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.

Biking Bad: first ride in Barcelona -- from home to Badalona

Our bikes arrived in our shipment from the US, and all we had to do was attach the front wheels and pump up the tires. Sunday was going to be cool and clear, and we wanted to explore Barcelona by bike, sticking to mostly flat terrain -- a ride along the coast seemed to fit the bill. It turned out to be a 29Km (18 mi) ride -- pleasant, mostly protected, and flat. 

The first struggle was getting out of the building: these little elevators barely fit one human and their bike -- standing up -- barely enough room to push the button

We headed out our street, along Gran Via, and kept losing the bike lane: initially, we had our own protected lane along the slip lane, then it diverged at Plaça Universidad, then back again. At Plaça Tetuan, we had to "jump the left, then a step to the right" to go around the top of the traffic circle.  After a while we turned right, heading toward the water on Carrer de la Marina and could see the iconic Torre Mapfre and Hotel Arts buildings:

Torre Mapfre, Hotel Arts

We hit the beach at Port Olímpic, looking over the volleyball courts on Platja de la Nova Icària:

then headed northeast along the coast to see where it would take us. We'd taken the R1 train line up the coast and figured we could follow the path we'd seen from the window -- at least to Badalona across the river, and someday up to Matarò. Turns out we were a little optimistic in the condition of the route.

While some of it was flat paved walkways with lots of folks promenading. We also hit bits of hard packed sand/gravel/soil, which was OK but my bike's skinny tires were not right for it. Further along, more rough patches, and some unexpected raised giant pipes large enough to drive a small car along; not enough for timid bikers with a 10 foot drop to the rocks below, so we walked them along the ridge.

I think Barcelona is doing a lot of work to shore up its ... shore: to protect from sea level rise, old paths may have been torn up for the construction. I expect the city will rebuild the paths, for bikes and pedestrians, even better than before. It's certainly passable, just don't expect pristine smooth riding yet.

We then reached the Parc del Forum which is a massive space with a mix of beaches, ports, sailing, SCUBA diving, long boats, parks, marinas, festival areas, and on and on.  When we visited, we saw folks returning in a an oared longboat, and others practicing diving in wetsuits. But it had a huge feel with not enough people, strangely underutilized. It looks perfect for massive festivals, and I've read these do take place here; I want to return in warmer weather and see what the vibe is like. Visually dominating the site  is a massive photovoltaic (solar) cell array that looks like stadium seating that's lost its stadium. You can ride under it and right up to it for some great views. 

A little farther, over dramatic elevated bike/pedestrian skyways we came to a working port. All the grassland under us was concealing multi-story dry docks for boats! We watched a mammoth forklift  retrieve a boat from the water and deftly take it inside for the winter.

We continued on the on-again, off-again trail -- nothing too arduous or threatening to skinny tires -- and crossed the Rio Besos where there is a wonderful wetland area where freshwater merges with the Mediterranean. We got closer and closer to the Three Chimneys, a massive ex-industrial site that exudes power, grace, and age -- it's magnificent from any angle, and any distance.

We ended up in the suburban area of Badalona, where we biked right into the middle of a booming wholesale market area that went on for blocks in ever direction; everything seemed to be Chinese import dealers. It was vibrant and full of activity -- on a Sunday!  

But after riding, we were ready for some food and drink and headed into the residential and main streets of Badalona. We didn't have to look far to find a friendly place in the sun for a bite -- including Gambas Saladas -- slender pale shrimp, barely cooked, with a good taste of salt, cool and refreshing. Very pleasant with a couple glasses of wine and a Märzen-style beer from Turia in Valencia.

It's fall, and the sun is setting early, which means that the temperature drops quickly here. So we headed back home on what we thought was a good direct route.... Unfortunately, Google Maps doesn't know bike routes in Barcelona, and we were unable to hop over the fenced train tracks for the "best route" home. But we improvised and crossed the Besos again, cycled through some peaceful industrial neighborhoods, and wound up on Avinguda Diagonal, which here had a large tree-lined promenade and separate bike lanes, with tram lines on the side; this was probably my favorite part of the ride: so peaceful and graceful.

We then navigated around some major construction at Plaça de les Glòries, meandered through attractive leafy parks, and ended up on our familiar street, Carrer de la Diputació. This was great, it spanned the entire area of downtown Barcelona with a protected lane, just a block above our street. We crossed the magnificent Passeig de Gracia, and took in the holiday lights they'd been hanging, already sparkling, twinkling, and stobing with iridescent and dramatic dichroic hues; we can't wait to return and seem them after dark!

My big take away from our first biking adventure? Biking parallel to the coast is a relaxing ride free of hills, perfect for wimps like us. The city streets are full of protected bike lanes, frequently with their own crosswalks and signals, but sometimes they jump from left, to center, to the right of the road, so we've gotta pay attention and learn how to read the symbols on the road. Barcelona clearly cares about its bike riders, but the route along the beach seems torn up, although I believe this is temporary and we'll have much better coastal rides in the future.  

I'm looking forward to riding a lot more, the city is very accommodating to bikes (and pedestrians), and it's a great way to explore our new city.

Our Ship's Come In! (where do we put it?)

We came home late one night and found this sign and tape in front of our apartment building: finally, a notice that said our moving truck would deliver our goods -- 12/11/2022 (November 12) between 08:30h and 14:00h. This was ten days hence, what the city requires, but fell on a Saturday which seemed suspicious but our moving company, Flippers.es, confirmed it. 

We had already taken apart one section of the sofa that came with the flat: it was too big to fit in the elevator, fortunately the remaining section came apart with simple bolts so we didn't have to hack at it like the previous piece. The living room looks quite large now, it should easily accommodate our furniture... right??

Just before 9am, the movers arrived. The contract was to "unpack, and put everything on any flat surface". We thought that meant they would put all the individual items on surfaces, but realized there was simply no way the contents of our 67 boxes would fit on the horizontal planes of the house. We neglected to get photos of the truck or guy(s) down below unloading and loading the elevator, but our guy unloading the elevator gave us boxes, unsealed them, and we frantically unwrapped and put individual items wherever we could find a space -- we were barely able to keep up.  The first item to arrive was my bicycle; the wheel would arrive a couple hours later. Then everything else started coming up quickly, in random order.

Stuff was strewn all around the flat, waiting for us to give them order. By 12:30, the final piece was brought in, the Brazilian sofa as one massive paper-wrapped item -- it barely fit in the elevator. For the first time since buying the apartment years ago, we finally had a comfortable place to sit and relax.

Sadly, two of the artworks suffered damage. This was especially disappointing because we'd paid to have custom wooden crates made for both. A large framed lithograph by Bruce Conner had cracked glass, which grew to span the entire frame in 24 hours, and risked cutting into the artwork.

The other piece I bought from artist Marcia Fry at Artomatic 2012. It's a rich assemblage of "found objects": the top spire was broken off, and the library of miniature Shakespeare books was tossed asunder. 

One of my VMPS speakers had an adjustment knob sheared off which prevents me from tuning the sound to match our new room, but this probably isn't that big of a deal. I had insurance on the shipment and have already filled in the claim forms, and am waiting to hear back. I hope they'll pay for a good framing shop to provide UV-blocking non-glare "museum glass", and I'll ask Marcia for her suggestions to fix "Saint Germain". 

We've gotta find room to hang all the art work, and only have one non-glass wall in the house. Most of it is black and white, or shades of gray, or very muted tones, and we've got one very large intensely blue and yellow canvas Bethe Bronson painted years ago. It'll be a bit cramped for my aesthetic but we'll make it work.  

We've moved from a 16x27 foot kitchen (with 106 drawer and door pulls) into a space that's quite small (by our standards), with cabinets that were designed for style rather than function: there are no drawers and very few shelves. To provide home for most of the stuff strewn over our table and cooktop, I started with the four wall cabinets.  These came with 2 shelves each, evenly spaced, which held very little and couldn't even accommodate some oversized wine glasses we have.  

We learned something from designing two kitchens that I never see mentioned about shelf spacing: to provide accessibility, put short things at the bottom, tall things at the top -- this seems counter-intuitive but we find you can grasp the bottoms of the tall things even if they're high up.  I made some estimates and figured we could add 7 shelves to the existing 7. We'd moved the existing dish drain board down directly over the hole in the cabinet bottom so we could drip dry delicate things that would be damaged by the dishwasher (my parents' wedding crystal with a silver rim would be eaten by detergent). We made another trip to FUSDEC with a drawing of what I needed: the cabinet widths were not uniform so I spec'd a couple of different widths; he told us they'd be ready "tomorrow morning". Seven shelves for under 7€ a piece, with laminate edge banding on the front -- a very fair price.

I spent the rest of the day determining heights based on contents, marking and drilling 5mm holes for mounting pegs. We picked up the shelves and 32 support pegs and got to work, iteratively adding a shelf, populating it with glassware, plates, etc, and repeating until we had accessible locations for everything.

We repeated this for the remaining 3 cabinets and now are able to hold our glassware, cocktail shaker, coffee pots, prep plates, platters, and my parents' wedding china (which we use daily). Everything's accessible except for rarely used items at the very top -- very acceptable.

 

Next up: we've gotta add drawers to the two door-front cabinets to hold flatware, knives, kitchen tools, utensils, spatulae, and all the other paraphernalia needed by us avid cooks.

La Mercè 2022 Fest: Fire, Music, Towers, Giants, and more

We moved here just in time for our first La Mercè festival, which spans 4 days with hundreds of events spread throughout venues all over Barcelona, all of it free. It originated in 1687 when Virgin of Grace saved Barcelona from a plague of locusts. We began on Saturday with a food festival a few minutes away, and ended Monday night with a big fireworks display that we watched from our terrace, and got to see a lot of the city in between.

Saturday: Food and Beer, Dance, Dragons

We decided to start our Mercè exploration close to home; five minutes away on Ronda de Sant Antoni they'd set up a music stage and were opening a bunch of food and drinks stalls staffed by local restaurants, brewers, and wineries. We'd arrived a bit early, so wandered the neighborhood a bit and stumbled across Queviures Fruits which had excellent quality produce and prices, so we'll do some of our shopping here.

We returned to a busy street fest with open food and beverage stalls, so we got a bunch of tokens and started sampling. We had cava, multiple wines, beer from three different breweries including a really well made Saison from Barna Brew right in Sant Antoni neighborhood. While I held the table, Irene went foraging and returned this tasty and rich lobster and sardine sandwich:

We headed to the large Plaça de Sant Jaume where we took in a very old and very formal dance accompanying ancient music; can't say it looks like they were having a ton of fun, but maybe that's throwing down a few hundred years ago. 

We left the plaça, wandering around, always choosing the most narrow street, stepped through a narrow passage and were stunned to find these ancient Roman columns from the original city, with newer ancient buildings built around them; can you imagine looking out your window and seeing these 100 BCE relics??

As evening fell, we headed to the waterfront where they were putting on a huge fireworks display, distracted by other architectural features that delighted me, from the gorgeous building geometry to the smallest stone detail work:

We stopped in for a bite to eat in the old El Born neighborhood, right next to the Santa Maria del Mar cathedral (funded and built by the people starting in 1329, documented in a decent Netflix series "Cathedral of the Sea"). We still intended to hit the beach, but never made it: as we were finishing dinner, we were surprised by a huge parade of monsters, dragons, and other beasties -- driven on by drumming groups interspersed between each fantastic creature.

Sunday: Towers, Fire Walk

The 2018 Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC featured Catalunya, where we first got to see the Castellers, human towers. We headed back to Plaça Sant Jaume to see a number of competing teams, and barely arrived before the police closed the streets -- it was packed. The first were short 4-person towers with one person on top of the next, and once established, they were able to walk around -- very carefully -- and wave to the crowd. 

It's hard to believe the men, women, and children can build these and remain stable -- at least long enough for the smallest tot to scamper up the sides and raise his or her arm. At the bottom is a mass of people who provide a base; next is a group of strong men who are supported by the mass below, pushing them inward; above they build 3-, 4-, and 5-person levels that rise to 7 or 8 people tall. The photos below show the construction of a tower, this one was unusual in that in addition to the outer people, there was an inner person on each but the highest levels.

On our way to lunch, we dropped into the General Archive of the Crown of Aragon (Arxiu de la Corona d'Aragó), one of the oldest and largest historical archives in the world, housed in a stunning palace with open courtyard, intricate carved wood ceiling, and a delightfully creepy sculpted metal door. 

After a rest at home, we headed out to Barcelona's most posh shopping street, Passeig de Gracia, for a wild experience. After a "small" fireworks display:

the beasts we saw last night now paraded down the street spewing flames and sparks, and little demons showered the crowed with sparks -- the Correfoc, or Fire Run.  Braver souls than I ran into the fires, smart ones wearing goggles and nonflammable clothing.  A woman in the crowed had to tap me on the shoulder to tell my my shirt was on fire (just a little, fortunately). It was a blast!

Monday: Music, Giants, Fireworks

We headed out intending to hit jazz concerts by the port but got distracted by a lazy stroll across the Rambla del Mar to the Maremagnum, a huge new complex of shops in the harbor (chains, not exactly our taste) surrounded by oligarch-sized mega-yachts moored right next to quaint sailboats -- some clearly in need of help -- and an unusual tilted mast style I've never seen.

We continued on into the long but narrow streets of La Barceloneta, diving into the Mercat area in search of lunch; we didn't have to look far to find some vermut, cava, and huevos rotos (potatoes with a runny egg and jamon on top). 

I was curious if there was a brewery nearby, and Google Maps said there was just a few minutes away; on the way, we talked to the first cat we've seen here, then stopped into the Black Lab, a microbrewery at the edge of La Barceloneta for a good west coast style IPA and (IMHO) a too fruity sour.

We had dallied long enough that it was time for a couple concerts I'd highlighted in the program, two different renditions of traditional Havaneres, music from when Catalonia was exploring the Caribbean and specifically Cuba. I really enjoyed the music of the women in Ultramar Trio, and the men in La Guingueta seemed to be having a lot of fun. We noticed that for this traditional music, the crowd in Plaça de Sant Jaume was much older than the previous events we'd seen here, and were singing along with some of the songs.

The next event in the Plaça was the closing ceremony, where Gigantes begin the final procession with a dance. It's a tight fit for them to exit the Plaça through the narrow medieval passages.

We walked home, stopping by a corner cafe for dinner, and got to our house just in time to open a bottle of cava and watch the finale from our terrace, the Piromusical, a 30 minute spectacle of fireworks set to several operas which celebrated the Liceu opera house's 175th anniversary. Perhaps next year, we'll go to the Fuente Mágica so we can take in the full spectacle of the dancing fountain and music up close.