Yesterday – the last day of February – I said goodbye to my rooms in Carrer Valencia and brought all my things to my new home in Granollers. The flat was in central Barcelona, in an area called Eixample (roughly pronounced Ah-sham-pla) which is the 19th century extension of the old cityIt is famous for its grid pattern of streets, octagonal blocks of houses and shops whose chamfered edges create open intersections giving a sense of space and light and of course many people come to see the modernist architecture of many of the buildings. The building of the Eixample in the area outside what were the city walls connected the old town with what had been outlying villages. It is the first major example of modern urban planning on a grand scale.In 1859 the city council ran a competition to find a designer for this area. It was won by Antoni Rovira i Trias but then as now, politics intervened and a decision was made in Madrid to give the job to someone of their choice. The Eixample was designed by Idlefons Cerdà but eventually his plan too was plan was ignored in some of its parts – especially the vision of each block having a central garden to give the people more green space and peace. The spaces exist but generally look like this.I had two rooms in a large flat which I shared with my friend Marta. There is no lift and we lived on the forth floor. ……………103 stairs. You tend to remember to buy the milk. Or do without!
The floors are called Entresuelo, Principal, Primero, Segundo, Tercero and Cuarto which means that if you live on the 4th then it’s really the 6th.
Some entrance halls are magnificentThe flats are generally airy and spacious with beautiful floor tiles. Yesterday I had my first party there to say thank you to all the friends who have helped me over the past 7 months. A lunch party that began at the traditional time of 3pm and ended about 8pm. Then we packed my things – amazing how much stuff you accumulate over a few months – lugged it down the 103 stairs, and drove home.