Bloody brilliant Barcelona

Our first full day here has been sun-drenched fun, but to follow up on Bec´s entry of last night, I should also mention a highlight has, once again, been fresh food. We went to the main central market yesterday and the sights and smells were amazing. I´ve never seen so much glorious fish, bread, smallgoods - and to top it off they´ve got bars throughout the market too. One interesting aside is the ´no waste´culture when it comes to meat - we spotted on numerous occasions red and white offal sausage, pig noses and whole sheep heads. Another shock was that whole chooks are sold literally whole - feathers off but head on. Ugh.

We went back to Las Ramblas for dinner and got sucked in by bright pictures of the food - don´t do it, OK? If they have to show you pictures, it´s no good. I mean, it wasn´t terrible but it just wasn´t exciting. I got this enormous kebab that was served vertically and honestly towered over my head. It looked better than it tasted but it was OK. Bec and dad both had a somewhat disappointing seafood paella. On that note, there appears to be a chain of paella joints. Bizarre.

So to today. I had an awesome sleep in to nullify the effect of post-dinner wines at the myriad of bars around the place. We got a dodgy chocolate croissant for breakfast (I still haven´t got myself the famed chocolate con churros) then spent an age and a shipload of money finalising our burning of photos to CD. After that began the mission - we walked south through Barri Gotic, the old town if you like, then went to the Picasso gallery which was overwhelming in most senses of the term - there are more than 3000 pieces covering his long career and seeing his progression in style is a marvel even to an art ignoramus like me. We then got sidetracked into a litle bar for lunch and had an awesome snack of chicken croqettes, garlic mushrooms, tuna salad and tomato bread. Although cheap it was one of the best so far. The two pints of some Basque beer I had were OK too.

With satisfied tummies we marched off to a major park which apparently boasts a magnificent waterfall although thanks to a combination of terror, justified security concerns and out and out paranoia, most of the gardens - which incorporate the Catalunya parliament, I think - were closed to the public. Bollocks.

Despite the set back we took on the massive hike to La Sacrada Familia (sp). This gargantuan and long-coming church was kicked off by Gaudi in 1882 and it doesn´t seem at all likely that the interior will be complete before its bicentenary. But the superlatives I have for it cannot go near describing it as an architechtual masterpiece. After walking through the inside (to be frank, not much more than a building site with some fantastic roof and other appointments) the ´back´was a sight to behold. I honestly could have sat looking at it for hours. It towers above you and every inch is intricate and interrelated. It isn´t in the gothic or neo-gothic style you come to expect in Europe; instead it has this bizarre sense of surreal modernism. Its bulk is almost reminscent of Magic Mountain in its asymetery, yet it is absolutely beautiful. The irregularity of the surface, around which are dotted countless stunning statues and gargoyles, gives an almost organic feel to it. It was truly breathtaking and I can safely say that although far from complete, it takes a giant dump on the Eiffel Tower on most counts (with the exception that the queues for the lift to the top are ludicrous e.g. 1.5 hours. On that issue we narrowly avoided getting caught in the Barcelona Chapel lift today - we were waiting for it to arrive and it simply did not - soon after the operator closed it down).

OK, so that brings us pretty much to now. We have few plans but might stumble along Las Ramblas for a decent feed. I´ve been getting stuck into the beers and am currently enjoying Vol-Damm double malt - a mild 7.2% number. At least the beers here are a bit more forgiving than their French counterparts.

Buonas dias!