Vacation Recovery Mode

Dave and I are back in London, settling into our routines. The flat is just as we left it, the plants are all miraculously still alive, and Olga will be joining us this afternoon. (She had an extra day in the kennel because we arrived back home last night.)

Our flight home was uneventful. It seemed really short, actually. I took my computer out and spent my time editing photos, and before I knew it we were landing.

We spent our last morning in Barcelona at the Palau de la Música Catalana, or Palace of Catalan Music, a beautiful concert hall designed by Lluís Domenech i Montaner, another famous architect (like Gaudi) of the Catalan Art Nouveau movement. The best part was undoubtedly the stained glass skylight, which allows natural light into the main concert hall. The space was likened to both a "box of light," with all its windows, and a garden, with its many floral motifs. The ceiling represents the sun.

When we finished our tour -- and yes, we had to take a guided tour, which normally is not my thing but at least we had a pleasant, interesting guide -- Dave zipped over to the market to buy some olive oil and saffron, and I took a last walk through the neighborhood, looking for interesting street art. (Oh yeah, remember that thing I said about how I'm less interested in photographing graffiti these days? Well, that went out the window in Barcelona. Talk about a street art town!)

I found some art, and I also found this mysteriously fenced and locked courtyard, where a lonely blue ball was waiting for some Olga-like dog to come along and tear it to pieces.

And now, I am off to do a mountain of laundry, and to begin loading my roughly 350 Barcelona photos onto Flickr. (Gotta do more editing!)