Spain 29/6

Barcelona, city of Gaudi and gaudy... it is great. I didn't realise how absolutely wonderful it is to walk around here and just gawp at the marvellous buildings - and not just Gaudi. We are staying in Creu Corbeta could not be a more convenient spot if it tried. This morning our tour guide, Stig, swept us along the metro and up the escalators in the middle of the street to Park Guell, the Gaudi designed estate which seemed a great idea at the time, wonderful for us to go and see but as was explained to us it is of course a fine example of a complete commercial failure. The housing estate never got off the ground, and the common areas and buildings that Gaudi worked on went way over budget (who would have thought that could happen?) and people with enough money to live there wondered why on earth they would when there was no transport to take them so far out of town. Fortunately the property was sold to the city for just about nada and it became a public park. I suppose I could go on about how imaginative and efficient Gaudi's designs are but as there are a few books around I probably don't need to tell you that. So after marvelling at it all, and I must say that Stig is a very good tour guide. He knows all sorts of trivia about the park, including the fact that the bench walls are designed for comfort both sitting up and stretching out for a siesta in the sun. He is right - we tested it. The buildings and the market space were remarkably cool on the warm Bareclona day. Gaudi really knew what he was doing. Off to lunch, and thank you Kate for putting us onto the Menu de Hoy, or Dia, as it is a great institution. I had delicious vegetables and though I wasn't quite sure what I had ordered for the second course I was confident that we had got the translation close enough for jam. It worked out just fine - I had a mixed grill of a small chicken fillet, a lamb chop and a tasty sausage. The three courses on the menu come with wine and bread, both of which appear to be excellent wherever you go. The bread is crusty and has some substance to it. After lunch a ramble down Las Ramblas which I discovered is actually four bits which are all 'Rambla de xxxx' and that accounts for my confusion when I read about La Rambla and Las Ramblas. Now it all makes perfect sense. There is La Rambla for the students and La Rambla for the Santa Monica Church where the Capuchine monks were, and so on . I had already heard that the locals avoid it in summer when the tourists make it so crowded but off we went, clutching our bags and purses close as of course wherever there is a crowd there is also a warning about theives. Crowded or not it is a very interesting place, and you can appreciate the significance to Barcelona as it is so closely linked with the historical events of the town. Oh look - it is siesta time again. After that out for a pre-dinner drink and meeting up with Nicole and Amanda - who had just arrived from Melbourne via London. They are in Europe for around three months and we all had a lovely chat about what they should be doing in Barcelona, where they were going after they leave, what we were doing, going to do.... well, you get the picture. Every evening Barcelona goes for a walk before dinner - the shops stay open until around 8.30 or 9 and the bars and cafes all have their chairs out ready for all to stop and refresh themselves - another wonderful institution. We finished off dinner last night at home with some delicious fruit which none of us had seen before - Paraguays. The have a skin and stone like a peach, flesh and taste like a peach, but no one calls them peaches. They are Paraguays, and the interesting thing is that they look like someone hit them with a hammer and flattened them out. The stone is small in the centre and the flesh spreads out around the middle of it in a sort of flat line. Hard to give you a decent picture - I know, I'll take one and add it. ...