145. ESPANOL OLE! SI SENOR, SENORA!

Downtown Barcelona is a beautiful and clean city. The buildings are so aesthetically pleasing it's like looking at paintings as I walked around...the main reason I'm here in Spain is to look at Gaudi's masterpieces. I've been a huge admirer of his work for the longest time. I've too many pics to post on one page so will dedicate a separate post to Gaudi's works...

One of their very many fancy old churches, this one in Sevilla. So this time, this trip is all about churches which is what Europe is well known for - the other would be castles/palaces

In this market in downtown Barcelona, I explored the stalls within. Clean, odourless, interesting...

Nuts and dried fruits galore from all over Europe. They looked like they were dried and processed ethically, naturally - from the colours...

Parts unknown...like us, they eat everything - anything that walks, crawls...

This may be an egg stall but love the way the seller does it up - they certainly take trouble with little things...

They are well known for their cured meats in which they have elevated the job to an art form...

Even a lovely building like this is used to house an erotic museum - the lady in the window with the come - hither wave is a Marilyn Munroe

I had my fix of beautiful elegant old buildings - each is different.

In Granada, I checked out this Moorish palace - the Alhambra. The Arab Moors of old are a people with sensitive souls. Their buildings are gracious, quietly elegant, decorative features are Islamic calligraphy and tile work. They were very much into gardens and water features like ponds and fountains - it was a people into music, poetry, science - I would say they are an intelligent tribe with curious minds very much into studies of the world around them. In North India, the Mughals left behind very many beautiful artefacts etc that spoke of an educated sensitive people very much into learning and gracious living...quiet, reflective...whatever's happened to them? Where are their ancestors? Migrated to America...others likely merged with Europeans in the Mediterranean...

Jewish touches in the center courtyard - those rams or lions of some sort represent the 12 tribes of Israel...

             A dried-up moat from Roman days...

I covered a lot of ground - more than 3000km by coach. From Madrid onwards to Toledo and Cordoba stopping over for a looksee at Segovia before proceeding to Seville.  From Granada the longest ride was the home stretch to Barcelona. From Madrid I did take a drive across the border to Portugal to its capital of Lisbon (Lisboa) and a side trip to Fatimah...stopping at Salamanca enroute...

Costa Del Sol in the Granada region - a renowned popular beach resort by the Mediterranean is a lovely little place. Surprisingly, despite its huge popularity with European, American and British tourists as well as rich retirees, the place is not more expensive than their other cities. It's whitewashed and sunkissed - very Mediterranean

This is part of a small bullring - toros - taurus - bull - in Costa del Sol. It's become politically incorrect to fight and kill bulls in the ring. It's done a lot less these days save for once or twice a year as part of a festival...

This little chapel in Costa Del Sol may be small but it's covered with stuff that's probably quite priceless - might they be looted property from lands conquered abroad? Gold and precious stones would have ended up in the royal coffers...

Needless to say, the richest grandest places are their churches and palaces. They've had several thousand years to put into place such showy buildings which are powerful statements of power and control. The Muslim Moors were in this part of Europe for up to 600 to 800 years, so these countries have changed hands between Muslims and Catholics. Spain and Portugal were fanatically Catholic in the early days. Most of their people have now turned their backs on Catholicism and look upon the sculptures and buildings as beautiful art and a proud cultural heritage...

As the Arab Muslims (Moors, Ottomans) had occupied large swathes of the European continent, is it any wonder now they have moved into Europe in large numbers, by fair means or foul, in order to slowly but surely, eventually reclaim the land that they consider as theirs for at one time in history they had stayed for centuries and perhaps feel they were driven away or unfairly suppressed by invaders and intruders...

The Europeans may have a generousity of spirit in allowing large numbers of refugees/migrant workers into their country - they do augment the labour force doing jobs locals will not do (as is the case with Singapore), but in the long term....? Will the young ones growing up in Europe hate the life or the people enough to turn on them?

                  'Wisdom Begins in Wonder' - Socrates

Beautiful fine details on buildings...Spain (and most of Europe) has so very many fine old buildings, fountains and monuments - far too numerous to feature in my blog - but I stopped to gawk at them and marvel at the creativity of a people of yore...they didn't go to Uni to learn this, they didn't have computers to draft - yet the proportion, the symmetry, the precision - words can't describe my sense of awe



































To be in Madrid and not take a peek at the home of Real? How can!?

Toledo Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It's a gracious old dame - it's everything I had imagined old Mediterranean towns to be. Rustic brick and stone walls and buildings, narrow alleys, small intimate cafe restaurants, full of character, culture, history and more. Everywhere I went on this trip covering several Spanish towns, entire towns are like huge museums. I've only scratched the surface of Spain and Portugal

The dry Mediterranean sunshine makes it pleasant to stay outdoors although it gets scorching on summer days, Sept's Autumn was nice cool nights and warm most days

Basking in the sun like a typical local - not something I would be caught dead doing in Singapore's infernal humidity...