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Tarragona: Heart And Soul Of Catalunya
It is with an absolute, unbridled delight that I discover that nothing much has changed. Plaça de la Font is absolutely alive, almost every table at every restaurant taken, a stage set up in front of the grand Town Hall in readiness for tonight’s show of traditional dancing, the atmospheric square packed with families where small children, teenagers and grandparents mix as if socialising with all ages is the most natural thing on Earth. It’s gone 11pm and the children still have boundless energy as they ride stabilised bikes, burst balloons and indulge in games of chase. This is Tarragona, a place I have visited many, many times before and…
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Days In A Small Country: Exploring Andorra
Andorra is the world’s 16th smallest country by area, and the 11th smallest by population, with only just over 75,000 residents in the whole principality. Such is the mountainous terrain of its 180 square miles that while only 1.7% of its surface is arable, there are 350 kilometres worth of ski runs. No prizes for guessing what is the biggest contributor to Andorra’s GDP then. One of the reasons we were looking forward to Andorra is that we don’t know much about it. OK, so we know that it’s one of Europe’s smallest countries, that it’s a mountain country high up in the Pyrenees with plenty of winter ski resorts,…
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Barcelona And Antoni Gaudi
“Who knows where the road may lead us, only a fool would say Who knows if we’ll meet along the way Follow the brightest star as far as the brave may dare What will we find when we get there” Lyrics from “La Sagrada Familia” by the Alan Parsons Project To visit Barcelona is to enter the world of Antoni Gaudi. What was he? Genius or nut job? Inspired or crazy? And what was his work? Flamboyantly brilliant or belligerently ostentatious? The bravest of designs or art for art’s sake? Inspired architecture or the world’s first Disneyland? Whatever your take on it, he still has everyone talking almost a century…
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Barcelona Revisited
Would it be appropriate to call it culture shock, leaving behind the vineyards, villages and mountains and being transported in a comparative instant to the international tourist maelstrom which is Barcelona’s La Rambla? Well it’s certainly a significant change of scene. The place is absolutely alive with people and activity in exactly the way we remember it, and Barcelona feels as joyous and energetic as ever. It’s a fairly long time now since either of us have been to Barcelona, and we haven’t previously been here together, so this is a reacquaintance with different memories for each of us. Some things have changed down La Rambla since our last visits:…
