I returned in 2008 for my birthday. Swiss Air did their best to ensure that I didn't get there - bad weather at City Airport had caused problems which were then exacerbated by Swiss Air and it took me 16 hours to reach Spain (via not only Switzerland but also two London airports and Germany!).

This was my first stay in the city and I could not have chosen a better hotel - the newly opened Barcelo Raval. It was slightly over-designed - the damask wallpaper in the rooms was carried  on to the lightshades in the restaurant, and even on the pavement outside the main door!

There is just so much to see in the city. I started the weekend with a tour of Lluís Domènech i Montaner's  Palau de Musica. It's a crazy ceramic, glass and iron building with an over the top inverted dome.

Then it was on to Gaudi. Firstly a tour of Casa Batllo, with its ceramic chimneys, exquisite archways and those teardrop windows. Then across the street to Casa Mila for more chimneys (which look alien). This building attracts a crowd as it is probably more well known and bigger.

Then a quick walk through town to the still unfinished Sagrada Familia Cathedral. It is spectacular, but I couldn't tell what had been built in my six years absence from the city.

After all that decoration and ceramic it was time to return to clean lines and a complete contrast - Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavillion at the foot of Montjuic.

It was the most amazing space - clean lines, walls of glass, travertine, pools of water, and the iconic Barcelona Chair in it's original home. I could have spent hours there. I kept wondering what it would have been like to visit the building when it was first designed in 1929, and witnessing the reaction to it 75 years ago. It looks as modern now as it probably did futuristic then.

I finished the day with two of our contemporary star-architect's work in the city - Santiago Calatrava's Communications Tower next to the Olympic stadium, and Frank Gehry's fish, by the Arts Hotel; before a walk along the beach towards Port Vell.