{"id":238,"date":"2014-10-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-19T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monapart.com\/magazine\/?p=238"},"modified":"2025-07-29T13:00:32","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T11:00:32","slug":"at-birgit-reinkes-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monapart.com\/magazine\/en\/hogar\/en-casa-de-birgit-reinke","title":{"rendered":"At Birgit Reinke's house"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">At Birgit Reinke's house<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Birgit arrived in Barcelona from Montreal 15 years ago driven by the need \u2014 shared by many Germans \u2014 for a warmer climate. The Canadian cold had taken a toll on her health and she was looking for a place that would provide a better quality of life.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.monapart.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/scale_960x960_\/public\/mediabrowser\/birgit-reinke_1_0.jpg?itok=XBPOk25g\" alt=\"At Birgit Reinke&#039;s home | Monapart\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Upon arriving in the city, she moved into a small attic flat in the Horta neighbourhood, but her cultural interests and her constant visits to the centre due to her work (Birgit gave private German lessons) soon drew her to the Raval.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"At Birgit Reinke&#039;s house\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/y729IbvpTJE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The El Raval of 1999, nothing to do with the one we know now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.monapart.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/scale_960x960_\/public\/mediabrowser\/birgit-reinke_2_0.jpg?itok=deBRUIy0\" alt=\"At Birgit Reinke&#039;s home | Monapart\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She discovered her house in an advert in La Vanguardia and, as luck would have it, the owners were a Catalan-German couple living in Canada. Germany, Canada and Catalonia once again formed the perfect constellation that facilitated the sale of the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.monapart.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/scale_960x960_\/public\/mediabrowser\/birgit-reinke-casa_9.jpg?itok=j3gVp-j0\" alt=\"At Birgit Reinke&#039;s home | Monapart\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There was such a great vibe that the owners gave Birgit two magnificent 1930s wicker armchairs which she still treasures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/magazine.monapart.com\/sites\/default\/files\/mediabrowser\/birgit-reinke-casa_1.jpg\" alt=\"At Birgit Reinke&#039;s home | Monapart\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/magazine.monapart.com\/sites\/default\/files\/mediabrowser\/birgit-reinke-casa_3.jpg\" alt=\"At Birgit Reinke&#039;s home | Monapart\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the coincidences do not end here\u2026 Birgit tells us that she felt a strange sensation when she first stepped into the main hall. \u201cI immediately felt like dancing,\u201d she tells us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.monapart.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/scale_960x960_\/public\/mediabrowser\/birgit-reinke-casa_2.jpg?itok=JvI5uWyI\" alt=\"At Birgit Reinke&#039;s home | Monapart\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Something similar he felt <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jaimecopon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">James<\/a> \u2013 our agent in Ciutat Vella at the time \u2013. So you can't imagine the look of surprise on his face when Se\u00f1ora Pepita, Birgit's nonagenarian neighbour, tells us that this living room used to be <strong>the Liceu dance school<\/strong>, where the very <a href=\"http:\/\/ca.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pauleta_P%C3%A0mies_i_Serra\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Pauleta P\u00e0mies<\/strong><\/a> she had taken ballet classes. Incredible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/magazine.monapart.com\/sites\/default\/files\/mediabrowser\/birgit-reinke-casa_7.jpg\" alt=\"At Birgit Reinke&#039;s home | Monapart\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/magazine.monapart.com\/sites\/default\/files\/mediabrowser\/birgit-reinke-casa_8.jpg\" alt=\"At Birgit Reinke&#039;s home | Monapart\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.monapart.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/scale_960x960_\/public\/mediabrowser\/birgit-reinke-casa_5.jpg?itok=zJR7wmcT\" alt=\"At Birgit Reinke&#039;s home | Monapart\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Birgit arrived in Barcelona from Montreal 15 years ago driven by the need \u2014 shared by many Germans \u2014 for a warmer climate. The Canadian cold had taken a toll on her health and she was looking for a place that would provide a better quality of life.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":239,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2844,2845],"tags":[2870],"class_list":["post-238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hogar","category-mi-monapart","tag-diseno"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monapart.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monapart.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monapart.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monapart.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monapart.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.monapart.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18313,"href":"https:\/\/www.monapart.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238\/revisions\/18313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monapart.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monapart.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monapart.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monapart.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}