L’Auca del senyor Esteve

That's the tale of Mister Steve, an everyman whose petit bourgeois story is told in tiles around the streets of the old quarter in Barcelona. You can read the tale, with pictures here. Of course, it's in Catalan which has got me very confused. We've just spent five days in Barelona so I now say adeu instead of adios and molt bé for muy bien. Catalan is a halfway between old French and Spanish and very confusing to anyone who has learnt only a little of either.

But everyone was happy to reply in Spanish and we did fine. My memories are mostly of Gaudí (that's Gaud-i), the half-sainted colour blind architect of an unfinished cathedral and xocolata, the creamy drink that is so thick you can stand your churro up in it. Barça has museums for both of these, the xocholata being even more incredible than the various Gaudí showcases. That's because of the mona, a chocolate construction that is given by godfathers to their godsons at Easter. You can see them in shop windows, notably Brunells on Carrer Princessa but the best are in the musuem. They got Ben Hur with his full team of horses, la Sagraga Familia, a Chinese dragon ... loads. And the smell is incredible. The whole place smells of gorgeous dark chocolate. I may have brought some back.

We did lots more, there was the antique magic shop, the witch exhibit at the Catalan museum (of which chilledchimp will say much more than I), churches (with or without geese) and just wandering about the old town. Barcelona is an excellent place to spend a while. Five days isn't really enough and we only scratched the surface.