Farewell to Catalonia - my last day in the city of Barcelona

Port Vell,Barcelona
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If this trip has been set to a soundtrack then the record of the summer of '99 has to be Molokos 'Bring it Back' which is played in every shop/cafe/bar in Barcelona. Its been a wonderful trip combining superb culture and sightseeing with wonderful nightlife. Spain is famous for its nightlife. The teenage years of partying in Mallorca, Salou or Ibiza have come flooding back to me. Spain has brought back some lovely memories.

In Britain forty years of tourism has blandified its image. It is no longer the country of the moor and conquistadore but the time-share apartment and the retiree bingo night. Everyone knows someone who has bought a property along the Costa del Sol or one of the Balearics. Spain has become a sunny warm place where you can watch football in a bar which serves English beer. But if you scratch the surface it is stil exotic.

And the Spanish themselves - exuberant and noisy on the Puerto del Sol on a Saturday night but also rather introverted, refined and polite.

Scratch the surface and you will find the ghosts of Franco, Phillip II and Picasso, scratch the surface and you will find the Spain of El Greco and Cervantes. Towns up in Castile where the streets are so narrow that only donkeys can pass, dark shadowy palaces where devout kings prayed before altarwork with works from Velasquez, people eating tapas on a night whose temperature reaches forty degrees even at two in the morning and nightclubs where a part is sectioned off so they can practice flamenco with each other. And the Spanish themselves - exuberant and noisy on the Puerto del Sol on a Saturday night but also rather introverted, refined and polite. Charming is the word I'd use.

These are thoughts that passed through my mind as my airport bus pulled away from the Praca de Catalunya this morning. I am very sorry to leave today. I look out of the window at the Catalans moving around their stylish city and wish I had more time. Its been a fun ten days. Its certainly sparked ideas for more travel in Spain.

Madrid to Barelona. Easily one of the golden corners of the world..