Barcelona, Kids and Bicycles

The Kids and I are heading back to Barcelona on our summer holidays in a couple of weeks. We were looking at photos of the last time, four years ago, that we headed to Catalonia.

There are not many large cities in Europe that are bicycle friendly and that have beaches - which was one of the reasons that we went to Barcelona. I wanted to ride around with my kids. Copenhagen, with its amazing beaches, is one city, but you have to look far and wide for others.

Barcelona is amazing. It is well on its way to being a bicycle-friendly city. It ranks on the Top 20 in the world on The Copenhagenize Index 2015 - Bicycle-Friendly Cities Index.

Here are photos of our last trip. We borrowed a clunky Bakfiets from a friend with a bike shop. Not sleek, light or stylish like the Bullitt, but it did the job. 5 kilometres to the beach and 5 km back each day, up the hill to the amazing neighbourhood of Gracia, where we stayed.

This year we'll be staying in an amazing home exchange through Behomm, in the El Born neighbourhood, and we're looking forward to exploring this area.

Follow me on Instagram - @copenhagenizer - for daily photos.

How Copenhageners Lulu and Felix wait for a red light in Barcelona. Not bad at all.



My view each day on the cargo bike.

Heading towards the beach with our beach gear.

Afternoon snacks on the way home from the beach.

Bikes are the best hair dryers after a last swim before heading home.

In our local neighbourhood there were ample opportunities to continue rolling.

Heading up the hills behind Barcelona. Felix was so proud he nailed it. Daddy nailed it, too, on a Bakfiets with The Lulu inside.

Damn skateboarders blocking the bike lane.

Loads of bikes at the beaches.



Beaches can be tiring. Nap time heading home for The Lulu.

Barcelona

I can always miss Barcelona. But a little bit more in the winter.

In Black and White

Timeless in black and white stripes.


A lovely contrast with his black hat and her white cap.

Cyclists of the Revolution

When on holiday in Barcelona recently my kids and I stayed in a flat in the brilliant and very liveable neighbourhood of Gracía. Near a charming and splendidly-named square: Plaça de la Revolució de Setembre de 1868. Citizen Cyclists rolled past day and night.

Bicing

After twelve days holiday in Barcelona, I miss the city something rotten.

Bits of Barcelona

Flowery

There are various bike rental places in Barcelona. My personal favourite, from a Cycle Chic perspective, are these bicycles. They come decked out with flowers on the baskets - a century-old traditional in established bicycle cultures. Lovely.

Gracia, Barcelona

Things I've seen outside my window in the flat I'm staying in the neighbourhood of Gracia in Barcelona.

Rachid from Restaurant Nass

We met Rachid during the Cycle Chic Bloggers Conference in Barcelona. We needed a place to eat and our friend Juan, president of the Catalan Bicycle Club - BACC - took us to a cool little place in Barceloneta. Rachid is the chef at Nass. After a number of years at a fancy schmancy restaurant he started his own place.

We all sat in a private room and enjoyed spectacular food and drink. Rachid took care of us well, constantly popping in to make sure everything was alright and instructing the waiters. He is charming and a brilliant chef. He used to drive a car but Juan, and others, finally convinced him to switch to a bicycle, which is did. Picture above. Fantastic.

Thanks to Rachid for a wonderful meal at Nass.

Nass Restaurant - c/ Judici 5
08003 Barcelona.

Barcelona Pairs

There were no bicycles in Barcelona a mere four years ago. You could wander around the city from dawn to dusk and count the bicycles on one hand. Now look at the city. Citizen Cyclists abound. The beautiful people of this beautiful city have reembraced a beautiful 125 year old invention. They ride in style, with grace and they are exceptional at riding together.

A bicycle made for two, indeed.

Our Cycle Chic Barcelona Wheels

So Cycle Chic went to Barcelona. Not surprisingly, we needed bicycles to get around on. From A to B. A being cool cycle events and B being cool bars and restaurants. We were incredibly fortunate to get a load of bicycles to ride fra various sources.

I decided to bring a prototype of the new Cycle Chic bicycle from Copenhagen to Barcelona to show the gang. We hoping for a launch in the fall. Above is the bicycle on the quay next to the yacht that some of us stayed on in Barcelona's Port Vell.

Here's the bicycle being rolled onto the plane at Copenhagen airport. It arrived fine in Barcelona. We're still working on the colour combination for the bicycle and we're working on getting the price down so that it is affordable.

Once on the ground in Catalunya, we needed more wheels. And this is where our good friends from CityBici stepped in to help. They provided us with cool bicycles from Creme Cycles. You know it's a chic city when your lovely friends show up with their friends and all of them are lovely and gorgeous. Here they all are, above, in front of Barcelona's Arc de Triomf. Vanessa from CityBici, in the middle, is beautifully pregnant and we'll promptly add this shot to our Bicycles and Pregnancy tag here on the blog.

Creme Cycles make a variety of bikes. Most are upright but they have funky models, too. Like this one.

CityBici were also kind enough to let us use their gorgeous showroom/flat for our conference where we discussed Cycle Chic and shared experiences from the various countries, as well as plotted out the way forward for the brand. Cold beer, cool friends, groovy city. Me gusto.

We still needed a few more bikes for the bloggers, though. My friend Koos from BikeTech bike shop in Barcelona helped swing some bicycles from another shop. Intemperie is an outdoor gear shop in Barcelona and they were kind enough to loan us 10 Brompton folding bikes. Txell, from Barcelona Cycle Chic, held a master class in folding/unfolding the bikes for the uninitiated on the sidewalk outside Intemperie. On the left is a seat warmer from Velorbis having a test ride on a Brompton.


Once in a while situations arose where the people outnumbered the bicycles, as they do, but our crew merely shrugged THAT off and made it work. Tiago and Saskia on the left and Philip and Joni on the right. If memory serves, I had a certain Quebecoise on the back of my bike when taking these shots. :-)

So, all in all, we were well covered in the bicycle department for the duration of the Cycle Chic Bloggers Conference 2011. A couple of rental bikes were squeezed into the equation, as well as a few Bicing bike share bikes. But thanks to a whole bunch of good, cool people for helping us out!