Springtime in Europe

Paris, Barcelona, and Granada in Photographs

18-27 May 2010

After spending a semester in Ireland, learning how to be a student traveller, and deciding that I didn't do enough continental travelling, I made the decision to return to Europe when Spring semester was over. Plus, Kelsey and Grace were in France and Liz was in Spain, so all the more reason to go now.

I left school on Sunday, after graduation, went home, packed, left the country on Monday night and arrived at last in Paris Tuesday evening. Kelsey let me crash at her place in Paris (what an amazing apartment it was!), but since her parents were in Paris as well, she spent her days with them. But Grace came up from Grenoble so that she could travel Paris with me. I was on my own for Barcelona until Kirstin, Allison, and Val arrived for their post-graduation European tour. We stayed in the same hostel and had an evening and a day together before I went on to Granada where Liz met me when I got off the airport bus and took me back to her host mom's apartment. I paid Yolanda basically the same amount of money as I paid the hostel in Barcelona, for the same number of nights, but I got a room to myself and she fed me three breakfasts, two dinners, and a supper (Spanish dinners - called lunch - are around 3pm and supper at 9 or 10pm). So here are some of the best photographs from the whirlwind, ten-day trip!

Paris, France

Wednesday 19 May

The bottom of the stairs that go up to Kelsey's apartment.

A bench in Luxembourg Gardens.

In the Louvre: Base and feet of a colossus in the name of Amenophis III (18th Dynasty, c. 1400 BC), Thebes, pink granite, originally would have been about 8m tall.

Thursday 20 May

The Marble Courtyard at Versailles. I am holding a mostly-eaten croissant.

Windows in a hallway at Versailles.

Louis XIX, a snail we met and became friends with in the Versailles gardens.

Wisteria at the 'peasant farm' set up for Marie Antoinette's amusement.

Friday 21 May

Stained glass and statuary in Notre Dame.

Notre Dame from the Seine.

Barcelona, Spain

Saturday 22 May

The neighborhood my hostel was in: Barrio Gótico – evidence of some Arabic influence in both the narrow, confusing streets (yes, this is a street) and the architecture (minus the gargoyles).

There are SO MANY stairs to get from Plaça Espanya to the art museum (there are also escalators).

More stairs, edged by these fountains lead into Parc Montjuïc surrounding the art museum.

In one of the numerous gardens that comprise Parc Montjuïc.

Tower on the corner of the Montjuïc castle (fort, really), looking out over the sea. You could see all Barcelona from here.

Sunday 23 May

A walkway at Parc Güell, designed by Antoni Gaudí.

The Magic Fountain at Montjuïc puts on a truly magical display at night, art museum in the background at the top of all the other fountains and stairs.

Monday 24 May

Sagrada Familia (Sacred Family), also designed mostly by Gaudí in 1833, still under construction. This is one of the few windows where his characteristic mosaic-like stained glass is already installed. The ceiling (supported by palm tree pillars!) will one day be entirely filled with gold and green.

Mosaics on a bench at Parc Güell.

Granada, Spain

Tuesday 25 May

I would like one of these lamps. Just one of the innumerable (and always colourful) items for sale in the Moroccan stores.

Tile work and chairs around the edge of a courtyard in Alhambra (first established in 1238 AD).

Pretty much all the walls were either tiled or decorated like this. And the ceilings were just as ornate in either wood or a design full of tiny concave niches (an Islamic style called mocárabes).

In the Generalife gardens, part of the Alhambra complex.

Wednesday 26 May

Poppies growing on a sidewalk going up the side of a hill.

The best graffiti I have ever seen.