Skip to main content

Barcelona, Spain


Our absolute highlight was the Basílica de la Sagrada Família or simply La Familia. Construction started in the 1880’s and it is scheduled for completion in 2026. It is the masterpiece and life’s work of architect Antonio Gaudi. The building is organic, audacious, crazy and brilliant and almost every detail came out of one man’s imagination.
The eastern façade was completed early in the construction and is more traditional in its appearance depicting 3 events from the life of Christ: Birth, Death and Resurrection.

The western facade is modern with sculptures depicting the passion of Christ.

These sculptures are the work of artist Josep Maria Subirachs and his team. They began in the 1990's and took over twenty years to complete them with each figure carved in situ.

The Familia is hard to photograph from the outside due to obstacles such as fences, trees, roads and people. Inside I found it impossible to capture the scale and feeling of light. I am not religious but this is truly a magnificent building.

Other highlights of Barcelona were:
The 1992 Olympic arena and surrounds.

The Mirador, its is a monument to Christopher Columbus and stands near the maria from where he left to discover the Americas.

Walking through the streets and finding the central market with its fantastic presentation and quality of produce.

Other Gaudi designed buildings: Casa Milla

and  Casa Batllo with its roof that remind me of a dragons back.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to take a Van-life gap year

How to take a Van-life gap year You don’t just wake up one day, book tickets, fly to Europe and pick up the first campervan you see.  There is a lot of planning and organizing to make it happen. For us, it was a concept that we worked towards over two years and got serious about in the last 6-8 months.  Van purchase In researching vans, we learned that we could buy one, but couldn't insure or register it without being either European residents (read: address, bank account and utility bills in the country we wished to buy the van in) or set up a company to own, insure and register the van. Now this is not straight-forward as one needs to be able to navigate the system from the other side of the world and in another language (as vans in the UK / Ireland were considerably more expensive than on the continent). There are a number of companies who provide services in this space.  We chose EuroCampingCars, because they are based in France and deal in late model v
2 comments
Read more

Highland Games

Arriving in Scotland we saw Highland Games advertised in almost every town that we visited. The problem for us was the events were either the week before or in 4 days time; never at a time convenient for us. Our luck changed on the Scottish Borders town of Peebles; all the stars aligned.  Highland Games are when local communities get together and celebrate Scottish culture. All Highland games include: a pipe band competition, highland dancing, and traditional heavy events including caber tossing, hammer throwing, and the crowd favourite of haggis hurling.  Pipe bands and dancing are open to all ages and cover a range of abilities Shot putt is the same as the Olympic event but competitors are free to use whatever technique works for them. Some use a standing throw, others use a run up or spinning preparation.   Hammer throwing, unlike its Olympic equivalent the hammer has a wooden handle and the athlete does not spin in a circle before throwing it. The athlete us
2 comments
Read more

Traditional Cider Production

How do you find out how cider is authentically made? One method is you go to Somerset visit a cider pub ie one that has a license to only sell cider. No beer or spirits here, thank you very much. Then you settle in for a few pints. Once the patrons have become accustomed to you and you can understand their west-country accents you ask them where and how to make this happen.  We were at the Tuckers Grave Cider House when a cidery name was thrown out to us by a local. “Go and see Roger Wilkins he makes good cider and he makes it the old way” we were told with a toothless grin “but he lives in a back lane and you will ne’er find him”. Nothing like a challenge for Tanya (navigator). Other patrons said that the Wilkins Farmhouse Cidery was the most authentic in all of Somerset. The next day we phoned Roger and were given directions.     Driving down tiny laneways with mirrors on both sides of the van hitting the overgrown hedgeways we found the farm. On the high side of the l
2 comments
Read more