Portugal - modern part of Lisbon
Added: October 06, 2014
Is there a building done by Calatrava in the city? So that Zuzka must to see it. Actually I like his architecture too. Now to convince Peter... It could be much easier if there were other things too. Hm, there is oceanarium. Maybe that helps.
More from Chora, Folegandros
Added: August 04, 2013
For such a small island I wanted to show too many photos. They would not fit into single post and my original approach with several pages per post was not very successful - people haven't noticed there is another page (at least those looking at photos). So now I try to separate them in individual posts.
That leads me to this small and potentially strange post - about our accommodation in Chora and about nearby church. What links them together is direct visibility from one to other.
The second island belonging to Cyclades we had visited was Φολέγανδρος. What a difference to Santorini. I don't mean different geology, but how I felt there. While Santorini is touristy, busy and commercial, Folegandros is quiet and not many tourists find it. Locals live their lives and that is part of its magic.
I felt much better in Foldegandros than in Santorini. Finally we had an option to relax. Lonely Planet said it nicely: "Turn off the clocks on dreamy Folegandros". Some people might say there is nothing on Folegandros, but for me that is the point. 3 or 4 full days are probably sufficient to see everything interesting, but more might be needed for proper relaxing. We have been there for 3 days (arriving in the morning of the first day and leaving in the evening of the 3rd day) and certainly we could stay longer.Santorini - Oia
Added: August 03, 2013
Οία is the Santoriniest place of whole Santorini :-) When you search for Santorini, you will probably find more photos from Oia, than from any other place. Even web ad companies still show me glimpses of Oia thinking I am interested in holiday again. Stupid cookies.
Santorini - Firostefani
Added: August 03, 2013
Firostefani is another town in Santorini or maybe it is part of Fira, I don't know. It's name suggests that and also there is no clear separation between them. Nevertheless I decided to write about it in separate post.
Santorini - Fira
Added: August 03, 2013
We wanted to go to Santorini for quite long time. Long enough we have already forgotten whose idea it was. Eventually we planned it for following September. That was, according to our information, the best time of year to go there. But I started to be impatient in April and started searching for information just in case our source of information was wrong. And eventually we have learned, that we like more weather statistics for late May or early June than what September offers.
Quick preliminary search for flight and accommodation prices, then allocate free time and we can start serious price hunting. I handled before mentioned areas, Zuzka looked into our itinerary. And it would not be her if she wanted to stay at one place for whole time. So she added also nearby islands Folegandros and Milos. "Those are beautiful islands, but they don't have international airport. Do you see my point?". "Yes, I do :-)"Gran Canaria - last couple of hours at Canaries
Added: November 02, 2011
We used the last day of our trip until last minute. Literally. We flew back to Gran Canaria afternoon and wanted to go to Palmas de Gran Canaria. Our flight back was scheduled on next day at 6am, which was a bit inconvenient considering a need to find our way to Palmas, look around, find some accomodation to leave it early in the "morning" to gat back to airport.
So we changed our plan at last possible moment and I have studied Lonely Planet to find out what we could do instead while waiting at the airport in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Our new plan has been born - we will rent a car and go to the south of island to check how it looks like.
After we finished our Chinobre walk we went to San Cristóbal de la Laguna. Just a short stop to see its historic center with colorful buildings. It attracts Zuzka as an architect and me as a photographer. We had a lot of green today, it is time to get some reds and yellows too.
On our way to La Laguna we stopped in some restaurant for lunch. To our delight they served a goatling or cabrito in Spanish. We did not prepare especially for this vocabulary, but goat cheese (queso de cabra) was our favourite self-catering stuff, so we were able to recognize it. We like goat cheese and it was much cheaper than in Slovakia.
What else is cheap in Tenerife? you could ask. Well, that is easy - petrol. And car rentals are not expensive too. There are so many competitors there.
I did not post anything new for a while. There were so many distractions and things to do during last couple of months, I simply could not find enough time (and I still cannot find it for other things, but I am going to post about our recent trips now).
We were thinking about visiting Tenerife while we were still in UK, but at that time we considered just single weekend due to all holidays being spent before. That did not work out well, so we jumped on an opportunity back home when I learned there will not be enough work at my job in May. It nicely coincided with Ryanair opening the route from Bratislava to Gran Canaria in April. We decided to go for a week. Perfect!
Important part of Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias in Valencia is oceanographic park. It was designed by Felix Candela and it makes whole complex much more interesting.
I really liked shapes of all those buildings as well as clever passages connecting them, either underground or surrounded by water. And fish and other animals were amazing too. I mean dolphins, penguins, fish of coral reef as well as sharks and sting rays.Architecture of Santiago Calatrava in Valencia
Added: September 19, 2010
It was on Zuzka's radar for years. We have to go to Valencia to see amazing buildings Santiago Calatrava designed in Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias. Nearly before every bank holiday we checked times and prices of flight tickets and this time we liked what we have found. Apart from small detail that more convenient flight back to Bristol was from Alicante. OK, why not? We can see 2 places in 3 days instead of one.
Weather forecast was favourable (if temperatures over 30°C could be named favourable) only later some web sites suggested it will be raining on Sunday. That had an effect on our plans. We will see whole place from outside on Saturday, then we will go to beach and interiors will be left for Sunday. We need to get to Alicante on Monday, let's go there early in the morning and we can spend more time on beach there. Or to climb the hill with castle (but that is not very probable we would like to do that in hot weather).
Our trip to Copenhagen during Early Bank Holiday was planned for about half a year. Price of flight tickets was good and Copenhagen is full of modern architecture, so I could not say 'no' to Zuzka. She even bought little book about modern architecture in Copenhagen and that helped to sell the idea of visiting Copenhagen to me easily :-)
So this post will be about architecture. Old and also modern one.
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