Christmas, New Year, Three Kings

The celebrations just don’t stop! Christmas day seems to be a low-key affair here, especially after we’ve been through the New Year’s Eve celebrations, and into the following week leading up to the Big Event… Three Kings! Epiphany, the visitation of the Magi, as we learned it. But in our culture, it was no big deal. Here, the opposite. It’s where kids get lots of presents. They write letters to the kings, and there are parades. This blog is long! It goes through to Three Kings, January 6.

(a reminder: If you don’t see a photo caption, hover curser at bottom of photo. If viewing this on a smart phone, photo captions can be accessed by clicking a small dot at the bottom right corner.)

Christmas day gelato after a walk.

Christmas dinner we cooked. Rabbit!

After dinner with the lights, right near our apartment.

Enjoying more lights on St. Stephen’s Day, or Boxing Day

More local street light decorations.

And more!

This is the light extravangaza at the Hospital San Pau— the former modernista hospital campus turned Unesco Heritage Site museum. The architecture is amazing, and with this light show— Wow!

One of many colorful, pattern displays on this tree.

The full moon and jet trails made it even more surreal!

A giant Caga Tio for kids to climb and pose on!

With an extra long nose!

Saturday shopping at Mercat Ninot, a favorite we discovered last spring.

So many eggs!

Seat is a Spanish automobile company. They built an over-the-top showroom a couple of years ago and have neat rotating exhibits.

Of course it was decked out for Christmas!

Several cute vignettes to delight kids and adults alike.

Sort of like a gingerbread doughboy!

Love this Santa’s workshop conveyer belt.

Wider view.

Before Christmas, a live Santa was there for kids to talk to.

How about this awesome take-away container for gelato?

One giant scoop of vanilla to go with some brownies I made!

Dinner at Roser’s

Roser and Ramón made the main course— baked fish (dorada) on top of roasted potatoes and onions.

The lively and inquisitive kitty, Pallita, who Roser nursed back from abandonment a year ago, when she was only weeks old!

A pesky little thing, but smart! She’s figured out how to pull off Roser’s hair band!

Teo made the most delicious seafood bisque.

Teo with the honors of serving the fish.

We brought the dessert— a visit to a popular patisserie snags us this lovely Swiss roll-type confection. Always packaged exquisitely.

The way these pastries are decorated!

It was chocolate cake, rolled with chocolate and pistachio mousses.

New Year’s Eve Activities

This is Raima, the largest stationery store in Europe! Incredible place with all manner of paper goods, writing implements and gifts.

The window displays were gorgeous for Christmas.

One of several impressive paper dresses in the store.

The main reason we went there: Paper! Art papers, handmade papers, papers for Bob to use in book and printmaking…

We braved the masses and went out to the big show at Plaça Espanya.

It was a bit jammed and claustrophobic… but gotta do it once!

Behind is Arenas— the early 20th century bull ring amazingly transformed into a shopping center.

It was worth it— fireworks and a drone show.

Drones in the air, eating 12 grapes at midnight— fun!

All sorts of configurations

Including the design of traditional Barcelona sidewalk pavers.

Happy New Year, Barcelona!

New Year’s Day

Beautiful day, walk along the water.

Concrete blocks against piers make nice compositions.

Remains of some old structure now a basketball court.

Gorgeous water tower.

After the long walk, a vermut in a bar near the port.

Along the old port, an ice skating rink for the season!

And a carousel, and a whole holiday marketplace with carnival activities. From before Christmas through Three Kings.

Sunset stroll, with the Cristobal Colòn statue in lovely silhouette.

In the Gràcia, our favorite fresh pasta and Italian deli. We always get fresh filled pasta, and most times fresh pesto here.

Brilliantly prepared and presented duck breast. Special meal out at Fonda Pepa, a restaurant Roser recommended.

The Festival of the Three Kings: Fiesta de los Reyes Magos

Right down our street, items for the parade taking place ahead of Three Kings are staged.

Stage in the Plaça de la VIla, where the Three Kings assistants will sit to take requests from the kids.

The Three Kings Cake. Everyone gets one for the holiday. Except us. They are too big!

Hey, we never looked up at this cool building before!

That evening, the parade. Costumes depicting the letters kids send to the Kings. Much like American kids send to Santa.

Later, in the parade in Gràcia, heading toward the plaça. This is a local neighborhood event.

The three assistants talking to kids. The middle one is a friend our our friends Robert and Nina!

The big, city-wide Three Kings Parade. It was pouring that night— the first and only day of rain in a month! We opted to watch on TV instead.

The first king is Melcior, representing Europe.

Second king, Gaspar, representing Asia.

Third king, Baltasar, representing Africa.

What all the kids are waiting for: candy! Caramels in Catalan.

Funny thing: the upturned umbrellas will catch candy!

Screen capture not flattering, but costume of the TV presenter was fun.

The next day— I spied some kids trying out their very cool new toys!

This little guys’ electric bike was more of a putt-putt, befitting his age.

As a guy played frisbee with his dog, there was much fussing and adjusting by dad…

The bigger kid’s bike was next step beneath a dirt bike, it looked like!

While the kids were riding, Bob was in the studio. I stopped by as he was wrapping up before we left Barcelona for our 3 weeks away.

One of our most favorite bakeries. Almond croissant and cardamom twist. Yumm!

Look up! Our narrow street can’t afford wide views of these lovely façades.