Mid-life gap year Tanya and Craig

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 ...

Our Madrid adventure started at the Puerta del Sol, a large public square in the centre of Madrid. Exiting the railway station we saw the statue of the bear and the strawberry tree. The statue is a representation of the emblem on the coat of arms of the city. Next stop was Kilometre Zero, which now contains a plaque, but in its day was where all distances in the Spanish world were measured from. We walked past the Palacio Real de Madrid (the royal palace) and the Madrid Cathedral to Templo de Debod. In 1960 the construction of the Aswan Dam in Egypt meant many significant sites were to be lost below the water. Spain provided knowledge and assistance to relocate many of these. Egypt thanked Spain by donating the 2 nd Century BC Temple which now stands in a park in Madrid. We spent the rest of the day walking the streets marvelling at the ornate buildings, stopping for beer / wine and tapas when the mood took us. Day 2. We headed st raight to the Reina Sophi...

From 700AD to the mid 1400’s the Moors occupied the Iberian Peninsula. They came from northern Africa and bought their own culture, food and religion. Their impact can still be seen everywhere in Southern Spain. Seville is one of Southern Spain’s premier cities. It is renowned for its architecture, food, orange trees and flamenco dancing. It is the city from which the Spanish sailed to and from the new world; Seville is a stunningly beautiful, vibrant city.  The Andalusian or Seville orange was introduced by the Moors for their scent and aesthetics. They are tart and more suitable for making marmalade than eating. Across the region they are planted everywhere that an ornamental tree could be planted. The Alcazar is a former royal residence built in the post Islamic Christian era but the Moorish influences are undeniable. Every turn, every view, every archway, every tile, even the stone floor has a noteworthy beauty factor.  The Seville cathedral is...

Often in our travels we visit a place and are truly wowed! Batalha Portugal is one of those places. Bathalha literally meaning Battle was founded in 1385 after the Battle of Aljubarrota. On one side was an army of 30,000 Spaniards vying to take the Portuguese throne. The other side (Portuguese) lead by Dom (King) Joâo with his army of 6500; won the battle. In mid fight Dom Joâo prayed and summoned the power of God, promising to build a superb abbey in return for victory.  Most of Dom Joâo’s monumental abbey formally known as Manueline Mosteiro de Santa Maria da Vitoria (Batalha Abbey) was completed by 1434 with 15th and 16th century expansions and additions.  The stonework on the abbey is of a detail which would usually be associated with lace, not stone.  The ochre coloured limestone building reaches to the sky with its intensely decorative pinnacles and parapets above the extraordinarily high ceiling. The warm light filters through the patterned c...

1971 was the International Year of Conservation. Portugal's contribution was the establishment of its first National Park called Peneda-Geres. It lies on the northern border with Spain and is named after the two mountain ranges it encompasses.  The landscape is harsh and largely inhospitable. There is a reason that this is the last remaining stand of Iberian Wolf in Portugal.   Rising from tight gorges the exposed granite mountains climb to a height of 1500m and beyond. The area has the highest rainfall in Portugal. Combine this with granite rocks and you get thousands of clear running streams and beautiful waterfalls...Just the type that would tempt you to swim on a hot summer’s day, but now it is winter and fortunately the National Park has numerous hot springs. We took advantage of these at Torneiros. The water enters the pool at 50 degrees Celsius; needless to say, we sat at the colder end. It was perfect on a clear day that did not exceed 10 degrees. The Nat...

Before seeing the signs as we drove into town, we'd never heard of "Vila Nova de Foz Coa", a village in the upper Doura Valley (NE Portugal); nor did we know that the region has the largest known display of open-air (ie not cave) Palaeolithic rock art in the world.  It is World Heritage Listed. The rock art is only visible on guided tours taken from the Museum of the Parque Arqueologico do Vale do Coa on the outskirts of the village.  The rock engravings were discovered during a proposed hydro-electric dam environmental impact assessment in the early 1990s. Several thousand rock engravings are etched for 17km along the Coa and tributary valleys. The engravings include thousands of images of four tyes of animals: horses, aurochs (wild extinct ancestor of modern cattle), long horned ibex (wild goat), deer. The images have been dated from 40,000 to 10,000 years ago. The prehistoric engravings are made using three techniques, they are scratched, picked or gouged. So...

Another city that we'd not heard of prior to arriving in Spain. Caceres is a city in western Spain in the Extramadura region.  Being the end of autumn, there were very few tourists so we could explore the old town uninterrupted.  We wandered the old town in a state of elevated curiosity.  Every view was of interest: a juliet balcony; the steep stairways; the narrow and winding passageways; more than 30 towers many with stork nests; a Moorish window in a Renaissance facade; an ornate church; a hidden oasis garden with oleanders and olives; Aztec inspired sandstone murals; plaza mayor; grapevines olive trees, pomegranates, persimmons and almonds, all growing on the surrounding hills.  Caceres is also increasingly becoming a food capital of the world. Modern tapas and shared dining plates is the primary style.  Lunch commences anywhere between 12:30 and 2:30 and service generally finishes around 4pm. Most restaurants don't open again, even for tapas until...