Whenever Jean and I get fried, we like to head for a city park, and Barcelona has a good one. It has a small indoor zoological museum and a Victorian glass hothouse, but both were being restored, so all I can show you is the wonderful glass lighthouse atop the zoo.

Dragons guard neoclassical staircases.

Nearby is the building that houses the Catalonian Legislature.

Jean clowns around a statue of a mammoth, a favorite of children as well. The mammoth, I mean.

A small peaceful lake attracts amateur boaters.

Knots of schoolchildren are a sign you're in a good park.

La Cascada is a wonderful fountain containing the first work Gaudí did as an assistant architect on the project. Unfortunately, it wasn't wonderful this day. It had been drained for cleaning, and the stench was unbelievable.

On the right, a gardener waters the lawn, Mexican-style.

These huge herringbone gears are left over from the 1888 International Exposition. We engineers love this kind of thing.

Nearby a peaceful street leads away, lined with Sycamores and urns.

The urns are examples of those intriguing art deco details you find all over Barcelona. I love the snails crawling over the lip.

Two men are playing that quintessential French game, pétanque.

A place like this really helps you let off tension. It's not always necessary to be running around, fighting the crowds, seeing all the sights before time runs out. Sometimes, a day in the park is just the ticket.