For Cookie

We had just landed in Barcelona International Airport and followed the same process as in Madrid. Took the bus to center of the town and hired a German speaking taxi to find us a moderately priced hotel.

The buildings were unusual, they looked like the buildings in the fairly lands with rounded corners and edges.

The driver was telling us about a famous Spanish architect by the name of "Gaudy".

His buildings were all over the city and he was telling us about an unfinished cathedral which had he had spent thirty years working on it, but was run over and killed before he could finish it.

There was a new group working on it. The buildings in the city were not just big square boxes like in Madrid.

The whole place had a different spirit that he called Catalina.

He took us to his favorite out of regular tourist path.

We got or room with a large balcony. I had come to appreciate a good balcony.

We spent a great of time watching the city, traffic and the street people while we were taking our meals which we usually bought from special shops which were selling "tap-as" which was very popular with the natives and were very reasonably priced.

We went to the seaport and saw the replicas of the Columbus's ship anchored with dignity. There were beautiful parks, one after another. It reminded me a lot of Paris and London.

we run into a long boulevard called "Robele" where everything was unusual, there were people doing magic tricks, contortion and mimes. It was out of ordinary, and the people were enjoying themselves, and nobody was in a hurry.

Tasted the special local delicacies of the region in the small and well aged restaurants.

Here again I found my German language very useful.

The Catalans were not very fund of the Madrid people.

Went to "gaudy's" cathedral and could not figure out if we were inside or outside of the structure. It was a very strange and attractive building and went along with everything else in Barcelona.

Even in Iran, we have special architecture in different regions such as "Isfahan" which has developed its own special characteristic and style for mosques and palaces.