BARCELONA — Barcelona is a beautiful city with palm-lined streets, old -world architecture made of greys, yellows and pinks. Iron-wrought curlicues protect windows. Market stands sell everything from jewellery to live rabbits while living statues dressed as pirates, courtesans, Roman soldiers or whatever the imagination of the creator can create to encourage tourists to throw a few Euros their way.

Barcelona considers itself Catalan. A majority of its people are bilingual, Spanish and Catalan. During the Spanish Civil War hundreds of thousands escaped across the border into France.

Today, Barcelona is one of the most prosperous regions in Spain, although it has been hit by the economic crisis and severe drought.