Originally published in Metropolitan

Anyone who has stood outside at night and peered up into the skies above Barcelona knows that there’s not much more to see than the gold-frosted hue of light pollution typical of metropolitan cities. This light pollution, known as skyglow, means we city dwellers see a fraction of the stars that are visible in the countryside, and even with the help of telescopes, they’re difficult or impossible to spot. 

Luckily, we live near rural landscapes that are perfect for viewing the stars unobstructed. Whether you choose to see them through a telescope at an observatory or with the naked eye through the flap of your tent, we have gathered a few of the best places to stargaze in Barcelona’s backyard.

Learn about the Stars

Observatori Fabra de Barcelona

Closest to Barcelona, the Fabra Observatory is a short drive into the Collserola hills. Established in 1904, it’s the fourth oldest functioning observatory in the world. The observatory’s scientists give tours of the facility (in Catalan or Spanish), which teach visitors about astronomy, meteorology and seismology, as well as the domestic uses of the building in the early 20th century. The guides also demonstrate how the observatory’s two modern telescopes work and show guests around the library and panoramic terrace. During the visit, you can freely access the observatory's gardens every Sunday and public holiday from 11:00 to 13:00. If you want to know more about the night sky after the tour, there are basic and advanced astronomy courses available.

For a less academic experience that’s just as memorable, during the summer months you can make a reservation for the Dining with the Stars dinner series that the observatory hosts. The dinners take place outdoors with a privileged view of Barcelona. After dinner, a 30-minute scientific talk is held, with a question and answer session at the end. You can also visit the museum, the modernist room, the telescope and the large dome room. From the dome you will be able observe elements of distant constellations, stars and much of the solar system, with the 1904 telescope—one of the largest and oldest in Europe still in operation.

Guided Day Tours

Hours: Sundays, 11:00

Price: €3, free for children under 14

Guided Night Tours & Observation

Hours: Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at sunset, October to June

Price: €15 adult on Friday, €25 adult on Saturday and Sunday, children up to 12 years pay half-price

Reservations required: Call 93 327 0121 or 697 864 262

Address: Camí de l'Observatori, s/n, 08035 Barcelona | fabra.cat

Originaly published in Metropolitan.

Once a traditional fishing hub, Cadaqués is a thriving tourist destination, yet unlike many of its neighbours it retains all the charm of a small Mediterranean village. A tree-lined promenade runs along the small but well-kept harbour and boats bob peacefully in the bay. Tourists lose themselves in the narrow warren of old town streets, admiring the blue shutters and pink bougainvillea that contrast against white walls. The city may feel olde worlde, but it also embodies a bohemian vibe left over from its days as an artist colony, when it was home to the likes of Picasso, Man Ray, Bunuel, Lorca, and Dalí.  

Shopping

Wander the cobblestone streets and small squares, while taking in an array of trendy boutiques, galleries and studios around town. Visit Gemma Ridameya (Carrer Vigilant), which specialises in handcrafted metal and stone jewellery, or Calçats Roig Castañer (Plaça Frederic Rahola 3) for a pair of the famous Mediterranean espadrilles made by local designers. Mo Cadaqués (Plaça Doctor Pont 7) has women’s clothing and goods for the home, while Sa Botigueta (Avinguda Víctor Rahola 3) is a good place to find children’s toys. Brown Sugar (Plaça Art i Joia) is a handy place to stop off for a fresh juice, tasty salads or tapas.

Culture

The top tourist attraction in Cadaqués is Dalí’s Portlligat home, but if you can’t make it there, visit the Cadaqués Museum, which is dedicated to the artist’s work. It also has temporary exhibitions of works by other artists, such as Picasso, Pichot, and Niebla. Climb to the highest point in town and visit the 16th-century Esglesia de Santa Maria. Inside the late Gothic church you’ll find one of the oldest organs in Catalunya and a fresco by Dalí. Contemporary art lovers will also be impressed with the many galleries in town. Check out Galería Cadaqués - Huc Malla (Hort d’en Sanes 7) for an interesting range of works.

Nature

While there’s plenty to do in the town, the surrounding region is also a must-see. Head up to Cap de Creus, the rocky easternmost point of land just eight kilometres north of the town, for a beautiful, albeit blustery, view of the rugged but scenic landscape. This coastal national park is home to an impressive variety of birds, including eagles, falcons and kestrels, hundreds of plant species, and a great network of hiking trails. Walk among fragrant rosemary and sea lavender and take in the impressive views, or stop inside the Cala Nans lighthouse, dating from 1853, and visit Espai Cap de Creus, a science centre which explains the geology, flora and fauna of the region. If being on the water is more your thing, charter a one-hour sailing tour around the cape with Charter Sant Isidre.

"Number 16 is just a house. It sits at the end of a paved street, just across from a patch of gnarled vines, the only hint that I’ve arrived at a vineyard. In fact, I’ve toured the two-street town twice already searching for it. I’m here for the tour of Foresta, a small winery tucked away in the tiny village of L’Arboçar, which sits deep in the heart of Catalunya’s wine-making region, D.O. Penedès, midway between the mountains and the sea. Like the town it sits in, it’s a micro-operation indeed. A few French oak barrels and two small steel fermentation tanks are housed in the garage, and there’s a small artichoke patch around back. It’s not what you’d expect of a vineyard, but in a region of small production, family-owned vineyards, it’s not unusual either."

Read more at Avina.

III. Barcelona
On a park bench, we sit as he unwraps
the old blue bottle, thick with a relief
of Catalans dancing the sardana.

Read more at Modern Poetry Quarterly Review

"February can be a surprising month for those new to Catalunya. Visitors to Barcelona are sometimes struck by the seemingly non-Mediterranean feel of the temperatures, while new transplants to the city sit tight, not-so-patiently awaiting summer. In this at-times bleak in-between, the Catalan tradition of the calçotada is a welcome highlight signaling the imminent arrival of spring.

The calçotada is the event that celebrates the beloved calçot, a wild spring onion that grows in the woods and national parks throughout Catalunya. Its harvesting period is determined by the conditions of each particular season, but most years it is possible to find calçots on the menu from the beginning of February until the first weeks of March. Families and restaurant owners grow or forage for their own calçots and then gather together in groups to happily feast on their spoils. It has become such a well-loved tradition in the region that the anticipation of this annual event is almost tangible."

Read more at Miniguide

"I always love to go back to Madrid, always with the hopes of finding new and better places to eat. It’s a charming, grown up city, and I love to soak up its vibe and amble its quiet corridors, and while I have intentions to find the next best restaurant every trip, I never quite make it past the tapas crawl. I’ve been told by about ten different people that they’ve had the best tortilla of their entire life in Madrid, but of course they can never remember the name, only the lustrous details of the drippy oozing center of their slice, which is the way tortilla should be. I haven’t been so lucky."

Read more at Ataula

"Valls is your typical Catalan town, a tiny poblet of 25,000 people, in the province of Tarragona. A small plaza sits in the shadow of the medieval church staked at its center. Its steeple rises high above the modest two story buildings that make up the town. The day we visited the flags were flying high, a bright dash of color against the cloud-mottled sky. The yellow and red bars of the Catalan flag sat solidly next to the city flag signifying the way the regional pride is part of the local identity there.Valls is considered the true home of the calçot, the Catalan spring onion that’s the source of great pride among locals, and we were there to experience their annual calçotada–a spring onion festival–that falls on the last weekend in January. It’s one of those wildly festive days where the entire town turns out to join the celebration."

Read more at Ataula

"There’s something quite magical about learning about another culture’s cuisine. I love reassembling my sense of taste–understanding that sour isn’t always lemon. Instead it’s the tart pucker of tamarind, the floral grace of a tropical lime. Salt isn’t just salt–a far cry indeed from the Morton salt girl I grew up with in 1970s Chicago–but the complex umami of fish sauce, sun-baked flavor that touches all points of the tongue. Foreign spice-forward cuisines are layered. Taste is built carefully, as though pyramidal, with certain spices that create the base upon which the other flavors are built. In learning to cook these cuisines, the why often remains a mystery, even as the what and how eventually begins to shimmer into shape. The process of eating is, in turn, a series of wondrous uncoverings."

Read more at Ataula

"To use the term wine country in Catalunya is a bit misleading. It’s not like Sonoma Valley in California or even Mendoza in Argentina where are the wineries are clustered together an easy drive (or wine bus) from one another. Wine country covers the length of Catalunya, from its northernmost point near France all the way down to where it meets the province of Valencia, a journey which, if you drove it straight, would take 3 hours and 33 minutes without stopping. In total, it includes 11 denominations of origin (DOs)–including 1 DOQ–14 major grape varietals, 221 wineries, and 346,557 hectares of vines. It may not be France, but it’s still mind boggling."

Read more at Ataula 

"It was springtime when we descended to the Dead Sea. I wanted to take in the wide horizon with a breath, but I was shaken and caught by the geometries of light and landscape, by the myths of the soil retold to us by the passage of time, by the plain fields of an electric sea, unburdened and alive."

Read more at Vector

"From the top of the hill, you can see the Mediterranean sparkling on the horizon. Clusters of fat bees are bobbing and weaving, drunk on the nectar of the yellow wildflowers they’re inspecting. An incessant warble of birdcall trills overhead carried by the constant breeze that blows up from the sea. We are standing at the top of the amphitheatre, as they call it here at Alta Alella, the u-shaped set of terraces which hold the majority of the vineyard’s experimental vines. My tour guide, Matilde, has brought me up here for a quick look of Alella’s operation, but we’re so entranced by the view that neither of us really wants to leave. We linger a little longer, me making up questions I didn’t have on my list, her telling me little stories about the work and her life before arriving at the vineyard. We wave to a neighbor on his morning walk along the public path that runs along the property’s back fence."

Read more at Avina

"We're on a photo shoot for a magazine article I'm writing, but we're having trouble keeping our efforts serious. So many of the photos are rendered unusable because Anna's laughing, her wide smile pulling her eyes closed, the images mostly out of focus. The article is a cultural piece about espadrilles, or espardenyas, as they're known here in Catalunya. Although I haven't quoted her in the article, I probably should have, because Anna owns more espardenyas than anyone I know. Most of them are worn with age, the way her point shoes are, a mark of love and dedication. Luckily the light is falling and the dirt scuffs are muddled by the shadows that fall over the small corner of Parc de la Ciutadella where we're shooting. There's something about the overgrown building and the chipping paint and Anna's dirt-scuffed shoes that creates a kind of poetic trifecta."

Read more at Kita

"Just an hour and a half south of Barcelona, the landscape shifts into something altogether different. Gentle tree-covered mountains rise up along the horizon and the dry Mediterranean scrub leading down to the sea suddenly gives way to a wide, flat landscape of pure unadulterated green—the delta of the river Ebre. It is a breathtaking sight and one certainly worth the short trip to reach it. This large, flat region is made up mostly of rice plants, doing their gentle dance in the breeze against a backdrop of the Serra de Montsià mountains. Its unique landscape—from wide sandy beaches to the tranquil river and quiet harbours—makes it a welcome weekend getaway spot for nature enthusiasts and families alike."

Read more at Metropolitan

"The best way to learn about cava is to head down to cava country and visit a cellar or two, where you can learn how cava is created and enjoy a tasting session. Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, considered the birthplace of cava, is a great place to start. There are a number of excellent cellars there, including the world-renowned Freixenet and Codorníu. While February can be brisk and the vines barren, it is also calçot season, and there is no better place to enjoy this local and well-loved onion than in the countryside restaurants of Penedès. Early spring brings rain, but with it vines covered in an explosion of downy white blossoms, signaling a new start and a new harvest ahead."

Read more at Metropolitan

"The wind-tossed coast and ever-shifting light of this part of the Catalan coastline are familiar protagonists in the paintings of Dalí, Chagall, and Picasso. The artists’ studies of the landscape reveal the powerful influence of place in their work, and none was more connected to the Costa Brava than Surrealist Salvador Dalí. Those who want to know his work intimately can journey to what is known as the Dalí triangle, in reference to the three iconic locations on Catalunya’s Costa Brava where Dalí lived and worked: Figueres, Púbol, and Portlligat."

Read more at Metropolitan

"Culture, history and a special affinity for sausages, the small Catalan city of Vic makes for an excellent day trip from Barcelona by train or car, or a weekend visit to really capture the atmosphere. Sometimes written as Vich, it is the capital of Osona, a landlocked comarca (county) in central Catalunya, and is located on the banks of the river Mèder almost equidistant (approximately 70 kilometres or so) from Girona and Barcelona. A long and storied history has put Vic on the map, but it remains there, among other reasons, because of its long and fervent political history and the mythical status of its sausage. Not many other cities in the world can hang their hat on that."

Read more at Metropolitan

"Besides the beaches, another major attraction of the islands is the food. While Balearic restaurants may be in short supply here, there are a few establishments dotted around the city where islanders can get their fix. Na Mindona is one such place. The Na is short for ‘ca na’, meaning ‘en casa’ in Mallorquín, and that’s exactly how it feels—like a small slice of home. Tucked away in the Raval, Na Mindona is a favourite of Barcelona’s Mallorcan residents, who swear by the authenticity of the market-fresh dishes, such as tumbet (a ratatouille-like dish that comprises layers of aubergine, courgette and potato in a rich tomato sauce) and frit mallorquí (a hash of fried lamb, potatoes and onions).  

Read more at Metropolitan 

Yoga Weeks is a studio in the heart of the Raval neighborhood of Barcelona which offers week-long yoga courses for those who also want to explore the urban side of life in the city. In the latest story at Kita Collective, you can read all about the Yoga Weeks project and how co-founder Ana Puig changed her life through yoga. 

Read more at Kita 

"La Manual Alpargatera is also the favourite espadrille shop of Àngeles Ortega, owner of Foodie Experience Barcelona, a local cooking school situated nearby. When teaching visitors about local culture, she regularly espouses the shoe’s virtues and sends curious clients to the shop. She appreciates the shoe for its simplicity, aesthetics and, particularly, its roots. 'I enjoy the poetry of an object that comes from such humble origins,' she explained, referring to the shoe’s beginnings as footwear for peasants. She admires them for being what she calls ‘survivors’—a shoe whose simplicity, function and form have helped it to both maintain its identity and to grow and evolve into something new."

Read more at Metropolitan