Some problems  like unwelcome guests never  go away. They lie just lie dormant and at certain times of the year erupt spill their lava of irritation over everyone. Take the phenomenon of "Top Manta" which peaks from Easter onwards to October as far as Barcelona is concerned. Not that fleecing the tourist is a singularly Barcelona problem. I've been offered homemade jewellery halfway up a steep mountain slab in Marrocco's Atlas mountains and, like thousands of others, been pestered aggressively to buy anything from silk shirts to extensive 'massage' on the beaches of Goa, Bali and Phuket.

According to Friday's El Pais, residents of the Parc Guell area (which draws thousands of tourists to see Gaudi's crazy ceramic creations in the wild) enough is enough is enough.  They're fed up of complaining about the park being overun - literally - by these itinerant sellers of trash who dash off at the faintest whiff of a police uniform. Locals feel that they cannot enjoy their park anymore and that the Town Hall has done little to alleviate things in finding a solution.

The gardeners complain too when they are planting out trees and plants. When the manteros scarper they take an as-the-crow-flies route, which usually means tramping across the newly planted or weeded gardens. When they return a few minutes - after the police have gone of course - they take the same route.Work of the devil the gardeners call it! Of Sysiphus more like.

Even the most consumer-minded tourist doesn't want to have to toil up a bloody great hill only to see Gaudi's masterful dragons draped with fake Calvin Kline sunglasses and Gucci handbags? It's hardly what they came to Barcelona for so what's the solution if no one wants the manteros there?.

Well it was not so long ago rumoured that the Town Hall were going to charge people to enter the park but the cost of closing up entrances and fitting extra security fencing was deemed 'probibitive in a time of financial crisis'. Plus the local residents didn't want to have to pay to go in a park which they feel belongs to Barcelona residents, so no pleasing them either.

No obvious 100% effective solution comes to mind but clearly several things need to be done, though I doubt the 'Top Manta syndrome' will ever be eradicated. In Naples I saw the highly organsied Mafia collectors coming round to collect rent from the pavement sellers at the end of the day, and on a beach in Tunisia I remember one seller asking me if I had 'seen a Fiat' - he thought I was German and the police patrolled on horseback (on a 'Pferd' !) There's no doubt the problem really is world-wide.

At the least, the police need to be more determined and go for the suppliers too. All the stuff sold is fake and therefore illegal. The sellers are only trying to scratch a living. Despite what they have said, residents of the area could pay annual sum, a token,  to use the park. Tourist vistors will have to be charged an entrance fee like they do for all the Gaudi sites, despite what the Town Hall says about the cost of setting this up. This would both limit the numbers using the park and keep the salesme out. If not, soon there soon won't be any Gaudi ceramis visible.They'll all be worn away.

 Or maybe we should just ban all tourism in Barcelona! Then the manteros would have no one to sell handbags to. Or would they ? Have you seen all those Gucci accessories in Corte Ingles? Come to think of it, not having tourists in the city would have lots of advantages for residents. I think I'll make a list.

Gaudi Centre Reus: the man and his method

Took the chance of a free day off to visit Reus' excellent Gaudi Centre near Tarragona.

http://www.gaudicentre.cat/ This prosperous-looking large city (one of Catalunya's most interesting with an extensive central area to wander round) is the birthplace of one of Spain's most imaginative architects - no, wait, wrong word for this genius: try 'construction artist'?  This quality centre puts the architect into perspective, for me anyway, for the first time with, its clear-cut explanations and quality presentations. I liked the 3D type introductory film, the superb models (some interactive), the dual-TV screen area where pieces of his work were positioned next to natural objects such as trees, rocks, flowers, shorelines and waves to show visitors what inspired him.

If only I'd visited the Centre before seeing what he built in Barcelona, I might  have understood what was going through his crazy mind when he built Parc Guell, the Sagrada Familia, LaPedrera  and the rest!  I might have realised where he sourced all his magical monsters, dragons, curves, arched supports and flower shapes, turning them into iron, stone, wood and ceramic structures. It's ironic that he died almost an austere unrecognised pauper with his major project unfinished, yet now it's one of the major tourist-pullers in Europe. Ironic and sad too.

In conjuction with this exhibition, the city has laid out a Modernist Route of buildings (and there are a lot) for visitors to walk round and see. The route is shown in floor-plan, Google-map mode so you can do an architectural walk in minature and read a profile of each part while still in the Centre.

I can also recommend a restaurant very close (100m ) to the centre: Cafe Reus - not the one in the square but up the side street past it on the right. Lunch was quality food served by friendly waiters. Good local red house wine included in the reasonably priced menu del dia- unlike another behind the cathedral where they served a rip-off tourist menu of salad and paella for 18 euros (wine NOT included!) Hey, do we all look like we've arrived into Tarragona port on a banana boat!

Reus surprised me and I felt it had lot going for it: it's larger than I'd envisaged, it has lots of new buildings round the inner ring area and new industry further out, it's only just over an hour south of Barcelona on the AP7, it's close to the Costa Dorada and major Roman city of Tarragona. And it has an airport with many cheapish flights (especially in the summer) to northern Europe.