Win stuff with Roomorama! (And why you would want to!)

I recently had the absolute pleasure of visiting Barcelona for a week. I’ve got a number of posts up already, including one on what I learnt and one stuffed full of photos of Gaudi’s masterpieces. More posts will be coming on the Barcelona theme – this is one awesome city!

Today’s post is all about where I stayed in Barcelona. I went for an apartment rather than a hostel or hotel for the trip - it’s an accommodation option I’ve mentioned before as being highly practical for the independent traveller. They offer a great deal of flexibility married to that other thing folks get excited about: namely a good price.

I was therefore delighted to partner with Roomorama for my trip to Barcelona. They helped out with the cost of my accommodation, and I get to share my experiences with you. But first:

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In Photos: Gaudi’s Barcelona

Gaudí. It’s kind of hard to visit Barcelona without spending your time gaping in awe at the architectural and artistic genius that he left behind all over the city.

A great deal of my week in Barcelona was therefore spent, gaping in awe, at his many truly incredible constructions. As well as gaping, I was also taking the odd photograph, which I’m sharing with you today. I wasn’t able to visit every bit of work he did, but I’d like to think that I took in the serious highlights.

In a future post I’ll be going more into the details of what to see and do in Barcelona. For now though, less detail: more eye candy.

Lets start with…

The Sagrada Familia.

We might as well start at the top. The Sagrada Familia is Gaudí’s masterpiece, the building that obsessed him in the later years of his life, and which is still under construction. It’s an ever evolving masterpiece, an easily visible part of the Barcelona skyline, and one of the most incredible buildings I’ve ever visited. You cannot go to Barcelona without visiting it.

Parc Güell

Parc Güell was Gaudí's attempt at creating a garden city development. I say attempt, because of the 60 buildings planned, only two were built, neither of which was actually designed by the man himself.

Instead, Gaudí spent his time focusing on the little details, like the enormous terrace. Gaudí also lived in the Parc for 20 years. These days, the garden is open to all, and is well worth the visit.

 

Casa Batlló

Casa Batlló, also known as the House of Bones, is one of the finer examples of a town house designed and built by Gaudí for a rich Catalan family. It is most well known for it’s striking exterior wall, made up of balconies which to my mind looked rather like the masks one would wear at a ball. Should one be invited to a masked ball that is. 

My favourite bit of the house was up on the roof, where what appeared to be the spine of a dragon was laid out as the roofline. I’m not sure it was a dragon, but given Barcelona’s close connection to St. George, I have hope.

 

Casa Mila, also known as La Pedrera

Not far from Casa Battlo is Gaudi’s other famous Barcelonian town house, the Casa Mila, which is known by pretty much everyone as La Pedrera, which translates as the Quarry. The locals at the time not being entirely enamoured of Gaudi’s style choice with the building.

As with the Casa Battlo, this was built for a wealthy family, and broke pretty much every planning rule in the book when it was put up. The price of great art in this case coming with plenty of building regulation fines, and rather irate owners.

Cascada in Parc de la Ciutadella

This fountain, in the pretty Parc de la Ciutadella, near Barcelona’s parliament building, was mostly erected by Josep Fontsere. It is understood that Gaudí did work on it, during his early student years. It’s nowhere near as organic as some of his later works, but is still a great looking bit of building! When we visited, it wasn’t in operation, and had a wonderful air of decay going on.

So there you have it. Five of my favourite bits of Gaudí work in photos. Obviously Gaudí left behind more than these pieces, and Barcelona is just stuffed with incredible architecture from people other than this great man. But for sheer madness, it’s hard to beat what he got up to! Let me know what you think of the photos, of Barcelona, or of life in general, in the comments below!

Also... don’t forget to check out my site’s facebook page, where I share lots more of my photos!

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Things I didn’t know about Barcelona!

I’ve just spent a week visiting Barcelona. I’d like to say that I did a whole bunch of research before setting off, but to be honest, I’m not that great at research. For example, I managed to get through an entire University degree without stepping inside a University library.

Plus, I like a place to surprise me. I asked you guys for your tips, and you supplied them in plentiful fashion. Barcelona’s tourist board, who hosted me so splendidly on this trip, sent me over a whole bunch of stuff too.

But none of this meant that I really knew the following things. I was ignorant… now I am less so. Yay for travel!

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Angouleme–wanders around the ramparts

This is my third post on Angoulême! Who would have thought one French town could hold so much appeal? Admittedly, Angoulême cheated slightly, by seducing me with awesome street art. That’s a good way for any city to get my attention, and more than one post. See Berlin’s street art for example.

So I have now thoroughly covered the paintings on the walls of Angouleme in this post and this post.

There is, I am pleased to tell you, more to Angouleme than just great street art. Although, if you ask me, that’s enough to make a city worth a visit anyway. 

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Travel blogging tips from the experts: Travel Rinse Repeat

Today I’m interviewing a relative newcomer to the travel blogging scene – John of Travel Rinse Repeat.

Unlike many of the folk I have interviewed in this series, John’s travels come about as a result of his work as a management consultant – a world I am more than familiar with from my past life! This means he has less control over his destinations, and gives his site an interesting twist.

Today John talks about the challenges he has faced starting up a travel blog, the direction he hopes to go in, and what he might have done differently with hind sight. Lets get going with the interview!

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My favourite bits of Venice

Venice recently won the battle for my favourite city in Europe, after a tense battle between four other serious contenders.

So far, though, it has been seriously lacking its very own personalised post about it, treatment that cities like Rome and Paris have already received. Poor old Venice. Fear not – I haven’t forgotten you!

Venice is a city that just captures my imagination in a way that few other cities are capable of. It’s a maze of tiny streets, a collection of islands linked by bridges and waterways, and the whole thing is possibly going to sink one day. There is art, music, architecture and food.

Most importantly of all, perhaps, the whole place is pedestrianized, what with there being no roads capable of fitting a car on. Seriously awesome for someone who loves to get to know a place by foot, like me.

So. When I’m in Venice… what do I get up to?

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In Photos: Street Art of Angoulême (Part 2)

In my previous post I shared with you the rather fabulous trompe l'oeil that can be found on one of the walls in Angoulême’s old town centre, where two chaps do their best to break into reality.

Today’s post is about some of the rest of the street art that Vera and I found and photographed as we wandered around the lovely old town of Angoulême on a recent trip. Enjoy!

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In Photos: Street Art of Angoulême (Part 1)

The town of Angoulême, capital of France’s Charente department, is notable for many things. It boasts an impressive location, high up on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Charente river. It has a rather fabulous collection of old buildings, from churches to castle ruins. And it has a wonderful old town that is just ripe for exploration.

And I’m going to save all that for another post, because over the next couple of posts I just want to share with you the other thing that Angoulême is famous for, that being it’s yearly international comic festival.

This has resulted in the walls of Angoulême being coated in a myriad of wonderful street art, from small pieces through to huge trompe l'oeils, or eye deceivers.

The first part of this two part series focuses on six images which take up a whole section of the street wall. Which, despite appearances, is entirely flat. Enjoy!

Escaping reality

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Two weeks in the UK–my perfect itinerary

I was recently asked for my recommendations for a two to three week trip to the UK, starting in London, and using a rental car as the transportation method. Further interests included castles, haunted things, and long walks on the beach (ok, I made the last one up).

This sounded like the sort of challenge I could get my teeth into. I have, after all, spent a great deal of time living in the UK. Putting together my favourite bits to travel around in itinerary form should be no problem at all.

Then, after accepting this challenge, I was struck by a moment of doubt. Sure, I’ve lived in the UK. But what do I know of the things a foreigner would find interesting about this little island? When you live in the UK, you spent most of your time forming an escape plan, not planning how to see it.

And then I remembered that I’m only half English, and that I spend most of my life wandering around goggle eyed at the world around me wherever I am, and figured I could probably handle this mission. Read on, and see if you agree.

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Travel photography tips: Post Processing

Regular readers of the site will know that I am fairly passionate about photography. I’m fascinated about the whole process, from image composition right through to the final processed product.

Back in the day, when I was a youngster, i was privileged enough to attend a school which had its own dark room.

I think I was the only person in the school who was really excited about this fact, and I would spend happy hours under the glow of a red lamp playing around with awful smelling chemicals, and happily going through terribly expensive photography paper in my quest for knowledge.

These days you can do some pretty awesome stuff to your photos without the need for a special room or any chemicals, thanks to the onset of digital photography. Although I find that strong black coffee helps. I believe that post processing is an integral part of any photographers workflow, and can help you get the best from your photos.

I thought I would share some of my thoughts on digital processing, with a number of easy tips based on my experiences, to help you get the most from your shots. These are in addition to the ideas I have already shared on this site in my photography tips articles.

You can find these tips in the form of a guest post over at the excellent yTravelBlog. Enjoy!

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