Ten Things I Love About Living in Barcelona

In no particular order, here are ten things I love about living in Barcelona:

1) Family time. We cook breakfast for the kids in the morning, we pick them up after school, we travel together, we hang out together. Julie and I go on cultural dates during the day, take Spanish classes, go to the gym together, and explore the city at night. To paraphrase Al Franken, we aren't just getting quality time, we are getting a whole lot of "quantity time."

Spending some family time in Amsterdam

 2) Our Bojon Barcelona family. How great it is to arrive in a new city, where we don't speak the language, and be welcomed by old friends, who also happen to be the warmest and most fun people in Spain.  (Sometimes too much fun - they are Bojon, after all).  You guys know who you are - thanks for making our days and nights memorable.

3) Our balcony. We look out over the top of a park and can see a sliver of the Mediterranean. The view just never gets old. Julie and I frequently end the day with a drink and a chat on the deck.  Gives us perspective

Sunset from the deck, by Tom and Lindsay.

4) Our new friends. We've met some great people through our kids' school. Many live nearby. For instance, about dead center in the photo above is the balcony of the Weubkers, who have twins in Leo's grade, a daughter in Linsday's grade, and I daresay at this point are doomed to be our lifelong friends.

The Wuebker's apartment.

5) Gaudi. Lots of Gaudi.

Casa Battlo on a beautiful winter day.

6) Barcelona is a great city for people-powered transport - walking and biking. When we do bike, we use Bicing, Barcelona's extensive bike-sharing system.  We can pick up a bike around the corner and ride the whole city. Over 400 stations and 6,000 bicycles. Julie and I bike everywhere. 

The BiCing bike share stand around the corner from our apartment.

7) The club. We joined a beautiful health club, near the school up the hill from our apartment. Julie plays lots of tennis, and I do the Sufferfest while looking out over the whole city. After we work out we can have lunch or a beer in the terrace restaurant. It's our happy place.

The pool at the club.

 8) The Menu del dia. A first course, second course, desert, and a glass of wine for 10 to 15 Euros. What a civilized way to have lunch.

9) "To go" cups are hard to find. Want a cup of coffee?  Sit down.  Take five minutes. Enjoy your coffee. Really. You have time.

10) There is always a bar. At the health club. The ice skating rink. The soccer field.  On this corner, and the next one, and the one after that.  There is always a bar. 

A Medieval Thanksgiving

What better way for a kid to spend Thanksgiving than in an actual medieval castle, complete with cannons, towers, battlements, views out over the mountains (and, for our generation of kids, WiFi too)?  What better way for all of us to spend Thanksgiving than in the company of our dear friends Michael, Laura, Miles and Mia?  We are indeed feeling grateful this week, for old friends and for this beautiful country we live in.

On Wednesday last week the eight of us drove to Cardona, a small town about eighty kilometers inland from Barcelona. There we stayed at Cardona Castle, one of the paradores, the national network of castles that the Spanish government has turned into hotels. Turns out a thousand year old castle is a spectacular place for Thanksgiving dinner:
 

Cardona castle, our hotel for Thanksgiving

The castle includes both a luxury hotel and a beautiful chapel.  They host weddings there; perhaps a good place to renew our vows next time?

Lindsay in the chapel

Cardona's lords derived their wealth from "Salt Mountain", a large salt mine just outside of town.  The mine is no longer active but is open for tours, which are especially informative if you bring Mia along to translate.

Laura checks out the salt formations.

As part of the medieval journey, we also stopped off at Montserrat, the thousand year old monastery in the jagged mountains outside of Barcelona.  It rained the whole way there, but the clouds cleared long enough for us to get a hike in with views back to the monastery.

Montserrat Monastery from the overlook

(An aside - a little mishap in the castle rendered my SLR inoperable.  I had to rely on my iPhone as my only camera.  I'm still learning how to get good photos out of the phone; it was a useful forcing mechanism.)

Full set of 25 photos here:

Tom's 2014 Thanksgiving Set