Hiding here and there on this earth are a few places that unfolds like a fan with surprises, places where you could spend a whole day absorbing the beauty around you and letting it knead the thoughts in your mind into things that are happier, more peaceful, of a greater value and a new beauty. I found a place like this a few weeks ago in Barcelona.
From the entrance, it looks like an ordinary park.
But if you continue on a bit, you see what I like to imagine as a splendid Moorish palace of old standing guard over the park's heart.
The gate's shadow is like a metaphor for the glory of Al-Andalus, now only a memory.
What does the palace watch over? A hedge maze, with some false centers that might make the wayfarer annoyed with the one who planted them there were they not so beautiful, and such welcome places to have a seat and ponder the next move.
The way out. The essence of the labyrinth is hard to capture in a single photograph.
A Greek garden poised at the top of the exit to the maze is the perfect place to celebrate.
A Greek garden poised at the top of the exit to the maze is the perfect place to celebrate.
