Spain 3/7

The weekend - and there is some serious shopping to be done. After breakfast at the local market. There doesn't seem to be a single shopping area, like "going to town" in Melbourne, but there are areas which apear to be centres for similar sorts of shops. On the grand Passeig de Gracia the big international labels have their shops. We didn't go there. We went instead to an area that Kate knew had some smaller local designer shops and we had a good look through them. I love it all. Best of all was the opportunity to go to a dress shop for a label that is not available in Australia. The designs are colourful and well made - good double. So of course we bought something in their sale. I now think that i will be able to hold my own in the fashion buying week in Dusseldorf. At the back of my mind is the thought that my casual travelling gear might not quite cut it in among the fashionista. I usually recover from that thought pretty quickly - and now it doesn't even cross my mind. We met up with Rob and Stig again as they made their way from their various excursions and thought about having lunch in the Quatres Chats - where Picasso and his artist mates hung out. We had a good look around the interior which was fascinating but decided against eating there so off we wandered to find a plaza with a table free. There is always a plaza, always a restaurant, but not always a table free so we settled for an inside table at a modern looking place with a good looking menu de dia. I can't remember what we all ate, but I do remember that Kate and Rob ordered Emperador - the fish dish. It was a fillet of white fish with a salsa verde and for the first time for both of them it was as tough as could be. We speculated about hw it was cooked, and came to no conclusion really. Rob ate some of his, Kate decided the way to approach it was not to think of it as fish but as some other white meat and just eat it that way. That worked .. Glenys - we went to the espadrille shop and it is fabulous as you said. I had the address in my calendar so that I wouldn't forget it, and by coincidence the five top shops for shoes were written up in onle of the local papers the week we were there. There is was, taking pride of place amongst them. I did buy a pair, but even if I had just gone in to have a look at the shop I would have loved it. It is busy, noisy and colourful. I could have stayed for quite a while just enjoying the atmosphere, but "the boys" were at a bar around the corner just catching the soccer score, so when my turn came I owned up, got on with it and did the business. Standing in the queue at the checkout I stood next to some good straw hats, and liked the first one I put on my head so I got that too. Rob had bought a straw hat a few days earlier (after leaving his own hat on the turistic bus) Three nights a week over summer there is a wonderful sound and light show on Montjuic at dusk running from the Museum of Catalyunan Art at the top to plaza d'Espanya at the bottom. The waterfalls come on in sequence cascading down the hill with a large fountain at the foot and then a row of smaller fountains each side of the avenue leading to the plaza. The sequence changes every minute or two in the central fountain and sitting in the crowd is wonderful as people respond to the changes much in the same way as we did to the fireworks of last night - oohing and aaahing. This night there was also a bit of a music fiesta all around Montjuic - the fountains and the avenue in front scored the techno dance/rap dj so we left them to it and walked home to bed.