Barcelona

We took a quick trip to Barcelona to celebrate Alex's 30th birthday. Awesome weather: the sun was out and the breeze from the ocean was nice and cool.

Les Rambles. A collection of streets in the heart of town with pedestrian walkways lined with shops, vendors, street performers and restaurants/cafes.

La Boqueria. Huge open air market along La Rambla with vendors selling all different types of food, cooked and uncooked. Delicious and cheap.

Temple de la Sagrada Familia. You can't hit any city in Europe without visiting at least one cathedral. Construction began on this cathedral in 1882, and it is still isn't finished.

One of the entrances to Sagrada Familia.

The transcept.

Olympic Harbor.

Passeig de Gracia. Main street lined with shops and businesses. Reminds us a bit of the Champs in Paris, but with better prices.

The building in the middle is called Casa Batllo, designed by Antoni Gaudi, the same man who designed Sagrada Familia. It was built from 1905-1907. The house on the left is called Casa Amatller, built from 1898-1900. These two very modern looking houses are part of the Block of discord along the Passeig de Gracia.

Bourgogne: Day 3

Clos de Vougeot

Sunday morning, we headed to the Chateau du Clos de Vougeot. It was built in the 12th century by monks who needed red wine for mass.


The chateau surrounded by its vineyards. The chateau does not run the vineyards, nor does it sell any wine on the premises any more.

Wine making barn on the right. Cellars on the left. The cellars are above ground because the limestone was too hard.

One of four massive wine presses in the wine making barn. Each press can hold four tons of grapes at a time.

Dijon

Our last stop was Dijon, the capital of Burgundy.


Palais de Ducs or Ducal Palace. It now houses the Fine Arts Museum.


St-Michel. Completed in the 17th century.


Notre-Dame. One of the oldest churches in Dijon, built in the 13th century.

Bourgogne: Day 2

Hotel-Dieu or Hospices de Beaune

After the Hundred Years' War, the town of Beaune suffered from poverty and famine. So the Duke of Burgundy founded a hospice for the poor in 1443 and endowed the hospice with saltworks and its own vineyards for its annual income. Today, the hospice owns 151 acres of vineyards, some of the finest in the region.

The Great Hall of the Poor. Both sides of this room are lined with beds and there is a chapel at the end of the hall so that the sick patients could attend church services from their bed.


Court of Honour. The roofs of the Hotel Dieu are covered with glazed multicolored tiles, typical of the Burgundy region. The well, in the back corner of the courtyard, provided water for the entire hospital. You can see the Bouzaise River flowing beneath.

Better view of the colorful, geometrical glazed roofs.

Marche aux Vins

There is a wine market across the street from the hospices, which allows you to tour their cellars and taste 15 different wines (3 white, 12 red) for only 10 euro.

Barrels lining the cellars of the wine market. I'm holding the souvenir tastevin in my left hand, and the list of wines in my right.

Autun

After the wine tasting, we drove to the town of Autun. The town was founded in the late 1st century B.C. and was originally called Augustodunum, the town of Augustus. There are still many Roman remains all around the city. As we drove around town, we saw signs for the Tour de France, since the Tour will be passing through Autun this summer.

Temple of Janus, right outside the town of Autun. Built by the Romans.

The Roman theatre, built in the 1st century A.D. It could sit 20,000 people.

Another view of the theatre.

Porte d'Arroux. Once part of the Roman wall built around Autun.

Bourgogne: Day 1

Beaune

We drove down to Burgundy (called Bourgogne in French) for Easter weekend. We stayed in Beaune, located in the center of Bourgogne. It was such a cute town, with lots of delicious food, fruit and gingerbread, a specialty of this region.

Sunny afternoon in Beaune

Along the Route des Grand Crus. This road is lined with vineyards.