Impressions of Barcelona

I've been back from Barcelona for a week. I've been asked by plenty of people what I thought of the city. The answer is - a great place to visit, get there if you can. My favourite part was the old city. I loved the narrow street and the buildings closely knitted together.



Outside the old area, the city is easy to get around as it is based on a grid system, a bit like New York. The streets are clean and there were teams of street sweepers out everyday making sure it remained clean.



People were friendly. It was noticeable that many of them keep dogs. We saw lots of people out exercising them.



When travelling abroad, we always ensure that we eat the local food. We ate well in Barcelona. First class food.



I guess this is the same across the whole of Spain but we found cash machines were excruciatingly slow. You have to answer a load of questions before you cash is released, far more than at UK cash machines. It was more like a digital version of the Spanish Inquisition!



And finally, people in Barcelona seem to take a bizarre delight in models of people taking a poo. The shops were full of models of world leaders squatting to relieve themselves. The model above was in the Christmas decorations outside the City Hall. Quite why the city takes such a delight is something for which I have no answers.

Nevertheless, if you get the chance to go to Barcelona, take it. It's a city well worth visiting.