Barca 2005
29 November

In the lifetime of this Journal, I have now stayed in Barcelona three times and visited it from Sitges on a few occasions.

The Sitges holiday I took with Ross; the other two mini breaks have been with Roland. For this brief sojourn, I met up with John, one of my former colleagues at UCL.

One previous visits to the city, Roland has mentioned how pleasant it is to visit somewhere familiar with someone for whom everything is new. I can now agree to this sentiment. John was a most agreeable travelling companion; in some ways better than Roland in that his need for food, rest and lo levels of alcohol matched my own.

As is traditional, we both stayed in the Hotel California where they seem to have improved the standard of their breakfasts and their showerheads. Everything else was up to previous high standards. I like the fact that it is so central and caters so easily for the single traveller.

After an early departure by EasyJet, I wanted little after my arrival apart from rest and food. The food was easily achieved with an excellent lunch at the Quince Nits in the Plaça Reial just round the corner from the hotel. And then I crashed out for a couple of hours.

John has an interest in things Roman so I was more than pleased to point him in the direction of the Museu d'Història de la Ciutat which was just as interesting to wander around on a second visit.

From there, we wandered in the gloaming and took in the Cathedral, which I always like to look in on for the geese. We were charged admission which I don't remember from previous occasions. And then, by dint of further wandering, we turned up outside Santa Maria del Mar which is my favourite church in Barcelona. I've always liked its simplicity. Now I learn that a goodly portion of this is due to fires set alight in 1936 at the start of the Civil War which destroyed all the trappings of the chapels, choir and altars. So you have a Catholic church purged to Protestant simplicity by fire - not that I wish to be symbolic about it.

After such a lot of walking, it was time for food and we managed a table at Los Caracoles and partook of suckling pig.

Surprisingly, I slept well for a first night away from home and so, following breakfast, we were off on our travels once more - this time to the Museu Picasso. In terms of my reaction, I can't do anything better than direct you to what I wrote in 1997.

The intervening eight years have brought more space; there are now some five of the 15th Century Mansion Houses knocked together. But the greater space and the larger shop and the bigger café and the more capacious bag repository don't make it a better experience. However, the coffee in the café was very good.

We dined by the harbour. When Roland and I had made a similar meal, it had been warm enough to sit out. Either I'm more nesh these days or Barcelona is experiencing a cold snap.

And so to the Liceu. So far at this venue, I've seen Opera North perform The Cunning Little Vixen and Gloriana and then Hamlet with Natalie Dessay stopping the show with her mad scene. This time it was Semiramide by Gioachino Rossini. So, tradition of catching the unusual was maintained.

As you can see from these images, the production was a mess. It's supposed to be Babylon, Hanging Gardens and all. What we got was a cross between a session of the United Nations and the War Room from Dr Strangelove. But it was lavish and opulent - just not very helpful to the singers.

The main draw was Juan Diego Flórez in the nothing rôle of Idreno, an Indian prince. His two arias are normally cut because they are so difficult. He tossed them off with ease - stop giggling at the back. Daniela Barcellona as Asarce was very good as was Ildar Abdrazakov as Assur. Darina Takova as Semiramide was passable. Riccardo Frizza conducted.

Stars? Well, overall, probably three with four going to Snr Flórez for 10-15 minutes' worth of astounding bel canto singing .

We managed a quick vegetarian paella and then bed. Sleep came less easily on the second night so I was glad that we'd decided on a taxi to the airport in the morning. I worked out that door-to-door the journey was about six and a half hours which beats my previous best.

It had snowed in my absence.