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Barcelona - Bullfighting and Cathedrals

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Gaudi cathedral. In Spain it is a summer of dramatic change in

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Barcelona. Capital of the fiercely independent region of Catalonia. It

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has always had a tradition of going insane way, but now people are

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rejecting the controversial blood sport of bullfighting. It is part

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of a bigger transformation which is pitting modernity against centuries

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of Spanish culture. In Barcelona they have turned this boring into a

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shopping mall. On the 50th anniversary of the death of Ernest

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Hemingway, it is less Death In The Afternoon, more to have or have not.

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More than anyone else, the famous American writer brought the ball

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fight to the wider world. He said it was not a sport, but a tragedy.

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Many say Catalonia's will not be truly modern until bullfighting has

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finally gone. Now, many have lost their case for such things. -- lost

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their taste. Bullfighting is the only art in which the artist is in

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danger of death and in which the degree of brilliance of the

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performance is left to the fighters only. The American novelist Ernest

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Hemingway travelled to Spain in the 1920s and 1930s and watched Wall

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fights. He wrote them up in his famous account: Death In The

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Afternoon. He was an aficionado, but he was honest about what he saw.

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I suppose the bullfight is indefensible and I should not

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defend it now and the to tell honestly the things I have found

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true about it. However squeamishly you approach the pages of Hemingway,

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if at all, his bald and bullfighting itself seemed to say

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something about Spanishness, something of the centuries. But he

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Spain that Hemingway documented is disappearing it seems. This summer,

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the 50th anniversary of Hemingway's death, sees the final season of

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bullfighting in Barcelona. To some it is a long overdue end to a

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barbaric practice. But others see it as a political act, as

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Catalonia's waving a red rag at the rest of Spain and its cultural

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heritage and that includes the fiesta of balls. Former matador

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Enrique Molina is a grizzled veteran of the ring. TRANSLATION:

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The, it is something that shakes me. This will ring has been the best in

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the world. -- bullring. We will no longer be able to see balls in

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Barcelona. The regional government was persuaded by campaigners like

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Helen Escoda that bullfighting is cruel. Bullfighting supporters

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disagreed with us, but I do not think they understand that

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bullfighting is cruel. It is the morning of the bullfight at the

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Arena. A ritual dating back hundreds of years. Any one with a

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stage in the fiesta is here to cast his eyes over the Bulls. The

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managers and agents of the bullfighters, the representatives

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of the Breeders, journalists, even retired matadors who cannot stay

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away. It is a cross between a cattle auction and backstage at a

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prize fight. The bulls are putting pens ready for the afternoon's

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events. And the agents of the matadors draw lots to see which

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animals their clients will be confronting in a few hours. In a

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bid to eke Barcelona hotel Damian Castano is being dressed in the

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bullfighter's so-called suit of lights. He is 19, painfully slight

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and about to face a ball weighing just over a ton. TRANSLATION: These

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moments are difficult because you are one hour from playing with your

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life. And also a beautiful, because when the EU dress up in the lights,

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it is a beautiful feeling. -- when if you dress up. LA Monumental, the

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last bull ring in Barcelona. It is early in the last season and none

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of the superstars of the Spanish circuit are on the bill. All the

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same, only one-fifth of the seats are occupied. To many, the case

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against bullfighting is cut and dried. It is cruel. Others, like

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Hemingway, make out that the ethical arguments are more nuanced.

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One what is good is what you feel good about and what is bad is what

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you do not feel good about. The bullfight is very moral because I

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have a feeling of life and death and mortality and the mortality.

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After it is over I feel very sad but very fine. The crowd offers

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some encouragement to Damian Castano, the novice, and at least

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he survives his afternoon, which is more than can be said for the ball.

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But it is a bumpy ride and he is not judged good enough by the

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spectators to deserve the macabre trophy awarded to the best

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matadors: The ball's ear. Others enjoyed more success but come the

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autumn this bull ring will fall silent and what goes on here now

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will be forbidden. Rosa Gil is the widow of the last man to die in

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Barcelona. He was killed in 1974. said I think I love you.

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restaurant used to be a canteen for bullfighters on the taller, but it

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is quieter these days. It is the finish of bullfighting all over the

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world. Our kids have different attitudes. Different attitudes to

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animals, two trees. Maybe that is better though? At think it is

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normal. Life is like that. But one of Rosa's regulars, a bullfight

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critic who reviews the fiesta for a newspaper, is angry with

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politicians in Catalonia. He says their ban is gesture politics,

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directed at the National establishment in Madrid.

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TRANSLATION: The people who have ban these are the politicians and

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they and supporters of the bans speech from a position of ignorance.

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They base their position on animal rights, which do not exist. Animals

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have always been used in the service of human beings throughout

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the story of creation. At his splendid medieval palace in bowser

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Lower Dir, the president of Catalonia it is proud of his

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government's independence., but he insists that this had nothing to do

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with the ball five ban. Easy to do with the fact that all fighting can

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be seen as a Spanish thing rather than a Catalonian thing? No. It is

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not related to the Spanish issue or the Spanish feelings. Don't forget

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that the bullfighting tradition is very old in Catalonia. Isn't that

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all the more reason for keeping it? Wire up said a minority who are in

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favour of it? Because the society is undergoing a cultural evolution

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and at the beginning of the 21st century some rights are more

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respected than they were decades ago, even rights for the animals.

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In The Independent minded Spanish region of Catalonia, people are

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turning away from bullfights but turning out to see their football

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club. Barcelona is owned by its 150,000 members and it looks like

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all of them are on the streets Tito's the conquerors of Spain and

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the rest of Europe. These are the true heroes of the Catalan, the

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players of Barcelona. Even more than in he other great footballing

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cities of Europe, Barcelona's success feels like the people's

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success. Kong regulations. Could you describe for me the unique

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relationship between these football club and the people of Catalonia's?

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The people love this club. They are identified because they love it and

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they give their heart. But also because of the way we play. It is

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part of the culture of this little country. And that little country is

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changing in ways that would once have seemed unimaginable. That is

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indicated by what is happening on the skyline of Barcelona. Hired

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James Gabi supposed take over from in his monarch banks are. It has

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been the source of great controversy, which is being renewed

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even as the building edges toward It has a futuristic feel in a 70s

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way. It is like the first cathedral on Mars. This is the spectacular

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Sagrada Familiar, by silica to the Home -- the Holy Family forever

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associated with the brilliant Catalan architect Antonio Gaudi,

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the greatest symbol of the region of Catalonia. For decades, ever

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since Gaudi died, leaving it unfinished, it has been a monument

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to enigmatic genius. Frozen at the moment when the one man who could

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completed was no longer around to do so. This eastern facade of La

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Sagrada Familia is true to Gaudi's extraordinary vision, completed

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before his death in the 20s. Some people who come here and look at

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his Nativity think maybe the old boy was off his trolley. He was

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obsessive, compulsive, fanatical about getting detail right. He had

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Turkey's anaesthetised so he could make plaster casts of them and see

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how they would look up here. He even had a live braying donkey

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winched up the side of the basilica. To get a perspective on how that

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might look in his Nativity scene. Talking of perspective, you may

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think all of this work by Gaudi's successor was would be appreciated

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but some say the building would have been better left unfinished.

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It is a queer piece that will not take the centre. It will not be a

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place that architects come for inspiration. The EU do not think

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so? Not at all. -- you do not think so. The Sagrada Familiar is an

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architectural tour de force, a huge tourist attraction and a working

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church. The Pope was here to consecrate La Sagrada Familia last

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year, a consecration from the mother church at a temple Gaudi

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hadn't mentioned as a great forest. While Father Luis Bonet attempts to

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the soles of his flock at La Sagrada Familia... His brother

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Jordi Bonet is responsible for their physical well-being while

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they are under this roof. Jordi Bonet, chief architect here for 20

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years has finally achieved what Gaudi failed to do - keep the rain

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out. Gaudi made models so we can build if exactly to the real deal.

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The sees true to his vision? This is the building of Gaudi. -- this

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is true. This is the old city. David Mackie begs to differ, a

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British architect based in Barcelona who helped to transform

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the port area and when the Olympics came 20 years ago. He says Gaudi's

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critics got it wrong. It is not Gaudi. He was a person concerned

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with structure. The columns are not vertical. They lean towards each

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other. It is not broken stone, everything is in reinforced

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concrete. Do you think it is a travesty? If you are looking for

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Gaudi, yes. If you are looking for an excellent building, No.

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Japanese are seen to like it enormously. -- the Japanese seem of.

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If I'd team at -- we are 70 metres off the ground. One central steeple

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to be added will take the for height to 170 metres. Gaudi's

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original design called for 18 towers. You are going to put

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another one here? It will never be finished! I may not see it finished

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but it will be finished in the future. Some observers go even

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further than saying they should have just left it alone. Were

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acquitted in London says they should take a machine-gun and shoot

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away some of the sculpture and some of the new things. What do you say?

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Always in the world are people that have some idea as of destruction

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and think that we build something that the majority of our people

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like that we continue. He gets about the site with an agility

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other 86-year-olds might envy. Even other 46-year-olds. He told me he

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enjoyed mountaineering as a young man and I do not doubt it. In

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another 30 years, you may have difficulty getting up these. Even

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though La Sagrada Familia is finally habitable, so to speak, the

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work goes on inexorably. The most recently posted deadline is 2026,

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100 years since Gaudi's death. As long as the tourist revenue

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continues, they will keep building, or rather his successor as well. Is

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there something about La Sagrada Familia that became an obsession

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for Gaudi? Has it became -- has it become an obsession for you? If No,

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:19:42.:19:48.

This extraordinary building will surely grow ever familiar to

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visitors was even as it becomes less and less like the half

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finished shell left by Gaudi, its creator. Here in Catalonia,

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architecture or is embedded in change. This shopping mall in

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Barcelona has been converted from a 15,000 seat Bull Ring. Replacing

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the blood-soaked and pheromone drenched arena with sweet-smelling

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boutiques is adding insult to injury, as long as -- as far as the

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true aficionado is concerned. TRANSLATION: It's a bad thing. It's

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make a difficult time for us to keep the Barcelona bullring going

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because it would appear at the politicians do not want there to be

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bulls. The Ernest Hemingway was a big fan of the ball fights and he

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died 50 years ago this summer. He would probably be horrified by what

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you decided to do here. A but a lot of people are happy. I think

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Spaniards are in a revolution as other countries. I know it was not

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the same 20 years ago but now Spain is not so old-fashioned, like 20

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years ago. Aficionados, the fans of bullfighting, claimed Catalonia

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will no longer be so banished after the last bullfight is held here

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this summer. Others in Barcelona and elsewhere say it is part of a

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It may not be the forecast this time -- you want at this time of

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year but we lose the bulk of the wet weather and it is a slow

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improvement over the weekend. After a disappointing start for many, it

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slowly brightens up today. Bright rather than sunny, the best I can

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give you. Some rain around at the moment and some of that will turn

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heavy into the south-east towards dawn. With all the cloud and wet

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weather around it will be a mild start to Once Were Wild weekend.

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You can see it will be grey and white particularly through central

:22:25.:22:35.
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and eastern areas so temperatures already in the midst -- need teens.

:22:35.:22:38.

You can see improvements along the Dorset coastline through the Isle

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of Wight and as we head towards London around nine o'clock it will

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be cloudy, grey and wet, at the same too for East Anglia but then

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it will be an improvement eventually. Some brightness and

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glimpses of sunshine to the east of the Pennines. That cloud and rain

:22:55.:23:02.

clears from the Northern -- Northern Ireland. A better morning

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in inIreland but it will be cloudy. A lot of cloud for Wales if

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you are Kevin here first thing. It will be a good morning to have a

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lie in, I suspect the same thing too into the south-west because we

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are optimistic the cloud will lift and Brighton somewhat in one or two

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places as the rain eases away. There will be some holes in that

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cloud for some sunny spells. With some sunshine coming through, like

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yesterday it will feel humid in the south-eastern corner and

:23:37.:23:45.

temperatures will reflect this. Further west, more stubborn and

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thicker cloud. It will certainly be good weather all in all. Maybe some

:23:49.:23:59.
:23:59.:24:01.

light drizzle the showers for QPR this Bolton. If we look at later on

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Saturday, this front wriggles down south, affecting the coast into the

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early hours of Sunday morning but we are more hopeful of more

:24:10.:24:20.

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