Barcelona: January 2008

We took a few days in Barcelona - our third visit. This was our hotel, the Oriente on La Ramblas. It's said to be the oldest in the city but has been refurbished a few times. The staff were excellent, the rooms good, and even though we were overlooking the street (by request) we were not put out by the busy noise.

Often called the best food market in Europe, this is La Boqueria. We don't know how it ranks with all the rest, but it's an amazing place. The displays are an art form. Fish, red meat, vegetables, fruit, olives, spices and oils, cheeses, shellfish, flowers and cacti ... snack stalls and cafes ... and its a social centre for the city.

We had elevenses at a cafe-bar. The Spanish omelette (one of several versions available) was big enough that it turned out to do for lunch and kept us going until fourses.

It didn't take long to get to our next spot via the Metro. At least, once we worked out the ticket system having wandered along one foot tunnel onto a different rail network. And we had to work out that one journey via two trains would need two tickets. Anyway, we got to Sagrada Familia.

The cathedral is famous for its distinctive architecture by Antoni Gaudi, and for the fact that it is a building site. Steel tower cranes, hard hats and portakabins aside, this must be a reminder that cathedrals took decades, even centuries, to build. It doesn't look as though we will see it in its finished state.

The model of the finished cathedral is in the new Museum of Catalonia which is in the former docks area of Port Vell.

Visitors walk around a u-shape inside with good views of construction at work. Carved masonry and moulded casts are stacked amongst the scaffolding poles and work equipment. Completed sections can be glimpsed between the forests of steel supports holding work platforms in the high ceiling. Outside, cranes are bolted to existing cathedral towers and even placed on top of flat roof areas to reach even higher.

The Nativity Facade (seen in the model above) was completed before World War II. It has sculptures by Catalonians Carles Mani, Llorenc Matamala and Joan Matamala.

You can go up in a lift inside a tower to get some tremendous views over the city and of details of the cathedral. A spiral staircase is one route back down. The crypt contains an extensive exhibition about the building, including workshops with construction models.