Tag: Spain

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Photography Travel Blog

Into the Mountain Montserrat

Montserrat

If you open the Sunday edition of our local paper The Strait Times, you shall see a write up on Spain with a picture on a location exactly the same as my entry last week.  What a coincidence.

Ever since I have started writing this Sunday series on our trip to Spain, there are two questions often asked.  (1) Why takes so long to process the photos?  (2) How come you are not inside the album?

To be honest, selecting the photos and processing them is easy.  They are more or less as they are except the few artistic spins to make them unique.  It is looking through my handwritten notes and the materials we have collected in order to (a) write a journal of the day, (b) put in a proper caption for each photo (and try to make the story gels), and (c) write a blog entry – that takes time.  I also try not to repeat the contents for these different channels because there may be readers who read (a), (b), and (c).  But I enjoy doing that.  As in why I am not inside the album.  Well, Cynthia has been taking my pictures as we toured.  And I may share them towards the end of this series.  Also, towards the end of the trip, I suddenly remember I have brought along a tripod.  So you will see more of ‘our’ photos later.

As usual, below are the options you may wish to read more about our day 3 journey – a visit to a monastery in Montserrat and more.

  • A photo collection for day 3 of our trip to Spain (35 photos with captions)
  • A journal written in details on what we did and more (approx 1,000 words)
  • A highlight of the photos below (8 photos – and for Facebook readers, please view the original post)

Enjoy!

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Photography Travel Blog

Second Day Is All About Gaudí

Sagrada Familia in Year 2009

It is hard to imagine someone who has passed away more than 80 years ago have left behind such a legacy that – to me – so ahead of his or even our time.  Gaudí stands as one of the most original architects and his signature design of curvature inspired by nature’s creation can be seen in and around Barcelona.  And on day two, Cynthia and I have spent much time at the Church Sagrada Família that is still under construction as well as the apartment Casa Milá “La Pedrera” (World Heritage Site) – both by Gaudí.  Below are the options you may wish to read more about our day 2 journey.

  • A photo collection for day 2 of our trip to Spain (78 photos with captions)
  • A journal written in details on what we did and more (approx 1,500 words)
  • A highlight of the photos below (12 photos – and for Facebook readers, please view the original post)

This batch of photos and write-ups took me longer than anticipated.  Probably because of the contents as well as the number of photos taken on that day.  For next entry, I will try to stick to my Sunday publication date.  Sorry for the delay!

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Travel Blog

A Slow Start On The First Day As We Arrived At Barcelona

Our first tapas in Spain

Cynthia and I can hardly be qualified as seasoned or power travellers.  Looking back on the first day of our trip, we were taking things very easy, exploring Barcelona in leisure as we went.  Everything in Europe was a new experience.  From the handling of euro currency to the transport system in Barcelona.  And since we are studying Spanish, what better tourist destination for us to visit than Spain?

On the first day of our trip, we toured the city under the scorching sun on top of a tourist bus so highly recommended by my friends at work.  I am not sure how the Europeans can take the heat.  In Spanish, there is a phrase called tomar del sol, which literally translates to ‘take the sun’ or sunbathing in English.  Below are the options you may wish to read more about our day 1 journey.

  • A photo collection for day 1 of our trip to Spain (38 photos with captions)
  • A journal written in details on what we did and more (approx 2,000 words)
  • A highlight of the photos below (8 photos – and for Facebook readers, please view the original post)

I hope you enjoy the photos and the journal.  The next batch of materials should be out next Sunday.  Stay tuned!

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Diary Travel Blog

So We Are Back From Our Spain Holiday Trip

Me and Cynthia Inside A Museum

Every holiday is an unique journey.  Cliche as it sounds, it’s true.  It’s what one takes home from each journey that makes some journeys more memorable than others.  This trip to Spain is probably one of our more adventurous trips so far.  Not that we are a pair of adventurous travellers to start with.  But one that is enough for us to look back and have a good laugh on some of the silly things we did, shocking experiences we have encountered.  And etc.

I took more than 2,200 photos, afterI have deleted 20% of what I took on the fly.  Sometimes I wonder.  If we stitch up all the photos every human being has taken, the same monument taking in millions of different perspectives, along a time scale in continuum, under different lighting conditions, and etc., would that be a fair representation of  our modern history?  Too much Cubism in my head.  Thanks to the unending lineup of museums Spain has to offer.

We hardly plan our holiday to the minute details, like some do.  Not that we are so lazy that we just figure things out at the last minute, the absolute moment some decisions have to be made – though I must admit that there is some element of truth in it – to us, there are so much uncertainties and things that we don’t know about what we have yet to experience.  So, we research on our options such as where to stay, what to do, and we exercise our options as we journey.

So, what have I taken home from this trip?  I think I have got to know myself a bit better, know Cynthia a bit better.  Having some basic command of Spanish – however little it is – certainly makes our trip a lot more interesting.  We manage to decipher some basic words and signs and we learn along the way.  And I think I have lived in this region – unfortunately – long enough to look at the rest of the world with a certain lens, a certain set of assumptions.  It is good to be displaced out of the box during oversea trips, I think.  Keep observing, keep learning.

For those who are curious on what happened after we’ve landed in Barcelona (for we had no clue when we started our holiday), we did a semi-guided city tour and then rented a car to visit Valéncia, Toledo, and Madrid.  Then we ditched the car and did a self-guided tour within the capital of Spain.  Took a budget flight and visited the island resort of Mallorca.  Rented a car and toured around the island in our own pace.  On the way back, we stole some moments and revisited Barcelona again, briefly.  That pretty much sums up what we did.

Stay tuned for more sharing of photos and day-to-day journey.  I intend to publish an article every Sunday.  Hey, it’s good to be back.

To read the rest of the travel blog entries, please follow this tag.