By James Stone

Barcelona is an all round great city, but on my last trip in the middle of the summer it was the Ramblas that really stuck out.

Having visited the Catalonian capital a couple of times before, I had had my fill of the Sagrada Familia (the crazy looking cathedral by architect Gaudi in the centre of the city) the garden squares and the galleries stuffed with paintings by Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso.

This time I was in the mood for Las Ramblas. It was a hot day and I knew it was going to be crazy. But for some reason I felt like joining the mania while it was in full flow.

On the way down I passed another crazy building by Gaudi, this one with wrought iron balconies that extended from a sort of mosaic wall like magnified flies heads.

Ah, it was good to be part of the merry throng of the Ramblas. For those not familiar with Barcelona's most famous street, the Ramblas is a wide tree-lined avenue. What makes it stand out is its brand of mayhem. Not only is there traffic running down both sides, but between the rows of trees there is a sea of stalls, street sellers, kiosks and general hubbub of the highest order.

As the heat of the late afternoon rose to a crescendo, I ambled past the flower and bird sellers, checked out the hipster gear and iron candle-sticks, laughed at the mocking paintings of the Sagrada Familia and other Gaudi buildings and inspected the headlines in the Hola! newstands that sell papers in every language.

Spanish cuisine of all varieties was being sold by all manner of restaurants, street vendors and kiosks, from tapas to tortilla to I don't know what. After ambling up and down for an hour these food smells just became too intense and hunger hit me like a torpedo. I dived into what looked like a cool, air conditioned restaurant. Feeling utterly knackered I lamely decided I wasn't really up for trying new food, so went for Paella.

At 20 euros it was probably the priciest Paella known to all humanity. But it was very tasty, so I got over it. Afterwards I wandered down to the Ramblas on the sea, a flash new stretch of walkway that protrudes out a little way into the Mediterranean. There, as the sun finally started to dip into horizon and the summer's day cooled, I snapped up a present for the missus in a designer gift boutique. It was a silver necklace with an amber stone. Hopefully it will help to ward off the jealous complaints when I tell her how nice it was strolling down the Ramblas.