Barcelona

Barcelona was totally not what I was expecting. I was expecting an ageing ex-colonial power with decaying villas abundant.

Instead we found a European version of a third world country mixed with crazy architecture and lots of Zara stores.

The highlight of Barcelona was the Antonio Gaudi architecture. For a religious zealot, he sure knew how to wow, architecturally speaking.

Casa Batllo - Guadi's apartment building in the centre of Barcelona, built in 1887.

La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's famous church. It is a UNESCO world heritage suite and proclaimed a "minor basilica" by the Pope. Guadi started on it in 1882 and worked on it until he died in 1926 at which time it was about 25% complete. It has never been finished & work is still continuing. It is estimated to be complete in 2050, and the annual construction budget is appox. 18m euros.

The best part of the Church is the outside, which is made up of 3 facades: the nativity scene, the passion scene and the glory scene.

The outside of the Church is incredibly intricate with thousands of statues (some of which were modelled off dead people Gaudi got from the morgue).

The inside of the Church, a golden Jesus hanging above the alter. Gaudi is where the American term "gaudy" came from. You can see why.

Gaudi, slightly obsessed with symmetry.

The tourist guides all say to hit Las Ramblas, which is rather like a really long Bourke Street Mall during Christmas shopping. During the Spanish civil war George Orwell who came over to fight on the side of the Socialists was shot in the neck by a sniper in a street siege on Las Ramblas.

The food was fantastic. Lots of jamon (Spanish cured ham) and fruit and veg. A stark contrast to London.

More Gaudi - his famous Park Guell - a park dedicated to the mad. Another UNESCO World Heritage Site, and my favourite.

  

The view over Barcelona from the Park.

The millions of tourists

Every square inch of the park was covered in mad tiles and statues.

  

Barcelona is the main city in the region of Catalonia, which has, at various points in history, attempted to separate from the rest of Spain. They are fiercely patriotic to their region, as opposed to Spain itself, to the point where a lot of Spanish actually speak Catalonian.

During the Spanish civil war, which just preceded WW2, a lot of Brits went to fight with the Socialists, against Franco, the fascist dictator supported by Hitler and Mussolini. Barcelona was the last stand between the two warring sides, and fell to Franco, who ruled from the late 1930s to 1975 when he died. Franco promptly killed all political activities who were against him, and spent the rest of his life oppressing the Spanish people with secretive trials and killings.

An amazing bit of history is that Franco spent quite a few years selecting and grooming his replacement before he died. A few days after he died and the power had been handed over, his replacement announced sweeping democratic reforms and that his allegiance to Franco had all pretty much been a ruse.  If only North Korea would follow suit.

These days of course Spain is the S in the PIGS and is rated an SD by S&Ps (selective default). The unemployment rate is 25%.

Other highlights were Booba’s insistence on ordering jugs rather than glasses of sangria, the result of which we were drunk quite a bit of the time (makes for interesting photos) and the weather.