Barcelona

24 June 2014

Barcelona has a great city beach and we are staying a five minute walk away in a very busy district. Very quiet in the morning, but plenty of cafe and bar activity in the neighborhood til quite late at night.

 We had a look around the city of course and wandered through a park deigned by a chap named Guell who has a very different acchitectual style which is evident in several promenint buildings in the city.  The building in particular that I liked were the Casa Batllò, Casa Amatller buildings in the main city area.

There is a huge church, La Sagrada Familia, which is still under construction after it's plans were first drawn up over 100 years ago, I would love to see it finished. It has an eclectic range of embellishments all over it from mosaics, skeletal figures, snails climbing down walls, to religious scenes... The generosity of private donations are being used for its completion. 

Link 

We stumbled across an outdoor cultural street performance last night and watched some flamenco dancing and African drum dances, entertainment +. 

Before leaving the city the next morning we went to the main beach for a swim, the water temperture was nice. 

Leaving Barcelona we headed north into France, again to a town called Die, where we stayed the night. Along the way we went on the toll roads initially to get some miles under our belt and then off the tolls so we could enjoy the countryside. The following day We headed towards the Chichlianne Valley, part of the National Park du Vercors to see Mont Aiguille, a very impressive mountain amongst some very grand mountain ranges. The drive to our destination was very scenic through valleys and gorges towards the mountains, passing some very old and quaint villages. 

I have finally seen some sunflower fields in full bloom, but yet to get a photo! Working on it though. 

Tonight we are camping in a town called Ruffieux. We have noticed a couple of small plaques next to the motor camp,listing some of the prisoners during WWII being sent from here to Auschwitz. 

Interestingly we have a camping neighbour (72 years old)  from Stuttgard, Germany who is biking around France tracing his fathers life; who was a German Soldier imprisoned during the war in the area where we are staying, and spent four years in France before returning to Germany and his family. Quite a mission.