Barcelona is a fantastic city, full of surreal architecture (mostly thanks to Mr. Gaudi), great food and the best coffe I've ever tasted (try a cortado sometime). The structure that is La Sagrada Familia is mind blowing, but when I visited, there was still a lot of work underway (as I'm sure there is now), so it didn't have that quiet serenity that cathedrals normally do.
There was another cathedral however, that had a beautiful courtyard where I could have stayed for quite some time. Even these geese seemed to understand the nature of the place and though they strutted around, flapping their plumage, they remained quiet.
I remember sitting outside the cathedral on a bench afterwards, next to a young man who was playing guitar. He pointed out some gypsy kids and gave the instruction to watch as they picked out a target to pickpocket. Everyone knows about the risk of pickpocketing in Barcelona (indeed anywhere really), but it was nice to be warned by a local. I don't think I have any other travel tails from Spain, but this one brings back memories of a country I long to visit again.
