The Easter Parade

We hadn't made the connection between Barcelona and Holy Week, but when we swung into the Gothic Quarter on the Friday night, scenes were going off like it was 1499. The smell of the incense, the pipes, the rhythms and the iconography - senses were comprehensively overloaded in those little streets. Bono once reckoned that the old church has the utmost in stage gear and here was an endorsement of that.

Apparently Seville is where the Semana Santa gets its full expression, but quirky old Barcelona had a run at the pageantry also. There was a degree of penitence in the air and some solemnity within the famous pointed capirotes. A few minutes later and they had shuffled their chains over to the cathedral for an even more intense assignation.