Two main events this week. First, our ex-trainee Romy is back in Alicante for the summer, and we went for lunch with her. And later in the week, I went to Barcelona to help my daughter settle into her new life there. My wife had been there for a couple of weeks already, but now I needed to come up as well. I was looking forward to seeing my daughter, my wife, and (not least) Mochi again.
30_1
I start with a couple of photos of my mother’s Magic Cactus which was at it again:
30_2
30_3
Then it was time to have lunch with Romy, who has featured frequently in my photos from 2023-24. We went to a Thai restaurant in the centre:
30_4
Afterwards, Carolina and Romy chatted outside the restaurant:
30_5
And then they posed for me:
30_6
Monica (with my wife’s help) had found an apartment in Barcelona that she liked and could pay for, but given that she is just starting her job there, I had to sign a guarantee for the lease. The appointment at the realtor was at 11:30 on Friday, so I got up very early Friday morning, and by 5:30 a.m. I was on the northbound motorway, with 530 km to drive. Everything went fine, I arrived on time, we did the signing, and afterwards I was reunited with Mochi in the AirBnB that Monica’s employer had provided for her for the first month:
30_7
Walking around Barcelona, one sees the signs of the times:
30_8
Feeding frenzy:
30_9
A guard dog, not very fearsome:
30_10
Channelling Elliott Erwitt:
30_11
The neighbourhood where my daughter’s temporary place is located is called Sants. Its main claim to fame is that it contains one of Barcelona’s main train stations, Estació de Sants, from where high-speed trains for Madrid depart. The neighbourhood is completely non-touristy; there are some AirBnBs only because it is near the station, but the visitors staying in them go to the usual touristy parts of town for their fun. In the evening, the bar down the street was full of locals enjoying the warm weather and a drink:
30_12
The main thoroughfare of the neighbourhood is Rambla de Badal. Much social life takes place there:
30_13
One of my jobs during the 4 days I stayed in Barcelona was to take Mochi for walks. There were many other dogs in the neighbourhood:
30_14
The purpose of my visit was to help my daughter and wife, mainly by babysitting Mochi while they shopped for appliances and furniture for the new apartment. But on Saturday I was going to meet up for lunch with my friend Lluis. Before that, I went to visit the modern art museum Moco, a small but very nice facility. In the inner courtyard there is a large sculpture by the artist Kaws:
30_15
There was a large exhibition of works by Robbie Williams:
30_16
After the museum visit, I snapped this scene at a café next to the Jaume I metro station. The women wearing a hijab is smoking a cigarette, not a sight one sees a lot in public. Her companion may well be Muslim too. In modern Spain, Muslim women mix and match their dress and lifestyles in sometimes surprising ways:
30_17
I took the metro to the iconic Plaça de Catalunya and had a beer at Café Zurich, the spiritual European home of the Leica Users Group, while waiting for Lluis:
30_18
Lluis arrived, and we took the bus to Barceloneta, a working class neighbourhood near the beach, now somewhat gentrified, but not completely:
30_19
One of the two ice cream eaters seems to have noticed my camera and is giving me a look:
30_20
Someone had a drink last night:
30_21
Lluis and I went to Bar Electricitat, another traditional place where the key words are tapas and vermouth:
30_22
Wine from the barrel, to be enjoyed on site or taken away:
30_23
As always, Lluis was using his Leica to capture the surroundings, particularly the other guests:
30_24
Then our food arrived, starting with ensaladilla rusa (I really wish restaurants would change the name of this dish) and la bomba, accompanied by a bottle of vermouth:
30_25
Sunday morning, yet another walk with Mochi. A doorway conversation:
30_26
It is essential to lock your bicycle with a good U-lock:
30_27
These signs requesting that dogs not pee there are common around Barcelona. The problem is that those are usually the spots where dogs like to pee:
30_28
Sants is a very mixed neighbourhood, with a mix of young and old, Spanish/Catalans and immigrants, etc., giving it a nice colourful character. We came across this communal garden run by a group of young people, with a clear ideological agenda:
30_29
The entrance:
30_30
A sign explaining that the produce grown is destined for the local food banks:
30_31
The gardeners:
A full gallery of the visit to Barcelona can be seen here.