Spanish Style Archives - Page 3 of 8

May 232014 0 Responses

A piece of Barcelona history

Today we had a most enjoyable tour of the Gothic Quarter in Barcelona. I must say the age of these cities never fails to amaze. NZ has such a short history which is pretty insignificant when faced with the multitude of battles, changes of power, religious oppression and sheer misery that some of Europe has been through. Our Orange Donut Tour – led by an Aussie girl was fun and informative.

The picture above was taken across the lane from Capella de Santa Llúciainto And is on the wall of the 16th-century Casa de l’Ardiaca, which houses the city’s archives. It was renovated by Lluis Domènech i Montaner in 1902, when the building was owned by the lawyers’ college. Domènech i Montaner also designed the postal slot, which is adorned with swallows and a tortoise, said to represent the swiftness of truth and the plodding pace of justice. As you can see the tortoise is well polished. This is because it is said that touching the tortoise will bring good luck to up and coming new lawyers. As it happened one of our party was an American law student so he took the opportunity. His family is Jewish and his father especially found the tour interesting. The Jews were persecuted in Barcelona and there is absolutely no trace of the Jewish Quarter left

May 202014 0 Responses

The Hanging Houses of Cuenca

We are now counting down to our last week in Spain and have left the white villages, stoney mountain sides of Andalusia that we have come to love. I can so easily see why so many people from so many different parts of the world have made these villages their home. The scenery is amazing. The Spanish people so welcoming and easy-going. All you have to do is show interest in their country, attempt a few feeble sentences in Spanish and they fall over backwards to be of assistance. Read More…

May 202014 0 Responses

Spain’s Olive Oil Industry

This picture was taken from our room in La Iruela, just an olive stone throw from Cazorla. We drove from south of Granada to Cazorla today through olives. It was 360kms. Nothing but an olive did we see. All I can say is that they better not get anything wrong with them!

Monoculture! I thought we had big stands of pine trees. Well. Our pine trees have nothing on Spain’s olives. I mean. We just took one route. Imagine how many more olives there are than what we saw. What was the worst for me is that underneath probably 95% of these olives there is NOTHING. Mainly the ground has been cultivated with either tractor or rotary hoe depending on the terrain. But in many cases it has been sprayed off, probably for decades. There’s nothing for the bees. Read More…

May 202014 0 Responses

The Aqueducts of the Moors

One of my main reasons for coming to the Alpujarras was the description of the aqueduct system that is still in place and working throughout the white villages.

As you can see from the picture they commence way up in the mountains. We did follow this one for SOME time but never got to the origin! As usual we were on the hunt for a plant. We had heard from an English walking guide that there were Gentians high in the mountains above Capileria. I had already been riding incredibly high above this little white village in the morning and hadn’t seen any so we thought we would take our little car and see how high we could go. Read More…