Barcelona!

In Barcelona we stayed in a modern apartment building in the Eixample district, the early 20th century "extension" to the original old walled city. With two bedrooms and two bathrooms there was plenty of room to spread out. The view was of a central courtyard backed onto by other hotels and apartments so we could get some sense of how people in that area live.




One of our first activities was a walking/tasting tour of the "village" of Gracia, once a separate village one the outskirts of Barcelona but now part of the city albeit with it's own strong identity. Beautiful orange trees, in full fruit, lined many streets of Gracia. There were nine stops on the tour which lasted for four hours - four hours of almost constant eating with walking in between. We visited markets with meat, olive and cheese sellers; an elegant olive oil store; a local "homemade" food kitchen; a typical neighborhood bar for vermouth and snacks and a pastry store for a unique take on Creme Caramel. We also stopped in at the town hall to see some parade characters two of which were giant figures that were carried on the backs of local people during their annual parade. We were also surprised to see Gerry Brownlee included among the caricatures.

Sagrada Familia - by Bea
It's difficult to describe this incredible structure.  The most popular of Gaudi's works in Barcelona, it was very popular and crowded and that was in the off season!
These days it's a well organised money maker, with online ticket bookings and QR code scanning at the gate.  The place is a hive of activity with tours and construction going on together.
Most of you will know something about it or will have visited yourself. In a nutshell, the local community decided to build a cathedral and commissioned architect Del Villar to design it. He commenced work but left the project a year later.  Antonio Gaudi took over in 1884 with quite a different vision! It is still under construction, but Gaudi would not have been surprised.  After all his famous quote was: 'My client is not in a hurry'!!
Things have sped up massively since Pope Benedict consecrated the place in 2010.  There is an estimate that it will be completed in 20 years, in time for the commemoration of Gaudi death.
We met tourists who had last visited 16 years ago. They said they hardly recognized the place.  All those years ago the roof was open to the weather and they only saw two workmen on site.
It's terrific to see the cathedral itself of course, but it was very interesting to also see the models that Gaudi made - he tended to do 3D models instead of drawings - and an onsite workshop with many staff working with new technology, which is something that Gaudi would have totally supported as he was into new ideas.
We took a guided tour, which was the best decision as the place is massive and the ideas behind it are even bigger.
There are several ideas and inspirations that were unique to Gaudi and are seen in almost all his work: religion, humanism, nature and technology/geometric shapes.  The cathedral is packed full of figures and animals in every nook and cranny.  And the catenary curve (a natural curve formed by a weighted string loop) as well as hyperboloid structures (look them up!) were used everywhere.  The enormous columns inside are intended to look like a massive forest and the stained glass windows have been coloured to indicate sunrise/birth and sunset/death, with the different sides of the cathedral also indicating the cycle of life and the bible stories that illustrate them.
The Passion Facade was controversially completed by Josep Subirachs and his team in the 1980's and seems to differ quite radically from Gaudi's style, although it succeeds in creating the stark almost scary effect that Gaudi wanted. Subirachs included a statue based on the last known photo of Gaudi himself.
Declan thought:  'Massively structured and if you looked closely there was lots of detail, like statues and carvings.  Especially of nature'
Afterwards, in the park across the road we had lunch and then spotted a group of local seniors playing what we thought was bowls. On closer inspection it turned out to be 'bitles' where a wooden pin is tossed into the air with the aim of knocking down all the other pins, bar ONE!  They were incredibly good at it.

A Bicycle Tour

The weather was generally mild and with the traffic fairly manageable Barcelona is in the process of becoming more friendly for cyclists. We did a private tour with a guide who took us on a loop tour of some areas of Barcelona we had not yet seen and filled us in on some history we would have not otherwise realised. It was a beautiful day, although a little cold by the end of the tour.



On the tour we saw a magnificent fountain which had actually been one of Gaudi's university projects.





Park Guell

This park, which is on a hill overlooking Barcelona, has many examples of Gaudi's work created for the wealthy industrialist Guell. We pre-booked to avoid the crowds - you are given an appointed time as they only let in 400 people each 30 minute period. Even so on a sunny Sunday afternoon it was very busy.




FC Barcelona and Camp Nou!
By Declan

The highlight of the trip was probably the chance to see Barcelona FC play AC Bilbao at the famous Camp Nou stadium. We saw Messi, Suarez and Neymar Jr play. Each one of them scored one or more goals which ended up a final score of 6-0. The fans were completely crazy and there was a big group of people chanting behind Barcelona FC's goal. Near the start a big banner was pulled down on of the top stands to congratulate Messi for his "Balloon D'Or" award. It was easy to get there since we were early but near the end it was chaos because all of the people were trying to get out at once and the subway train was completely full if you were in there you couldn't move a muscle.




We liked it so much the next day we went back for an exclusive Camp Nou museum and stadium tour. We got to see lots of trophies and the changing rooms, press rooms and manager's boxes of the stadium.

Eating in Iceland, to the seaside, snowy Reykjavik and the Northern Lights!

By Quentin, B and Declan


Generally we found food quite expensive in Iceland, two to three times what we'd pay in Southern Europe, although every meal out was wonderful. There were some quirky things - rather by accident we found a cafe in a rural area where we could sit and watch, through a glass window, the cows in their winter barn below. All while eating beefburgers and finishing with icecream! There were also some hints of Iceland's whaling past, and present. The house we stayed in had what could only have been a rib from a blue whale outside and there were some disturbing dishes on the menu, which we decided not to try... and a warning about the possibility of shot in the Icelandic Goose which turned out to be true! We were also puzzled by the way some bread was sliced.








After having visited many of the major attractions in the south west of Iceland we decided to set off and explore the coast. Although we hadn't seen much direct sunshine on this trip we were right into the setting sun, setting slowly from about 2:30pm until 4 that is, and it was hard on the eyes. Coastal Iceland was very flat, unlike the hills we'd become used to. We ended up in the small fishing village of Stokkseyri. There wasn't a lot there but we walked on the pier, made funny shadows in the setting sun and had lovely hot chocolates at a cafe which was more like somebody's living room. The uncut, and delicious cakes, made us think perhaps we were the first visitors all day even if it was by then late afternoon. There was a recreation of a 19th Century fisherman's cottage built to commemorate the life of an early female fisherperson.  Covered in turf in the style of traditional Icelandic cottages, it was snug to say the least and a reminder of how tough life had been.




Our last full day in Iceland we spent in Reykjavik, the world's Northernmost Capital City according to the t-Shirts. It had begun snowing just as we left the house and snow fell gently for most of the day. There were still plenty of Christmas decorations up and it all seemed so perfect - if we lived Iceland we'd keep our decorations and lights up also. There seems to be a tradition of lighting your house in winter and they even illuminate the graves in the cemeteries with colored fairy lights. Our first stop in Reykjavik was at the Cathedral. More austere than those we'd seen in Italy it was still a grand 1920s building. Then onto the shopping streets which were mostly filled with souvenir stores but everything was of high quality if quite expensive. By the time we came to leave the car was covered in snow bar a small area on the windscreen where the parking warden had brushed the snow off to see if we had an up to date "pay and display" parking receipt.



The Northern Lights by Bea
We had gone to Iceland to fulfill Quentin's dream.  When he found out I wanted to see Pompeii, he mentioned Iceland. I said ' What for?' and he said 'The Northern Lights'.  That was the beginning of what turned out to be the star adventure of our trip.
Although Declan has had not one, but TWO Icelandic friends, I had never thought about going there.  Well once you start the research you can't believe you haven't been there already!
Iceland is so incredible. It's heaving with natural beauty, but in a different way to New Zealand.  The chance of seeing the lights was high because of busy solar activity, but there is always the cloud that could obscure your view...After arriving, we had clouds for several days.
On the second night, after dinner, we pressed our noses to the windows to see what we could see.  Nothing.  Or was it?  What was that odd light patch behind the low cloud?  Was it car lights projected upwards?  Was it a town or a power-plant lighting the sky ever so slightly?  We kept watching and lo and behold, the light patched changed!  That's when we realized we were seeing something.  Very, very faint, but it was something.



That night gave us hope and a couple of nights later, when the cloud had cleared again, we had another go.  It was near midnight and we saw light almost straight away.  Faintly green and pale, but when it started moving in front of our eyes, we knew were were seeing the lights!  We stumbled around the house into the dark, grabbing coats and torches and getting outside onto the deck- into minus 5 degrees - as safely as possible.   I think adrenalin kept us warm!
On our last night, after dinner at about 9pm, we planned to have a dip in the spa pool.  I looked out the window and saw lights straight away!  It was early enough for Declan to join us and so we quickly changed into togs, grabbed the bubbly and dashed across the icey two metres to the pool house.   Then the show really began.  It was distinctly green this time and and the lights drifted like  wafting cloud across the star-lit sky.  At one point it covered as far as we could see left and right, but always low on the horizon. We tinkered with the camera and finally got some approximation of what we were seeing with our naked eye - they are REALLY hard to photograph!

I had been sceptical about going to see the lights, and even more so when I heard how tricky it was to see them when you are there!  But it was worth every minute, and Iceland is so wonderful that even if we hadn't seen them it was a completely wonderful country to visit.