I can't say Malinda, our travel agent, didn't warn me. She told me May was the highest of the high seasons for Europeans traveling, that we'd run into crowds, that hotels would be booked solid.

And when Europeans travel in the spring, where do they go? Well, they sure as hell don't go to Norway, where the snow is still on the ground. No, they come to warm, sunny places: Northern Africa, Southern Italy, Greece, and—Spain. The squares and sidewalk restaurants are overflowing with them.

You could tell who the tourists were, because they all looked lost.

I usually feel like a doofus, standing on a busy street, frowning at a map. But in Barcelona, I fit right in with the crowd. There's something satisfying about seeing sophisticated Europeans just as flummoxed as we ignorant Americans.

Surprisingly, it's a young crowd that vacations here.

Many don't have that employed, career-oriented look. Nor do they look particularly well-heeled. My guess is that they are members of the huge state-supported army of unemployed European youth.

There seems to be a lot of piercings and varicolored hair among them. You know why men are attracted to women with tattoos? They're thinking, "There's a girl who's capable of making a mistake she'll regret for the rest of her life."

They've apparently decided not to apply for jobs in customer service or sales.

Nordic blondes know they'll get a warm reception in Spain. Their coloring and dress just scream "I'm from Sweden, and I'm looking for fun."

You don't often see them traveling in little homogenous groups. These must be newly arrived. They're not paired off yet.

Long, tiny braids are abundant.

This young woman manages to achieve a sort of good-time gal effect with hers...

... while this one projects an untouchable innocence.

Barcelona attracts people from all over: Asians, Africans, Americans—a truly cosmopolitan city.

Tourists eat food on the street, something they probably wouldn't do back in Paris.

But we all let our hair down when we're on vacation.

This woman had the most interesting profile...

... with her flattened nose, her enhanced chin and her perfectly pyramidal form descending.

I'm accustomed to seeing young people with hair in vibrant colors not found in nature. The results of their experimenting invariably look bad, usually because of the do-it-yourself dye job.

This mature woman obviously had hers done in an expensive salon, and while startling, it somehow works.

This woman was surveying a sidewalk café, looking for a suitable table.

Humpf. None met her approval, so she sat on some steps and wrote out some postcards.

Finally, we have Mr. Sensitive.

It's hard to imagine he's a European. He looks like a Special Forces drill sergeant. You could land a helicopter on his flattop. Maybe he's a retired American military man. I didn't ask him. I was afraid to.

My original idea was that we would travel in the shoulder seasons. We'd avoid summer crowds and we'd get out of San Miguel during the punishingly hot month of May and the insanity of the Independencía and the stupid San Miguelada in September. Europeans have already figured that out.

Back to the drawing board, I guess. How about April and October?