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.
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.
