Saturday 10th October - Parc de la Ciutadella After the War of the Spanish Succession ended in 1714, a large fort was constructed on this site to keep the city in line. The fortress was demolished in 1869 and redesigned as a park containing a zoo, a boating lake, gardens and a large fountain. We didn't go down to the far end where the zoo and boating lake are but the fountain is quite fantastic. Gaudi who was just a young lad at the time had a hand in helpi...

Saturday 10th October - Palace of Catalan Music We stopped at this extraordinary building which to all intents and purposes looks like it was built by Gaudi. But no this is one of the world's most extraordinary concert halls, the Palace of Catalan Music was designed in the Catalan modernism style by the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner. When Franco was in power from 1939 he destroyed all things Catalan but when he got round to seeing this building he...

Saturday 10th October - Mounting Up and Riding to The Arc de Triumphe. We used bike lanes mostly and if we used the roadway we were told by our guide to be like a bus and close up so no one could get between us. That way we were safe. We rode right under the main arch of the monument and stopped to be told about it. Evidently it was made for the World Trade Fair of 1888 and there was a contest for architects to submit their proposal for the monument. When...

Saturday 10th October - The Walking Bike Tour! At this stage we still had not mounted the bikes and anyway the alleys were so narrow that more than just the big fat girl in our group would have fallen over. (Something that she did twice that I saw). Anyway we walked downhill to the La Catedral. This impressive Catalan Gothic church, begun in 1298 is built on the site of a Roman temple and houses the tomb of Saint Eulàlia, the first patron saint of Barcelona...

Saturday 10th October - Plaza del Rei Our first stop was Plaza del Rei which was at the end of a very narrow alley and because of that we wheeled our bikes to this point. Plaza del Rei is this wholly preserved medieval courtyard of the Palau Reial (Royal Palace) is where Ferdinand and Isabella are supposed to have received Columbus on his return from the New World. Our guide was a bit of a character and described the meeting of Christopher Columbus and Qu...