Barcelona appears in the book not as a home or a setting for a major public event, but as a destination reached repeatedly in the private routine of Alice Espanet’s care after her release from prison.

A recurring destination

After leaving the city and settling in a small house in Elciego, near Ritxi’s workplace, Alice and Ritxi travelled by plane to Barcelona every two weeks to see a well-known psychiatrist. These visits were part of a new routine alongside their separate obligation to report to the courthouse in Vitoria-Gasteiz every fortnight. Ritxi accompanied his wife on those court visits; the account does not specify who accompanied her on the flights.

Treatment and routine

In Barcelona, Alice began treatment for psychosis. The narrative gives the care a concrete, everyday form: she kept her daily pills in a compartmentalized plastic box and resumed painting as occupational therapy. The city is therefore associated with continuing psychiatric care rather than a single decisive consultation; the account offers no further description of the psychiatrist, the clinic, or the treatment itself.

Narrative significance

The repeated journeys place Barcelona within the quiet aftermath of the case. At first, photographers waited for the couple at the courthouse; gradually they stopped appearing, and the media turned its attention elsewhere. Against that fading public scrutiny, the regular trips and Alice’s daily medication mark an ongoing, largely private effort to manage her condition. Barcelona’s significance lies in this recurring care, not in any account of the city as a setting in its own right.