Where only architects dare to tread.

No time to post lately. Every day, it seems, brings a new city: Granada, Seville, and we're now on the bus to Mérida, where we'll we Rafael Moneo's National Museum of Roman Art, probably one of the most important buildings of the last 40 years.

Merida's a small place - probably no more than 75,000 people, though about 2000 years ago it was the capital of the Roman province of Lusitania, roughly corresponding to modern-day Portugal. Today, it's a regional capital, but pretty sleepy in general. When I went up to the window at the bus station to make sure all 29 of us would be able to buy tickets to Merida, the ticket agent looked at me, puzzled: "What is there in Merida?" she asked.

"A museum," I replied. This response did not seem satisfactory to the woman behind the counter, though she sold us the tickets anyway.