We made one last stop near the hotel, at the Parc de la Ciutadella. In 1714, as part of Madrid's punishment of Barcelona for a rebellion, much of the seafront neighborhood was ripped up and a massive fort was built on top of it. Even worse, the beleaguered Barcelona residents had to pay for the loss of much of their city and the construction of the oppressor fort, the Ciutadella. In 1869, a more liberal central government gave the fort to the city, who promptly dismantled most of it and created a large park from the grounds. This park is wildly popular, chiefly because Barcelona seems pretty park-deprived. It's nice enough, but the city gets too carried away with architectural novelties, so there are lots of buildings cluttering up the park, and the remaining green space is mobbed with families during the weekend.

Lastly we took a cable car up to the old fort that has been guarding Barcelona for centuries. It's got great views over the entire city and the sea, so it's worth the trip. But the castle itself is pretty low key. Much of it is underground, so it's not particularly photogenic. There's also a huge cable car ride all the way down into the city from the fort, but it was mobbed, so we walked down instead, and walked all the way back toward the hotel for one last beach walk.

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.

We spent our last day in Barcelona at Montjuic, a small mountain clear across the other side of the city. For centuries, the mountain was mainly used as a defense post guarding Barcelona, but in the twentieth century it became a prime hosting ground for various world fairs, exhibitions, and Olympics. Placa d'Espanya marks the grand entrance to the whole area, guarded by two Venetian belltowers, for no particular reasons. Like most of the buildings on the mount, these were built for exhibition purposes, and they still host various trade fairs throughout the year. Barcelona's bullring also sits off the plaza.

In the 1950's, work resumed again, and will continue well into the future. Unfortunately, all of Gaudi's plans were lost in yet another church burning, so the architects that have been working on it over the last sixty years are more or less making things up. They are supposed to be following his style and guessing at what he wanted, but it doesn't seem that way. They've finished one of the facades, but it seems fairly brutal and crude, quite unlike his other work. The interior is hard to judge, as it's a huge building site. But there are certainly enough strange shapes and features spread throughout to ensure that, if the church is ever finished, it will remain at the top of everybody's sightseeing agenda.

Gaudi's, and Barcelona's, most famous building is of course the Sagrada Familia. When the Exeimple real estate opened up, it was a perfect opportunity to erect a massive church, similar in size to St. Peter's in Rome. But there the similarity ends; with Gaudi at the helm it was also to be a culmination of his individual, modernista style. He started work on the church in 1883, and grew increasingly obsessed with the project. In 1911 he stopped taking any new commissions, and moved into the church to focus exclusively on this project. He lived on bread, water and prayer alone. He was run over by a trolley in 1926, and the far from finished project was frozen.



The church was planned to have three facades, one for the Birth, one for the Passion, and one for glory. Each was to have four soaring spires, and collectively the twelve would represent the apostles. Four taller spires would then be added to represent the four Evangelists, with a massive central spire topping the whole thing to represent Jesus.

Antoni Gaudi is of course the most famous of these Barcelona architects, although by no means the only one. Largely because his architecture is so accessible, and just so weird, he has become extremely popular with everyday people. His reputation among architects is less secure, because his work is so different from the minimalist style of architecture that dominated the twentieth century. If you judge his work by architecture's most famous maxim, "form follows function", then clearly his work is a failure, as his wavy walls and riot of decoration have nothing to do with the function of the building. But they are certainly fun to look at and really liven up the city. If nothing else, they are a boon to Barcelona's tourism industry.

Barcelona was always the most rebellious city in Spain, resenting the way the central authorities suppressed their language and culture, while siphoning off their riches. This frequently led to unsuccessful rebellions, until in 1714, the Spanish decided to end this nonsense once and for all. They built an enormous fort right in the middle of the city, requiring massive demolition, and they built a huge wall around the city. Unlike other walled cities, the wall was meant to keep the locals trapped inside, not protect them from outside invasions. In the 1850's, Madrid relented and allowed for the wall to be torn down. This opened up all sorts of new real estate opportunities, and the showcase was the Eixample. This new precinct doubled the size of the entire city, and soon became the most popular living area for Barcelona's upper classes, eager to get out of the previously claustrophobic old city.

This massive real estate expansion gave the new architecture a blank canvas on which to work, and the results are on display everywhere. While the Eixample has lots of run of the mill apartment buildings, it also has dozens of buildings not found anywhere else. They all seem to be competing with one another to grab your attention. Somchai wasn't impressed, and thought the buildings looked like Disneyland rather than serious architecture. But they certainly are popular with the tourists. Many of the buildings open up to tourists, but since they are still lived in, they only let a few people in at a time, usually to the roof or to a showcase apartment. The result is huge lines, so we mostly skipped this part and just enjoyed the crazy exteriors.

In addition to the beach location, the other Barcelona attribute that makes it unique is its version of Art Nouveau architecture. Actually it's a blend of a bunch of different art trends including surrealism, with a heavy dash of Catalan independence movement thrown in, but whatever the sources, the end result is certainly unlike any other architecture in the world. So we spent the day exploring these wild buildings, starting first with Barcelona's concert hall, the Palau de la Musica Catalana. You have to see the building on a guided tour, which is extremely popular, but well worth it. The building's exterior is all undulating walls, intense decoration and strangely colored ceramic bits, all hallmarks of the new architecture. But the interior takes these features to an even greater extreme. The color scheme is intense, and every square inch of the entire facility is decorated. Unfortunately the end result has famously terrible acoustics, which is the whole point of a concert hall, but everyone seems to prefer the building this way, even if it wrecks the music.

We had dinner at Restaurant Drolma, at the Hotel Majestic. I saw photos of the place which made it look dramatically baroque. They must have had a good photographer, because it's really fairly conventionally luxe, which was a bit disappointing. But the decor is certainly in keeping with the food, which is haute French cuisine, with some Catalan touches. Service was a highlight, formal but not stiff, and hyper-attentive. (Food-16, Decor-15, Service-18).

We spent the rest of the day shopping in Barcelona's trendy Born district. This medieval district followed the traditional trajectory, abandoned industrial area turned arts and fashion center. It's got some great shopping, dozens of small, one-off shops and very few of the chain stores that choke must downtowns. It's also got lots of bars and restaurants, but they're spread out and small, so it doesn't feel like a nightlife strip. Definitely the nicest part of Barcelona for walking around and wasting a couple of hours, which we did most days.

At the end of Carrer Montcada stands the church of Santa Maria del Mar, probably the best example of Catalan Gothic architecture anywhere. The church was built for the sailors who lived down near the port, outside the city walls. And when I say for, I really mean by, since all the sailors were forced to work on the church for free during the fifty year construction period. The exterior is severe and fortress-like, which makes the Gothic airiness of the interior all the more surprising. The church used to be richly decorated, but when a group of anarchists took over the city in 1936, they burned the church. The interior burned for ten days, destroying all the interior decoration, but keeping the soaring pillars and arches intact, and in some ways the church is all the more impressive in its simple spaciousness.

The Picasso Museum is on one of Barcelona's most famous streets, Carrer Montcada. The Count of Barcelona gave the street to Montcada in return for services he rendered to the court. Montcada, a medieval Donald Trump, lined the street with a housing development targeting the upper classes. The street was lined with elaborate palaces, and in order to maximize the square footage, the street was shrunk to the size of an alleyway. It's a nice place to wander, although it's a bit oppressive, as from the street it's like walking between two walls.

After lunch we visited the Museu Picasso, housed in a beautiful fourteenth century mansion. The building alone is worth the visit, although the collection wasn't particularly noteworthy. Perhaps the problem is that I've been to about a half dozen Picasso museums, and every general modern art museum has lots of Picassos, so I think I'm suffering from Picasso overdose. Having said that, this museum focuses on his younger works, beginning with drawings he made when he was eight years old, which is a different perspective. Different, but not better.

For lunch we walked to a fairly hard to find but worth it restaurant, Comerc 24. It was probably the best looking restaurant of the trip, hard edged industrial design but with a strong lounge vibe in the music and seating that made it comfortable. Service was laid back and cool, and food was funky. The dinner menu was more substantial, but lunch was arranged more like a tapas bar, albeit with pretty experimental tapas. The first course set the scene, six test tubes with rubber stoppers holding different soups, plus a beaker if you wanted to combine them. The solid food was also interesting, but not in a gross ingredient kind of way, just offbeat combinations and cutting edge presentations. (Food-18, Decor-19, Service-14)

The other must-see in Barri Gotic is the Palau Reial Major, the palace of the former Counts of Barcelona. Catalunya used to be part of France, but in the twelfth century it was given its independence, and ruled by the Counts of Barcelona. The French rule is also the reason Catalunya has its unique language, Catalan, which has heavy French and Spanish influences.



The Count of Barcelona married the Queen of neighboring Aragon, and the palace became the home of the joint monarchy. This golden age for Barcelona came to a halt in the fifteenth century, with the famous marriage of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, which united Aragon with Castile. Although it was supposed to be a marriage of equals, power quickly moved to Castile and away from Barcelona, so the palace was soon abandoned.



It's a sprawling place, but not very photogenic as much of it looks like an archeological dig rather than a royal palace. Actually the interior isn't very palatial either; it's huge, but much more like a massive fort than a showpiece residence. The most interesting part of the palace is actually underneath it, where archeologists have dug up a huge swathe of the ancient Roman city. Lots of old streets, building foundations etc are all sitting under there, and it's very easy to get an idea of what the Roman Barcelona would have looked like.

The cathedral's interior is quite stunning in its soaring sense of space, and attention to architectural detail. The main nave is very high impact, but the smaller chapels surrounding the nave are all worthwhile exploring as well. There's also a beautiful cloister attached to the back and generally undervisited, which makes it a nice place to chill and enjoy a bit of greenery in the otherwise brooding Barri Gotic.