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    Living In: Alella

    Living In: Alella

    El Maresme, the Catalan super-commuter belt. Crowded trains hugging the seafront. Exclusive casas pareadas, yummy-mummy SUVs and all those signs of well-heeled and somehow out-of-bounds suburbia. Yes, it's a bit pijo - check out Sant Andreu de Llavaneres, the self-styled 'Super-Maresme with all its 24-hour surveillance golf-course gardens and periscope mansions). But, the Maresme has some delicious corners; milennial vineyards, good rambling routes, precious scenery and hands
    Postcards from the Ledge: Barcelona's Congost Valley

    Postcards from the Ledge: Barcelona's Congost Valley

    Congost. It sounds vaguely like some unpleasant genus of winged insect. In actual fact, it’s the Catalan word for canyon. There are some fine examples of congosts in Catalonia. Not least, the remarkably slender Congost de Montrebei or its more sweeping cousin Congost del Mur (both near Balaguer). Also known as Gorg Negre (‘black gorge’) and located between the Montseny and Bertí massifs, Barcelona’s very own Congost Valley seems at first glance like many other pine-stacked go
    Exploration of Catalonia's Nether Parts: Castellet i la Gornal

    Exploration of Catalonia's Nether Parts: Castellet i la Gornal

    Castellet i la Gornal is not somewhere many people have heard of. But it’s the site of one of Catalonia’s handsomest devils of a castle and it has a fine position over the Foix reservoir, with the vineyards of the Alt Penedés rolling away in one direction and the pine forests of the Garraf in the other. Approached from the coast at Vilanova it’s a lovely 14 kilometre drive up the meandering Foix river. The village is a gorgeous, golden-stoned medieval pile, mostly well-prese
    Classic Sunday Excursions from Barcelona in Winter

    Classic Sunday Excursions from Barcelona in Winter

    Late autumn is a good time to visit La Garrotxa natural park. Covering a series of soft hills surrounded by volcanos, La Fageda D'en Jorda i
    Death to Saloufest

    Death to Saloufest

    Critic Peter S. Beagle, writing about Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, commented on the 'erotic derangement that turns us all into voyeurs, a place filled with the intoxicating air of perfect liberty.' For decades Spain has been sold as such a place, a place of 'perfect liberty', by budget tour companies. In particular, for the last sixteen years British students have converged in the handsome Costa Dorada locality of Salou, intent on turning it into a scene fro
    La Mercè 2016

    La Mercè 2016

    'The most daring, accessible, surprising, decentralized, participative and innovative one ever' according to its organizers, Barcelona's biggest annual cultural festival starts this weekend. Here's a - mercèfully brief - guide to the 21 venues, 300-odd acts and special themes of this year's event. Un signo de fraternidad: Following the terrorist attacks on Paris last year, Barcelona's mayoress Ada Colau contacted her Parisian counterpart Anne Hidalgo to suggest a cultural col
    El Toro de La Vega: A Festival of Life and Death

    El Toro de La Vega: A Festival of Life and Death

    His name is Pelado - ''baldie.'He's a strapping, handsome bull weighing 675 kilos, and he was born and raised on a farm near Jerez de la Frontera. He has had the honour - and misfortune - to be chosen as el Toro de La Vega, the 'Bull of the Meadow'. Every year on September 13, the town of Tordesillas - 28 km southwest of Valladolid, population 9000 - holds its annual event, one of the most controversial, and divisive in Spain. This event is described by its local Ayuntamiento
    Medina Azahara: Excavation or Building Site?

    Medina Azahara: Excavation or Building Site?

    Named after a beautiful concubine of Abd al-Rahman III, Medina Azahara is a Moorish palace on a lush mount overlooking the plains to the west of Cordoba. In 929 it was the capital of the Islamic state of Al-Andalus, 'the Versailles of the Middle Ages'. Now the roots of ancient trees wrap the palace’s tumbled stones in a skeletal embrace; sacked centuries ago, many of its rocks were carried off to Cordoba, five miles away, for the construction of churches and civic buildings.
    Walden 7: Architecture Inspired by Social Experiment

    Walden 7: Architecture Inspired by Social Experiment

    Rising like a termite mound out of the suburb of Sant Just Desvern, Walden 7 has long been considered an epic achievement in design failure. Every day groups of student architects form in its shadow, furiously scribbling in their notebooks as they try to make sense of it. A clay-red, curving, 'vertical labyrinth' consisting of 18 towers, with apartments made up of one or more 30 square metre modules accessed via a vertiginous maze of inner stairwells and patios, the building
    A Jewel on the Valencian Coast: Montgó Natural Park

    A Jewel on the Valencian Coast: Montgó Natural Park

    It's a microclimate of tantalizing floral and geological diversity, with wildflowers, limestone caves, rousing views, secluded bays and kooky cottages, just over an hour south of Valencia. Viewed from Xábia, the elegant town on its southern slopes, the natural park of Montgó is often said to resemble the head and trunk of an elephant. The 753 metre-tall mountain which dominates the park - the elephant's head - is a beacon for hikers, but it's the rocky headland of Cape Sant A
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    • Mythologies (14) 14 entradas
    • Environment (7) 7 entradas
    • News Cheat (22) 22 entradas
    • Short Story (2) 2 entradas
    • Books (9) 9 entradas
    • Films (8) 8 entradas
    • Useless Maps of Spain (1) 1 entrada
    • Architecture (5) 5 entradas
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     Featured Posts

    Moving to...El Born

    Moving to...El Born

    Walden 7: Architecture Inspired by Social Experiment

    Walden 7: Architecture Inspired by Social Experiment

    The Desertification of Spain's Drylands

    The Desertification of Spain's Drylands

    Sobrepesca: Spain's annual fish supply already gone

    Sobrepesca: Spain's annual fish supply already gone

    Benito Muros: The Spaniard leading the fight against Planned Obsolescence

    Benito Muros: The Spaniard leading the fight against Planned Obsolescence

    What is: A Supermanzana

    What is: A Supermanzana

    The 'Top Manta': Barcelona's Street Bazar

    Spanish Elections 2.0: Who's Who

    Barcelona's La Mina: A District Divided by Clan Warfare

    The New Camp Nou

    The New Camp Nou

    Tag Cloud

    Living In: Alella

    Living In: Alella

    Postcards from the Ledge: Barcelona's Congost Valley

    Postcards from the Ledge: Barcelona's Congost Valley

    What is: Andorra Land Art

    What is: Andorra Land Art

    Gibraltar: Banter or Belligerence?

    Gibraltar: Banter or Belligerence?

    Exploration of Catalonia's Nether Parts: Castellet i la Gornal

    Exploration of Catalonia's Nether Parts: Castellet i la Gornal

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