There are several nearby attractions, including a display house built by world -famous architecht Mies van der Rohe for a World's Fair, which we couldn't find despite the fact that it's signposted all over the mountain. There's also a silly park recreating all of Spain's attractions in miniature, which we successfully avoided, and a surprisingly boring Miro museum, in an ugly white concrete building. I couldn't keep Somchai here for long because he was desperate to see the facilities from the 1992 Olympics. The main stadium was actually a leftover from a 1929 World's Fair, recycled for the Olympics. There was some random track and field event going on in the stadium, so we sat and watched this for no particular reason other than the impossibility of tearing Somchai away from any sporting event, no matter how insignificant.

Once past the belltowers, there's an enormous staircase (and escalators for the lazy) that are lined with additional exhibition space. The Palau Nacional lords over the top of the stairs, and in fact, over all of Barcelona. the massive, overwrought space now houses the National Museum of Catalan Art, which is fantastic. The highlight is definitely the world's largest collection of Romanesque murals. These were yanked out of scores of decaying churches scattered around northern Spain, and are now displayed in recreations of the church interiors. There's also a large exhibit of Catalan antiques, paintings and sculpture, but really the Romanesque mural exhibit is the highlight.