Three-word review: Spain is awesome. Skip directly to the pictures if you want.

I've been telling everyone since I got back that I think Spain gets overlooked on people's European tours, because it's a little more out-of-the-way.

I went not because I'm attuned to underrated European hotspots, but because my photo club friend JG was going to marry a lovely Spanish woman from Barcelona.

I'd been to Barcelona once, twelve years ago, and remembered little except that I stayed in a pensione near the wax museum.

It was well-worth revisiting. Barcelona is cool and cultured and sophisticated. It, like a lot of European cities, I'd suspect, has a wonderful mix of the old and the new. For example, the wedding ceremony was held in a 12th-century Catholic church downtown, just steps from La Rambla (the north-south boulevard that teems with tourists) and the giant department store Corte Ingles.

The neighborhood where we stayed (Born, in the Gothic Quarter) was a labyrinth of narrow stone alleys impassable by cars, but passable by motos, which everyone under 40 seemed to drive. We stayed in an apartment instead of a hotel, something E and I are going to do in Florence too. The prices are comparable to hotels, you usually have a small fridge and stove, and I like feeling a little more like a local.

There were lots of shops and restaurants in the Born neighborhood. The Picasso museum was just down the street, but my downfall was the Textile Museum gift shop, where I bought small presents for several people, including myself.

Every morning we'd go to Bruxelles for cafe con leche and a chocolate croissant. If we went late enough, some people -- mostly old women -- would be drinking beers.

Every evening, after siesta, we'd watch this woman across the street open her boutique.

In the free time before the wedding we did touristy things, like shopping at Corte Ingles and walking on La Rambla. Like I said, it's crawling with tourists, but I loved watching the people, and looking at all the million things for sale, like these birds. Who buys baby chicks for souvenirs? Birds in cages make me sad.

When it started getting dark, men would walk up and down La Rambla -- a brick sidewalk in the middle of the boulevard -- with six-packs of cheap beer, selling them by the can. Once we saw a tall, pretty, and intoxicated blond girl run up to one of them and start shouting in English.

"Oh my god! Will you give me a beer for FREE? I have no money and I MUST have a BEER!"

Everyone within earshot (which was a lot of people) turned to watch. The short, homely Spaniard shrugged his shoulders and smiled sheepishly at us -- what can you do? -- and handed her a can.

* * *

The morning of the wedding, which was on a Friday, we took the subway up to Montjuic and toured the Miro museum.

I headed back early to take a nap for what I knew would be a long night.

The wedding ceremony began at 7:00 p.m. Then we took chartered buses to a restaurant on the edge of town. The party started at 8:30 or so, with seafood hor d'ouvres passed around, and Cava (Spanish sparkling wine -- don't you dare call it Champagne!) at the bar. Dinner was served somewhere near midnight ... I don't know, I wasn't wearing a watch. The meal lasted hours, ending with digestifs for everyone and Cuban cigars for the men. Then there was dancing. I fell asleep on the last bus home, sometime after 4:00 a.m.

Saturday -- gray, dim, drizzly -- we recovered.

Sunday we picked up our rental car from Pepecar. It was just big enough for four of us and not quite big enough for all of our luggage.

First we drove to Girona, an old medieval town.

We were in Catalonia so everything was bilingual. Here is a Catalan bookstore. Catalan reminds me of a mix of French and Spanish.

Unfortunately I had a terrible head cold and spent many of our 24 hours there dozing on the couch. At least the apartment was nice.

And so was the view from our apartment's tiny balcony.

Monday we drove to Sa Riera, our chosen hub for the Costa Brava. If you are looking for it on a map it is on the coast near Begur.

The beach was beautiful and there were long stone staircases along the cliff between coves.

We stayed there three nights, but with our car we were free to drive around quite a bit. We went into Begur several times, had dinner in Sa Tuna one night.

One day we went to a ceramics market in Bisbal. I took one picture

and bought a Gaudi-inspired plate and two cups. Unfortunately that's all the Gaudi I saw on this trip. (I did climb the stairs of the cathedral in 1993, so at least I've seen something.)

The next day, we drove to Empuries to see some Greek and Roman ruins near Empuries.

We visited Salvador Dali's house in Cadaques, which was strange, but not as strange as you might expect.

The last night, our group of four split into two, with the guys flying back to Madrid and the ladies staying in Barcelona. We walked around the Gracia neighborhood, then met up for dinner. We went, quite accidentally, to a photography-themed place called Flash Flash. It was furnished entirely in white, with black murals on the wall of a photographer in a kind of 60s-mod outfit. (The light fixtures were in the flash of her camera.) They served only omelettes.

Of course I didn't have my camera.

See all my photos from Spain on Flickr.