Inside Outside

Lovely wander round the barrio of El Raval this afternoon.

This was after Bb had had to put his foot down in the bank this morning to get the papers needed to hand in to the police to complete the official 'declaracion' on his cloned card.

It doesn't take much to remind us of why we love Barcelona so much and today was one of these days when our adopted home was on its best behaviour and eager to please. Blue skies but chilly and we took a walk down the Ramblas and into El Raval. Bb and I took lots of shots and kept being pleased by how the old lives happily with the new here: señoras out shopping with their pinnies and shopping trolleys, alongside young trendies stepping out in the latest fashion and just-off-the-shelves gadgets; beautiful old-fashioned little cafés with the ubiquitous tv in the corner and the neighbours in chatting and reading the paper, and the just-as-beautiful trendiest of trendiest of places,which could sit happily in New York; and last but not least, our favourite kind of place, which straddles both.

My blip's in El Raval and shows the ultra-modern Universitat Ramon Llull in a very traditional square.