I spent the last week in BCN, the renowned Catalan capital. What most stands out to me about this postcard is not the colours, it’s the textures. Barcelona is completely unlike any other Spanish city I’ve been to, and Gaudi’s influence and his wacky architecture is partly responsible for this. It’s one of the cities I would adore to live in, despite the fact that it is full of tourists and that I am often treated as another one of them. It’s so vibrant and has so much “going on” at every turn – it’s like Spain on lots and lots of caffeine. It has energy and is basically just incredible. I’m lucky to have visited Barcelona 4 or 5 times beforehand, so the weekend in the city was all about emulating the lifestyle rather than hitting the tourist sites.

         I then spent 4 days in the countryside 40 minutes outside of Barcelona, on a training workshop at my company’s “university” (which basically means they run learning and development courses for employees). You’d easily mistake the university for a Buddhist retreat, or a luxury health club, as it’s a rural haven of manicured gardens, clean open spaces, glass everywhere, spa music and healthy food (I’ve eaten enough fruit to last me the rest of the month!) Nevertheless, it was escape the UK and return to Spain – a country I hold very very dear!

How many of these 32 images above do you recognise? I’ve seen 20/32.

Here are a couple pictures from the weekend in the city, click on any one of them to open the gallery.