The Visigoth

the visigoth

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

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

1

2 3

Featured Posts

Tag Cloud

No hay tags aún.

Recent Posts