9 august, barcelona etc

So - I'm on holiday; and apart from a few kid-parent arguments, its all going very well. Barcelona is a fantastic city, and we tried valiantly to see the best of it in 4 days: the amazing architecture, la pedrera, guell parc and the sagrada familia, the most amazing cathedral I have ever seen in my life. It quite makes manchester's own modernist temple - old trafford - look like the poor collection of plastic and metal it is; indeed the city as a whole can't hold much of a candle to the size and depth of this wonderful city by the sea that is such a masterpiece of style and scale. It is also close to the mountains, and right now we are at the end of a few days away, first driving through the pyranees to andorra, and now a couple of days over the french border in perpignan; still though all very much catalan. Tomorrow, we drive back along the mediterranean coast for a few days at the beach, and then back to the heart of the beast for a final few days of gaudiville. Having a wonderful time.