Barcelona Day 2 - Travel Photography

Another day, another whirlwind of sights. This is definitely what I signed up for but it is exhausting. 

Castle of Montjüic

We began our day at the fort that overlooks the city and has enormous historical importance in Spain, especially during the Spanish Civil War. There was some sort of artistic intervention going on at the fort when we visited that had a ton of flowers and such. I'm not so sure that covering a building with a grim history in colorful flowers helps at all. To me, it is an attempt to cover up a past that can be hard to rationalize but needs to be understood nonetheless.

Palace of Catalan Music

I can definitely see why this is a UNESCO world heritage site.  the detail in the mosaics, stained glass and sculptures is astounding. Tours are at weird times but are very much worth it.

Barcelona Cathedral

We saw the outside of this and the cloisters yesterday but the inside was finally open so we checked that out as well. It is amazing what people could do without power tools. 

Barcelona Day 1 - Travel Photography

Its good to be back in one of my favorite places on the planet. I can't say exactly why but I really like Barcelona. Maybe it's the mediterranean, the narrow streets or the great weather, who knows? Anyway, we tried to do a lot today but, being that it is Spain (a very very very catholic country) on a Sunday, nothing was really open. We ended up exploring a large swath of the city by foot which was really fun. We also attempted to visit the Palace of Catalan Music but that too was closed by the time we got there. 

Barcelona Cathedral

I guess this counts as the only real thing we "saw" today but the main section of the cathedral was closed off today because it's a church, duh. Undeterred, we hung out in the plaza for a long time and took in the street performers and giant bubbles being blown before discovering the cloisters of the cathedral were open. 

Paris Day 3 - Travel Photography

What we had planned to be a quiet, uneventful day in Paris ended up being even more uneventful that we had originally planned as it rained for a good portion of the afternoon, cutting our exploration of the city short. However, we did do a wine tasting as a part of the Paris pass for a few hours in the evening which was very interesting. There are so many ways to make wine and so many factors change the taste it's pretty incredible. I only took three photos today which is very unusual for me. I just did not see a good opportunity to pull the camera out of the bag more than once.

Paris Day 2 - Travel Photography

Another city, another hop-on hop-off bus. It is a great way to see a lot of sights in a very short amount of time. One thing to note: Never ever shoot from the bus, there is almost no way to get a good photo while speeding down the street. Just sit back, enjoy the city and listen to the guide. 

Notre Dame

Notre Dame was the second stop on the hop-on hop-off bus (the first was the Louvre which we saw yesterday) and we were definitely interested in spending some time there although it ended up being a three hour stop due to lines everywhere. The trip up the tower was worth the wait because we got to see some gargoyles up close and get a great view of the city. We actually ended up walking back past here after dinner.

Arc du Triomphe

Photos really do not do this place justice. It's just massive and the 12 avenues converging at the circle that surrounds the arch makes for insane traffic. We are going back to the Champs Elysses tomorrow so I hope to get some more photos of the Arc du Triomphe.

Eiffel Tower

One of the many landmarks that books and photos simply do not capture the magnitude of the place. We bought tickets to go to the 'sommet' aka the very top which was absolutely worth it. The city looks so small from up there and you can see all the famous landmarks. I was very glad that we stood in multiple lines to get to the top.