I found Barcelona's quiet magic - and magnificent views - high above the city

It's a late Saturday summer afternoon in Barcelona, and my daughter and I have made our way to Tibidabo, in the hills above the city, with my Catalan niece, Emma, and her family. Most people have come up here, via cable car, to visit Tibidabo Amusement Park, its rides arrayed precariously across the hillside. However, we've come to the top of the Temple of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with its Rio-like statue of Jesus, arms spread wide, crowning the 512-metre summit of Mount Tibidabo, above that.

Surprisingly for a big city like Barcelona, there are only a few visitors here, absorbing all-encompassing views over the captivating city, as well as a stylist, photographer and some models busy with a photoshoot. As one model, clad in a crimson evening gown, awaits instructions beneath a neo-Gothic church spire, with the fierce sun refracted by striated cloud behind her, the scene seems somehow emblematic of the Catalonian capital's enduring creative flamboyance, so I promptly capture it on my smartphone.