Walking Barcelona

Our first weekend in Barcelona, and we covered it on foot. Started in the Gothic Quarter at the cathedral — dedicated to Saint Eulàlia, the city's patron saint — then wandered the narrow streets around it, where a painted door and a stained-glass window kept stopping us every block or two.

Down at the harbour end of La Rambla we reached the Columbus Monument, sixty metres of him pointing out over the water, with bronze lions guarding the base. Along Passeig de Colom we passed Roy Lichtenstein's Barcelona Head, the big mosaic face he made for the 1992 Olympics, and then the aquarium out in Port Vell. La Boqueria was packed — legs of jamón hanging over the counters, fruit stalls stacked into pyramids, a stall under a sign reading 1897.

Montjuïc was the other half of it. Cable cars overhead, the old bullring at Plaça d'Espanya turned shopping centre, and the Olympic cauldron outside the stadium, the one Ramón Bigas designed for '92. We finished in Ciutadella Park at the cascade fountain, which a young Gaudí had a hand in. A heron was standing in the pool below the falls, ignoring everyone.