Festa Major Barceloneta...

Last weekend we had the annual Festa Major Barceloneta. The streets were decorated with flags and the marching bands were out in force. Music and people filled the narrow streets and much fun was had by all. His Nibs filmed the closing fireworks to give you all a taste of our local celebrations. You can check out his video on Vimeo here....

Check out his video of a band playing outside our building earlier in the month... 


Hasta luego!

Summer so far in Barcelona….

May is one of my favourite months in Barcelona. The sun starts to shine and everyone comes out on the streets to socialise and gossip. We also start to see a lot more events being organised and of course, the chiringuitos (beach bars) open up for summer.

We kicked off the month with a visit to the Feria de abril de Cataluña . The event is Barcelona’s version of the Feria de abril de Sevilla and takes place over the last week of April and first week of May every year. It’s a great opportunity to see flamenco dancers and singers as well as eating some amazing food. There’s a funfair as well so lots of good entertainment all round. 

I also took a trip to Sitges with my friend Bryan for a lunch by the sea at La Concha. The lunch was good and the fixed price menu was great value. Possibly the best thing about it was the view of Sant Sebastià beach. Sitges is one of my favourite towns and I love the beaches here, as well as the friendly people and the beautiful church and old buildings. I recommend a day trip (or longer) to anyone who comes to Barcelona, it’s well worth it. We had a stroll through the town after lunch, did a spot of birdwatching of the numerous Swifts flying around the church and ended up having a swift drink at a chiringuito.

Another great thing about this city is the amount of free events that they have here. His Nibs and I popped along to a free one day music festival called La Plaça Odissea that was held at Maremagnum, a big shopping centre in the port.  We went to see the Icelandic band FM Belfast who are worth catching live if you get the chance. Their shows are always energetic and fun, check out the video below for a taste of what to expect from them. The hot weather caused them some grief, with the whole band taking their trousers off to cool down halfway through their set.

There’s more to come from May (I told you things start kicking off this month!) but I’ll tell you about it in my next post. Hasta luego!

Goya at Caixa Forum, Barcelona

There's currently an exhibition of the works of the painter Goya at the Caixa Forum, which I'm hoping to get to in the next week or so. I've raved about the Caixa Forum before, and we recently went to the Delacroix exhibition which is also still running. If you get a chance make sure you check either one or preferably both of these. Here's a taster of the Goya exhibition.

The Urban Suites, Barcelona...

I recently received an invitation from Raquel at The Urban Suites to come and check out their holiday apartments for review on this blog. We often have friends and family visiting the city, and we have a tiny one bedroom flat which means sometimes having to find other options for guests.  I was more than happy to do some further investigation for personal as well as blog research purposes.

The exterior of The Urban Suites building

The Urban Suites are located in the Sants area, really close to Plaza Espanya and Montjuic, as well as being great for transport links to the whole city. Sants train station is within a few minutes’ walk, handy for the airport and day trips outside the city, with the nearest Metro stop, Tarragona, about 2 minutes away.

The Living Room

We stayed on a stormy Wednesday night, luckily arriving just before the rain, thunder and lightning got going. It hasn’t rained here for ages, so we were actually quite pleased to see it as there have been talks of possible water shortages recently. It rains hard here when it does come down, but usually only for one day, so it’s not so bad.

View from the roof

The first thing that impressed me was the lovely welcome we got from Raquel and the next thing was the size of the suite. We were trying out one of the 2 to 3 person suites and were amazed at how spacious they are. I think they may actually be bigger than our flat.

Me in the hallway

These suites have a double bedroom, living room with sofa bed, fully equipped kitchen and a bathroom. I won’t go on about these too much as you can get full specifications from their website but the inclusion of a DVD player,  mini stereo, free WiFi and a proper hairdryer were nice touches. The apartment felt really private, and I was massively impressed with the kitchen.  Sants Market is very close so I can see this being a great option if you want to cook.

The living room

The kitchen

Unfortunately the rain prevented us from using the roof terrace, but we had a quick peek and could see that it would be lovely in the summer. There are sun loungers and a shower up there as well as a free laundry room, another nice touch for people on longer holidays who don’t want to have to pack lots of clothes.  They even provide free washing powder and fabric softener for you.

Roof terrace

As it was raining so much we decided to stay in and go for the cosy option of watching TV and quaffing gin and tonics, and the comfy sofa made that pretty easy to do. I think we may have quaffed too much though as we both had a problem figuring out how to turn the bedroom lights off when we wanted to sleep, which was hilarious. We should know better at our age…

Roof terrace

Personally I’d be more than happy to recommend The Urban Suites to family and friends. The apartments have everything you could need, there are lots of shops and amenities nearby and it really felt like a little home away from home. There are larger apartments available for groups also. You’re not close to the beach which may put some people off, but you can get the 57 or 157 bus close by, and that brings you right to the sea in about 15 minutes. We like to go out in Sants quite often; there are lots of bars and restaurants around Plaza Osca with our favourite being the Fo Bar. You’re also close to two nice parks. 

I reckon this would be an excellent place to stay if you like self-catering options and I’m not surprised that they get great reviews. They definitely get the thumbs up from me and His Nibs.

Huge shower

The bathroom

Access to the bathroom from the hall and the bedroom, nice touch!

The bedroom

The bedroom

TV in the bedroom

Dining area and the kitchen

Butifarra, Vermut and models in Barcelona...

Last night saw us head to the model casting for the next face of the ButiClub, a Barcelona members club for appreciators of fashion, art and the finer things in life, especially the Butifarra sausage. 

I don't think there are many places in the world that would combine the three above together, but in Barcelona it makes sense.

The model casting was taking place at the spiritual home of the ButiClub, La Pineda charcutería, which had the tiniest red carpet in the world outside. All of the action was being filmed by the French TV channel Canal + so there was quite a buzz in the tiny gothic street. We couldn't all squeeze in to the shop itself but a lovely chica kept bringing us all glasses of Vermut and pieces of Butifarra to keep us going.

We were able to watch some of the action on the TV screen in the shop window.

The full line up of the models came out to the red carpet outside for some photo opportunities with the owner of La Pineda at the end.


The party carried on afterwards at the Blondie Bar which was a short hop, skip and jump away. We had to zoom off somewhere else but it looked like it was set to be a lively night.

THREADING - Barcelona Miniguide

THREADING - Barcelona Miniguide


Bigger blog coming soon......

Plaza de la Concordia, Barcelona...

His Nibs is currently working up at Camp Nou, and it's become a weekly ritual to go and meet him after he finishes work on Friday evening. We usually go into the centre of town for a drink or a coffee, but tonight we thought we would find somewhere closer  to the stadium. 

 Apart from the stadium and the enormous L'Illa shopping centre, the area of Les Corts isn't really somewhere that attracts a lot of tourists as it's a bit quieter than the old town and not very well known. However, it is home to one of the prettiest squares in Barcelona, Plaza de la Concordia.

We popped into Fragments Cafe for some coffee and cake. This is a really lovely cafe /bar with a great terrace at the back, it was a bit cold to sit out there today though.

 Apologies for the blurry pictures, twilight is lovely but tricky to photograph.

 This beautiful civic centre, Can Deu,  also has a lovely cafe and garden at the back and has to be the prettiest civic centre in Barcelona.

The black cherry crumble went down a treat with our coffees. It was quite difficult to choose between this and the tarte tatin, and we shared which led to some spoon duelling for the last piece (I won this battle).


As I say, you may not find yourself in this part of town very often, but make sure you seek out this lovely plaza if you do. There are quite a few bars and restaurants in the immediate vicinity too.


Feliz fin de semana!