Beautiful Barcelona

My doctoral studies taught me a basic distinction: a tourist travels to confirm what s/he already knows; a pilgrim is party to revelation, to discovering something beyond the realm of what they've previously understood. So it has been for us in Barcelona. Where Montpellier was cool, hip, charming, understated, with a certain insouciance, Barça is bold, brash, busy and (appropriate to it's history) surreal. The thing which stands out for me most is the sense of community consciousness. Where art in other places is largely privatized, here it is built into the public realm. Wherever I look, I am struck by beauty, particularly in architecture. When the English Prince, Charles Windsor, criticized the aridness of much modern architecture in Britain (and reaped a whirlwind of criticism for his opinion), he may have been thinking of Barcelona. Much of it is magnificent and available to all of us walking along. On a more prosaic note, the community sense is reflected in public cleanliness. Crews of street cleaners are always at work. Garbage is deposited in communal dumpsters at the end of the street and emptied every evening, and sorted into recyclables and non. In short, this time in Barcelona has reminded me that, as a North American, I am we'll served by looking to the best of our European roots for guidance in public consciousness.