Since my favorite wife had to attend a large trade show in Barcelona, I thought I would tag along and extend the trip to Lisbon and Marrakech.  This is a bit of a role reversal for most males I know bring along their wives when they have to travel to a trade show. I also viewed it as a blow for male liberation (not really but I thought it sounded good).  Actually, we have done this a number of times, combine business with pleasure and it is always nice to be together at the end of a long day.

BARCELONA:          

We had been to Barcelona several times; in fact, my first visit was over forty years ago so I had a fair familiarity with the city.  Luckily for us, some wonderful friends of ours from Belgium joined us and their experience with the city really made the trip quite memorable.

There is a major push to make the city a major location for trade shows, but they have a way to go.  While the convention center is large, the surrounding hotels and restaurants are not up to par and there is a major shortage of taxis (and few of the drivers speak passable English, let alone German, etc.).  Waits of 1 ½ hour for a taxi after a show are not unusual and Uber, etc., is not allowed in the city.  While younger people are more conversant with English, there are a large number of immigrants from Asia (many in the food industry) who are not conversant in various languages.  Barcelona is not ready for prime time as a business convention center.  Additionally, the Spanish are a bit more guarded in their approach to strangers.

     No visit is complete without a visit to the Gaudi Cathedral, aka the Sagrada Familia.  Construction started 133 years ago and the goal is for the project to be completed on the one-hundredth anniversary of the death of Gaudi in 2025.  I first saw the Cathedral some forty plus years ago when walking through the cathedral was literally walking through a construction work site. One had to be careful of the scaffolds, workmen pushing wheel-barrels of concrete, electrical wires and other possible methods of harm all while trying to figure out how six foot tall what appeared to be bunches of grapes or other fruit seemed to place helter-skelter about the place.  Today, it is much different, as the beautiful building appears to be nearly complete.  The floors shine, light comes in through magnificent multi-colored stained glass windows and all is in order.  For an extra charge (yes, it costs to enter but it is well worth the experience), you will be whisked up into one of the cathedrals’ towers to get amazing views not only of the city, but also of the details of the spires.  Those huge bunches of grapes are now at the very top of the spires and you cannot help but be amazed at the engineering skill exhibited in the building.  In fact, when the cathedral was first designed by Gaudi, the technology for its construction was in some areas lacking but it is a tribute to true progress that his design has come to fruition.  Be forewarned however, that one must walk down some four hundred steps, many of them on a narrow winding stone staircase within a tower and flanked on your right by the ability to look down the hollow center which ends hundreds of steps below.  Talk about cheap thrills!