BCN010

Nouvel on the left, Gaudi in the middle, SOM the right. Gehry not quite visible.

This summer I decided to visit a friend in Barcelona. He moved over there some year and a half ago, and an invitation to visit was open. Now was as good a time to visit as ever, and it had already been more than a dozen years since my last visit; it would be interesting to observe if and how the City might have changed in the meanwhile!

My friends recided in the neighborhood of Poble Sec, which my Guide Book, borrowed from a colleague and admittedly quite old, i.e. from last Millenium, described as "somewhat unpleasant". Fortunately things had moved on since the book rolled off the presses, and I found the neighborhood to be quite nice and lively. That said, of course there are even nicer neighborhoods, such as L'Eixample and Gracia, with leafy streets, Gaudi's buildings and parks, and so on.

One is able to whisk about very handily with the free-ish bicycles. I was very happy with this service, and was able to see parts of the City left unseen last time.

Some sites I did visit again; naturally I had to see how they were getting ahead with Gaudi's Sagrada Famiglia. Well, I can report that it is still unfinished, but they are working on it. The nave is now covered. The spiral staircases in the towers are still one of my favourite spatial experiences ever, but these days you must pay an elevator fee to get up to the towers... Overall, still a very worthwhile visit, despite nearly 2 hrs spent in queues.

Also Mies' little pavilion was still quite the crisp and clean masterpiece it was before!

But as nice as Barcelona is, I also wanted to visit other near-by towns. For one thing, I wanted a "country point" from Andorra. For another, as I had played the game Carcassonne and realised it was an actual, historical town, I had to visit it! So I arranged for a hired carriage, and off I went. Along the way, I stopped in Girona and Mirepoix, both very beautiful olde towns in their own rights!


Carcassonne is really nice for history buffs. It is a closed citadel, fairly compact in size. I stayed right in the middle of it all in a Hostel. The citadel is naturally very touristy, has almost no vehicular traffic, and has good views over the surrounding landscape and modern quarters. It is similar to the top of San Marino, which I visited last year!

Carcassonne from the new town

One of the main gates into the citadel

A nice small plaza

The actual castle within the citadel

Andorra was a good surprise; I had heard mostly dismissing reports of it's value as a stopping point: a tax-free strip mall for the French and Spaniards. However, the ride up the Pyrenees, from the French side, was quite an experience. Great views, hairpin turns on serpentine roads... Then, after the pass, a long descent through cute little villages and hamlets into the capital. Well, the capital was a little too modern, and indeed a brashly commercial affair. Nevertheless, one point added to the List!

That is it for this report. Once again, hearty thank-yous to the hosts! Stay "tuned" for Wensworth's reportage from the Greek mountainside, etc!

Ta ta & tally-ho!
Paddlewick, Esq