Let me be frank: the conference was a squib.

The combination of upper thirties humidity, limited to no ventilation and the prospect of too much choice resulted in a distinct after taste of bathos.

Barcelona itself has succeeded in the opposite: while there, I itched to leave; once here, the memory is one that is quite sweet and beautiful.

But like a sickly dessert, it is one that is to be savoured but once – though the allure of the Museum of National Art of Catalunya may prove to much to avoid…

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No post on Barcelona would be complete without a word on Gaudi.

He was, and remains through his work which is still incomplete, one of the greatest architects that have strode and constructed on this earth.

Gaudi redefined Gothic to be truly dazzling, yet profoundly dark.

At first his structures would not appear out-of-place in a Disney cartoon; look closer, and the skulls and stretched skeletal figures belie a much darker theme.

I could gaze upon the Sagrada Familia with binoculars for days on end.

Truly stunning, and a welcome end to an otherwise anticlimactic week.

Next week, Tunis.