barcelona

So busy! Apparently this is the time of year to visit Spain as it's packed and fifty trillion people on one street can't be wrong. People are happy, food is good, weather is balmy and sleeping in is mandatory. We got in late and took a walk along the main drag. You can buy anything here, especially if you're in the market for reptiles.

For dinner we'd heard of a little place (they're all little) that served amazing food. Starved after 10 hours on a bus and aforementioned walk we ordered as soon as we sat down. I had something that was good, Beth had a salmon tartare which was a little bit life changing. Wine, we asked, We'll have two glasses of red, actually you'd best make it a bottle.

La Boqueria is a big market in the middle of town with all sorts of fresh produce. Little tapas bars are everywhere throughout the market area cooking up produce from nearby stalls, great for a lunchtime snack and beer if you can be patient enough for a stool at the bar to become free and elbow past the millions of people.

More post-prandial laziness.

On the recommendation of our bnb host we returned home that evening via a fountain, the MAGIC fountain. In fact, there was a whole bunch of fountains that sprayed and hosed and changed colour in time with music as the sun set. It was tacky as hell, but enjoyable to listen to the 90s medleys that blared out in time with the water. It was also packed.

We wandered the streets like strays, visiting many of the Gaudi buildings. They really are horrendous (in an architecturally respectful kind of way of course).

In the southern part of town is a large park covered hill with a castle atop. After climbing to the top we could see over to the industrial side of Barcelona that we didn't even know existed. It goes on and on and on...

As we walked back down the hill towards the city people were out and about just strolling happily around. We saw the Mies van de Roe minimalist building – not much to see as the name implies, but beautiful.

A dixie band who were fantastic! The old mate on the far right was wearing shiny tap shoes and breaking in down on the pavement as the percussion section. HELL YEAH! ...Didn't buy their album.

Spider-who?

One of the last sights we saw was Gaudi's Sagrada Familia cathedral, still unfinished long after his death and due to be completed some time around 2020. It is like nothing else, a mixture of weird styles. I asked Beth if she liked it and she didn't know, neither do I. It is terrifically strange and certainly worth visiting.

They say Barcelona is the least Spanish-like of cities in Spain. We're off to Seville so we'll know soon. But then maybe we won't. Until then! James and Beth. xx.