Life and Taxes: residence and financial considerations

I wrote this in response to a couple folks asking us about our experience moving to Barcelona. It's a complicated process, but the main challenges are getting a residence permit and paying taxes. TL;DR: engage an attorney or firm for both, preferably a local who's in the city you want to move to.

Residence

A tourist visa allows stays up to 90 days, for longer than that you need a residence permit. EU citizens have the right to live in any member country. The next easiest way to gain residence is to have EU ancestry; some countries allow third-generation relatives to get a local passport. 

Irene got her residence due to her UK citizenship before Brexit closed that avenue. Spain has a variety of visas including: non-lucrative (non-working), entrepreneur, and the investor visa (a.k.a. "golden visa") that I used. The golden visa requires investment, including in one or more properties, with a minimum value of 500,000€. Since we'd been seriously considering moving to Barcelona for years, we saved up and I bought an apartment that met this threshold, in my name only.

I engaged a colleague of a real estate firm to take me to places that met our criteria, and engaged a Barcelona property lawyer for the purchase. I wouldn't do it without professional help.

After some false starts, we got a referral to an excellent immigration lawyer in Barcelona who was able to secure my golden visa surprisingly quickly: the government is required to render a decision within 10 days of the application.

There are a quite a few documents you have to provide that prolong the application process. The longest is getting a certificate of clear criminal record from the FBI, and then getting that apostilled by the Department of State. You will also need to purchase Spanish private health insurance; ours is about $1000/year/person with zero deductible, zero co-pay; perhaps best of all, there's also no paperwork for visits.

If you apply from the US, through the Spanish Embassy/Consulate, the residence permit is good for one year; I applied from Spain which gives my permit a two year duration.  The permit can be renewed, and after five years, can be converted to a permanent residence permit.

Several European countries have golden visa programs, but some are shutting down. Ireland and Portugal terminated theirs, and Spain has announced it will cancel its program but it's not clear when.

Taxes

We were not quite ready to move right after buying the apartment, so we rented it out with the aid of our real estate lawyer's firm. This required us to pay taxes on the income, reasonable enough. We also have to pay "Impuesto sobre Bienes Inmuebles" (IBI), a property tax, every year; also, not a big surprise.

We have now been living here for over 183 days, so have become tax residents. There is a tax treaty between Spain and the US which avoids most "double taxation" but it's complicated.  Our immigration attorney recommended a tax law firm, and we wouldn't attempt filing without them. The tax deadline in Spain is after the US April 15 deadline, but you can get an automatic 2 month extension. File your taxes in Spain, then get your Spanish tax person to send those documents to your US CPA to file in the US. The US should credit you for taxes paid to Spain; Spain's tax rates are generally higher than the US, so it's likely there won't be any US taxes due,  but there will probably be state taxes. You have to file in the US, every year, for the rest of your life, and incur the related expenses. Our tax lawyer had us ask our CPA to do a draft of the US taxes, which she then used to fill in the Spanish forms, and we then sent a summary of those to our CPA for final filing by the US deadline of June 15.

Spain requires filing Modelo 100 "Declaración de la Renta" (Personal Income Tax), Modelo 714 "Impuesto sobre el Patrimonio" (Wealth Tax), and Model 720 "Declaración informativa sobre bienes y derechos situados en el extranjero" (declaration of all assets outside of Spain). These are all filed on an individual basis, not jointly.  The M-100 income tax isn't surprising.  The M-720 is unexpected: you have to declare all your assets: bank account balances, retirement funds, real estate, car, etc, etc; this is purely informational, but if you fail to file, there are huge penalties. This real estate site claims the EU struck down Spain's M-720, but I had to file for 2023. The M-714 wealth tax was the most surprising and painful for us: we are taxed on the value of the house we still own in the US, and all our US account balances -- including all the funds we've accumulated over the years to retire on; this is totally separate from taking payments from requirement accounts, which is filed as the income tax. Our retirement savings are not tax deferred like they are in the US. The wealth tax is on a progressive scale and there are some complex exemptions and limits but this unexpected yearly expense is something we need to budget for.  Our tax attorney should be able to help us plan.

Each of Spain's autonomous regions has a different wealth tax scale, but Madrid and Andalucia gave full credit for the national wealth tax. Spain then instituted a "solidarity tax" to force these regions to collect what is basically the same amount, but they then set a 3M€ minimum threshold. This cat-n-mouse seems to be ongoing but may persuade you to chose one region over another.  I'm OK paying taxes here: we get great services, transit, healthcare, and other quality-of-life benefits; we just didn't know about it until we were committed to living here so had not budgeted for it.

Financial Planning, Investments

The complexity of Spanish vs US taxes showed we needed help with financial planning. What's not taxable in the US may be taxed by Spain. For example, if you sell your house in the US, you can deduct the "cost basis" from the sale price and only pay tax on the capital gains; in Spain, there is no such deduction so when we sell our US house, we'll be liable for Spanish taxes on the entire sales price -- ouch! You might consider selling your US house before moving.

The US has imposed onerous reporting requirements on US financial institutions, as well as on foreign institutions. The former has resulted in many US institutions summarily closing the accounts of the clients who move overseas. Vanguard terminated our decades-long relation with their financial planner when we changed our address to Barcelona, but allowed us to keep the accounts; it's unclear whether we could have created new accounts there subsequently. US requirements on foreign institutions are allegedly to avoid money laundering but they impact even small timers like ourselves: many banks don't want to deal with US clients. Others, however, are courting expat clients, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Initially, we changed our address to my parents' US address but that's not really legitimate and they'll likely close your account if they find out. It helps to have a friend or relative to forward mail through, at least for a while. We both had Google Voice numbers and changed various website login verification phones to those, or email if they allowed; unfortunately, you cannot forward your Voice number to a non-US phone number, but you can receive calls and texts with the app; some sites (e.g., PayPal) won't accept VOIP numbers. There were numerous organizations we forgot about and it was a chore to recover accounts, including our state and county tax websites.

There are lots of organizations whose business is to help folks move overseas, and I've sat in on quite a few eye-opening free presentations.  The folks behind Spain Revealed (based in Madrid) have some free guides and a paid class on moving to Spain, as well as recommended immigration and financial partners. Other firms publish guides and blog posts, and I found Walkner Condon's international team's blog and podcasts to be very helpful (based in Wisconsin). We've met with the folks behind both IAM Advisors (San Francisco) and EuroAmerican Financial Advisors (Sevilla) who have also offered webinars, and sometimes organize seminars advertised in Barcelona Metropolitan. After interviewing both and comparing fee structures we made a choice to go with one of them, but you'll have to make your own decision.

After consultation with them, we moved our assets from Vanguard to Schwab International, which is one of a tiny handful of financial institutions that accept US citizens living abroad.  However, expats cannot buy ETF and other diversified funds as individuals like we could when we lived in the US; instead, we buy through our financial advisors who are partners with Schwab. They (and others) also advised keeping our assets in the US, since the US stock market is huge, competitive, and files the right paperwork with the IRS.  Purchasing the European equivalents of some assets can incur "punitive" taxes and incredibly burdensome reporting requirements. 

We've been using the multi-currency "neobank" Wise (formerly TransferWise) to transfer dollars from our US accounts, convert to euros, then transfer to our Spanish bank to pay bills, taxes, and daily expenses. The app is good, and you can get a debit card to pay for purchases.  While I think Wise is fine for general USD, EUR, and GBP spending, in Spain bills are direct debited and the government scoops out taxes you owe on the payment dates -- so I think you pretty much have to maintain a Spanish bank account. Unlike conventional banks, Wise has actual daily market rates and low conversion fees they publish at tranfer time. If you use this Wise referral link, you'll get your first transfer free, up to £500. I've also opened an account at competitor Revolut but had to have separate country-based accounts so I don't use them. A friend recently moved to France and "used Lumon because they locked in the best exchange rate".

The US requires citizens to pay taxes regardless of where they live. You may be able to avoid paying US State taxes by becoming a resident of one of the nine states that have no income tax before moving abroad. This may not be easy; states including Virginia are considered "sticky".

Other Considerations

We've been visiting Barcelona for about 15 years, after being invited by a friend from a Catalan family; each time we came, we liked it better than the last. After a while we decided to spend an entire month here and see if we'd like it as pseudo-residents, instead of as tourists, using grocery and hardware stores, transit, etc. That was our gateway drug to looking for an apartment.

By that time we had a sense of the city and its various neighborhoods, both likes and dislikes. When it came time to purchase, we could narrow down our choices.  For example, we realized we didn't want to be in the most tourist-heavy areas of the Ciutat Vella (the old town), and that we wanted to be close to one of the excellent municipal food markets. 

We'd never really considered other countries seriously, and had not visited other Spanish cities. We recently visited Vic, Girona, and Valencia  and I think we could be very happy living in Valencia.  Valencia is Spain's 3rd largest city, it's on the Med, has lots of parks and bike lanes, and a vivid food culture; it does get its share of tourists but it didn't feel so overwhelmed as Barcelona's medieval areas. Valencia also didn't seem to be affected by the multi-year drought that has caused Barcelona to shut down its fountains and beach showers.

We'd strongly advise coming up with a list of candidate countries and cities, and staying for a month. Or rent, before you commit to buying, but that doesn't help with getting a golden visa.

When I bought our flat, there was a hefty 20% tax; I believe selling incurs a 10% tax. So changing apartments gets really expensive. Other cities/countries may have different rates. 

The move itself was complicated. We interviewed a few international moving companies and got quotes, chose one, and selected a pack-up date with them. We had to downsize from our 3000 square foot custom house to a 900 square foot apartment and spent the intervening months giving 2/3rds of our things away, which sounds easier than it was. The moving contract included a basic insurance, but we separately insured a couple pieces of art and paid extra for them to be crated. The transit took about 3 months. We slept on a blow-up bed in a big empty house before we left; our Barcelona apartment came furnished. The US company partnered with a local company in Barcelona for final delivery. To avoid taxes on the import of our goods, we had to show that we had not been living in Spain, which involved a visit to the Barcelona city hall and US Consulate and getting forms notarized for the mover.  We had to complete our paperwork and be ready to receive the shipment, or we'd incur demurrage (storage) fees. We made sure that our contract specified delivery to our apartment so the moving company would clear customs, get permission to block the street, take away the packing materials, etc. Surprisingly, the two crated artworks were the only things that arrived damaged, and we had to go through a lengthy process to document value and get reimbursed. Don't pack your super-precious things: we got a direct flight to minimize chances of lost luggage and put important things in our suitcases, with our most critical legal and tax documents in our carry-on bags.

We moved to go someplace new, not escape the US.  If you're moving to avoid US politics and only plan to stay a few years, it may be difficult. You'd become an expat tax resident, then change back.

After six months here, our US driving licenses are invalid. We've just gotten (provisional) licenses after four theory classes and an exam, then many road classes and an exam; I didn't pass my first time! The out of pocket was about 1000€ for each of us, and has taken almost six months. Or friend who moved to France was able to exchange her Virginia license with no hassle, what a relief!

Take language classes. We signed up for state-run summer classes last year which were quite good, but couldn't get into the subsequent classes because they were overloaded. Now that we're done with driving classes, we're considering taking classes again, but travel will interfere with that. Some folks here have recommended online native tutors, which may give us more flexibility for travel.

Will you miss anything from or about the US? Besides our friends, I miss fireflies and haven't had a good crispy chicken wing since we've been here, but otherwise we're pretty comfortable with what we have and our quality of life.

Expat Insider just published their 2024 report; interestingly it claims Spain has the best quality of life, for the third year in a row. Perhaps they have guides to residency, taxation, etc. You can find lots of opinions and firms on Facebook (search "expat") but the signal-to-noise ratio is very low.

2023 Festival of Sant Joan: fires, fireworks, an all-night fiesta

Our first Festival of Sant Joan was like a combination of New Year Eve and the Fourth of July: an all day celebration that continued on into dawn, with fireworks, bonfires, and general festivities.  The date commemorates Saint John's birth, which Christianity overlaid upon the pagan summer solstice celebrations. The evening of June 23rd is where all the action takes place, the "Nit de Sant Joan" or "la Revetlla de Sant Joan", a giant outdoor party; the 24th is a holiday, and from our terrace it seems the city is totally quiet, not even a honking horn or siren.

It's celebrated with fire, which represents cleansing, purification, and protection, and in pagan times,  an offering of additional energy to the waning days after the solstice. There's a LOT of fire. It starts with a torch that comes down from Catalan regions in the French Pyrenees -- where the flame is kept alive all year -- and then to Barcelona's Camp Nou, and on to the Plaça Sant Jaume; after some pomp, it's used to light torches which are taken to the various neighborhoods throughout Barcelona for their own festivities. Families join neighborhood bonfires and light off their own fireworks; the preference for Sant Joan is for the loud explosions to scare away the demons, rather than visual pyrotechnics. It's traditional for people to bring unwanted furniture for the fire, or to bring a note with things they want to eliminate from their lives to burn in the fires. 

In the morning, we did some shopping: our grocery store's entrance had a huge stack of booze just inside the door, so we knew this was going to be a big day. We stopped by the shop Parami and bought a traditional Coca cake with dried fruit for the next day when everything will be shut. 

We missed the procession of the flame down Gran Via near our house, so we took a bus up the coast to the last beach in Barcelona. As we walked in the sand back toward town, the beaches were beginning to fill up. We saw folks who had set up a DJ station with amps and big speakers (and a couple of cases of beer), another that had a bunch of congas, bongos, and other percussion, and had dug a sunken seating area for guests. (Sorry, no pictures).

After walking through a dog beach, family beaches, nude beach, gay beach, and more family beaches, we finally stopped at a beach bar Xiringuito Vai Moana for refreshing drink. The sun was starting to set, so we caught a bus back to our neighborhood of Sant Antoni to check out the action. Barcelona was expecting 60,000 people to hit the beach tonight, and we we saw city workers putting out hundreds of trash and recycling bins.

We like the Campari Spritz better than the popular Aperol Spritz.

The streets were filled with hundreds of tables and chairs, the neighbors brought their own food and drink and looked liked they'd been enjoying being outside for hours. In the distance, we could see the bonfire, peaking a couple of stories high. A block from the fire, we began to feel the heat. Kids were merrily lighting off fireworks.

In the intersection, the Trapelles de Sant Antoni had set up a huge bonfire; these adults (and kids!) dress in fireproof red devil costumes and are responsible for the fire-spitting animals like Sant Antoni's emblematic pig, and also organize the correfocs (fire runs) at other celebrations; it's good-humored and they keep things safe. They'd add furniture and other wood to the fire, and escort people who wanted to burn notes listing things they wanted to discard in their lives. 

It was really hot, even sitting on sidewalk around the intersection. Fortunately, Moritz brewery had a stand, and we snagged some seats at an outdoor cafe where we could get some cold Estrella beer (Galicia and Damm), for only 2,50€ each. One of the Trapelles became a live version of the "This is fine..." meme, before throwing the the chair into the flames.

He then added more boards to feed the fire.

We went around the corner to check out the music, and were surprised at all the people filling the street. They band played music that sounded a lot like ska, but in Spanish, and the singer had a ton of energy.

We started to head home, but of course found another cafe open, with families watching their young kids throwing fireworks into the pedestrianized street, then scampering away before the explosion. We had a couple of drinks and then heard them counting down: it had just turned to midnight, at which time they all sat down and started ordering drinks and snacks -- the night was far from over.

Only two blocks from home we stopped at a bar which we've been enjoying recently, Absenta del Raval, for a nightcap.  At 1 am, they shoed us away: because the cafe tables are in the middle of a dense neighborhood, all the tables and chairs have to be brought in so folks can sleep; seems reasonable to me.

When we got home, we could see from our terrace that the party was still going strong throughout the city. In every direction we looked there were spectacular explosions of fireworks and huge booms that went on well past 2am. The weather here is comfortable enough we can sleep with the glass doors open and get fresh air, and despite the noise, we were able to get some sleep, aided by a nightcap of Fernet.

On Saturday, we enjoyed our Coca for breakfast on the terrace; it was eerily quiet, especially compared to last night.

Next year, now that we know a little more, I hope we'll pack a cooler full of cava and snacks, and take a bus to the beach around midnight. We understand things don't get going to then, and it's common to take a swim in the sea before welcoming the dawn sun. An article says there were 80,000 people on the beach, partying until 6:30am when the city cleaned up the beaches for the new day; there were no major incidents -- pretty amazing, really. 

Concerts: from medieval to modern

We attended a show directed by Jordi Savall at L'Auditori, and wanted to immerse ourselves more in local culture. We missed a couple jazz performances I would have liked to hear, but they were offering a good discount on a 6-concert series of Early Music, and I was sold because these were being held in medieval churches throughout the city; from their own blurb:

The Festival Llums d'Antiga celebrates its fifth edition divided between three of the most fascinating medieval buildings in Barcelona: the Basilica of Sant Just and Sant Pastor, the Basilica of Santa Maria del Pi and the Monastery of Sant Pau del Camp.

I'm not knowledgable about early music and I wish I'd read up on the development of music including the "invention" of polyphony in the middle ages: it would have helped me appreciate what was being played.  I really did enjoy hearing un-amplified music -- voices and strings -- in these massive ancient buildings with all their stony reverb.

The Basilica of Saints Justus and Pastor was built between 1342 and 1574. It was a bit gaudy inside, for my tastes, but had great sound for the choral works.

The Basilica of Santa Maria del Pi was built between 1319 and 1991 on the site of a church then outside the city walls dating back to 987. This was more restrained inside, with fine acoustics for the choral and strings concerts we attended. 

We noticed skulls and other inscriptions carved into some of the stones of the floor; this one is interesting because the "7" is carved backwards in the date "ANY 1739"; accident, or secret satanic message??

My favorite was the Monastery of Sant Pau del Camp, where "camp" refers to it being out in the countryside outside the city, but now it's in the El Raval neighborhood near our place. The monastary dates back to 977. This was the most unadorned and -- to my taste -- elegant and serene of the buildings and was an intimate space for the choral concert.

And now for something completely different! 

Separate from this series was a concert of music by French composer Éliane Radigue, played at one of the halls in the L'Auditori complex itself. I'm a little surprised I hadn't heard of her, because she was one of the pioneers of electronic music, working since the 1950s in musique concrète, tape feedback, and early electronic synthesizers from Buchla, Moog, and ARP. She associated with other pioneers like Laurie Spiegel and Morton Subotnick, and worked with Robert Ashley (who I enjoy quite a bit).

The show's poster image showed a woman in front of an analog synthesizer, but this show (and her 21st century work) was entirely acoustic. The composition, Occam Océan, was performed by Ensemble Dedalus, which employed two saxophones, a horn, violin, cello, and a bowed guitar. The players carefully layered their instruments over time, weaving in and out subtly. When I closed my eyes, I could imagine that these sustained notes and drones were being made by analog synthesizer oscillators rather than strings and brass. I thought I could detect beat frequencies and high order harmonics soaring over the notes. A very cool experience. 

Pa, Pan: In Search of Good Bread in Barcelona

TL;DR

We tried plain breads from 11 well-regarded bread bakeries within about 20 minutes walk from our flat in the Sant Antoni neighborhood. Taste and memory are subjective but my favorite was probably Pa Serra (Poble Sec), but nearer to home and also good were A27, Pa de Kilo (both in El Raval), and Forn La Llibreria (Universitat), Baluard (multiple), and even Turris (multiple).

The Quest

There's good-looking bread everywhere in Barcelona, but most of them are flavorless and lack texture and chew. I've made our bread the last 20+ years in the US, so am used to good chew and lots of flavor. I'm on quest to find that here.

When I bake bread, I use a pretty high hydration (70-80%), minimal yeast, and let it rise long and slow in a fridge -- for three days. I tend to bake it long to get a deep brown crust to develop the sugars. Where can I find long, slow fermented bread in Barcelona?

Grocery stores like Bonpreu have their own bakeries, every corner seems to have a chain like Granier, and there are independent bakers like Forn Can Bargalo a block from our place. We've tried baguettes and boules, rustic breads, breads with grains -- none had flavor, and the texture was like cotton wool. We had a "pan de aqua" which was full of internal holes, and a shattering crust, but was light as a feather and again had no texture -- it collapsed while slicing. I can't figure out what they're doing wrong, but I'm thinking they're exploiting super fast fermentation with lots of yeast, so no time for flavor development.

On November 14 2022, Nick Lloyd started a thread that addressed just this. I'm adding bakers found in the 2022 TimeOut article "El mejor pan de Barcelona", from the Ruta de Español de Buen Pan lists for 2022 by Dir Informatica and the 2021 list by Panatics.

My method: pick a standard loaf, plain wheat, white or mostly white; get price and weight, check crust, crumb, taste, crunch, etc. "Pa de Pagès Català" is a commonly available bread with IGP protection so it should be pretty standard -- that's what I'll pick when it's available. Otherwise, some as plain and white as I can get, frequently called "normal" or "country" loaf.

For our own convenience, I'm listing the bakeries by walking distance from where we live. First I give the name of the bakery (with link to website if available), then neighborhood and address (with Google Map link), and finally walking distance from our house.

Bakeries we visited

Triticum, en la Moritz (Sant Antoni: Rda. de Sant Antoni, 41, 08011), 3 minutes

The Moritz store, in the brewery, is a retail outlet for their main branch TRITICUM Just for Bread Lovers near Mataró. They open at 09:30 and the bread looked good in person.

I loved the dark crust, but I like it darker than Irene: it had a caramelized edge. The crumb was much darker than others we've had, like it had some whole grain in it: it called itself Pagès Tradició so it's not strictly following the IGP.  It's less moist than some of the other loaves we've had but did leave a little condensation on the table. The density of the crumb was more than Mistral, but a bit less dense/chewy than Pa de Kilo or A27. There was just a hint of sourdough tang, which makes it good for Irene. 

Cost was 6,64€/Kg, and they cut us half a loaf of 380g. They had a crazy bread cutter, not like the multi-slice saws, but more like a guillotine that slams a blade through the bread, moves it a bit, then repeats -- it's incredibly violent. I'd buy this again, but it's a bit more expensive than my other current notional favorites.

Forn Mistral (Sant Antoni: Rda. de Sant Antoni, 96), 4 minutes

An old school bakery, also with a location around the corner. We've had great Panalettas from there.

Our 420g loaf seems light for its size. It has a shattering crust, and the crumb it not at all damp like most of the others we've had so far. It's a bit unsatifying, too light. It doesn't have any sourdough tang. The chew's ok, but there's not much flavor there. The texture's too light. Perhaps good for sandwiches, but not good as a basic bread for sopping up sauces. "It's unsatisfying, I feel like I want another slice." I probably wouldn't buy this again, except that it's super convenient -- it's worth the extra distance to Llibreria, Kilo, or A27.

Turris Borrell (Sant Antoni: C. del Comte Borrell, 75, 08015), 7 minutes

Turris has many branches throughout Barcelona, and elsewhere in Spain. Turris on Compte Borrell is closest to me, next to Mercat de Sant Antoni, and there's one next to Mercat Ninot.

Definite sour dough starter taste, felt a bit wet, got it sliced and slices seemed to stick together I think from the sugars of the deeply baked crust. Irene said it was too sourdough-y and a bit too soggy/gummy for her. I'm OK with the sourdough but can live without it as long as I get good flavor from fermentation, but I also found the bread a bit wet.

They also sold pastries, and folks in the line out the door on a Saturday seemed to be buying more of those than bread.

Forn La Llibreria (Universitat: C/ d'Aribau, 22, local B, 08011), 7 minutes

Great crust with crunch and shatter, and an appealing darkness. Irene detected a mere hint of sourdough taste that Chris could not. Open crumb with lots of big holes ("where the baker sleeps"), slight gelatinization on the insides. The chew was good, lots of body without being like a bagel. I think it was 2.50€ for about a 500g round. I'd get this again.

A27 Bakehouse (Raval: C/ del Carme, 53, 08001), 9 minutes

We walked by this on Carme and the breads looked great. All the right words on the sign about long fermentation. Got a Pages (plain wheat) loaf for 2,20€ for about 460g, or 4,78€/Kg. The texture is full of good holes and complete gelatinization. It's crumb is lighter and less damp than Llibreria, and it has a pronounced sourdough tang. The crust is thin but with a good shatter. I'd get this again. 

A couple months after our first taste, we went back to A27 and Pa de Kilo (below) and got loaves that were as close as possible, and tasted side-by-side.  The A27 had an attractive blistered crust while the PdK was more smooth. PdK's had a more brown crumb and a taste that made me think it had a bit of rye or whole wheat in the mix. PdK's was quite a bit more wet than A27, and was cut more thickly. The A27 staled very quickly while the PdK was pretty OK the next day.  I preferred the taste of the PdK -- a bit more flavor without feeling "too healthy" -- but Irene preferred the A27's clean flavor. 

Pa de Kilo (El Raval: C. del Doctor Dou, 12), 9 minutes

This smelled great when we entered, and the front was full of large loaves that were still radiating heat. The crusts were dark and looked shattery. A kilo-sized loaf was 5,20€. The sourdough tang was lower than Turris, but when we bought it, sliced, it also seemed a bit moist inside; it may have been from coming out of the oven only recently. I preferred it to the Turris bread.

I liked the fact that they did not sell much in the way of pastries, allowing them to focus on breads. Their standard breads, available every day, include Fogassa, Hogaza, Pa de Kilo: 1Kg 5,20€; 1/2Kg 3,00€.  They offer different specialty breads on different days of the week including rye and brioche.

Cloudstreet Bakery (Eixample: C/ del Roselló, 112, 08036) 16 minutes

Near Mercat Ninot, a small shop with ancient ovens in the back; I noticed a Cook's Illustrated Baking Book on the shelf, in English. There were ancient oven doors in the back, but we couldn't tell if they were still in use.

A "Pages" loaf of nominal 500g weighed in at 463g, for 2,98€, or about 6€/Kg. The crust was a bit lighter than I like. Crumb structure looked good, but with fairly fine crumb and few large gelatenized holes. I didn't notice sourdough in the aroma.

The crust did not have a crunch, but perhaps it's because we got it at 14:00 instead of early in the morning. It's medium in the sourness. There's definitely some whole wheat in here (it was not labelled Pagés Català). Texture of the crust is loose, so it doesn't feel wet, even though it's slightly damp. 

This one isn't bad but it's not making my socks go up and down: others have more flavor and better texture.  It'd be fine for a sandwich, and it was in fact sliced more thinly than most, so it might be great for sandwiches, but I can get better bread closer to home. 

Forn Baluard (Eixample: C/ de València, 246, 08007), 16 minutes 

There are many Forn Baluard Barcelonatas around town, I'm just listing two that are the closest to me. This one is near Rambla Catalunya above Arago. We walked by and the bread looked good, and we noticed that they sold their own flour.

We were in the neighborhood and picked up a Pages Baluard, nominal 1/2 Kg was 550g, for 2,55€, so 5,10€/Kg -- but a nominal Kg loaf is a bargain at 3,60€!

The crust color looks good, as does the crumb -- uneven, but not with giant "baker sleeping" holes.

Taste was quite tart, maybe too sourdough-y for Irene. Crumb had some definite strength. Worth getting again.

We visited this shop again a few weeks later and got a fairly plain bread but with some seeds. It was quite good, the seeds gave it a bit more interest than the plain, without being so Earth-dog-like that I'd have to wear Birkenstocks. I'd get this one again.

Forn Baluard (Eixample: C/ de Casanova, 178, 08036), 17 minutes

Another outpost a couple blocks above Mercat Ninot, where we frequently shop; we assume the quality is the same as the one above.

Pa Serra (Poble Sec: Carrer de l'Olivera, 31, 08004), 17 minutes

Baker Conrad Serra was listed as a Finalist in the 2021 Rute de Español de buen Pan and the photos on Google Maps look good. 

We got there just before closing at 14:00 and they were nearly out of bread, and I got one of the last large rounds. I'm afraid I wasn't as thorough with this as the others, as we spent the day walking around town, carrying the loaf with us, and nibbled a couple slices on the way.

The crust was excellent, a good crunch; crumb was also good, nice texture, good chew and taste. It held up OK the next day.

Don't tell anyone, but we froze some of this to prevent staling: wrapped tightly in plastic film, then inside a large ziptop bag. It revived surprisingly well, much better than if we'd let it sit in our plastic bread box.

I think this was my favorite of all the breads; I kept thinking about it days after the last slice was gone. If the bakery were a little closer, I'd probably seek it out all the time, but I've got so many other good choices 

La Fabrique (Poble Sec: Carrer de Radas, 35, 08004) 18 minutes

We arrived shortly before closing time and got the last of the plain white boules. Irene said this was her favorite so far (very early in our visits), as it had the least sour dough tang. Chris found it a bit dull, and craved a darker crust. It, like the others, was slightly damp inside. The crust lost its crunch overnight. I think it was about 2€ for about a 350g loaf. 

Personally, I wouldn't make the trek for this loaf, especially when Pa Serra is in the same neighborhood.

Places we didn't try

We didn't try the following places, mostly because of their distance. We've found so many good places closer to us that we're satisfied.

Horno de Pan Artesano (Gotico: Carrer del Regomir, 8, B, 08002) 22 minutes

Fleca Balmes (Eixample at Diagonal: C/ de Balmes, 156, 08008), 25 minutes

They were a finalist in 2022 Ruta de Española de buen Pan. 

Coush Armo (multiple)

Our friend Peter recommended the branch in Gracia, and the bread he brought to our flat was quite good.

Diagonal: C/ de Bailèn, 134, 08009 Barcelona, 30 minutes (instagram)

Gracia: Carrer de Sant Marc, 19, 08012 Barcelona, 35 minutes

El Taller del Pa (Sants: C/ de Galileu, 133, 08028) 35 minutes

Forn Europa (Gracia: C. del Pare Laínez, 13, 08025) 48 minutes

Forn Elias (El Clot: Carrer del Freser, 90) 55 minutes

Montserrat Forners (C. de los Castillejos, 366, 08025), 56 minuets

2021 Rute de Español de buen Pan finalist.

First Hike: three peaks, via public transit!

Barcelona is bounded by the Mediterranean on one side and by mountains on the other -- a lot like Los Angeles.  Up in the hills are lots of parks, with some strategic peaks hosting former military sites including Montjuïc and Turo de Roviro. A friend here pointed us to a site Senderisme En Tren that shows you how to go hiking "using the train as the only means of transport": we could get to the trail head by train, and return just as easily -- fantastic! 

We decided to start with something close, using just the subway rather than figuring out the railway service. The map showed a path through parks surrounded by the extended city which took in three of the hundred peaks around Barcelona. It was marked "easy" but I'd call it moderate; it was different than the hikes we frequented in Great Falls, Turkey Run, or Prince William Forest. Probably the biggest challenge was that trails were very difficult to follow -- many just dusty "informal paths" up the side of a steep hill: it's easy to lose track, and the soil here is so terribly dry (over two years of drought) that it's easy to slip and slide.

So after breakfast at a cafe across the street from our flat, we headed out to the Metro for our adventure: 125. Travessa de Barcelona pels Tres Turons: la Creueta del Coll, el turó del Carmel (100 Cims) i el turó de la Rovira -- a 5.7Km (3.5 mile) trek that hit three peaks with amazing views. We headed from the Metro station (altitude 160 meters) to our first trail where it got steep quickly -- even in the neighborhoods -- then turned into an aggressively steep narrow trail around an ex-quarry they're turning into a park, then to our first peak: Turó de Coll (250m). I "billy goated" up the narrow dusty trail while Irene paralleled on more built-out paths and we met at the top. 

We descended through what appeared to be old shanty town settlements -- the paved road literally ended there -- which were rich with fruit and nut trees (fig, almonds), and one which had a yard with chickens, right in the middle of this metropolitan city! 

We followed the GPS trail we downloaded from Senderisme to my WikiLoc app and eventually hit a quiet neighborhood, and I decided to forego a beer, given the difficulty of the terrain behind and presumably ahead. The town was on a steep slope, but of course (since this is Barcelona) was well served by bus and metro. But what town has multi-stage outdoor escalators? 

There were some tranquil pedestrian only pathways which led to outstanding vistas. 

Then it got serious. The GPS map showed a path pretty much straight up the side of the mountain hill, again with desert-dry dust and scree. We had to try a variety of routes before getting to the summit where we could rest a bit.  But, wow, those views from our surface-of-mars-like location, at 270 meters: Turó de Carmel. Barcelona just sprawled out on all sides, expanding from the sea, and skirting the mountains. 

With shaking legs we headed down; it wasn't easy, and the trails were ill-defined. Maybe we weren't gonna be able to tackle all three peaks after all. Finally, we entered a neighborhood, and followed the GPS track, then came across a sign for the final peak.

We followed the small street (yea, no more scrabbling!) up to the old military cannon emplacement for some spectacular views.  I'd been to Turó de Rovira (260m) three years before when I came to Barcelona to get my fingerprints taken for my residency -- an unbelievable place to watch the sun set! During the day, we could get a full panorama and take in the history of the site. 

Panorama from Turó de Rovira

During the Spanish Civil War, Franco had Mussolini bomb the shit out of Barcelona -- the first time in history a civilian population was attacked like this. Engineers built cannon emplacements on the Turó because they had commanding views of Barcelona and its approaches -- even though they knew that they might be shelling their own city.  After the war, there was an influx of people to serve the growing industry in Catalunya, and some of them set up shanty town settlements up here. You can still see the "hydraulic tiles" and terrazzo floors, the stairs, in the residences they fashioned out of the abandoned military outpost; I especially enjoyed seeing how the circular cannon emplacements had been repurposed. For a long time, they lacked for running water and sewage on this peak, surviving out of necessity. It was only around 1990 that the last residents were resettled elsewhere.

The walk down took us through some woods and beautiful parklands. There should have been a sequence of cascading waterways, but -- due to the drought -- everything was turned off. 

Dated "1739", this must have been public baths

We continued down until we hit civilization, in search of a cold one: we didn't have to look far. This cafe had a friendly owner and an even more friendly dog that crashed out on the warm sidewalk like an old cat.  I've gotta love a place that substitutes truffles when they run out of foie gras.  Some zingy patatas bravas, a generous portion of croquetas (the sepia with ink were very good, the gorgonzola with nuts were outstanding), and two large beverages restored us. When Irene asked for a second glass of wine, the owner refilled her glass, then just left the bottle on the table for us to finish -- no charge. 

A half a block to a bus stop, then a transfer to the Metro, and we were home.  No time wasted driving, just "A Grand Day Out". 

I'm not lyin', though: our muscles were tired and our bones stiff! It's been at least 6 months since we did any hiking like this.  Now that we've found how easy it is to go hiking without a car, we'll do more. Next time, we'll take our hiking poles for the more difficult terrain. 

I should have turned off the GPS tracker for the ride home!