So, from Cinque Terre we went by train to Genova, and then by train (or was it a bus?) to Milan, where we flew to Madrid and then, the next morning, caught the high-speed train to Barcelona, which cooked along at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour. We went to Barcelona for a couple days to get an eye full of Modernista architecture, especially Antoni Gaudi. We walked for miles through the city, hunting down the buildings he and the other Modernista designed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Alas, it is extremely difficult to do justice to their work without special equipment and access. As a tourist, it´s expensive or impossible to get inside most of the buildings. Quarters are close, so it´s hard to get any sort of contextual shot. But, excuses aside, Karen I think did a great job capturing the amazing details that went into the construction of these buildings: the fantastical ironwork, the mind-boggling labor-intensive tilework, and so on. It rained and rained while we were in Barcelona. You´ll see that in the photos!
Scenes from Genoa
We spent a couple days in Genoa, basically because we wanted to take advantage of a super-cheap flight from Milan to Madrid but we didn´t want to hang out in Madrid. We´d heard that an architect we admire, the great Renzo Piano, was born in Genoa and redesigned the Porto Antiqua, the old harbor, bringing about a rejuvination in the life of that area of the city. Piano also designed the acquarium there, which we went to. It´s the largest in Europe. The day we went, a Sunday, was the same day everybody in Europe decided to go, too. Very croded! But interesting. The scientists there have a lot to do with preserving the fragile ecosystem of Madagascar. So that´s cool. Our hotel was directly across the street from the acquarium in the old harbor district. We also took a walk through the area, visiting all the medieval sites. A lot of the buildings are mashups, incorporating nearly a thousand years of construction: an ancient column or arch here, with a Renaissance facade there, and so on. Here are a few images we shot in Genoa. The odd spikey thing in the harbor is a Renzo Piano design.
Interiors of the Cathedral in Siena
I used my phone to shoot a few panoramas while we were inside the big cathedral in Siena. I loved seeing the music library there -- that´s the room with all the painted walls. The books are huge! An entire choir could read all their different parts from a single book 20 feet away. Efficient use of resources. And so beautifully illustrated, too.
Street Artist
I must have taken this shot with my phone in Florence -- but it might have been Siena as there were street artists in both cities. These artists create reproductions of masterworks in chalk, blithely absorded in their work as passersby pitch coins into their hats and taxis wizz by within inches. I figure this is Florence as this looks like David to me and, of course, that famous sculpture is in the Accademia.
Barajas Airport, Madrid
Karen and I were blown away by the scale of the main airport serving Madrid. This is the very first image we took on our honeymoon, but which I haven´t had a chance to post as it´s on my iPhone so I needed wi-fi to email it to our blog. Which we finally have at our final stop in Europe in Cadaqués, remote resort village on Spain´s Costa Brava.
The Barajas airport takes many minutes to cross from one side to another. We had a very tightly timed connection. After landing in Madrid we had less than half an hour to get to the distant terminal to catch our flight to Milan. Alas, we were so busy gawking we didn´t realize how tight it would be. Once we figured that out, we ran. Still, it took us a full 25 minutes to get from this terminal to the one where our ¨domestic¨ (meaning within the EU) boarded. We made it in the nick of time. Unlike an American airline, they had no qualms about reopening the gate and letting us on board.The View from Cadaques
Close to Spain´s northeast border with France, and not far from the city-state of Andorra, is a wee cape at the eastern end of which is the resort village of Cadaqués. We rented a car (because, despite our pledge to use public transport, the bus is expensive and takes five hours to get here from Barcelona) and drove up here. Here´s the view from our room. Sad, ain´t it? Like everywhere we´ve been, there are magnificent local wines. Seems that if you´ve got a few square meters and an inclination, you can grow and make a great wine here. You can spend a ton of euros on a bottle of wine, but we´ve never spent more than 20 and they´ve all been magnificent. Indeed, some of the best have been super-locals going for less than €10. I love California and Washington wine but it´s hard not to be amazed at the quality and price of these Italian and Spanish vinos. Our plan from here is to kick back and enjoy our last few days in Europe. We´ve got only one excursion planned. We´ll head over to Figueres to see the Dalí museum. Indeed, Cadaqués is the town where Dalí spent many years; he´s credited with putting the place on the map. Just down the street from us, for example, is a small sign reproducing a 1923 Dalí with the view across the bay. The place has become more crowded with tourists since then, but is still recognizable.
Last Day in Cinque Terre
Big sigh. It's our last day in Cinque Terre.
Today we took the boat from Manarola over to Monterosso. Our plan is to hike the low trail, the Via dell'Amore, back to Manarola -- about a four or five hour journey.
Here's a picture of Karen as we were waiting for the boat this morning.
Also, a picture of the view from our hotel room. If you click the image, it'll load in full size, giving you a better view of the little village of Manarola way down there in the center left. There is of course a foot path from Volastra, where our hotel is, down to Manarola. There are 903 steps from Volastra down to about the halfway point between Volastra and Manarola.
903! And some of those steps are two, three or even four paces wide.
Tomorrow, it's on to Genoa for the weekend before we fly out of Milan on Monday, heading for Madrid and points Spanish.
