Putting down roots on Casanova

A few months ago, I realized that if we didn't commit to a date to move, we'd never leave the comfortable house we designed and lived in for 20 years in Arlington Virginia. More critically, if our Barcelona tenant chose to leave, we'd have to find another renter -- for another year at least -- or drop everything and move without any preparation: we couldn't let him drive our timeline, so I picked the first of September as our date to arrive.  We spent the next months arranging international movers, property managers for the Arlington house, and giving away as much as we could to friends and locals: our Arlington house is 3x the size of the flat in Barcelona, so we really had to downsize. 

We flew to Barcelona with a one-way ticket and arrived August 31st 2022. Our renter had left the flat in good shape, and it was clear he loved our terrace as much as we did, filling it with plants and a giant umbrella, which he graciously left.  

We've only been here a couple full days now, but we spend as much time as we can here; wouldn't you?

I love waking up and staring at Montjuic and its castle, which was used as a brutal prison during the Franco years (we can even see the cable cars that will take you to the top), and then at the MNAC building housing the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, and the visually adjacent Torre Calatrava radio tower built for the 1992 Olympics. They look a lot more impressive than my photos can capture.

It's the end of summer, and it gets to about 30C (86F), and the sun beats in the glass doors -- the entire face of the flat is glass. We have white-out curtains inside and end up having to close them from about noon to 5pm or so this time of year. But at night, we leave all the glass doors open as it cools down to about 22C (70F).

In the evening, we've been graced by dramatic storms and colorful sunsets. We've been cleaning up the terrace and reorganizing it for our needs -- cooking and eating -- but have a long way to go. We love having a glass of vermouth or three as the sun sets.

When we bought the place in 2019, we were delighted to see the MNAC building lights up a fan of illumination, and they continue to do it. We haven't been here long enough to tell, but it seems to be Thursday to Sunday, promptly at 9pm; we can hear the church bells toll in the Gothic quarter and see them flicker up to power; it's a treat.

We've been too busy meeting with lawyers about completing our residency requirements, and with banks to get our accounts in order to do any of our usual obsessive cooking, but we'll get there. We've had to make do with dozens of cafes within 2 blocks of us, all serving very good quality food, at very favorable prices; especially if when paired with a bottle of Spanish wine and some Vermut Casero (house-made). More on those explorations later, but we've not had a bad meal yet.

(Hmm, looks like I have to change the main photo for this blog from the Sant Antoni market across from our never-realized Tamarit place to something Casanova-related.)