These days, Barcelona has a good selection of bookshops selling books in English.
Hibernian Bookshop - C. Montseny 17, Tel. 932 174 796. The city’s only second-hand English book shop
La Central Raval- C. Elisabets 6, Tel. 902 884 990. One of my favourite shops in Barcelona. In an old convent. Good selection of English and history books. See also La Central C. Mallorca 237, Tel. 902 884 990,
Come in C. Balmes 129, bis, Tel. 93 453 12 04/93 453 18 06 Specialised English bookshop number 1
BCN books Roger de Llúria 118, Tel. 93 457 7692, Specialised English bookshop number 2. Both good
Laie - C. Pau Claris 85, Tel. 933 027 310, Lovely shop with English selection in modernist building
And special mention to Oryx. The best natural history bookshop anywhere in Europe with huge selection in English, Spanish and Catalan. Good selection of scopes, binoculars, feeders and other wildlife gear too. Great for browsing away on a rainy day. A personal favourite.
And another special mention to Altair, possibly the best travel bookshop in the world. Hundreds of titles in English. Another fave of mine.
Photos of a stall selling the delicacies of bull’s penises and testicles (criadillas in Spanish, turmes in Catalan)at La Boqueria market. I’ve had the latter on several occasions. They are not unpleasant.
Hibernian Books is the biggest -and as far as I know with the demise of Elephant Books- the only secondhand English Bookshop in Barcelona. They claim to stock 30,000 titles. They have a very small section of new books.
Address C/Monseny 17, Gràcia. Metro Fontana.
Opening times: Monday: 16:00 to 20:30, Tuesday to Saturday: 10:30 to 20:30
I love the idiosyncrasy of many of the small shops in Barcelona. One of my recent favourites is a lovely little shop selling dairy products in the centre of Gràcia, in Carrer Torrijos, just up from the market. The establishment was last functioning dairy (vaquería) in Barcelona. Changes in public health laws took away the cows some 25 years ago, but the old livestock stalls can still be seen today amongst the clutter of the shopkeeper’s storeroom. Many Barcelonans over thirty odd can still remember going with their mothers to buy milk fresh from the udder right in the centre of the city. In my mind, the place should be protected as part of the city’s heritage, but is under threat from the owners of the building.
The Mercat de Sant Antoni is one of the largest markets in Barcelona and has some great, authentic foodstalls. On Sunday mornings the arcades around the market are host to a large second-hand book market. Though marred by too many stalls selling video games, porn and DVDs it still is great place for an hour’s browsing. Get there early as it gets very busy. Across the road, Els Tres Tombs (Ronda San Antoni 11) has good tapas and an excellent vantage point for watching people stroll by.
The steel-skeleton building (1872-82) was designed by Antoni Rovira i Trias. It is to be remodelled over the next few years.
Good bread used to be hard to across in Barcelona but in recent years things have improved significantly with a plethora of artesan, eco and tradional bakeries opening up.
03. Barcelona-Reykjavic Doctor Dou, 12 i Astúries, 20. Telf.: 93 302 09 21
02. Baluard Baluard, 38-40. Telf.: 93 221 12 08
And the winner:
01 Turris Aribau, 158. Telf.: 93 217 96 06
Per als amants del bon pa, entrar a Turris és la perdició absoluta. Només posar-hi els peus, la vista salta d’un producte a l’altre sense acabar-se de decidir entre la vintena de pans que s’hi poden trobar i les glàndules salivals del panarra comencen a actuar de manera automàtica. I és que la qualitat guia en Xavier Barriga, fi ll de forners badalonins que va voltar món abans d’instal·lar-se a l’Eixample barceloní ara fa poc més d’un any. L’èxit del seu negoci ha estat absolutament aclaparador gràcies a uns pans fets amb tot l’amor on tots els elements apareixen en perfecta harmonia. Un dels productes més venuts de la casa és el Turris, un pa de crosta gruixuda i molla humida, fresca i un punt àcida que remet directament als pans “d’abans”, fins i tot si el record és molt llunyà o ja inexistent. Si compreu un pa Turris, us costarà 5,20 euros/kg.
My favourite Pakistani baker’s in Barcelona. Excellent meat samosas, Tikeyas and spicy chicken rolls, along woth sickly sweet delicious Arab and Asian sweets.
If reggae’s your thing, check out Rimshot Records (Gignas, 30) the only specialist reggae store as far as I know in Barcelona. Good selection of new releases and back catalogue and info from the guy who runs the store on what’s going on in town reggae-wise and how to get there.
There was something strange down there in the water. I was walking the GR 5 from Sant Celoni to Montseny village, and had just spotted a grape hyacinth. There’d been violets and speedwell along the way, but this was the first real spring bloom of the year. I went up to have a look at the [...]
One of many people's favourite piece of public art in Barcelona is The Cat by Fernando Botero. The cat has moved several times around the city, but seems finally to have decided to settle down here in the Raval del Raval. It was originally bought by the council in 1987. I love watching people interact with it. Children like to (try to) climb it. Old men like to slap it. There's another sculpture of a horse by Botero at the airport.
For my money the best cybercafé in Gracià and one of the nicest in Barcelona is CiberVirreina. It is next to to Plaza Virreina on Carrer Asturias. Fast internet access from quality computers. Webcams and headsets available. All computers have a usb point. Wifi is also available for your own laptop. I spend some time here. Nine on the morn, till one at night.
These days, Barcelona has a good selection of bookshops selling books in English.
Hibernian Bookshop - C. Montseny 17, Tel. 932 174 796. The city's only second-hand English book shop
La Central Raval- C. Elisabets 6, Tel. 902 884 990. One of my favourite shops in Barcelona. In an old convent. Good selection of English and history books. See also La Central C. Mallorca 237, Tel. 902 884 990,
Come in C. Balmes 129, bis, Tel. 93 453 12 04/93 453 18 06 Specialised English bookshop number 1
BCN books Roger de Llúria 118, Tel. 93 457 7692, Specialised English bookshop number 2. Both good
Laie - C. Pau Claris 85, Tel. 933 027 310, Lovely shop with English selection in modernist building
And special mention to Oryx. The best natural history bookshop anywhere in Europe with huge selection in English, Spanish and Catalan. Good selection of scopes, binoculars, feeders and other wildlife gear too. Great for browsing away on a rainy day. A personal favourite.
And another special mention to Altair, possibly the best travel bookshop in the world. Hundreds of titles in English. Another fave of mine.
La Piadina serves excellent takeaway piadinas. They make a good change from pizzas and bocadiillos. Ugly is my favouirite.
Address: C de Santa Creu 3. Street is off Plz Virreina by the church.
Barcelona briefs
Spring returns to Barcelona March 16, 2010 After a long, grey and grueling, tiresome and draining, never-ending cold, wet and miserable winter, spring appears to have finally arrived in Barcelona. More...
Las Arenas bullring March 16, 2010
Excellent article on the woes of Las Arenas bullring by journalist Nicholas John Mead. Barcelona is already famous for problems that have beset the Sagrada Familia, but for the last two years the prestigious €100m Las Arenas bullring restoration project in Plaça Espanya has run into setback after setback with contruction only resuming a few weeks ago. Read here
There were once three bullrings in Barcelona - Plaza de el Torin which was built in 1834, but was demolished long ago ; the above Plaza de las Arenas, built in 1900 and closed in 1977; and the present bullring, the Plaza de Toros Monumental, built in 1914.
Barcelona's urban heat island March 11, 2010 Barcelona’s urban heat island effect causes markedly higher temperatures in the city than the surrounding rural areas. The difference is most pronounced at night during anticyclonic conditions in the winter with temperatures as much as 6.9ºC lower. There heat is channeled along corridors of flats, and there a mere 200 hectares of green areas in the city, though the city’s 100,000 street trees have a mitigating effect. The heat island is most noted in the Eixample. The Besós River functions as a corridor bringing in cold air to the coast. More details in Catalan
Books in English set in Barcelona March 8, 2010 The Oh Barcelona site has a short but good round-up of the books in English set in Barcelona. Montalbán, Mendoza, Ruiz Zafon, Tóibín, Hughes, etc. More here
Where is Columbus pointing to? March 4, 2010
Not America that’s for sure. The Barcelonautes blog claims to have the answer: La Platja de Sa Calobra in Mallorca. After that it’s Algiers, the Sahara desert and the length of Africa.
Spanish flu in Barcelona February 15, 2010 Spanish flu killed 1554 people in Barcelona in the terrible outbreak between 1918 and 1919. 370 people died in a single day in the city on 21st 1918.
![[Colom.jpg]](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mO07g9kbB7Q/S40rAjuBfKI/AAAAAAAAAL4/Vq5FvFMUssc/s1600/Colom.jpg)
Not America that’s for sure. The 
The Fundació Antoni Tàpies opened its doors this week after being closed for reforms for several years.