Stuff Catalans Do: Gegants, Generalitat, Girona
Gegants The giants of Catalonia are not the kind of horrid monsters of fairy-tale and legend that gave us childhood nightmares, but huge figures of men and women that are paraded around at just about every local fair and festival. Most towns and city neighbourhoods have their own giants, forming a great network across Catalonia, […]
Stuff Catalans Do: FC Barcelona
FC Barcelona Having married into a family of cradle-to-grave Barcelona supporters, Football Club Barcelona, aka el Barça, is naturally one of the main threads in the tapestry of my life here. My sons were carted to the home matches at the Camp Nou by their dad and grandad almost before they could walk. During summers […]
Stuff Catalans Do: Denominació d’Origen Protegida
Denominació d’Origen Protegida Hazelnuts from Reus, rice from the Ebro Delta, pears from Lleida, butter and cheese from Alt Urgell and La Cerdanya in the Pyrenees… olive oil from Siurana, Les Garrigues, l’Empordà… sorry, my mouth is watering too much to keep on writing. These are some of the yummy Catalan foods boasting the Protected […]
Stuff Catalans Do: Calçotada, Castellers, Català
Calçotada The calçotada is the Catalans’ favourite gastronomic bash, traditional to the town of Valls and environs, and is the festive outing of choice from November to April. The last Sunday in January the streets and squares of Valls are taken over by sardana dancing, parades of musical bands, giants and bigheads, horse-drawn floats, sauce-making […]
Stuff Catalans Do: Besòs, Bon profit and Botifarra
Besòs One of the rivers that Barcelona lies between on the coastal plain, as opposed to having a river flowing through the city. You know those three tall chimneys you can see as you look up the coast in the direction of the Fòrum? They belong to the old Sant Adrià de Besòs power station […]
Stuff Catalans Do: Andorra and Arròs
Andorra Very long and very crowded duty-free shopping street running through the mountains between Spain and France. In fact, Andorra is a mini-country, capital Andorra la Vella, officially called the Principality of Andorra: the heads of state are two co princes: the president of France and the bishop of the border town of La Seu […]
The A to Z Blog Challenge Theme Reveal
It’s over ten years now since In The Garlic: Your Fun, Informative Guide to Spain was published, a quirky book in A to Z format that distils the essence of Spain, written by myself and my friend and colleague Theresa O’Shea. Critics and readers loved it. And over the years many people have said to […]