So, finally I went to Barcelona! I have been wanting to see the city for some years now, after I failed to get there when I was living in Spain in 2005. It is beautiful. Walking through the streets I thought about its long history, and about the people who walked the streets hundreds, even thousands of years ago. If I squint my eyes I almost see them… In 218 B.C, the city was conquerred by romans. The architecture shows the roman influence, as well as the following gothic one. Much later in time, around the turn of the eighteenth century, catalan modernism, a version of art noveau put its mark on the city. Antoni Gaudí is the best known architect from this era. In 1883 he planned the construction of the cathedral La Familia Sagrada, which is still under construction today. He is also known for Parque Güell. I love the natural shapes and the fairy tale like, mystique expression. It is like he constructs his inner world for the world to see big scale. Amazing.
Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia, an autonomous region in Spain. Catalonia has its own language, catalan, which is very different from spanish. Catalans have a very strong identity related to their history. During the dictatorship of general Franco, everything catalan was prohibited. After the fall of Franco democracy was reinstated and the catalan identity strengthened. Our guide told us that even if the history and the stories of struggles of the catalans are very old, people still feel strongly about their identity.
I decided to visit the city again sometime, but then in winter. It was difficult to see anything at Parque Güell due to the amount of people blocking the view. Those damned tourists… That is my plan for all those other big cities I would like to see. To go there off season. I hope I will remember…
More photo´s here
This summer I made a trip to Andalucia in the South of Spain. I wanted to repeat the nice holiday I had in France last year, but this year in Spain. I pictured driving around the area discovering new places. Therefor I looked for acommodation a bit outside the most popular tourist areas. Both because I don´t particularly like these kinds of areas and because it is cheaper to stay outside of them mostly. This year I had four travel companions, four lovely chicas to acompany me. We landed in Málaga and drove about 40km north to a little village called Nerja where we had booked two rooms in the really cute little hostel Hostal don Peque. The hostel is owned and run by a french couple who had just packed up everything and gone to Nerja to create a new life. A second life as she told us. The stay was very nice, with rooms brightly decorated by Clara, the owner and roof top terrace breakfasts. The village was pretty with white houses and narrow streets. There are several beaches to choose from, some small and some medium. The view from the beach and towards the city is nice because there are no big hotel buildings close to the beach. Somewhat more of a tourist place than I had imagined though. One of the main attractions was the Cuevas de Nerja. The Nerja caves formed over 200 million years ago. They are described to be like an underground cathedral. There is a stage in the middle of it were they do opera and theatrical plays. I can imagine that to be very nice. It was interesting to visit the caves, but not really dazzling. I made some good photo´s though, look here.
—————-
—————-
The next stop was Almunecar about 30km north of Nerja, where we had rented a little town house with a roof terrace for 10 days. The town is similar to Nerja in the old town, but has a larger more modern part which is not so pretty. The town seems to be a holiday place for the spanish which was nice. Our town house was situated in the old town on top of a hill close to an old castle which was quite picturesque. Unfortunately the beds were horrible with very old uncomfortable mattresses. My bed broke down the first night which made me really annoyed. I ended up sleeping on the mattress in the living room downstairs. I cannot understand how people can put so little pride into something. If someone pays to stay at your house the least you can do is offer some decent beds. Oh well, I guess I survived. The heat took away more energy than I had thought, and we didn´t get around to hiring a car until less than a week before we were going home. We made a trip to Alhambra in Granada, the 600 year old fortress built by the moorish rulers. It was my second time there. It is a magnificent place with unbelievable palaces and gardens. View some photo´s here. We also made a few trips to Malaga city. The Museo Picasso Málaga was great, absolutely worth a visit. The museum building was beautiful, modern, cool and airy. I particularly like his filigree pencil drawings like this one for example.
—————-
More photo´s from Alhambra here
I didn´t get to to as much traveling around as I had imagined and the heat and the humidity was a bit above my level of comfort, but all in all it was a nice holiday. I might vote for France though if I had to make a choice. Still I think spring or autumn would be better seasons to visit Andalucia, and I´m sure I would have been more taken by it then.
