During July I will be joining in with Becky’s SimplyRed Squares.
Red Squares in July
Category: Spain
Red Squares in July
Flashback Friday #5
This is a bit of a cheat as the original post wasn’t written on this date, but in April 2017, however several people expressed a desire to have another look around this beautiful site in Barcelona so I hope Fandango doesn’t mind. The April date coincided with another post I wanted to return to.
This breathtakingly beautiful site is full of wonderful mosaics, colours, sculptures, windows, artistic design and architectural details from the modernist era.
First I will show you the map of the site again so you can see where the pavilions are situated and then we’ll take a stroll around the site.
After going through the entrance gate with our pre-booked tickets we found ourselves following the underground tunnel which brought us out just in front of the Casa D’Operacions (Sant Cosme and Sant Damia). For what felt like an eternity both my daughter and I were stunned into silence as we gazed around us. From the front we were already in awe of the craftsmanship we had seen, but we didn’t expect such beauty to continue so meticulously.
Flashback Friday #4
In January 2017 I wrote several posts about the amazing Sagrada Familia which I visited with my daughter on a mother/daughter holiday to Barcelona in October 2016. A most wonderful trip even if it was quite exhausting!
On 11 July 2010, the Sagrada Familia was consecrated by Pope Benedict XVI and elevated to the status of a basilica. It is not, as some assume, a cathedral as it is without a bishop’s headquarters. But the huge dimensions of the interior is worthy of that status.
Stepping inside the Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família is like stepping into an enchanted forest. Tall trees towering above us; their branches creating a canopy. The streams of coloured light; the verticality and the enormous, seemingly empty space takes your breath away. At first I didn’t know what to look at, where to begin the tour, what to focus my camera on. Double-storey height windows flood the space with a light never before seen within a church.
The nave is a sight to behold. A work of mathematical genius with natural light flooding in through clear glass leaded panels to allow as much light in as possible.
The columns are modelled after a forest and form a light canopy of palm leaves.
I’m not going to go into all the symbolism of the basilica, you can find that out for yourself, instead I shall just let you have a look at some of the bits that caught my eye and where I could actually get a shot without dozens of people in the way. Continue reading Flashback Friday #4
home thoughts from abroad
Home thoughts from abroad is a new series on Travel Words featuring a single photograph that reminds me of a country visited and showing something that uniquely identifies it as being ‘abroad’.
A more recent visit to Europe on a ‘Mother/Daughter’ trip and the place we probably went through every day. The Plaça de Catalunya, a large plaza surrounded by monumental buildings, is Barcelona’s busiest square. It is located between the old city (Ciutat Vella) and the nineteenth century Eixample district. And has lots of pigeons!
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