A flying (‘training’?) visit to Barcelona

I’ve never been to Barcelona before and I had wanted to visit the city for many years.  So imagine how frustrating it was to only be able to visit this beautiful city for about 9 hours!  I had a great time, met some great people, and saw some beautiful sites, but it was just a taste, and it definitely left me wanting more.

I was met at the station by Juan del Rio of the Spanish National Transition Hub, and some other friends, and we set off for a very quick exploration of some of the city’s more beautiful corners.  Here are a few photos to give you a flavour.

We stopped for lunch at Rasoterra, the city’s Slow Food restaurant, which serves mostly local and organic foods.  A small plaque on the wall bore the inscription “A meal without wine is called ‘breakfast’”.  We met with some other Transitioners and had a delicious meal, which concluded with a sponge cake flavoured with Schizuan peppers, an unusual tree I know better from Martin Crawford’s forest garden, and which I had never imagined as a flavouring for a sweet dish.  It was all very delicious anyway.

Then we travelled to the place that was to be our venue for the evening’s event.  It’s a kind of community hub space for people doing creative things, and our first stop was the building’s rooftop, complete with garden, to do an interview for an upcoming documentary about Transition in Spain.

We spent about an hour sitting on the roof, filming the interview in the sunshine, and very enjoyable it was too.

The evening’s event was attended by about 100 people, was streamed live on Facebook, and started with showing a 30 minute edited version of the film ‘Demain’.  Then I spoke about Transition, telling some stories from around the world.  Then Juan del Rio and colleagues gave an flavour of what’s happening in Spain (spoiler alert: lots).  Then we had a good Q&A session with some great questions before heading off to the port for my night boat to Mallorca.

So, a flying visit, but definitely one that leaves me wanting to come back, with substantially more time, to explore this beautiful city in more depth.  Great, as always, to meet Transitioners doing great things.