NEW BARRIO

Greetings from blustery Barcelona,

Although it is still in the 50s and 60s--we've experienced some really windy days and nights!  When the wind blows in the city it howls and makes noises unlike any we've ever heard!

We are enjoying Eixample and Uptown as the streets are wider, there are different shops and restaurants, and the building are gorgeous.  It has a different vibe.  There are certain aspects of El Born that we miss such as the families that we got used to seeing, the quiet alley streets (Eixample has more traffic noise), and the shop owners that we saw frequently.

We love having the terrace to watch the sunsets and sun rises which are really gorgeous.  We get to watch the weather fly by as well.  In El Born we had a terrace but it was an interior terrace.  Most of all we love having running water and hot water!

Here is a little bit about our new neighborhood  (thank you Trip Advisor!).

The Eixample and Uptown 

The Eixample/Ensanche or “widening” was the area of the city developed when the walls of the Old Town were pulled down in the mid nineteenth century. Built on a grid-pattern following plans by Ildefons Cerdà, whose original idea was that the blocks should have buildings on two sides only, with gardens in the middle but economics meant that in the end all four sides of the block were built on. Some interior squares have in recent years been opened up to become small neighbourhood parks.

The Eixample contains most of the great modernista buildings, including several works by Gaudí and his contemporaries Puig i Cadafalch and Domènech i Montaner as well as by less celebrated architects. There is a Ruta del Modernisme, developed by Turisme de Barcelona which guides you round the modernista treasures of Barcelona and other towns.

The broad avenue of Rambla de Catalunya, parallel to Passeig de Gràcia is the demarcation between Eixample Dreta and Eixample Esquerra. The left-hand (Esquerra) side was initially where the services were located (prison, fire station, hospital, abattoir and some factories) whereas the right-hand (Dreta) was mainly residential and considered posher. Nowadays the whole of the Eixample is of mixed use: residential/offices/banks/bars and restaurants. And shops galore: designer names on Passeig de Gràcia and Diagonal and more mixed local shopping as you go further from the centre. There are also various museums, mainly foundations dedicated to the private collection of an individual (Tàpies, Daurel, Godia and Jordi Clos whose collection forms the basis of the Egyptian Museum). If you want to experience real Barcelona life, local shops, bars, restaurants, etc then L’Eixample is the area to stay.

MAP of Barcelona Neighborhoods

Weather from the terrace, looking toward La Sagrada Familia