of several familiar Cambridge buildings (Peabody Terrace, Smith…
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This weekend the top of the Arc de Triomf was open to the public as part of the annual 48 Hours Open House Barcelona. I waited in line for an hour and a half to make the climb up the narrow spiral staircase. I went on my own because kids weren't allowed. A short presentation in Spanish preceded the climb, and though I didn't catch all of it I gleaned that unlike similar monuments (in Paris for…
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We signed Henry up for a neighborhood soccer team, and he had his first game today. Some differences will take some time to get used to: no shin-guards, playing on hardscape rather than grass (or turf) and kids are allowed to head the ball.
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The flora in our yard is wonderful including a highly productive lemon tree that produces a sweeter variety of lemon that you can almost eat. There's a lovely old, gnarled olive tree that wasn't as productive this year. No herbs, but easily solved. Rosemary, Lavendar and Basil were found at a bazaar around the corner. Rosemary this size would have been $20 at Ricky's. Here it was 4 euros and will…
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On Monday the Spanish Supreme Court handed down harsh sentences for nine pro-independence Catalan politicians. The sentences, ranging from 9-13 years, have sparked outrage in Barcelona. Ed traveled to Lisbon for work on Monday, and he was lucky enough to fly out just before the convictions were announced: protesters’ first action was to blockade the airport. Chip and Maureen, flying in from…
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The Spaniards consume so much pork that I'm sure this is unremarkable to the locals, but I found it a bit disturbing.
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We went for dinner at the rather fancy looking restaurant down Mare de Deu to Montserrat toward Maragall. From the menu posted outside, it was clearly a bit pricier than other options in the neighborhood. The decor is a bit rustic, the chairs were postively diabolical, but the food was delicious. I had a stew of rabbit and snails which was one of the most delicious dishes I've had in Spain. The…
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Today we explored the large hilltop park at our doorstep. Closest to the neighborhood, it has a 19th century Romantic feel, with picturesqe outdoor rooms, fountains and stonework. Paths ascend the hill at a fairly steep grade, offering a good urban hike and great views of the city. At the top, the ruins of a civil war era battery and a shanty town make for a popular picnic spot.
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Our home away from home is a townhouse with a beautiful view of Barcelona. The biggest attractions of the place are its proximity to the kids' school, large patio overlooking the city, and room for visitors. Located in the neighborhood of Guinardó, in the hills above the center of the city but just a short metro ride away from it, it is next to the large Park del Guinardó. Spain is at the extreme…
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After 6 weeks of living out of our 8 suitcases, we have finally moved into our long-term home in Barcelona. It feels so good to unpack. We survived the lease negotiation process, which involved advice from 2 Spanish lawyers and a lot of Google Translate....it remains to be seen whether I have successfully changed the utilities into our name! We have also left behind our short-term apartment. We…
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Barcelona's famed food market on the Rambla does not disappoint! The sheer quantity of food and the artistry of its presentation is truly impressive. Highlights included fruit and coconut smoothies, and a seafood fry-up served in a paper cone.
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Pictured here are seasonal fruit finds, variations on familiar things from home: the large yellow peaches taste almost apricot-like, the flat peaches have a small pit and flesh with a more plum-like consistency (but different from a nectarine). Many varieties of tomatoes abound. As throughout most of Europe, wine and bread – necessities of life – are very inexpensive. This wasn’t surprising. It…
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We didn't really know what to expect moving to Barcelona with our dog. Finding housing that allowed "mascotas" limited our choices, but there were apartments available. Upon arriving, however, in La Sagrera and Guinardo anyway, dogs are everywhere. For us, this is a mixed blessing because many of the dogs are off-leash and Lusi isn't always friendly. Castellano: Mi perro no siempre es amigable…
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Madeline and Henry will be attending a small, private, tri-lingual school in the Font d'en Fargas neighborhood. They'll be getting themselves to school on the subway after the first couple of days, so we practiced arriving before the actual first day. Once we move into our permanent apartment, they will have a short walk. School actually starts on September 12th, the day after Catalunya Day…
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September 11 (Onze de Setembre) has its own significance in Barcelona. Marking the city's fall in the long-ago War of Spanish Succession, today it is a celebration of Catalan nationalism. We didn't see the massive crowds gathered at Placa Catalunya, instead we wandered the streets admiring the individual displays of patriotism on facades and balconies. The Sagrada Familia took the cake, with a…
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I had arranged for us to have an AirBnB for the first month were here so we could visit various neighborhoods and get sense of what was available and where we want to live. Barcelona is a big and diverse city and we've only barely started to figure thing out. However, part of our immigration is that we must register with the authorities and obtain identification cards. In order to do that you need…
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After a little time to recover from jet lag, Sarah and I set out to explore the neighborhood market.
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Challenge accomplished, purchase Magic cards in Spanish.
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The dog has made it safe and sound. Funnily she is calmer than she has been in weeks. It is almost as if she's saying, "Wait, we're moving to Spain? Why didn't you just tell me that in the first place."
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It is Labor Day 2019 and the day of reckoning is upon us. All the belongings that we are taking with us to Spain are packed in eight suitcases and our carryons, which, unfortunately, Trans Air Portugal intends to weigh. We've been lucky to have such good friends. Val generously offered her house to us (and Lusi) for the second half of August, while we waited for our final visa documentation to…
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