An amazing city day - Wednesday in Barcelona.

A gentle start after yesterday's exertion, leisurely breakfast, with Merce already at work in the Parliament. First up was to see the modern covered market where Matt makes his purchases for putting out on eBay - all sorts of house clearance stuff as well as cut-price goods - a real Aladdin's cave of stuff! Then walking on, seeing the Frantia station and walking round the park with its interesting trees, roots etc, noticed a swallow, before meeting Merce at the Parliament building for a tour round with her supervisor Rosa.

Interesting experiencing a more relaxed kind of parliament, seeing plenty of meeting places and not over ostentatious. Then off to the fish restaurant where you choose your fish which is cooked for you, we having fish soup and variously squid, monk-fish and tuna - all pretty full by the end. Saw the adjacent foundations of medieval Barcelona, then wandered on our own round old boutiquey area, spending time in the peaceful Santa Maria del Mar.

Wandered on, seeing more Kokua shoes in their massed colours, before meeting Roser, home for a week from Beijing, at Catedral. A wander through to the Ramblas food market, then via contemporary art forum with building giving a roof-top reflection out to the sea, to Roser's university, where she guided us into the inner sanctum of the Faculty of Philology with its courtyards, then up into the library.

From the university it was not far to go to Catalunya to meet Matt again for the increasingly packed train to Les Corts for the Camp Nou where we arrived in good time for Barca v Almeria seeing an enjoyable game from a good vantage point above the goal that Barca scored 3 goals into in the second half - Messi, Suarez (2) and Bartha. Visitors from all over the world were explicitly welcomed, Germans seemed to be there in great numbers but we had a group of 10 young Indians behind us. The journey back could have been quicker, but the crowd inching down into the Metro remained very good-humoured. A great day getting behind the scenes of things not everyone sees, and rounding off with one of those things it was great to do!

Then the next day was Thursday for the journey back - and we hit the French air traffic controllers strike, lucky to get back on the same day (well, just after midnight), when we expected to be back early afternoon. Others had much worse stories to tell

Out of town to Monserrat

A leisurely start after yesterday's epic with a very good healthy breakfast. Then we were headed for Monserrat, soon seeing the remarkable rocky range that is higher than it first looks. Up to the monastery by car then to the church where there were a lot of people especially queuing to see the black madonna high up at the front. There was a short prayer service at 1 with the priest trying to get us singing to words that were unknown to most, and turned out to be a hymn that is also a Catalan patriotic song. He and the organist were the two leaders, and most visitors were clearly not Catalan.

We ate Matt's prepared packed lunch, and then headed off up the mountain, eventually to the summit of Sant Jeroni 525 metres above the monastery. Conditions were excellent though chilly higher up where there was a 360deg view, just about seeing the coast that is promised on a good day as also allegedly the Pyrenees. Pretty steep for a speedy descent, but our legs survived, and we returned by car to Barcelona where we had a quick look at the beach before parking the car and visiting the supermarket. Then it was up the 5 floors to a fine meal that Matt had soon got together, and a quiet evening while Merce had Arabic to get on with for tomorrow's class.

A bit of emailing, Facebook and a shower before getting down to the record of the day.

Up and off to Barcelona

After a busy and fulfilling Holy Week and Easter, the alarm went in Kingston at 4 Easter Monday morning, and by 9.10 local time we were touching down in Barcelona! The 4.34 285 bus was packed by the time we reached Heathrow, but we went smoothly through the airport procedures, and enjoyed a beautiful flight in clear weather until the Catalan side of the snow-clad Pyrenees.

We'd agreed with Matt and Merce that we were ready to hit the ground running, and in no time we were driving out of the airport and up Montjuic for an impression of Olympic Barcelona, and the view over the city, sea and surrounding hills on what was already turning into a beautiful spring day, fresh to Merce but lovely and warm for us from northern climes. Sagrada Familia was immediately obvious as also the gherkin landmark that marks the area near Merce and Matt's flat.

Then back in the car heading across the city to the Parc de Laberint d'Horta with its well-kept gardens of different styles including the impressive maze that we negotiated and photographed. Alpine swifts and serins were the first different birds I noticed, though the parakeets turned out to be Monks rather than the Ring-necked more familiar to us. Then back to park the car in the underground university car park and we climbed the 5 floors of stairs to the flat which is very pleasant and airy at this time of year.

A great Matt lunch then off on a rounds of Metro, walking and bus, seeing from the outside Sagrada Familia, the Gaudi house, another Gaudi house, a cathedral with a cloister which was a home to geese, the Ramblas down to the port and then along the front before metro back to a tapas bar near the flat where we ate well. The gherkin was now lit up in red and blue and we were ready for bed after a great opening day. Matt had researched Bernabeu tickets for a match on Wednesday, and we've booked for Barca v Almeria possibly anticipating a few goals!

Tomorrow's plans are for Monserrat and the forecast is again good.