Culture and Nature

We had been intending to return to the Bird Reserve we visited in the Autumn near Girona in Spain.  The warden had told us that the end of March was the best time so, as I had a hospital appointment at Toulouse (which is 2 hours on the road towards Spain) we decided to continue on and visit Barcelona and then the birds.  Everything was progressing well until we got to the French/Spanish border.  All of the traffic on the motorway was funneled into 2 lanes and then there were only 2 toll-booths working.  Once through this we had to crawl past Gendarmes and then very slowly past well armed Spanish police/soldiers!  Whether they were looking for someone or it was just an exercise we don't know but it certainly caused a massive hold-up.

Our arrival in Barcelona was the usual search for the hotel ... our GPS is about 10 years out of date and has stopped talking to us!!!

The main reason for going to Barcelona wasn't the Barca/Real football match which was this weekend, but to see the Sagrada Familia.  We last saw it in 2008 when the inside was still a building site.  What a transformation!

The interior of the Basilica is finished but there is still lots of new work being done on the exterior.
My photos do not convey the full feeling of the building which we found to be incredible ... one can only say, a spiritual experience. (Whether you wish to call it 'religious' depends upon your beliefs, but we certainly found it quite moving).
The stained glass windows, combined with windows high up which are frosted white, give a magical light show to the interior whilst the ornamentation of the facades and doors are stunning.

 Gaudy was totally influenced by Nature and so used the inspiration of wildlife to decorate throughout.  We loved these entrance doors ...

Can you see the bees, the ladybird and the moth?

We found in contrast that aspects of the exterior are quite Disneyesque but the building still remains very, very impressive.

After this short exposure to 'culture' we went north to see friends at Sa Tuna, which is on the coast north of Girona.  But our next activity on the itinerary was the bird reserve at Aiguamols just some 40 km south of the border.  The weather was mixed ...

cool and rain, but this did not deter us from seeing nesting Storks ...

lots of wildfowl and wading birds ...

 and, of course the horses.

We were also lucky enough to see some migratory British birders ringing and identifying small birds.

We recognised them as British as one had a BTO anorak on and they were using an English identification book (Collins Bird Book).

Those British get everywhere don't they!!!