France and Spain

Moving swiftly Westward our next country was France and Monte Carlo. This is where the money is. We had to take a tender in as there was not enough berth space. Coincidentally the weather was a little rough and this slowed operations so our time ashore was limited.

After making our way around the harbour and its many extravagant boats… 

the beautiful façade of The Hermitage looked down on us as we walked up the hill where, in 2008 Le Tour started with an individual time trial event (see the 2008 blog).

At the top of the hill is the famous Hotel de Paris. Here the view is across the many Rolls and Bentleys parked outside the Casino. There are certainly more luxury cars per linear metre of road than any other part of the world. Being "seen" in a Ferrari just does not seem to be quite up to snuff!

I suspect most will recognise the Monte Carlo Casino. As I use Monte Carlo simulations a lot it was a shame there was not time for me to  go inside what has precipitated a 10 year affair.

The following day found us in Barcelona for a two night stop. We had booked tickets on line to overcome the queues for Sagrada Familia. Although we had been outside the Basilica (see September 2013 blog) we had not been inside. There is still construction work but at least there is now a target to complete by 2026 to align with the 100 year anniversary of Gaudi’s death. 

I found the outside interesting but very busy and with too much to look at let alone comprehend. The inside however, is just stunningly beautiful. The height and volume of the space is the first striking aspect. This was quickly supplemented by the clean uncluttered design compared to the outside although it is quite different to any other cathedral.

Each column has “branches” at the top and reflects the tree design. There are burls at the top of each trunk. In engineering terms it is unusual to see branches at an angle and at various slopes.

The windows along each side give marvellous light with green and blue giving a watery feel to one side and reds, oranges and yellow on the other side reflecting sun and sand. The light is just beautiful.

Over the alter the Christ figure could be parachuting into the church or being caught by an uplift on the way to heaven.

Certainly the internal design of the tower above the crossing has a heavenly feel to it. 

The whole design really underpins the amazing imagination of Gaudi. His challenge would have been how to describe this to those with lesser imaginations. He did this with the help of models. There are four on display that show the migration from the rather dull pre-Gaudi design to his final basic structure.

Gaudi realised that a catenary cable (in tension) was effectively an arch in reverse (which is largely in compression). He produced a model with twine and small sandbags to show the design using a myriad of catenary cables. Thanks to a mirror (at the top) the planned “look” could be seen.

We were joined on our tour by newlyweds Geoff (my nephew and star of the August 2012 Brugge blog) and Livia who married on the Saturday before our departure in Sydney. By coincidence they were honeymooning in Europe and were in Barcelona at the same time as us. A late luncheon pint after our prolonged tour of Sagrada Familia was required.

The following day we headed off to the Gaudi gardens. The core area which could be accessed by all in our 20?? visit is now restricted to ticket holders only. As they had sold out for the day we had a walk around the perimeter of the gardens.

The structures remain impressive

Helen was initially very impressed by this guy’s core muscles until it was appreciated that he was defying gravity. He may have lost his head but it was still a pretty smart act.

At the West end of the park is a viewing platform that Geoff and I climbed however the girls decided they could content themselves by looking at us. (They were actually on speaking terms but just wanted the bench to themselves.)

After saying goodbye to G & L we left Barcelona and set off for a sea day arriving at Ajjacio in Corsica in the evening. It is a situated in a huge natural bay (18 X 18 kms) and at night was very picturesque.(A bit less so during the day.)

The town’s claim to fame is as the birthplace of Napoleon. There is a statue of him overlooking the town with 50 steps to the top.

We decided on a wine tour and visited two wineries. The mural at the first stop was quite a work of art. 

The wine was not bad either despite the vats being unromantic concrete boxes lined with epoxy paint. The barrels used for maturing some of the wine “were never older than 4 years….” which rather flys in the face of other vineyards.

We were fortunate to be visiting at the time of bottling some Rose. A noisy a process with one of the team feeding empty bottles to the machine while others removed the full bottles into a crate on a forklift at the other end.

After the tour, suitably fortified, we headed to the town for some “L’eau avec gas”. We sat down next to a small but aromatic market. The olives and range of marinades provided an amazing variety of bouquets.

Which were only surpassed by some local cheeses. They may not look too attractive but their smell was mouth watering.

Regrettably we then had to head back to the ship for our last night where we enjoyed the sunset with a cocktail or two before tackling the packing.