Signs of the underground

This is a bit of a holding post. We are going out to the theatre tonight..well to a flamenco performance at the Palau De Musica Catalana. We loved the building so much we immediately bought tickets to a performance. It was either the flamenco or a spanish guitar concert. We went for the flamenco as the guitar was being performed by a damned Englishman. Anyway neither Marjan, as if, nor I will have time for a blog session tonight. Assume Monserrat was awesome and photos will follow.

So a couple of observations. The first is how much of Barcelona is happening underground. Every second building we enter has basement levels, whenever we walk we see entry/exits for underground car parks, the metro system seems to have tunnelled out significant proportions of the metropolis and on and on. 

What was most interesting though was that the rubbish collection is also underground. We took our rubbish out for the first time yesterday. On the street is a cross between a bollard and a letter box sized metal thingy. It has a trap door and you slide in your rubbish. It apparently uses suction through a series of underground pipes to get the rubbish to a processing site. No trucks at 3am and a tidier city. Apparently London is also playing with this system. Awesome.

What else is under there...who knows but I'd love to see the plans

And this blog is not complete without some photos. I am loving the signs in Barcelona. Many are the same as others around the world, many, to my chagrin, are in English, or even worse Spanglish, but some are a pure joy. Here are a couple I have managed to capture.

What else for the Erotic Museum. By the way it is across Las Ramblas from La Boqueria. Food and sex, who would have thought it!

Just to keep to the sexual theme, we spotted the condom shop opposite a gothic church in the Placa De Pi, a lovely area. The motto is 'for life's' little pleasures'. No size phobias among the Catalans .

And finally on our walk back through the old town last night, this was quite frightening. They get them young! 

Actually it is perhaps best not to laugh too hard. A little further on our walk, there was a young person on the ground, probably drug affected. We were very glad there appeared to be a local adult assisting.

Sitting on the train to Montserrat and had to add that we found a vending machine at the station that sold a universal USB cable. Saves me a trip to find one for the GPS. The Gods are smiling on us.

Love you all, and we enjoy the comments on the blog.