BARCELONA

I am ahead of myself here as I am already at the end of a 7-day culinary pursuit in Barcelona but my blog is still meandering in Madrid ... pathetic, yes, but it is what it is. Between our week with "A Taste of Spain" and my amazing cooking classes time has traveled faster than lightning.

We visited Barcelona 6 years ago and liked what we saw. We liked her even more this time. Without the mandatory stainless steel and glass facade she is like a graceful lady redolent of old world charm. Spaniards are friendly, even though most people we saw on the streets might be tourists. The city is orderly, well patrolled by police .. at different levels of deployment obviously ... and all that 'caution' about unemployment causing security issues is, at least from my time here, nonexistent.