SPAIN and ANDORRA - 2005

Barcelona

View of Barcelona from Park Guell. In the middle one can see the construction of the church of Sagrada Familia.

Streets of old Barcelona, the so called Gothic Quarter

Barcelona - Sagrada Familia

Exterior and interior of the Sagrada Familia - one of the masterpieces of the architect Antoni Gaudi. Gaudi's architecture is inspired by the nature and by shapes found in the nature. The interior is designed to resemble trees and their canopy. The construction began in 1884 and Gaudi worked on it until his death in 1926. The church was burned and destroyed by anarchists in 1936 and almost all of Gaudi's plans were destroyed at that time as well. However, the church was repaired and the work continues following original plans as closely as possible. It is privately funded and at the current construction rate it is likely to be finished around 2020.

Barcelona - Park Guell

"Parc Guell" is another place with many Gaudi's creations. This exclusive real-estate was bought in 1900 by Count Eusebi Guell who asked Gaudi to create a park city with houses for the wealthy. The original plans has never been completed, but the park contains several interesting terraces, decorated walk-ways, stairways and some houses.

A walkway in Park Guell. The park is on the UNESCO list of cultural heritage sites.

Montserrat

Montserrat is a monastery built high up in the mountains at 1236m above see level. The monastery was originally built in 1025. It was destroyed by Napoleon's troops in 1811 and later abandoned, but rebuilt again in 1858. Today there are about 80 monks living there. 

Holy image of the Black Virgin that is symbol of the monastery

Girona

Girona is a beautiful town with historic center of old houses, narrow streets and interesting Jewish history.

Stone houses and streets of Girona

Jitka in our Peugeot 206 that we rented for this vacation.

Calella de Parafrugell

Calella de Parafrugell is a little town on the Costa Brava. The town is very picturesque and pleasant.

Another view of Calella from our hotel

The beaches in Callela are small and very nice, but during the summer they get rather bussy.

In Spain we were enjoying fish or calamari or other sea-food every day.

Figueres - museum of Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali was born in Figueres in 1904. Even though he lived in Madrid, Barcelona, Paris and the USA, he kept returning back to Figueres and it is also the place where a comprehensive museum of his works exists.

Salvador Dali is known for his paintings, but he also created a collection of jewelries which are currently displayed in the museum.

Pyrenees

El Cadi - one of the mountain ranges in eastern Pyrenees

There are many little towns of stone houses in the mountain - this is Martinet.

We drove up to a little village of Estana from were we hiked up to the mountains.

Marek on the top of the mountain range El Cadi. Jitka went only to Prat de Cadi, from where it was a very steep climb through unstable rock slides. 

Andorra la Vella

Andorra la Vella is the capitol of this tiny country in the Pyrenees mountains, sandwiched between Spain and France.

Traditional medieval festival was taking place when we were visiting.