The streets of Barcelona's Eixample (expansion) district were laid out according to a master plan by Ildefons Cerda. Their most striking feature is the chamfered octagonal blocks, creating square spaces at intersections, as seen above. These are intended to let more sunlight and air into the streets, and they do an excellent job of that, but I have two problems with them. One is about walking. Whenever we were walking a diagonal 'up and over' route, requiring some zigzagging, we would tend to get to a corner before realizing which direction we would cross in first. In New York you can stand right on the corner and make such a decision based on the timing of the traffic lights, but in the Eixample you have to walk a good fifteen feet to get to the next corner of the octagon and cross the other way. Even when walking a straight route, the diagonals add some Pythagorean distance to the journey. It may sound nitpicky, but during a whole day of walking I think it contributes significantly to fatigue. The other problem is reading street signs. The signs are on the buildings, on the long sides just off the diagonal cutout. They're pretty small. As you are walking up one street toward an intersection, it can be very difficult, if not impossible, to see the sign for the cross street, until you are about to cross it. Since you have to walk along the diagonal to get to this point, it aggravates the first problem. It's rather ridiculous to try to describe all this geometry in words, but hopefully if you visualize walking along the sidewalks you can see what I mean.

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Several times I found that people in Spain working what we might consider to be menial jobs were incredibly happy and friendly, and not in an artificial way. At OpenCor, the only 7/11 style convenience store in town, an employee on the late shift in Valencia struck up a nice conversation with us and told us that he had lived in Madrid for several years. At the Oceanografic aquarium's concession stand, the cashier burst into laughter when she realized she had no idea which of our sodas was the diet one. We were also astonished to see a conductor step out of a subway train looking as youthful and clean-cut as any of the passengers. I hope no one will take offense at the idea that most New York conductors and operators could be described as "grizzled."

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This is the municipal swimming pool at Montjuic, the huge hilltop park at the southern end of Barcelona. It was used for the 1992 Olympics, and is still sometimes used for competitions, but for the most part is open to the public for a few Euros. We had no idea it was there until we found it while exploring. We had quite an adventure attempting to actually swim there, involving confusing signage, a second swimming pool, and bathing suits left on funiculars, but finally made it, and it was well worth it. When do you ever get the chance to swim with a view like this without being friends with billionaires or belonging to an exclusive country club? If I had to give one tip for anyone visiting in warm weather, this would be it.

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The City of Arts and Sciences is reason enough to visit Valencia. It's an amazing piece of architecture and urban design, and the open space, pools of water, and harmony of shapes make it a very soothing place. As Maya put it, you just can't imagine something like this existing in New York City; we can't have things this nice because we would wreck them.