Phil in Barcelona

We ran a scientific symposium in Barcelona over the weekend. It was really hard work, but the results were fantastic. Luckily, at the end of the program we had a city tour for the speakers. The Schering team and 5 of the top specialists went on a minibus for a tour of the city.  All of the speakers were really great, and the local professor acted as our tour guide - and it was fantastic. 

One of the advantages was that we had a tour of the historic "Hospital de la Santa Creu I Sant Pau" hospital, the second oldest working hospital in the world and a World Heritage location, which is normally closed to 'tourists'. The buildings are spectacular (a series of pavilions) and it is interesting to see how you can put a modern hospital into such a setting, that dates back to 1401. 

Barcelona was really interesting, and the Gaudi work really impressed me. Before I went to Barcelona, I thought Gaudi was some guy who had lost his ruler. After seeing his work, I am now really impressed by what he achieved. The apartment building he created, the 'La Pedrera', has a small museum to his work and when I walked through the apartments and visited the museum, my opinion and understanding of his work improved dramatically. 

 After a long (very long) winter in Berlin, the weather was great. I had a wonderful visit and would love to return to really discover the place.