[ July 2013 ]

Open air cinema montjuic

Most trips Graham likes a boat ride of some kind, I think this trip the 24 hour ferry ride just might of sufficed, but the Teleferic de Montjuic followed by an open air cinema seems to have got him just as happy!






 looking east, you can sea cuitadela park, and the forum

walked round monjiuc to the other side, this is looking down over the gallery and out west


spiky thing of olympic park 

sagrada on the right and I think guinardo park is on the left, we live in between the two at the mo


the hills , the basin, the cove, tis Barcelona


you cant see to well but the trees in the background looked like they were running down the hill like sheep on the horizon

mad and chuffed!

Vat return or ‘turo de la rovira’

Supposed to be doing my vat return, so ran up the hill with Molly and did yoga looking over the whole of Barcelona! er…yes ran up the hill and did yoga! I didn’t know vat returns could be so inspirational!

Well…it was more that I….stumbled, jogged, panted, walked, sweated, stood gasping for breath, walked, ran a bit, sweated and then did about three moves I could remember of yoga including the speary one, warrior I think it is but I felt pretty awesome up there all the same!

These are some pictures from when we went there late evening one time, you can see Barcelona 360 and watch the sun go down over the hills behind, but in the morning you are on your own and the morning light reflects bright on the sea below. There was a settlement there and there is still a small village on the back road up to there that has that empty quite feeling that villages in the country have.

You can see what its like on this vid, they do a spin round about half way through. Its all been cleaned up since then because of the rich history of the remains up there including leftovers of the former Iberian village, the bunkers and anti aircraft batteries from the civil war 1936 – 1939 and the shanty village in 1940 -1978

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-obxdNHBsTk


 Parc del Guinardó is the green bit below


lots off different levels from the old shanty town barraca “El Carmelo” the platforms where the houses stood and the old tiles of the kitchen etc


history here
http://skateandurbanstreetculture.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/turo-de-la-roviro/
how to get there here
http://www.bcn.cat/museuhistoriaciutat/es/muhba_turo_rovira.html
http://www.spottedbylocals.com/barcelona/turo-de-la-rovira/

La Boheme attico

Daddy reckons this place is very ‘La Boheme’.

La Boheme to me is romance. So it depends on your definition of romance wether this is a La Boheme atico.

If romance is not seeing the minging aluminum windows but seeing beyond, through the gaps, at an angel, then it is.

If romance is not thinking about the painted over tiles in the shower, which peel away with each drenching and instead laugh at the fact when you turn on the cold its really hot, (the pipes run up the side of the building and sit in the sun all day) then yes it is.

For romance…always keep the middle windows closed so the smelly pattatas bravas, chorizo fan smell doesn’t come in but open the window in the bedroom to hear the screeching of swifts every morning.

And… keep the kitchen as clean as possible so the ants don’t send scouts to check you out, punish you for your slovenliness of leaving melon juice and call down the tiny hole by the sink for the rest of the gang.

Don’t think about what’s under that interestingly low positioned back wrenching sink, or in fact whats festering in that imaginative grouting technique that appears at every wet junction, the impasto approach to grouting.

Just sweep and mop the floors even though you cant tell if it has made a difference or not. Hang a red cardigan on that deep green wall and appreciate it might be the impasto bodger who knows more about colour than you, it may be that its not Barcelona and its light that has shown you colour but his orange rug behind a that deep green wall.

And enjoy the crazy little workshop with the roof that flaps in the wind and how the washing dries by the time the next 30 min quick wash has finished.

Don’t complain about the weird clicking whirring noise that constantly comes from behind the antique oven but celebrate the fact that it works.

And while sweating at 33 and 99% humidity wondering why you didn’t stay in thick stone of the dark streets…just enjoy the view, and look at the light changing, and the fact you feel on top of the world.