I made a trip to Barcelona for a three-day weekend, which was great! There is a lot of stunning modern architecture and also quite historic buildings. There is a monument to Christopher Columbus and a plaque in the cathedral by the baptismal font where the native Americans he broght back with him were baptised. The pictures below are from my trip.

The Placa Catalunya, a huge square in the center of Barcelona, bordered by shopping centers and a bank building, located at the head of Las Ramblas, which used to be a canal but is now the main pedestrian mall.


On Las Ramblas you have a lot of tourists, so there are plenty of people trying to make a buck. Some get pretty creative and attract the attention of television cameras. This guy was giving an interview in horse-neighs. On the right, you can just see Che Guevara looking on.


La Pedrera, a Gaudi masterpiece



It is said that if you drink from this fountain on Las Ramblas, you are fated to return to Barcelona. I hope so!

Manifest avec nous à douze heures et demi...

Today was the second Tuesday in a row that unions around the country 'united' in striking to protest the CPE. This strike was a lot lighter than the previous one. Arriving at my school this morning, I passed were a couple young people standing at the school gate handing out flyers and inviting people to join them in demonstrating (manifester) today. In fact, the students at the engineering school I go to are lucky that they can still attend classes and do their work, because a number of other universities are still blocked by protesters. The situation is giving rise to regularly held anti-strike demonstrations, which are much smaller but resonate pretty strongly with the opinions of the students I work with. My first reponse to the demonstrations by the students was that it was great that the French feel empowered to take action when the government does something they don't like. And then, with the length of time of the strikes and their growing intensity, I thought it was amazing that they were so stubborn and amazing also that the government didn't step in and require the schools to reopen during some negotiation. But now, it seems like it was too late to stop the law and that the demonstrations mainly affected the political landscape for the coming presidential elections. I hate to think that all of this time and energy was spent for campaign posturing.