Christmas Eve, Parc del Ciutadella

12/24/2017

Eixample

Christmas Eve, and we are settling into a domestic routine in anticipation of the holidays. Kitty has been worried about managing meals with stores closed, so our first things is to go to the grocery store this morning. We get there fairly early, about 10:30, before the real crowds started about 11:00. The early start meant we had the deli aisles to ourselves as we scoured for the ingredients for the Christmas soup. After much deliberation (helped by the fact that each package had the animal image on it: pig, steer, sheep, rabbit), we picked our stuff and then on the last aisle found a pre-packaged Christmas soup special with everything we’d been collecting individually. We put everything back and went for the prepared stew mix.

We put stuff up back at the apartment and walk to the Parc de la Ciudatella to parrot watch. We go a different way through Eixample, and end up north of the Arc de Triomf. It’s a beautiful day, our warmest yet, and there are tons of parrots about. We sit in the sun and eat our sandwiches (olive mortadella) and watch the crowds go by. We walk down towards the fountains. The greenhouse was in disrepair—looked like something from Jurassic Park 3 where the tropical plants had taken over the ruins. The fountains had no water (unusual, as typically this is a central play area with people in little boats). It’s still a beautiful park with groups of young men walking ropes and others throwing down rugs and bedcovers for a quick sale. And lots of parrots.

Parc del Ciutadella

Enric Granados

We walk to the nearest bus, a stop for the V13 we’ve used before at Pla del Palau. Things have started to close by 4:00, and diners in the restaurants that were still open are finishing their meals. We return home to a stocked cupboard. For dinner, we have pork chops and dried fig compote, mushroom risotto and cabbage. Lovely.

It’s a rowdy evening: sounds like a crowd of about 50 hard core soccer fans next door (BCN must be

winning). We even get red and green fireworks just outside our window. Now at 8:00 the streets are empty, but I expect there are other gatherings happening all across the city tonight.