lavanderblues

Monday, December 26, 2005

heehee spain photos! just a smattering from the 638 i have in my collecttion =S haha... crazy la dunno how come my parents and i became soo trigger happy bleah.

Amsterdam:

dutch houses by the canals. this was taken whilst i was in the queue waiting in the cold to visit Anne Frank's house. interesting experience. saw the actual "Annex" where they hid for 2yrs plus. quite amazing. and to maximise livng space, these houses have really scarily steep and high staircases that are almost ladders. quite scary to climb haha...

Amsterdam's famous flower market =) sold tonnes of tulip bulbs, even instant ones (so-called anw cos its "just add water") haha i was so tempted to get some for home. but they'd never survive.

wedding clogs! haha... we took a day tour with a tour company and ended up visiting this tremendously touristy clog making place. but got to see a demonstration of how modern clogs are made with the machines. quite interesting.

mum and me in a giant clog =P the "old women who lived in a shoe" haha...

barcelona:
this was the place we enjoyed most in our whole trip. barcelona's a wonderful city, so clean, spacious, airy and bright. beautiful architecture, ranging from the old gothic style, to the modernist kind that prevailed in the late 19th early 20th century, all found in different districts. it was wonderful walking around the city for 3 days, visiting buildings, being awed by the wonderful architecture of the modernist era, namely by Antonio Gaudi, eating fantastic food, drinking lovely rose wine (spaniards seem to like rose wine alot haha), shopping a little bit...

parents at La Rambla, this tree lined pedestrian avenue with stretches having animal stalls, flower stalls, and other quirky stuff like buskers in weird funny outfits! hehe.. very fun to walk down here, just soaking in the atmosphere.

this is Casa Batlio. Its a late 19th century house remodelled from the traditional type of building by Gaudi, who was inspired by the underwater world. hence the house looks like a hybrid dragon/sea creature, and the railings look like bones. haha... mum and i went into this house, and it was beautiful, in the sense that there werent furniture or anything, but the style and the commonsense of the architect (Gaudi) in times when alot of technologies werent available yet were really awe inspiring.

just one of the many chimneys of the house on the rooftop. Gaudi had this style of grouping the chimneys of various rooms together, and designing it such that no matter what direction the wind blew from, the smoke would still get to escape from the chimney in a straight line upwards. haha quite amazing. and fantastical too... Barcelona's noted for its houses designed by Gaudi with their fantastical chimneys haha...

ok visited a few other buildings by Gaudi that were equally amazing haha... but decided not to post pics cos scared it'll be boring. =P

Gaudi also contributed design elements to a Park! haha... we visited Park Guell just outside the city centre, where all of us went a bit crazy heehee...

this is really a surf-wave shaped alley way built out of stones. it was amazing... haha... k im in a silly pose heehee, addled by too much Gaudi already =P

as u can see, dad went crazy too! haha so fun! =)

and this is a picture of the gorgeous piazza in the park, with a cafe, and pigeons all over the place... beautiful sunlight, nice trees, and buskers that simply complete the atmosphere. =)

spanish countryside:
we spent a few days driving through the spanish countryside visiting the various towns and villages along our planned route. free and easy btw... dad was the driver, i was the navigator with the (inadequate) maps, mum was the *ahem* sustenance provider in the backseat.. hehe ultra fun =) the countryside was much colder, in the sense that at times when we set off in the morning it was like -8degrees. ultra cold pls. an entire 5l bottle of water left in the car overnight froze solid. woohoo.

teruel's famous ham. spain has fantastic cured hams which we ate plenty of in our entire trip. ham, cheese and crusty bread, washed down by some good red wine. heehee... teruel ham is soo thinly sliced, soft and tender, and tastes sublime. haha... i could dream about this man...

the parador at teruel. Paradors are like castles or historical buildings that the Spanish govt decided to retain, but yet add some economic use by converting them into hotels. There're many of them scattered around Spain, in the lesser known towns mostly. Must commend my dad, haha cos during the trip we stayed in a good range of hotels which totally completed the experience. in amsterdam, a normal townhouse hotel, barcelona, the normal type of city hotel found everywhere, teruel, this parador, in toledo, this antique building along the castle wall that resembled a little chateau by itself =P, in seville, a moorish villa converted into a guest house, and in madrid, a contemporary type of modern hotel. heehee.. really interesting.

a wonderfully rustic house in Albaraccin, this beautiful picturesque village thats so rural (read: ulu) and untouched by tourists i wonder where all the tourists have been. haha...

the beautiful view of Albaraccin =) felt on top of the world to clamber on top and sit there.

and a huge majestic roman aqueduc at segovia. this was built by romans to transport water to the town.

seafood paella =) (i took photos of all the food we ate haha..)

and its sooo happifying!! the streets of Seville are lined with ORANGE TREES! haha i even found a lemon tree somewhere hahahah... mum kept trying to coerce dad to pluck one for her. dad sadly, didn't =(

Madrid:
by the time we got ot madrid, we were basically tired out from visiting the sights, and concentrated more on shopping (zara in spain is quite abit cheaper), eating and relaxing...

the frescoed wall in Plaza Mayor, the tourist centre of Madrid =)

famous neapolitanas... custard filled and not too sweet. we ate this all 3 days we were in madrid =P haha the shop was always crowded and stuffed full, and they bake them on their premises. can smell the wonderful aroma as we walked by outside even.

my favourite breakfast in Spain, xocolata con xurros! hahaha (actually chocolate and churros, but spanish's ch=x) hot chocolate in spain is unlike all other hot chocolate i've tried elsewhere. in US it's more like hot cocoa. in Spain its literally hot, melted thick, gooey chocolate. decadent and wonderfully filling and warming on a cold morning. made by literally melting chocolate chunks in milk. kept me full the whole day =) with crispy, slightly salty churros dipped into the sweet thick chocolate, its decadent.

my serving of Lobster paella. really expensive. one serving at a restaurant that was equivalent to about 3 times of what u see in the picture (just nicely shared out between mum, dad and me) cost almost $100 Sing. Mad la. but dad wanted to try, so we ate it in a once-off thing. very delicious though abit salty =)

yay i end off with a picture of my family! =) the Spanish also love to drink. hehe here we are at a roadside table (in the cold yes...) lunch at a bar in Seville on a sunday haha.. =P it was crowded with people drinking and eating after church hehe...

sorry for the tremendous lot of pictures... bleah. haha hope u guys enjoyed them tho =) i have lots more =P hahaha... in the meantime, Happy Holidays!

lin~*
2:10 pm