A Compendium of Life » Spain

TKD in Spain

andrew — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:06:47 +0000

Molly recently got back from a Tae Kwon Do workshop. It sounds like she had a great time. The workshop was in a beautiful spot on the southern coast of Spain. There was plenty of time to enjoy the water and the sun in between workouts.

Apparently, they did some TKD outside of the workshop as well…

Molly took this amazing picture on the beach at night with a really long exposure. That’s actually the moon in the sky!

Here’s the TKD crew before they got back on the plane.

graffiti

andrew — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 22:37:26 +0000

I was intrigued by the street art in Barcelona and took this series of photos. It was remarkable how carefully the artists kept to their metal canvases; it was very rare to see paint on the stone walls. I suspect much of the art was only inspired by illicit graffiti and was actually sanctioned by store owners.

All you knit is love

andrew — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 22:41:22 +0000

Well, I’m coming to the end of the Barcelona pictures. Actually, there are lots more, but I’m getting tired of going through them.

Art on the street in Barcelona was pretty incredible. I took a series of pictures of graffitti-style work. Maybe someday I’ll post the rest, but this one is my favorite:

On that note, here are a couple more pictures:

I’m off to read some Terry Pratchett now, and in that spirit I’ll leave you with this completely random photo from Barcelona.

Fountains

andrew — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 22:28:05 +0000

One evening, we set out to see the fountains near the Catalan art museum which Larkin had recommended. The kids had seen some photos of them lit up at night in one of our books. When we arrived, we discovered that the fountains are only illuminated on Friday and Saturday nights. After some initial disappointment, we spent some enjoyable time exploring the area.

The escalators here were installed to make the area more accessible for the Olympics. We couldn’t resist going on them the wrong way…

Afterwards we noticed the video cameras above the stairs.

This is the Catalan art museum. We actually tried to go here one day, but the streets were closed off due to a formula one race and we ended up at the Miro museum instead. Serendipity, I suppose.

miro

andrew — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 22:17:49 +0000

Everyone agreed that the Joan Miro museum was one of the highlights of the trip. Part of the appeal was that by this point everyone was fully recovered with their nauseating illness, but I think Miro’s art is particularly accessible and interesting. His use of primary colors combined with black and white is terrific. I wish we could have taken pictures in the museum, though I can understand the reasons this is frowned upon.

I encountered this sculpture while jogging through the city.

Sage took these two pictures in the rooftop sculpture gallery:

What do you call a fish with no eyes?

andrew — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 22:07:39 +0000

The kids have been enjoying this joke recently and then we saw this great sculpture on the beach in Barcelona. The answer to the riddle is at the end of this post, so scroll down to find out the answer.

Here are a couple of other cool sculptures found on the beach:

And finally, the answer to the riddle. A fish with no eyes is a fsh.

hee hee.

Expresso and mushrooms…

andrew — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 22:01:08 +0000

Another thing I enjoyed about Barcelona was the coffee. There’s expresso machines on every corner. There’s nothing like starting your day with a double expresso and a fresh croissant.

In the old section of town where we were staying, there were a couple of little grocery shops on each block. The selection of fresh fruit was remarkable and we thoroughly enjoyed the ripe mangos, papayas, plums, apples, bananas, and more. In the market near La Rambla, we discovered an even wider fruit selection including cherimoyas (which I’d first seen in New Zealand many years ago) and lots of other fruit that I didn’t recognize.

Here are a couple of pictures from the market.

I particularly enjoyed the selection of mushrooms. I bought three big bags!

It was great having a kitchen in the apartment, especially after we discovered the market. I enjoyed cooking the mushrooms with some pasta, olives, spinach, and green beans. Oh, the cheeses are nice too. England has a great assortment of cheddars and some nice stiltons, but there aren’t that many other choices. We ate in a few restaurants as well, sampling the paella which has always been one of Molly’s favorites.

The kids, though, weren’t so impressed with Catalan cuisine. Sage said she couldn’t wait to get back to England so she could go to a pub for dinner. I guess it’s hard to compete with fried stuff when you’re five. Their favorite place is called “The Bonny Prince” where your digest your fish and chips and peas while going down the slide.

Oh, well.

Strong women

andrew — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 21:42:07 +0000

There is a lot of public art in Barcelona, a large part of what makes Barcelona so unique. Here are some pictures of the family riding the lions at the base of the statue of Columbus, who is pointing to the New World he discovered 500 years ago.

Somehow it is hard not to look incredibly strong when you are perched upon the back of a massive lion.

And this statue reminds me of Northampton, “where the women are strong, and so is the coffee.”

Rambling through Barcelona

andrew — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 10:50:52 +0000

One of the most enjoyable things in Barcelona was roaming the streets in the old downtown area. La Rambla has been called the most beautiful street in the world.

We enjoyed watching the mimes perform, smelling the sweet scents from the flower stands, and generally watching the world pass by.

Here’s a sampling of the mimes we saw:

Many of the streets in the old part of town were closed to traffic other than pedestrians. There are lots of fashionable shops in this part of the city. It was buzzing with energy.

But there were plenty of little quiet streets too.

Another spot we spent a lot of time was in the Placa de l’Angel, sitting outside the contemporary art museum watching the skateboarders, though you can’t make them out in this picture. This plaza was just a block away from the apartment where we stayed.

Here’s a nice shot of the interior of the museum:

Gaudi

andrew — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 13:07:17 +0000

Antoni Gaudi’s architectural works are, to me, one of the most interesting aspects of Barcelona. While I’m not very knowledgeable about architecture, it’s clear that he was brilliant. His work is scattered around the city, but our favorite spot was Parc Guell. The kids are sitting on the bench that winds around the edge of the plaza. I love the mosaics here.

The dragon lizard near the entrance to the park is amazing!

The next two were on the ceiling underneath the plaza.

I love the way he mixes elements. The stones are so organic and natural, while the mosaics seem slightly moorish. I guess his style developed out of a modified Gothic style of architecture, but he also integrated the parabolic arch, hyperboloid shapes, and the flow of water into a fantastical world.

I’m hoping these pictures will inspire me to use the ceramic pieces we’ve been saving in a box in the basement.

These arches are just amazing.

We ate lunch on top of this, looking out over the city.

This is an apartment building Gaudi design called La Pedrara.

This one is called Casa Battlo.