June 2010

My last stop on the way back from Europe last year was Japan, where I had a few days and spent one on a day trip out to Nikko, a smallish town with several temple complexes and beautiful stands of forest. I was lucky to be there at that time and caught it in autumn as the maple leaves were all lovely orange shades and despite it absolutely hosing down – I got soaked through – came away with some beautiful memories and pics!

Expat John Clarke does a sterling job explaining the BP oil spill response:

After we visited Parc Güell and La Sagrada Familia we went to see the two amazing Gaudí buildings just a couple of blocks away from each other in Eixample, the district in Barcelona we were staying in (good choice Mary!). They are both incredible buildings, utterly unlike the conventional boxes we're used to, and Casa Batlló in particular is a great example of designing a place to suit the way people want to live in it.

Barcelona's a cool city to visit, but I think to many it's best known for the architectural works of Antonio Gaudí – and fair enough, they're awesome! We went to four total; here's the park and the cathedral.

Trains were sold out so I took a bus from Cuenca to Valencia and then take the train to Barcelona from there, which meant a bit of a walk through town – quite nice though, would like to go back and see Valencia itself but couldn't fit it in this trip. I got in to Barcelona about dinnertime and was pretty unimpressed when the hotel I'd booked for the night booted me across to their sister hotel a few blocks away – they paid for a taxi but I was meeting one of my friends at my original hotel. It turned out she was actually in the waiting room when I arrived there but didn't notice my voice when I was speaking in Spanish! Anyway, there we were in Barcelona, home of lots of cool Gaudí works (and some confusing street names).

After the Moroccan tour ended I headed back to Spain in order to meet up with friends in Barcelona, but I had some time before they got there which I spent decompressing in Cuenca, Spain, which turned out to be covered in beautiful autumn colors and to have a great abstract art museum in the famous hanging houses.

Having parted from our minibus and Said, our driver who kept us safe on the highways around the Moroccan interior, we took a Supratour bus from Essaouira, which seemed nice but then only got about 49% of the way there before breaking down.

After Aroumd up in the mountains we had a long drive to Essaouira on the coast, the most relaxed of the big Moroccan towns we went to. Here we had a day and a half to just chill out and explore or try some activities.