As with any culture, it’s really difficult to universalize and make statements like “The Spanish do this …” or “The Spanish are ….”.  Exceptions abound to every rule and extrapolation.  The most accurate way to describe a culture is to use phrases such as “As a general rule” or “The preponderance of…”.   That said, please keep in mind that this post is a broad discussion based on my observations and opinions and not necessarily wide-spread regulation. 

Thus concludes the official disclaimer.  

At some point, Spanish children transition from eating an actual breakfast to just drinking coffee and dashing out the door for work.  I have no idea when this microevolution occurs; however, I do know that very young kids eat cereals and other classical breakfast foods in the mornings before school while their parents and older siblings do not.  Since school starts between 8 and 10am, breakfast is generally consumed fairly early in the day.  As the parents and older children have stayed awake until the late hours of the night, I imagine their desire to eat is non-existent in the very early morning.  Thus, they drink only a cuplet or two of coffee as part of their regimen.   Sometimes I will see one or two teens nibbling on a pastry while they ride the bus.

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Bakeries are open in the very early morning hours to cater to these nibblers and the parents who have little time to prepare a formal morning meal or even snack.  This allows them to purchase food as they proceed to school or work, with the plan to consume it later, during their first break.  For the very young kids who have already eaten breakfast at home, I consider this food to be a “second breakfast” of sorts.  The bakeries sell items such as sandwiches, mini-pizzas and a variety of breads and pastries which are generally consumed around 10:30am.  It is not uncommon to see business professionals sitting at outdoor tables between 10:30 and 11am, drinking a coffee, eating a pastry, reading the paper or chatting and smoking a cigarette.  I assume this is their official breakfast.  It appears to be so in any case.  

Lunch, as Americans know it, is basically non-existent.  With the exception of pervading global fast food chains, such as McDonalds, Burger King, KFC and Taco Bell, most restaurants are not open to serve food until after 1pm.  Some are closed entirely until after 4pm or later.  A few don’t serve any meal except dinner and open only at 8pm.  

In the early afternoon, you have the option of eating tapas, which can be consumed individually as a light snack or in an assortment as a large meal, or eating a full meal with multiple courses from the menú del día (menu of the day), which generally has a selection of starter, main course and a pastry or coffee included in one set price.   The bakeries are still open, of course, so you can easily purchase a pastry or sandwich and make a small meal of that any time of the day.  However, in general, the Spanish have their big meal of the day in the afternoon between 1:30-2.  How they manage to last this long without eating more than a pastry or sandwich is something of a mystery to me.  I suspect it is due in part to the coffee they consume all morning  (El Café).    

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Primary schools release children starting around 4pm daily.  Most of the children can be seen eating a light snack as they walk home from school.  Some make better food choices than others since the gelato shops and candy stores are now open and beckoning.  The bakeries are also quite busy during this period.  Pastries are in high demand and churrerias in food trucks parked along the streets often have long lines.  Many restaurants with outdoor seating near a park or playground are filled with parents, grandparents or nannies having a beverage while the children play and eat their goodies.  It’s pretty easy to spot the nannies as they are drinking coffee while all the others are having beer or wine.  Poor nannies.  

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Dinner is not a meal that the Spanish eat out in restaurants very often.  From what I have observed, many eat on Friday and Saturday nights, but seldom on week days.  Exceptions being professionals who are obviously having a business dinner and tourists.  Also, I have noticed many meals consumed on balcony tables late in the evening and with much brouhaha.  Restaurants that do serve dinner generally open late and remain open well past midnight.  Meals can be lavish and include as many as five or six courses that take hours to consume.  Meals can also be small and light consisting only of a bowl of soup or a small salad.  The choice, I assume, is based on what has already been consumed earlier in the day.  In our building, the residents can usually be heard sharing a dinner meal around 7pm, after which they often go for a stroll around the neighborhood before retiring for the evening.  This includes the small children who are pushed in strollers or race around on scooters while Mom and Dad walk behind and discuss important parental topics, and seniors with their caps and canes walking arm-in-arm for closeness as well as physical support.  

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What I can say about eating meals in Spain is that single diners are as common as groups.  Often restaurants will seat strangers together to preserve tables for more patrons and, perhaps, indirectly encourage community.  Eating is generally not a quiet activity.  Restaurants are designed to maximize their small space by including many seating arrangements.  Thus, you are often very close to the table next to you and privy to their conversations and antics. Whether you eat a little or a lot is irrelevant to the staff and you will be served with the same speed, flair and panache regardless of your food choices.  Don’t go into any restaurant in Spain expecting to eat a quick meal.  Also, don’t arrive very hungry.  Meals are prepared individually so they take time to craft and deliver.  It is expected that you will savor your dining experience – the time to relax, the drink you are imbibing, the company you keep or the people you watch, as well as the food you will eventually consume.  Eating in Spain is an experience – regardless of when, where or how you do it.  

Buen provecho!

I’ve been asked by several folks to please provide an update on our house-hunting progress, so here it is: WE FOUND THE PERFECT PLACE!

After three weeks of incessant searching and a not-so-small amount of stress and worry, we have finally procured long-term accommodations.  The apartment meets all of our requirements (see “Sunday Thoughts“) and is a happy compromise between the lavish and amazing and the “Oh My. Yikes” rentals we have visited.  We have added a few things here and there to our semi-furnished abode and we have plans to implement more decorative evolution once our shipment arrives from the port of L.A.  

We have a lovely patio – albeit a little cosy – and we have installed window boxes.  I am so excited about this tiny accomplishment.  I have always wanted window boxes.  Always.  Now I have them.  I would purr if I could express my satisfaction in such a manner without seeming utterly ridiculous.  

We have a colorful and cheery living room with plenty of light from the wall of glass doors.  This room also includes the dining area which is very spacious and suits us quite well.  

We have an office area that also includes a seating space for taking shoes off and on.  Everything is along a main hall that spreads from the front door, past the kitchen and living room and eventually ends at the master bedroom.  It’s a fairly common floor plan for Barcelona, from what we have observed.  

The kitchen is a good size with sufficient space for a table and two chairs – although we re-allocated one chair to the patio almost immediately.  When I’m there, I’m almost always doing something that does not involve sitting so I do not require a chair.  There is a small laundry room (or water room) located off the kitchen.  It opens into the “hole” as Mom calls it (ventilation shaft).  

Each of us has our own room.  I got the master bedroom.  Mom has a double room herself.  She and I share the same bathroom and we both have access to the patio from our rooms.  Allita has a twin room and her own bathroom.  Her room has a window that opens to the “hole” but she keeps it shut and the blinds drawn.  We are all very happy with our room arrangements as they allow us our own private space with or without windows as we each prefer.    

Every bedroom has a built-in wardrobe with plenty of storage space.  There are no closets in European houses – generally speaking – so we were prepared for living with wardrobes.  I actually prefer them to closets as they are easier to keep clean and organized and the cat doesn’t hide in them as often.   One experience of being shut inside the wardrobe for a while before someone “missed” him was enough for Toby.

The location of our new abode is ideal. We are near the hospital so there are lots of various shops, many bus stops and a taxi stand nearby. We are close to the Avinguda Diagonal so we have access to all forms of metro, trolley and trains and can easily reach any point in the city. Also, we are very close to a lovely park containing multiple playgrounds, including table tennis equipment, an enchanting pond and a tasty outdoor cafe surrounded by plenty of trees, grass and walking paths. We are only 2-3 blocks from the Royal Palace of Pedrables with its lovely gardens and architecture, and interestingly, a little known but fascinating gate, Portal Miralles, designed by Antoni Gaudi is just down the street.

So, we are done with the incessant searching and now, we are nesting. It’s a nice change of pace. With the exception of the “wardrobe incident”, everyone, including Toby, fell in love with our new residence immediately and settled in nicely. Now we only need our shipment to deliver so we can have all the trappings we need to make this house our home sweet home.

This has been the longest summer break since Allita started school at 3 years old.  The last day of school in Tucson was May 22.  The first day of school in Barcelona hasn’t even happened yet!!  On Monday, September 10, we interview at one of the local schools where she has applied.  Hopefully this will lead to her starting school in the next week or so.  I am ready, even if she is not.  

In the interim, we have spent considerable time getting settled and doing the typical “back to school” stuff that we would do in the U.S.  Every chance we get, we pop into one of the many little shops we pass while walking the neighborhood and see what they have that might be of use or interest.  One store, Flying Tiger, we found particularly entertaining with all their unusual office and school supplies.  For example, we had never seen fur-covered staplers or bear calculators.  Nor had we ever seen such a collection of flip-sequin covered items.  It was kid school supply nirvana – complete with a bubble machine outside the entrance.

We also, literally, stumbled upon an underground mall (L’illa Diagonal) only a couple blocks away from our house.  The discovery was quite accidental and, as such, it took us some effort and ingenuity to re-discover the entrance when we returned to explore it at a later date.  This mall is unlike any I have ever explored – even when compared to underground shopping areas in Atlanta and New York City.  First, the mall is three floors.  Floor zero is in the middle.  This is the floor you might walk into from the street, if you were walking from the subway or coming from the south side of the city.  Floor one is on top.  This is also the floor you might walk into from the street.  What?!?  Yes, indeed!  If you are walking on the sidewalk beside the major thoroughfare called Avinguda Diagonal or coming from the north of the city.   Then there is floor -1.  To reach this floor, you must either come from the parking garage up the escalator/elevator or take it down from floor 0.  Frankly, I don’t even want to know how to reach the parking garage. I couldn’t find this mall when I was walking. Driving is unimaginable.

Regardless of the confusing arrangement, the contents of this mall are uniquely fascinating and yet typical for Barcelona.  Most of floor -1 is dedicated to food.  Food in all forms.  Restaurants, open markets, delis, confectionaries, bakeries, butcher shops, fruit and vegetable stands, cafeterias, grocery stores, and boutiques that specialize in dairy-free, gluten-free, vegan, etc.  This area is my favorite of all of them because it is filled completely with so many different sights and smells. There are even some lovely flower shops – one in particular that we found right outside the mall and yet in the middle of the mall at the same time. Also, there is a massive grocery store, Caprabo, located in the middle of the lower floor. 

Floor 0 and floor 1 contain many of the typical mall stores.  There’s the LEGO store, the Disney store and a variety of other kid-oriented shops.  There are clothing, jewelry, kitchen and shoe stores galore.  There are many upscale shops such as Swarovski, Swatch, Rolex and Moschino. There is also a fascinating store called FNAC where I purchased a large toaster oven and a wifi extender.  I could also have purchased an electric scooter for Allita or a gas-powered clothes dryer for Mom.  Neither of which are needed but were interesting to explore in any case.   There are some very lovely, elegant boutique shops (tea, candles, art, music, etc.) scattered throughout these floors and there is a fun place to learn how to fly a drone through an obstacle course.  The mall has free wifi and a variety of other amenities that are somewhat atypical for us (such as very plush seating areas with leather recliners and phone or computer charging stations – all free and available for use).  

So, even as we count down to the end of summer break (hopefully), we continue to explore our new locale and all of the many lovely little markets sprinkled here and there and, apparently, even underneath.   

Spanish coffee can walk.  I’m certain of it.  In fact, it is so strong and concentrated, I suspect if you roll down your car window and whistle, a cuplet of expresso will hustle up to your outstretched hand.  Cuplets are a thing.  They have tiny handles made for people with small hands and very strong fingers.  They hold approximately 3-4 ounces of liquid.  I suspect the cuplet was created because of the concentration of the coffee.  One should only ingest a small quantity at a time. If you were to consume this beverage using a traditional American coffee mug, you might end up having a seizure.  

Every morning, Mom and I split a cuplet of expresso.  Cafe solo, according to the locals.  I have learned how to request a black cuplet of coffee along with a large cup of hot water and two empty cuplets.  Invariably, I always get a strange look from the waitstaff, but now that I have mastered the necessary verbiage, I am at least not as frequently misunderstood.   In addition to plenty of hot water, I also add sweetener to my coffee.  This is a common enough addition because I do not have to request it.  Which perhaps also tells you something about the pungent taste of this beverage. The friendly server always brings me a wide variety of sugars and sweeteners.  Interestingly, the sugar packets are approximately twice the size of those in the U.S. and the artificial sweetener comes in tiny tablet form.  I suspect these packaging differences are due more to the robust flavor and hardiness of Spanish coffee than some local preference or design.  At the risk of sounding like “Oh” from the movie “Home”, I offer this bit of caution: do not eat the mini tablets of sweetener.  Allita tasted one and her reaction was similar to Toby’s when we fed him a spoon of peanut butter.  

Mom and I have about one cuplet of coffee each per day and only in the mornings.  It takes about 12 hours for the caffeine to wear off such that we can wind down and go to sleep.  The Spanish drink it throughout the day and even after dinner.  I am astounded by this observation.  Decafinated coffee is available in the supermarket but I have never seen it nor heard of ordering it in a restaurant.  Coffee consumption, obviously, is a big part of their metabolic processing.  No wonder they are so svelte, able to walk great distances without difficulty and stay awake until midnight.  Nevermind a siesta – have a cuplet of José.

We have enjoyed our time living once again in close proximity to the beach.  We celebrated our last days in Castelldefels by spending one full day in the sand and sun before we relocated to our new residence in the metropolis of Barcelona.  I convinced Mom and Allita to rent three beach chairs and an umbrella so that we would be more comfortable during our surf-side stay.  There is a small stand, complete with a bar, restaurant and restrooms with showers, that offers just the ambiance I desired.  In addition, it has a “private” beach which really only means that vendors do not walk among the chairs and locals don’t set up towels in front, beside or behind you.  I actually missed those features but I was still able to recline and observe the activity of those around me with ease and comfort most of the day.  I do love to people watch.

As usual, Allita spent about half her time in the water and half her time in the sand.  We started the day by collecting sea shells.  This is another part of our beach routine and the biggest reason why we rush to get to the beach “early”.  She diligently searches the sand at the edge of the surf and the shallow waters for sea shells suitable for her collection.  Sometimes this process even involves snorkeling in the swash wearing her prescription goggles.  She is quite a bit less critical and selective than I am, but that is her way.  She finds beauty in the diversity, while I am searching more for perfection.  Probably that describes more about us than we even realize.  

After some time, I abandoned the shell hunt and then encouraged Allita to also take a break (“let’s leave some for others to discover”) so that we didn’t have ten pounds of calcium carbonate to lug back to the room – a mile in the distance!

Then, Allita began construction of a sand castle or fortress of some fashion.  This is also per routine.  Sometimes she will set up a restaurant filled with sand-shaped delicacies that Mom and I are requested to order and pretend to consume.  I prefer the sand castle construction because it is fully independent play that entertains her without any oversight on my part (i.e. checking to make sure she hasn’t drowned).  She’s a pretty diligent sand artist and often will use a variety of materials other than sand to complete her constructions: sea shells, pieces of wood, bits of sea grass, my shoes, etc.  I used this time to relax in the shade of the umbrella and try to read a book on my phone.  This was more challenging that it sounds because of the glare of the sunlight and my aging vision.  I require glasses to read and I generally wear sunglasses.  It is almost impossible to read an LED screen while wearing sunglasses at the beach.  

We shared tapas and tinto (Allita had water) from the little restaurant and bar.  Our server was extremely busy so we practiced our patience and learned to be more “laid back” like the locals.  It was a fun adventure and Mom and I laughed about it more than I expected.  In the end, we wrapped up our long day with another new tradition: shell and tell.  This is the period of the evening when I clean up and put away all our sand-ridden paraphernalia, including Allita’s poor white swim shirt now permanently stained from the elbow down due to prolonged exposure to sand and sea, while Mom and Allita hunker down on the bed and spread out the day’s harvest.  Allita presents each shell to Mom with a little detail about how, where or by whom it was located and Mom provides the requisite responses (oohs, ahhs and oh mys).  Then Mom, being who she is, arranges all the shells neatly according to size, color and shape, and we take a photo for posterity.  

All-in-all, it was another wonderful day.  Nobody got sunburned – which is something of an accomplishment for us – and we were able to enjoy each other’s company for a prolonged period without any real disharmony.  Another major accomplishment actually.  Huzzah!