Gaudi Sights in Spain - direct or detour from France

1 Barcelona

Top spot for seeing Gaudi's gorgeous builings is big city of Barcelona. The Gaudi amazing architecture of Barcelona is a great attraction. Many peopel with homes or holidays in southern France fly to Barcelona because it has so many international flights 9compared to local airports such as Cap dagde which has flights off season only twie a week. It's a two hour drive back to France to Montpallier or Sete and other cities and scenic spots I described in other posts. 

But for me, a stop in Barcelona would be two nights to allow a day looking at the Gaudi buildings. Since he left blueprints for them, with all their curves and oddities, this seems a never ending project and one you can keep re-visitng.

Casa batilo

From Wikipedia under Antoni Gaudi

Description	English: Roof architecture at Casa Batllo
Date	10 August 2008
Source	Own work
Author	Chongming76

2 Bilbao

Aftet or as well as Barcelona, what next?  Divert to Bilbao famous for the Guggenheim Museum or go straight  to northern Spain by car from France or ferry from the UK.  (Ferries from Englan'd Portsmouth and Olymouth offer you a choice, west to Spain's Santander, or east to Bilboa, still only an hour or two apart, but you might prefer one or other as your starting point, depending on time available. If you are keen on photography, you will spend time walking around the outside of the Guggenheim building as well as the inside

We wrote to a friend who lives in Northen Portugal about a hiking holiday in Spain with a side trip to Portugal in a week. He said, why not extend your trip to Portugal to ten days, so that you can have leisurely lunches and not need to rush around. If you are working and have to be back, you can do it all quicker, whistle stop. If you are retired on on a student break, you can take it easy and enjoy and savour it.  

My husband also prefers two nights at each hotel. You have time to let hand washed clothes dry out. You can indulge in the buffet breakfast on day one trying everything that's free or ordering cooked extras. One day two eat only what you like and economise on costs, eating breakfast at a local cafe, by cutting calories, and by saving time.

3 Leon 

We found a great picture on Tripadvisor and image matched it through google image match to check the location.

(I shall add more to this post later. Busy with Singapore Online Dynamic toastmasters on zoom, President Edward Young in Belize.)

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Gaudi's Cathedral and Another Eccentric Cathedral by Martinez in Spain

Martinez

Gaudi's cathedral is not yet finished. He is buried inside it. Gaudi's cathedral is one of the great attractions if you visit Barcelona on the East coast.  The name Gaudi has been given to the street alongside another eccentric Cathedral  The man, the monk, who constructed another cathedral, east of Madrid, without planning permission, from waste materials, has just died. On Sunday November 8th 2021. Aged 96. He, too, like Gaudi, wanted to be buried inside his cathedral. 

He was a Trappist monk. His name was Justo Gallego Martinez. How do you remember his name? As I suspected, Martinez means son of Martin. Wikipedia explains:

'Martínez is the most common surname in the Spanish regions of Navarre, La Rioja, Cuenca and Murcia. ... It originated as a patronymic surname, meaning "son of Martín" (English: Martin).' 

Justo is a Spanish and Portuguese name. It is derived from the Latin Justus. It means, just, honorable or upright. His middle name, Galego, means Galician.

 When he was ill with tuberculosis, he prayed for recovery to 'our lady'. He promised that if he recovered, he would build a cathedral in her honour. He duly recovered. He kept his word and built an extraordinary building.

He had no architectural knowledge or plan. He drew the outline, in his family's field, on the ground. He copied various elements of VIP buildings. The Italian dome of the Vatican. The American lobby of The White House (the one with the neo Greek Portico).

Although he was donated bricks by a nearby brickworks, huge amounts of the building were constructed from recycled materials. Bits of old bicycles. Broken glass. Oil drums for the pillars! Amazingly, the building has been declared architecturally sound, by a recent survey. 

At first, family, friends, and the Catholic church, and local people and VIPs, thought he was ridiculous. Then they had to admit that his building was successful, if odd. 

However, now that recycling is all the rage, his building may be taking it place on the tourist circuit, and amongst buildings which are not just weird, but admired, and to be emulated. 

More pictures and text shortly

Useful Websites

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/eccentric-dies-with-his-115ft-upcycled-cathedral-unfinished-99jlk92nq

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justo_Gallego_Mart%C3%ADnez

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Justo_Gallego

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-12088560

About the author

(About the Author of this blog, Author Angela Lansbury)

BIOGRAPHY

Angela Lansbury B A Hons ACG ALB PM5 EH5 DL5 VC5 
The Author of several books, including  Etiquette For Every Occasion. Wedding Speeches & Toasts. How to be the Best Man. Quick Quotations. Who Said What When.

Blogs travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Club Vice President Public Relations (VPPR), Previous President

Join BHA 1st Wednesday 7pm and 3rd Saturday 2 pm Singapore time 

Vice President Public Relations (VP PR) of Tampines Changkat Advanced;

Secretary of weekly online Singapore International Dynamic Toastmasters Speakers’ Club;

Member and past president of Harrovians toastmasters club, UK; Past member of HOD Toastmasters, London. Past member in Singapore of: Toastmasters Club of Singapore (TCS); Tiarel; and Senja Cashew.

More details from Toastmasters International find a club.

Regular attendee at annual Swanwick Writers’ School, England.

Regular attendee at annual Writers’ Holiday, Wales.

Contributor to poetry readings, and after tea courses on: Speaking On Radio To Promote Books; and Plots And Character.

Winner of many club and area speaking contests in the UK and Singapore.

Language advisor to Empire Toastmasters club in Indonesia.

Language and speech workshops in Singapore.

Speaker on radio and TV in England, Scotland, the USA, and Australia.

Compiler of a school course on public speaking for teachers to prepare pupils for school open days with attending ceremonies before government ministers, Singapore.

Former member of Harrow Writers’ Circle, London, and two writing groups in Singapore.

Angela is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. She would be delighted to link up with new friends.

I  also have a blog on comic poems.

 Please share links to your favourite posts. 

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.

After Angkor Wat, more must see marvels of wonderful weird architecture, UK, France, Spain, India, Mexico, Worlwide

1 France, Hauterives

Ferdinand's Palace. Picture from Wikipedia.

French postman Ferdinand Cheval (French for horse) built this Palace of rocks, in his spare time, working far into the night. He was a widower with a son brought up by godparents. The postman wanted to be buried in his palace but this was not allowed so he built his own mausoleum in a cemetery.

Ferdinand's Mausoleum.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Cheval

://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3004102/Labour-love-Tenacious-postman-spends-33-years-building-impressive-PALACE-pebbles-collected-daily-route.

2 Buddha Park, Vientiane, Laos

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha_Park

Photo by Dezwitzer in Wikipedia, article on Buddha Park, Laos.

3 The Rock Garden of Chandigarh, India

4 Méxiico castle in Xilitla SLP by Sir Edward James, who was born in Scotland.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3004102/Labour-love-Tenacious-postman-spends-33-years-building-impressive-PALACE-pebbles-collected-daily-route.html#ixzz3V2hDbCPo
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

5 Gaudi's Cathedral and block of flats, Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain

6 Philadelphia's Magic Gardens, USA

wiki/Philadelphia%27s_Magic_Gardens

If you can't travel so far:

Shell grotto, Margate.

Shell house, Framingham, Norfolk, at English coast village with seafood festival and RNLI exhibition of pier with lifeboat (see my previous post). We tried to get in to see it on a Sunday about noon but it is manned by volunteers and no sign of opening time so we had to drive off for lunch on our way home to London.


For more locations and photos:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Visionary_environments

This list includes some spooky catacombs of mummified bodies. 

The most modern and uplifting suggestions is the Gardens By The Bay in Singapore. The nearest MRT train station is currently Bayfront and the other station Gardens by the bay will be open by 2021.


If you like staying in unusual places, and I do, there's the Crazy House in Vietnam:
.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hằng_Nga_Guesthouse

Tripadvisor has collections of unusual hotels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardens_by_the_Bay Angela Lansbury BA Hons, travel writer and photographer, author, speaker.
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