Phil Ball in Spain

The first thing you notice, as you approach the Camp Nou, is its rather slumped posture and the threatening wire fences that mark its enormous perimeter, as if visitors are both annoying and inevitable, until they've paid at the ticket offices on the outside, of course. The Bernabeu, on the other hand, has walls that you can touch anytime (should you be so inclined), and sports a pompous façade that pumps out its concrete chest onto the Castellana and announces its preening self-confidence from the outside. The Camp Nou in contrast, is rather more impressive once you're on the inside.