ON THE ROAD AGAIN

After many delays getting the warranty work done on the van we finally crossed  from Dover to Dunkerque on 27th February.  We drove down through Belgium and France using mainly the quiet country roads with hardly any traffic and lovely countryside scattered with interesting villages.  

 

  
We called at Reims and visited its magnificent cathedral with a very impressive main doorway.

The weather was cold but lovely and sunny as we continued south to the ancient fortified city of Carcassonne, not far from the France/Spain border.

The site has been occupied since about 3500 BC and became an important trading centre in the sixth century BC. 

 It was fortified by the Romans, parts of the original walls still being visible, and for many years since had a violent history.   In 1247 King Louis IX founded the “new town”, across the river from the old city, which has since flourished, initially as a textile producer.  

 King Philip III added the outer ramparts strengthening the fortifications of the old city after which it was considered to be impregnable and during the Hundred Years War Edward, the Black Prince, failed to capture it (though he did destroy the new town!).

Following the Treaty of the Pyrenees, which conceded the border territory of Roussillon to France, Carcassonne lost its importance as a military base for the defence of France from Spain and fell into decay, the walls of the old city being used as a quarry!

In 1853 work began to restore the old city under the guidance of the brilliant architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc.  His research was extremely thorough and his plan very practical – restoring the most important buildings first.  Carcassonne became listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1997 and is still a “work in progress” today.

 

We crossed the border into Spain and continued south along the coast to Figueres where the main attraction is the museum of paintings and sculptures by Salvador Dali.

The Dali Museum, housed in a converted theatre, has many of his works, some of which are very well known.  Unfortunately, my favourite painting – of Christ on the cross, viewed from above, with the world at his feet - is in Glasgow!

Dali was born in Figueres in the Catalunya province of Spain in 1904, the area to which he returned and eventually died in 1989.  His art was strongly influenced by both the Christian (especially Catholic) faith and the scientific and cultural revolutions of the twentieth century.  In later life his wife Gala was a powerful influence and appeared in many of his works.

Painted ceiling - Dali Museum

Technically his art is very clever, comical, often difficult to understand and frequently seems to reveal a very troubled soul. 

Perhaps he never came to terms with the death of his mother, whom he worshiped, when he was 16 and which he described as “the greatest blow ever”.

Painted wall, Dali Museum

Taking a slight detour further west we visited a lovely old town called Besalu with a fine fortified bridge over the river.  In the centre of the bridge is a gatehouse complete with port cullis!

Returning to the coast, we stayed at a site at Mataro a few kilometres north of the lively city of Barcelona.  The site operates a free bus service into the city which made our visit very easy.  Unfortunately we chose one of the few days when it poured with rain!  However that did not prevent us from visiting some of the main attractions. 

The old Cathedral is surprisingly simple inside, with some beautiful stained glass.  We wandered through the old town and discovered the main Post Office which is remarkable to say the least!

The old fashioned zoo (which we did not go into) is housed in a building resembling a Norman Keep and nearby is their Arc de Triomf (not a misprint!)

The main attraction though was to see some of the works of the remarkable architect, Antoni Gaudi, born in 1852, who died after being hit by a tram in 1926.  He once said that to take inspiration from nature is to cooperate with the Creator.  Most of his work, which now seems ahead of his time, attempts to recreate natural stone formations and living things such as trees.

Between 1904 and 1906 he was involved in the renovation of an apartment block – Casa Batllo.  It is said that the roof represents the back of a dragon and the structure to left above it is the lance of St George, the Patron Saint of Catalunya, plunged into it.

Although ridiculed at first, he was commissioned to design a number of prestigious buildings in Spain but his greatest achievement, which took up most of his later years and which is still being built, is the huge Sagrada Familia church.  Here is a model of it:

Among its many spires are twelve bell towers representing the twelve apostles and inside it is built like a great forest, the columns spreading out at the top like the branches of trees and the ceiling looking like their leaves. 

Many of the windows, begun in 1999, contain beautifully coloured stained glass in abstract designs on which you could spend hours in meditation.

It is a beautiful, stunning, inspiring place.