Spain
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Gaudi's LIght
It probably would be cool to get inside the mind of Antoni Gaudi for a little bit.....just to understand what he "sees". His house in Barcelona is a maze of undulating curves, parabolic arches, and crazy shaped windows. Then of course, there is this light........I dare you to NOT take a picture of it.
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Sagrada Familia
Not sure what to say about this place. This is Antoni Gaudi's shining star. It has been referred to as the most extraordinary interpretation of Gothic architecture since the MIddle Ages. But, however you define it, it is amazing. The color, shapes and light....always changing yet alway beautiful.
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Almudena Cathedral
A grand cathedral in the heart of Madrid. The exterior doesn't really do justice to what waits inside. The architecture is sort of Gothic in nature but, inside, the art, wood, metals, painted surfaces in vibrant colors and the modernistic stained glass windows just burst to life. This shoudl go on your must-see list in Madrid.
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Basilica de Santa Maria del Mar
The first recorded mention of this church was in 988, making this one of the oldest places you will ever get the pleasure of seeing. It's right in the middle of the Gothic section of Barcelona.....kind of hidden in this little square. You can't really get a good sense of the size of this place till you go in. There isn't any fancy artwork, but it has an amazingly cozy feeling to it. It was the favorite church of most of the folks I was traveling with.
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The Stairs of the Caixa Forum
The stainless steel staircase in the entrance to CaixaForum building, Madrid, Spain, work by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. I saw a photo of these in a web search of “Cool stuff to see in Madrid” so, of course, I had to go have a look for myself.
Did you know that Madrid is the 3rd most populated city in Europe and the 4th richest city? You can thank me when that comes up during your next game of Trivia Crack.
Inside the Barcelona Cathedral
The Barcelona Cathedral. It’s kind of surreal being in a place like this. Construction on it was started in 1298. That’s old……like…. Braveheart old.. William Wallace could have come here for confession after sacking an English city. The Cathedral sits in the Gothic section of Barcelona. It was a bit hard to find at first, but then we realized you just have to follow the crowd. Anyway, this shot was 5% photography skill and 95% trying to avoid the security guards. They don’t mind cameras but the place is jammed with people and tripods are a total no-no. But there was no way in heck to get a good shot without it. So, I went for it, figuring that a serious Spanish scolding wasn’t far off. Plopped the tripod down like a Ninja, slapped the camera on it……five clicks……and all was good. But, when I got home, I really didn’t like the pictures. The inside of the cathedral has this yellowish gold glow. It looks cool while you are in there but makes for pretty ugly pictures. So, I took a bit of artistic license here and added some blue filters to cool off the gold and give a blueish tint to the light streaming in the windows. Gives the whole place a bit of an eerie presence, which I think fits pretty well.
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Santa Maria del Mar
We found this old church tucked away inside the Gothic section of Barcelona.This place didnt seem to mind my ridiculously big tripod, so I spent quite a while in here. I was actually photographing something else right near here when I hear a little girl say "Daddy, look". Having 3 lovely daughter of my own, I had to see what this little girl was pointing upwards at. Well, this was it......huge stone columns pointing to the heavens towards a dome of stained glass windows....way better than what I was looking at.
