After Valencia, we trained back for our final two weeks. We stayed in our first home exchange. It was great! Perfectly located in our favorite neighborhood, Gràcia.

A walk-though our apartment

For the video walk through, click this photo.

Casa Vicens

We visited Gaudí’s first house in Barcelona: Casa Vicens. It was conveniently just around the corner from our apartment. I’d been myself in 2021, but it is so stunning I wanted Bob to see it too. It was completely renovated in 2014, which is why it looks so fresh. It was originally built 1883–1885, as a summer house for the Vicens family. At that time, Gràcia was an autonomous village, “out in the country” from Barcelona.

That weekend the Eixample neighborhood had a big street festival celebrating the Modernista architecture and time in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Sunday Castellers Event

Community Gardens

We toured the Vall d’Hebron community gardens with Robert. This massive rooftop garden is on top of the Mercat Vall d’Hebron. The roof was reinforced so tons of soil and pavers could be safely installed for the garden. In addition to Robert working his home rooftop garden, he comes here, to be a part of this larger “growing community!”

Tour of Val de Hebron market rooftop garden

Click here to view video on YouTube.

Birthday Parties

Hike for Lunch

Each time we visit Barcelona we look forward to another interesting hike out of the city and into the nearby woods and hills of Collserola. It’s amazing to deepen our experience of this city with learning about the wonderful nature and life beyond the urban center.
This time, Nina had told us about the last remaining winery in Barcelona, Can Calopa de Dalt. It’s non-profit project for people at risk of social exclusion. The property is owned by the City of Barcelona and collaborated with this organization to create the working winery, olive orchard, tasting room and restaurant.
Can Calopa – L'Olivera

*Photos of Robert’s map we used to “help” us navigate the little-used trail through thick trees to get from an outlying neighborhood up to the winery.*

Barcelona Brew Festival

We didn’t realize how big craft brewing has become in Spain! Lucky us, the annual event was back in full force, post-Covid, and it was on my birthday weekend. We went on Saturday afternoon, and had a great time. They do festivals very well in Spain. No plastic cups either: our souvenir tasting glasses were actual glass with cool logos on them. And the food! No typical festival food here.

Saturday Night Craziness in Gràcia

Among the unique Catalan traditions, the Carrefoc is the craziest. Translated from Catalan, it means fire run, and indeed, fire and sparks are set off for a very long parade of sorts, through the narrow neighborhood streets. We’ve seen the largest annual event, La Mercé festival in the fall, where a massive parade of this sort is carried out in the center of the city. Probably composed of neighbhorhood groups from all across the city, so it’s many times larger than what we saw this time.
This time though, we were even more up close and personal, which makes it even more crazy!