June 9th: Barcelona Part 2

We wanted to get an overall feel of Barcelona, so where better to start than with Gaudi’s architecture, and the city’s no.1 attraction the unfinished cathedral Sagrada Familia. Gaudi worked on this, on and off, for 43 years until his death in 1926 (run over by a tram). He based his designs on natural forms- trees & plants, crystals, shell patterns etc. and work is currently proceeding towards completing the cathedral using these principles. It is planned to finish it by 2030. The next photo shows some tree-like main support pillars that are of the recent construction.


Gaudi’s own work is much more ornate, and presumably accounts for the 43 years he put into it. The photo below illustrates the wealth of detail above the entrance doors in the main facade that is part of the original structure.


More Gaudi below – a block of apartments in the centre of the city. Note the flowing lines and organic appearance. It is remarkable to think this building was constructed in the early 1900’s.


This one below, again, is all curves, but more highly decorated with tiles.



As we said in the previous blog, Barcelona is an elegant city and the final pic of the fountains, and Jane, in the Placa de Catalunya sort of sums it up. Pity about the yellow barrier, but this is a “warts and all “ show, folks.

June 7th: Barcelona

All major ports in Spain seem to claim theirs was the departure point for Christopher Columbus’ discovery of America. Barcelona is no exception and has a huge commemoration column to prove it!

Starting at Christopher Columbus on the waterfront, we walked up the most famous street, which is called the Rambla. There are stalls, artists and street performers everywhere, most quite unusual and amusing, but what a way to earn a living! The clown below roamed around making a nuisance of himself by e.g. putting his wig on bald passers-by and startling women with a whistle. We watched him while having coffee at a pavement café and were much tickled. If not for the clown’s gear, he would surely have been arrested.

The Rambla itself is full of elegant buildings, like the Opera house. The picture below is of a house decorated with classical style figures and objects.

We walked from the Rambla a short way into the Gothic Quarter, the oldest part of the city that houses the cathedral and many lovely squares. The lovely square in the photo below is Jane.

One more for the road: a medieval courtyard with a classical guitarist who was very good. It’s a sad comment that he was getting fewer donations than the clown!

Picasso Museum next stop, but obviously no photos allowed. The museum was laid out in the chronological order of Picasso’s life (1881-1973), from his early roots as a portrait painter through his blue period and on to cubism. Apart from the portraits, we were generally rather baffled by his work, but it was a really interesting experience.
Barcelona came across as a clean, stylish and vibrant city, with plenty to see. We only scratched the surface but we’ll report more after our next visit tomorrow.

June 3rd: Moving On

We have said several time we would like to see Barcelona, so here we are. Not exactly in Barcelona, but 30 miles south in the small town of Vilanova with a good rail link.

The campsite is huge, 1,000 pitches, but the terrain is hilly and it’s split into areas so it doesn’t seem too overwhelming. It’s even got a small zoo as well as the obligatory large swimming pool (x 2), supermarket, restaurant etc.

The picture shows Vilanova - the name means “new town”. It’s a pleasant if unremarkable medium-size town laid out in a grid system. No, I don’t think it looks like Huntingdon with trees.

May 20th: Bol Nuevo

Boll Nuevo is a small seaside town near Mazarron, after which the tarmac road is replaced by a dirt road that continues along the coast. Bol Nuevo itself has a fine sandy beach and a campsite right on the beach. The pitches are, however, small and contain an obstacle course of trees.

The track follows round some picturesque bays, see photo, where the red rocks look particularly striking. With so many little inlets and coves along this coastline, it offers good cover for illegal immigration. The local press often reports the police or customs picking up their usually much overloaded boats, which must have travelled over 100 miles from the North African coast. There are, however, quite a number of North Africans, mainly Moroccans, legitimately working in Spain, in the tomato greenhouses, for example.

Other furtive characters can more frequently be spotted in these little bays: the nudists. They are allowed to use a designated strip of coast (get it – “strip” !!) along from Bol Nuevo, and are all males, sometimes to be seen striking a pose in a high visibility position. The walking group tends not to stop for lunch breaks at these locations as it puts you off your sausage sandwiches.

May 15th: A Surreal Experience!

The photo above is of a dead palm tree and a small thriving one, taken on one of our walks. Nothing much out of the ordinary. Now using the same photo and applying a photo-shop programme, you get:

May 12th: The Mines Part 2

Going on an organised walk this time, we saw some more obscure areas in these long-established mines. The photo below shows an original Roman mine-working and, although not visible on the picture, a close examination revealed the chisel marks made by those ancient miners. Working conditions must have been abysmal, but then that description would apply to mining of any era.

This could almost be one of those soda lakes in Africa. As it is, it’s an evil chemical residue left from the mining operations. Anyone who falls in instantly dissolves.

May 9th The Hill in the Back Yard

This is the hill directly behind the campsite. It doesn’t look much as hills go, but it’s become the campsite initiation test and you can expect to be frequently challenged with, “Have you been up the hill yet”. We hadn’t, so decided it was time to join the club.

Well, let me tell you, it’s steeper than it looks, and it took one hour and ten minutes of puffing and panting. That’s the view of the campsite from the top, and the bay beyond. The white surfaces that look like concrete are in fact plastic tomato greenhouses and are visible over large areas from any elevated point in this part of Spain. We don’t know what happens to the produce because we haven’t seen any plastic tomatoes on sale locally.

This photo is also from the top of the hill and is looking down on the nearest village, Isla Plana. The island you can see is the “Isla” part of the name. It contains a good variety of shops including a quirky department store cum Aladdin’s Cave called Pepelino’s. Here you can buy anything from a tube of beads to a large anchor.
At the top we noticed many swallowtail butterflies. The picture shows the only one that stayed still long enough to get snapped.