Ten Level Human Tower in Spain, more in Mumbai and Chile

Why and Where Did It Start
Human towers are feats of teamwork as well as endurance and a spectacle for a festival, a competition.

Heights
It's not just about trust, strength, endurance, teamwork. This is not a sport for those afraid of heights. How high can you go?

Judging A Contest
How do you judge a contest? You have to build the tower neatly with nobody dropping out as you build it or dis-assemble it.

Teamwork
Teamwork? The people at the bottom are a larger group creating a cone, yet their faces look quite exhausted and strained as they support the weight of those standing and climbing above. You can't lean back, move, you have to stay in position. The lightest are at the top with a child at the pinnacle.

Speed in Contests
The quicker you can climb up, the quicker you can beat the record, beat another team, and save the shoulders below of the strain.

I must admit I would not want one person standing on my shoulders, let alone a tower of ten.

Where To Watch
A ten level human tower has just been achieved. If you like human displays you can watch the video. The video was on Red Bull TV. I shared it on my Facebook page.

Where did it happen?
Vilafranca del Penedès, Tarragona, Spain.
October 4 2016.
Video on the BBC.
www.thehumantower.com

Villafranca is also known for chocolate coloured eggs, not dyed but from Penedesenca chickens laying chocolate coloured eggs, and the wine museum. P e n e d e s is a wine area, one hour south west of Barcelona. P e n e d e s (I am inserting spaces because autocorrect prefers the word pennies) is known for cava (bubbly) as well as red, white and dessert wines.

Where Worldwide?
Teams train all over the world, in Spain in Europe, in South America in Santiago and Valparaiso, Chile, in Asia in Mumbai, India.
Another took place in Mumbai, India, trained by an enthusiast. (Mumbai used to be called Bombay, beautiful bay in Portuguese, on the west coast of India.)

India
On aug 17 the BBC reported that a Mumbai court had banned children from under age of 18 as it was deemed dangerous and also banned towers too high, not over 20 feet, six metres.

* India
* Chile
* Spain
Check spelling of v i l a f r a n c a. Autocorrect keeps changing it to double ll.

Villafranca, Catalonia, Spain
* Wine Museum
* Chocolate coloured eggs
* Human Tower competition

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Barcelona and Catalan Gastronomy: trails from art, Dali and Gaudi to wine and dine with almonds and Cava i

Flag of Spain

The Catalan Tourist Board has given out a fascinating list of facts supporting the news that Catalonia is declared European Region of Gastronomy 2016. In June 2015 they opened the Mediterranean Wine Road, recovering the route used by the Romans. If you get the ap, it guides you around the region and promotes visits to sites.

An ad on the tourist board's site says you can spend a day at the Torres company winery. Torres is Spanish for tower.

The region also has a huge number of Michelin starred restaurants. Local foods include almonds, honey and clementines.

Girona has an amusing custom of building human towers. The men stand on each other's shoulders. The old streets of Girona feature in a later series of the popular TV series Game of Thromes.

Other cultural routes through the region allow you to follow Christian sites such as the Cistercians, or Jewish Catalonia History, in Catalan called Catalunya J u e v a. I had to put spaces between the letters because the spell checker wants to turn the word into nueva. I used Google translate and read about the gravestones and the mikva and a door with a mezuzah and places of refuge.

Most people would think of flying into Barcelona and seeing the Salvador Dali museums with his surrealist paintings, such as his Christ on the cross - there are three Dali sites, and the Gaudi cathedral with Gaudi's swirling curves and statues, and other Gaudi sites.

Here's my list of must see/visit places:
Dali museum
Dali
Dali
G a u d i cathedral (oh no - spell check wants to turn the name into Saudi!)
If you aren't planning to visit in the next year, have a look around the website now, and maybe wait for a trip to Spain for the opening in 2016 of the Ferrari Museum.

More details from:
catalunya.com
http://www.catalunya.com/routes/catalunya-jueva-24-1-3 (Jewish Catalonia - I used Google translate)

(More information being added. Come back later.)
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. 

Spanish Tourist Sights in Barcelona and Winery visits in Catalonia: Cava winery tours in Catalonia, Spain

Barcelona is famous for the Dali museum and Gaudi buildings. Barcelona is the chief city of Catalonia region, which is famous for Cava. After you've seen the essential tourist sites, while there, you have the opportunity to visit a winery and learn about Cava.

Let's be clear about sparkling wine. The king of sparkling wines, the most expensive, is Champagne which comes from France. From Spain we get sparkling wine, Cava. From Italy we get Prosecco.

Cava is the Catalan word for cellar or wine cellar; think of it as the cave where the wine is stored.

Codorniu runs a shuttle bus from three pickup points in Barcelona for a small charge, except in the month of August. Why are they not operating in August, the height of the tourist season? I supposed it must be because the French and Spaniards shut down shops, restaurants and businesses in August. (Paris is dead. Everybody local is away from the big cities at the seaside.) Or because the vineyard picking season starts in September with winemaking going on apace until After Xmas, so they take their holidays in August.
This vineyard offers a variety of optional packages including lunches.

Handy websites on wines and vineyard tours
http://www.visitascodorniu.com/en/ (Shuttle bus from Barcelona.)
http://www.amigosdelasbodegas.com/bodegas/bodegas-bilbainas/?lang=en&ids=1 (Winery tour; Haro in Rioja region.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enotourism (Looks like Ecotourism but it's Ecotourism which is to do with wine.
http://www.spainfoodandwinetourism.com

Wine terms on bottles of wien from Spain
joven - juvenile, young, released for drinking straight away, not matured in oak (barrels),  pronounced (Ho - venn)
the bordeaux barrel which they can a b a r r i q u e is 25 cases of wine, 300 bottles, 325 litres - the most common side also used in

(Chianti region of Italy uses in T u s c a n y b o t t e - oak barrels or casks of 500-700 litres)
NB A slightly larger barrel in appearance can be much larger in volume.

Barrels start small, then you get casks, and the largest are vats, which are traditionally oak to give the smokey aroma and flavour, or modern ones of steel - or even concrete.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, speaker.