Barcelona

In thirty-three degrees. Thank heaven for the swimming pool.

But I’ve done the tourist thing. In the way I like best. That is, as much as possible on foot, as much as possible seeing things from the outside rather than from the inside, and in general getting round the town (as much as is possible, this city is simply teeming with people on every footpath) rather than peering at exhibitions and collections.
Yesterday, Jean and I put in a ten-hour day to add to the exploration of the old town of the previous day … the tramway and the metro from Sant-Feliu to the centre of town, and (after a fairly ordinary tapas lunch at one of the few eating-places near the Sagrada Familia that had an empty table), the rounds of the old town, the Placa Catalunya, the Ramblas (Teatro Liceu, of course, a feature point for me), and the port via a variety of Catalan buildings with the work of the favourite son, Gaudi, prominently featured.
I managed to squeeze what may very well be the last photos of its life out of my trusty Kodak …
(1) the obligatory Sagrada Familia – a truly amazing creation, which I actually like better from a distance than close up. The soaring lines of the towers (which will be contrasted with the builders’ cranes for the decades the place takes to finish) I find stunning. The rather frilly bits of decoration ‘pasted on’ here and there appeal to me less.




(2) various other buildings Gaudiesque and not, including of course the theatre





(3) the port with Montjuich in the background.



(4) and one of a delightful series of old (?) notices which can be found on the street corners telling one where one can and can’t take one’s horse…



After a comparatively quiet and unbustling vino at a café in the Placa Reale, we took the return route on the metro and the tramway…
and finished our day with a really enjoyable little supper .. mine was what I think were whelks (correction: they were cockles) in a pimiento sauce with olives … at a little establishment which didn’t seem to have a name (it's Chez Raul for me, after our welcoming young host) on the ‘other Rambla’, the quiet little Rambla of the Marquesa Campo-Someone of Sant-Feliu.
Finished, did I say? Not at all. We arrived home at 11pm in time for convivial post-dinner drinks (5 adults --– one Kiwi, one Argentinian, one German and two Alsacians -- 4 children) on the tropical star-capped top-floor terrace…
A huge day.
And one obligatorily followed by a snooze and swimming day with just a little time out for a blog…