Adios Barcelona, hola Seville

We’ve certainly worn down our shoe leather exploring Barcelona. In addition to looking at all the tourist ‘must dos’, we’ve also continued our ability to seek out those things most tourists don’t bother with (which we often find to be the most interesting). We’ve traveled on virtually every line of the Metro and criss-crossed the city from one end to the other. The weather has generally been very kind to us, with completely sunny skies today, although the temperatures are only low teens at best. We’ve seen all the Antoni Gaudi stuff, even some of his buildings many tourists don’t know about; beautiful gardens; castles; cathedrals and then some more cathedrals.

Antoni Gaudi's residence for many years - he was such a cool dude. It is in Parc Guell

One of the best things we’ve done here is to visit the National Museum. It was two floors of Spanish history, from its earliest inhabitants in stone-age times, to Spain under General Franco. We were there for close to three hours and really only left as we were tired of standing on our feet (that, and a couple of school groups were running riot – I’m pretty sure the supervising teachers were off having coffee). I found the Franco stuff particularly interesting, and it is hard to comprehend modern-day Spain was a military dictatorship as recently as forty years ago. It also prompted me to reflect on Australia’s history, albeit short, of parliamentary democracy and how lucky we are never to have had to take to the streets to fight to defend these rights. Perhaps the price we’ve paid for this is complacency and apathy.

Yep, that's me on my trusty stead off to fight for the holy crusaders

Quite by accident, we came across a remarkable set of buildings, Sant Pau Hospital de la Santa Creu, which used to be one of Barcelona’s major hospitals until the last ten or so years. There has been a hospital on the site since 1401, but the modern building was erected in the first few decades of the twentieth century. It was built in the unique Catalonian style of architecture, known as Catalan Modernisme, which features beautiful mosaic decorations on the ceilings and walls. In actual fact, it looked more like a cathedral than it did a hospital. These days, it is an Art Nouveau Site, recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

Part of the old Sant Pau hospital site

Everywhere we have been around Barcelona we’ve been amused, entertained and astounded by the focus on design and architecture. Barcelona’s buildings are very different to what we’ve seen in other places, although you could imagine yourself being in Paris or Rome in some parts of the city. We’ve managed to cover a huge geographic area, between the extensive metro network and the buses, and this has really allowed us to experience Barcelona as the locals would.

Looking back from Barcelona's port district

We have found a really great Turkish restaurant not far from our hotel which makes just the best doner portions. Tonight we had a beef and a chicken washed down, of course, with cold beers. Just in case you’re thinking this is not very Spanish, I would remind you that there is a strong Islamic culture in Spain as the Moors at one stage ruled most of the country. Although today Spain is largely Catholic, you can still find evidence of Islamic culture everywhere. That’s our official explanation, the reality is that this restaurant just served the yummiest of food.

Tomorrow we reluctantly leave Barcelona for Seville, Malaga and Cordoba. These cities form the part of Spain known as Andalusia, and have a very long tradition of Islam, being quite close to northern Africa. We are also expecting some slightly warmer weather, particularly once we get to Malaga on the costa del sol; we may even be able to get those bathers out that have been in hibernation since Mykonos.