rain didn't stop play in barca
oops, i realize i've been a bit lazy with this journal recently. the popround music collection has been taking up a disproportionate amount of my time. well, that and jetting around these parts. since the uk trip, there's been adventures in barcelona and morocco.
we drove across the south of france and through the top of spain to arrive in a sweltering barcelona. the plan had been to camp but a massive thunderstorm just outside ceret put paid to that. ceret was great for the cherries and a small gallery with some of picasso's china with the bull motif. we ended up in a 13th century hermitage (L'Hermitage de Notre Dame du Coral) that had been converted into a small guesthouse. one of the more tranquil places i've stayed at and the young couple and 3 massive st bernards were more than accommodating. one strange thing about the chapel at one end of the building was the backward-facing mary. she was addressing a small prayer room behind the altar, rather than the body of the church.
we got to barcelona around lunchtime just in time for our first round of tapas. we were staying in the lively born quarter, with about 20 flights of stairs leading to our flat and terrace. sonar by day once again provided leftfield music treats in the shape of a blistering sunset james holden gig, some mad electro synth pop outfit called black affair and the wonderfully eclectic dj muerto. for the night-time line-up (we only managed to make one evening, and that destroyed all of the next day), highlights for me were Kode 9 and Spaceape's Dubstep workout, the Beastie Boys and Ben Mono. unfortunately Modeselektor were a flop - which could have been down to technical issues, but still, you thought they didn't necessarily need to throw a tantrum.
we headed back via arles and montpellier, and once again we cut short our camping due to bad weather in the camargue.
