The Final Post

Fare thee well, Europe, you have been good to me. Thanks to everyone who kept up with me on this journey. This will be my last post on this blog, though I will maintain it so its still available to browse any time anyone wants to. Take care and stay well.

Thanks Again,
Erik (+ Carin!)

Cadaques and the Spanish Coast + All Good Things...

Last Tuesday morning Carin and I left Barcelona, checking out of one of the coolest hotels I have every stayed in. We headed north, about 2 1/2 hours away, to Cadaques, jewel of the Franco-Spanish coast. As it turns out, this small town (which I find reminiscent of some of the smaller towns on Cape Cod in Massachusetts) was exactly what the doctor ordered: beautiful and breezy with water so clear you could see all the way to the bottom. Our only intension while here was to do absolutely nothing, and we accomplished this with great success ;-).

The first day, we arrived around 4pm or so and spent most of our time just walking around town, getting aquainted with our new surroundings. Cadaques is situated on a large harbor, so it seems almost everyone has a boat parked there. This picture is of the local church, the largest building in town (a very medieval feel). The only other pieces of architecture I noticed were an observatory situated on top of one of the hills (which seemed to be in perpetual cloud cover...this was the clearest pictures I could ever take of it) and a lighthouse we saw on our 2nd day adventure...

That adventure would be the short but impressive boat trip we took up the coast toward France. We booked passage on a small tour boat that took us about 45 minutes north by water of Cadaques, and on the return trip, dipped into some small coves and "hidden places" along the coast. I took so many pictures on the short trip, but none of them really do the beauty we experienced justice. I also have a few cool movies I shot with my camera that are available for download from my website.

MOVIE1 MOVIE2 MOVIE3 MOVIE4

The rest of the day we spent lounging, playing cards and reading. I finally finished the epic novel I had been reading for most of the summer, "Foucault's Pendulum" by Umberto Eco. It was one heck of a story...a little difficult to keep straight, but one of those books I feel like I can go back and read half a dozen times and always discover something new and interesting.

We finished our final day in Cadaques relaxing together on a rock, staring out at the sea. This pic was one of those automatic timer ones that, I guess, came out a little fuzzy. Its still cute though. You can click HERE to download one last movie of what Carin and I saw as we sat and contemplated our return trip to the U.S.

Now that the "Grand Adventure" of this summer is done, I feel as if I owe it some sort of grand summary. It has really been an amazing experience for so many reasons. Not only was it great to just be able to visit so many places and do so many things, but it was great to finally get the chance to really experience such a diverse variety of cultures. This trip has certainly changed my view and opened my eyes to the real richness of having such a variety of people on this planet with their own culture, customs and ways of going about daily life. It has also acted as a bug...a travel bug which has bitten me and made me want to do even more travelling abroad. I'm already starting to convince Carin that a European adventure next summer is absolutely necessary. We'll see how that goes!

Thanks for keeping up with me over the last 2 1/2 months. It has been fun keeping a log of our adventures, and I look forward to going back and reading and annotating it over the years, keeping these great memories alive in my brain for a long time to come. Take care and stay in touch...I know I will. Ciao.

Its 12:42am...Do You Know Where Your Erik Is?

I do...he's back in Portland, safe and sound, no lost luggage, no major catastrophies. My body doesn't know what to think right now. I can't sleep on planes so I've been up for something like 29 hours and I was really tired a couple of hours ago but now I'm not. Second wind I guess. At any rate, Carin and I had a wonderful time on the coast that I will tell you about when I wake up in the morning, but suffice to say I am back home after my amazing adventure. Stay tuned for a last few posts about my grand summer adventure. Maybe I'll try and sleep now...

Cheers.

Architectural Mecca Indeed...and Other Fun

Hard to believe, but Carin and I are done in the city of Barcelona after this evening. We had decided before booking the trip that just a few days would be sufficient to see many of the major "touristy" sites we were interested in. We certainly haven't had time to absorb the culture like we did in Roma and Istanbul, but that's all the more reason to come back here some day. Tomorrow morning we head to the small town of Cadaques, 2 hours or so north along the coast. It should be a great drive and the weather is supposed to be nice, so we're really looking forward to it. For now, I'll tell you what we did yesterday and today.

Carin was good enough to allow me an entire day of Moderniste exploration yesterday, starting with one of Gaudi's most famous residences, the Casa Batllo. This was a residence that Gaudi "upgraded" for a rich client with water and biologically based themes. On the facade, columns reminiscent of bones and curvalinear forms abound. In fact, there are virtually no straight lines in the entire building. Ceilings look like whirlpools or drops falling into water, woodwork curves every which way, and chimneys become works of art, clad almost entirely in mosaic tile. It was really quite a site to see -- no book can do it justice.

We continued along the tour suggested by our Moderniste map we picked up on the first day and saw many other good and famous buildings along the route. That's all well and good, of course, but I am primarily here to, of course, see Gaudi. Therefore, what I consider to be our second "major" stop along the way was the Casa Mila or La Padrera ("The Quarry") as the locals call it, a large apartment building by Gaudi. Here, you take an elevator up to the attic to explore that first, where you are greeted by a multitude of models of Gaudi buildings and Gaudi-inspired work. It was really educational, but a bit more extensive than we were ready to trudge through at the moment. We quickly made our way to the roof, where we saw more great tile work on chimneys and a fantastic view of the city in the distance. After the roof, we were shuffled down to the fourth floor to see a "typical" apartment layout from the 1920's. It was interesting, but not half as interesting as I building I thought (of course). To me, Casa Mila didn't hold a candle to Casa Batllo at all. (4799)

Continue, more Moderniste, etc etc etc...but then...the grand-daddy of them all. Before I present this building, I just have to tell you this. This is my desert island building. If I could only take pictures of one building with me to a desert island, this one would be it. If all the buildings in the world were destroyed but one, I would want this one to survive. This building helped change the course of my education when I made the decision to study architecture, and its the only building I've ever been in that almost made me weep -- almost. I am talking, of course about La Sagrada Familia.

For those who may not know, this is an unfinished building of Gaudi's. Before he died in 1936 (or so...not quite sure) he was only able to finish 1 of the facades of what he considered to be his final masterpiece. The building was begun in 1882 and is still not complete. However, I must say, it is the most amazing incomplete building I have ever been in. The interior is made as if you are in a forest, under a canopy of trees. The "famous views" you always see of the "temple" (as he called it...not a "church") are really only a side elevation (pic with me to the left). When complete, the building will be capped with a 172 meter high tower. Convert that to feet and it spells "really freakin' big".

Carin and I took a lift up one of the towers, a trip which really only takes you about half way. She doesn't do too well with heights, but she was really brave for me and I appreciated the opportunity to enjoy this together with her. I took well over 100 photos while here, and many of them came out quite nice. I could post photos all day long of this magnificent piece of architecture, but I'll probably have to save the bulk of them for future slide shows I will share with everyone.

All in all we had an incredible day yesterday wandering around the city, experiencing architecture you can see nowhere else. Carin was a real trooper and I thank my lucky stars for her support of my chosen life-path every single day. THANKS!

Today, our last day in town, we had a great time finishing up some shopping on La Rambla, doing some more wandering around town, and heading up to Montjuic, a large hill in town that was the site of the 1992 Olympics, among other things. I got to see a communications tower designed for the Olympics by another of my favorite architects, Santiago Calatrava. We finished the day with a cable-car ride across the harbor of Barcelona, hundreds of feet up in the air with the best view we had yet had of the city.

I will certainly miss Barcelona, as I don't feel I really had enough time to get to know her. However, I am excited about "getting out of the city" and enjoying some countryside and some good old fashioned beach loafing. I also get to drive a car for the first time in many months, as Carin and I have rented one with a standard transmission for the days we are in Cadaques. VROOM VROOM! I'm not sure what internet access will be like there, but I will certainly post again as soon as the opportunity becomes available. Until then, Adeu!

We Love Barcelona

Carin and I agree, this town is, as my dad would say, "Somethin' Else". So far we are having the time of our lives here, at last on vacation with no more school obligations for the rest of the summer. I struggled with which photo to open this blog entry with, and I decided it had to be the wall o' candy. Yesterday, after getting our hotel situation all figured out, we decided to start our day with a walk down the most famous street in Barcelona, La Rambla. This photo was taken at one of our first stops, La Boqueria, an open air/semi covered market that sells everything from your favorite animal freshly skinned to fresh picked fruit to...well...the wall o' candy. We were somewhat surprised, delighted, and disgusted to see the Dunkin' Donuts right next door to the market. I feel like I'm back in Boston.

As we continued down La Rambla we began following the "Ruta del Modernisme de Barcelona" map we obtained at the tourist office. Translated, that means I began enjoying some really amazing architecture you can't see anywhere else in the world. Spain, and especially Barcelona, is famous for the "Modernisme" movement in architecture, which coincided with the Art Nouveau in many other parts of the world. An extremely famous Modernisme architect, Antoni Gaudi, and especially one Modernisme building, La Sagrada Familia, are pretty much two of the major reasons I became an architect. I have waited my entire educational and professional career to experience this movement first hand, and here I am, in my own personal architectural Mecca. The photo here was taken at a building that ended up being my first taste of Modernisme, the Antiga Casa Figueras by Antoni Ros i Guell.

We spent several hours wandering down La Ramblas, enjoying many Moderisme sites and buildings, discovering various "Placas" (in Italian - Piazza) along the way and just having a great time in sunny weather with a light breeze and temps in the upper 70s -- i.e. perfect. Eventually we came back and checked into our new hotel (pic show here to the right of part of the lobby) which turned out to be the best decision we could have made. The place is absolutley stunning and very, very comfortable.

After checking into our hotel Carin and I went for a stroll through our new neighborhood -- the medieval part of Barcelona -- and hit our first museum, the Museu d'Historia dela Ciutat. At, or rather under, this museum are the remains of an excavated Roman town from around 100BC. Unfortunatley, photos were not allowed, but we learned a lot about all of the iterations Barcelona had gone through from a series of Iberian settlements to a Roman City to a Visigoth Republic. The museum consisted mostly of a series of catwalks suspended over the remains of the Roman City so you could actually act as if you were walking through the ancient streets. It was very interesting -- I'll be recommending it to my architecture buddies from Roma and Istanbul for when they come through Barcelona later this month.

We made a brief stop by La Seu, a major gothic cathedral in Barcelona, but there was a mass in progress so we didn't get much of a look (picture here of the giant screen showing the mass while we were there). I'm hoping to make it back there tomorrow but we'll see how that goes -- we have other priorities.

We ended the evening early enough to get a good night's sleep -- just what we need from a vacation. Tomorrow I'll tell you more about today's exploits -- a vertitable plethora of architectural goodness. Until then, Adeu!!! (Pics of the hotel room to follow.)

We're Here!!

And I'm typing this email on the smallest computer I have ever seen in my life...a mini Sony Vaio. We stayed at a little hotel last night that was nice and simple, but the air conditioning was broken and we woke at 6am hot hot hot. We decided to switch hotels to a very nice place for us, the Hotel Neri in the medieval part of Barcelona. After all, we consider this our belated honeymoon, so we might as well be comfortable. Now we are ready for adventures so I'll check back in with you tonight or tomorrow morning and let you know how our first day here went! Adeu!!

We're Ok

If you've been listening to the news about Heathrow, we just wanted to let you know that we won't be traveling through the UK during the rest of our trip. We'll be in touch from Spain. Adios!

All Good Things...

Greetings and welcome to what may perhaps be my last blog post in Istanbul. Internet access here has been spotty lately (I think our good friend "sadie" has finally figured out she was hosting a bunch of illegals...but I digress.) At any rate, I managed to find a new friend, "Airties" who's connection I am surfing now, but it may not last, so I'll talk fast.

When last I wrote I was telling you about a trip up the Bosphorus Carin and I were going to take with my class. Let me just tell you we had an amazing time, and unbelievable dinner, and a sunset not to forget.

Here's a pic of Carin with the "other" wife Lisia, who we would like to give a big HELLO to! We started the evening around 5pm by getting on a bus for a 1 hour jaunt that would take us further north, where the cruise would begin. If you look at this map, you will see there are two major suspension bridges that cross the Bosphorus at its narrowest points. We began our trip on a nice yacht capable of carrying 20+ people by the bridge furthest to the north, rode south for 2 hours, and then turned around and came back to where we started. On the way to our furthest point, we were treated to a variety of traditional Turkish "mezza" or hors d'oeuvres, and on the way back we were treated to a feast of freshly grilled whitefish from the Bosphorus, Turkish salad and melon for desert. It was quite the spread.

The main reason for taking the boat trip was to see the variety of old mansion architecture along the strait, all of which was reminiscent of any waterway's big dwellings. Even though the Bosphorus is really a strait connecting the Black Sea to the Marmara Sea, it feels more like a large river, similar to the Mississippi, but with water that is much clearer and salty. We had such a great time with the breezes in our hair and the wonderful water all around, the entire adventure turned out to be a real treat. (To the left you'll see a beautiful pic of the bridge as the sun was going down).

Today was our last full day in Istanbul. My classes are all over, I've had my sketchbook looked at and approved by the professor, and now its time for some serious vacationing. Carin and I will leave tomorrow around 2:30pm for the airport, where we'll catch a 3 1/2 hour flight to Barcelona. We're really looking forward to this "belated honeymoon", just the two of us enjoying a city we have both looked forward to exploring for a long time. We'll be in the city for 3 days and then will head up the coast to Cadaques, where we'll enjoy 2 more days lounging on the beach, breathing (probably) the cleanest air we've yet experienced in Europe. Ahhhhh.....

So that's it for now. Thank you so much for following our adventures in Roma and Istanbul, and we look forward to telling you all about the "end" of our trip in Barcelona. Its hard to believe the time has gone this fast, but as they say, all good things must come to and end....for now, that is ;-) Ciao.

Work, work, work

Its difficult sometimes with all of the fun things I've gotten to do this summer to remember that I am in school, I am getting credit, and I do have certain obligations to fulfill. Today and tomorrow promise to be mostly "work days" as we finish up our Istanbul school obligations and prepare for the quarter to end.

This afternoon I am finishing drawings from our second assignment, to choose and document a particular mosque, especially with respect to its approaches and how a visitor/pilgrim would experience coming to it. Ron and I chose the Blue Mosque, of which I have spoken in previous posts. We chose it for many reasons (and, primarily, because it was close!) but have found it more and more interesting as we continue to study it. The mosque has many approaches from at least 3 distinct directions, each of which contains a sequence of spaces that make it interesting to look at from both close and far. I am rather happy we are getting close to finishing the drawings though...its so difficult to do work when the weather is so nice and you are in a foreign country, just wanting to see things!

Tonight Carin and I will go with the class on a boat trip up the Bosphorus, the large body of water that connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara. We will be provided dinner on the boat and the entire trip should last about 4 hours. We'll be taking a bus from our hotel further out of the city than we've ever been to catch the boat, with the hopes that we may make it all the way to the Black Sea. I would love to see it, so I'm hoping for a speedy ride. We're both excited about the trip and are looking forward to getting out on the water for an evening of fun and learning. We'll let you know how it went tomorrow! Ciao for now...