autumn

rounding the corner to walk to the station

Rowdy for Gaudi

What do you know about Barcelona? I didn’t know much except that I wanted to go there after watching the diving at the ’92 Olympics set against the amazing background of the city and Mediterranean Sea.*

Before we arrived the dominant message was: Barcelona: Land of the Pickpocket. On their visit Trish and Paris got hit with the famous ‘Excuse you me, I’ve just spilt some tomato sauce on your jacket – now let me try to steal your bag while I pretend to help you clean it off’ scam and our travelling companions Ben and Lisa also had their ‘it happened to a friend of mine’ story. While in most cities you can usually expect your hotel to provide you with a map and maybe some restaurant recommendations, ours had an A4 laminated sheet of all the tricks people will try to pull on you to separate you from your wallet. We were alert (yet not alarmed) and escaped unmolested. In fact, we didn’t even glimpse anything looking remotely dodgy. In a way this was somewhat (very slightly) disappointing – just because we were expecting it as part of the Barcelona experience (seen this – tick, done that – tick, got pick pocketed – no, didn’t get around to it).

A major highlight of the city is the architecture of Gaudi who embraced natural forms, the sea and colour in his design. The creations are so interesting and uplifting, but I guess practically has meant that buildings like these are the exception rather than the norm. The church La Sagrada Familia has been a work in progress since 1884 and they are trying to get it finished by 2026 to celebrate the centenary of his death. On the other hand, the stunning and spectacular Palau De La Musica Catalana designed by architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner was built in under 2 years which proves that beautiful and interesting spaces can be built in a sane amount of time... we just choose not to.

*this was also the Olympics that had the archery guy lighting the Olympic flame by shooting an arrow into the cauldron – if any sporting performance ever deserved a gold medal surely it was this.

oui monsieur, j'adore gai paris

Last Friday we took the Eurostar for 4 fabulous days in Paris.

If you’re planning to catch the Eurostar, here’s a handy hint you won’t get in any of your fancy guidebooks: do not buy coffee before checking in - even if its 5am and you really, really need one. Because you will not be allowed to take it through the security check. And as such, you will be most put out when you have to throw it away after only a few small sips. And you may find yourself having a conversation where one person says, ‘I told you we should have bought one after we went through’ and the another person says, ‘don’t blame me, you wanted coffee too’ and the first person says ‘this is ridiculous – I’ve taken drinks through airports – this is just a train for goodness sakes’, and grumbles ‘well there goes 10bucks worth of coffee down the drain – great!’ And in the general confusion and heated discussion, someone (hint: the let’s get the coffee now decider) may leave their mobile phone behind at the x-ray desk. And not realise this until well into the train journey. And may think all is hopeless and nothing can be done. However. After some investigation from the wise ‘of course you can get coffee on the other side’ person, the news that the phone is safe and sound in lost and found may cause all great joy and relief and merriment and laughter. Perhaps more delight than you would usually experience on a train at 5am had the phone not gone missing in the first place. So, maybe you could get the coffee after all – it’s really up to you.














Anyhow, Paris was just amazing. I ‘get’ Paris in a way that I can’t seem to ‘get’ London - there’s an overall visual aesthetic and in a word, it’s beautiful. You can see how the city fits together and it has been planned out so well. It hasn’t sold its soul to chain stores. There are interesting shops and cafes around every corner. The people are friendly, even when you can’t speak a word of French and stupidly keep saying ‘si’ instead of ‘oui’. It seems to be a culture that strives for excellence – on the Saturday morning there was a market near our hotel and everything on sale was perfect – every loaf of bread, every vegetable and piece of fruit, every petal on every flower – I haven’t seen anything like it in my life – it was just wonderful.


One thing we didn’t get to do was take a moonlight stroll along the banks of the Seine (a la ‘An American in Paris' and ‘Everyone Says I Love You’), because it was soooo cold and rainy (much colder than any weather we've had in London so far), but I guess we have that to look forward to on our next visit.