The highlight

  Our last stop on the trip was Barcelona -a city I had never visited before. Our hotel was right in the centre of the city which was just as well as it was too hot for walking far.

The highlight of our time in the city, and I’m sure most visitors to Barcelona, was the visit to the still uncompleted Basilica de la Sagrada Familia. A quite amazing piece of architecture with a really fascinating story.The story of the Basilica is well described by Wikepidia.

The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família, otherwise known as Sagrada Família, is a church under construction in the Eximpla district of Barcelona. It is the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world. 

Designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi (1852–1926), in 2005 his work on Sagrada Família was added to an existing (1984) UNESCO heritage site  "Works of Antoni Gaudí". On 7 November 2010, Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the church and proclaimed it a minor basilica.

On 19 March 1882, construction of Sagrada Família began under architect Francisco de Paula del Villar y Lozano

 In 1883, when Villar resigned, Gaudí took over as chief architect, transforming the project with his architectural and engineering style, combining Gothic and curvilinear Art Noveau forms. Gaudí devoted the remainder of his life to the project, and he is buried in the church's crypt. At the time of his death in 1926, less than a quarter of the project was complete.

Relying solely on private donations, Sagrada Família's construction progressed slowly and was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War. In July 1936, anarchists from the FAI set fire to the crypt and broke their way into the workshop, partially destroying Gaudí's original plans.In 1939, Francesc de Paula Quintana took over site management, which was able to go on with the material that was saved from Gaudí's workshop and that was reconstructed from published plans and photographs. Construction resumed to intermittent progress in the 1950s. 

Advancements in technologies such as computer aided design and computerised numerical control (CNC) have since enabled faster progress, and construction passed the midpoint in 2010. In 2014, it was anticipated that the building would be completed by 2026, the centenary of Gaudí's death, but this schedule was threatened by work slowdowns caused by the Covid 19 pandemic. In March 2024, an updated forecast reconfirmed a likely completion of the building in 2026, though the announcement stated that work on sculptures, decorative details and a controversial stairway leading to the main entrance is expected to continue until 2034.

There are two reasons building the Basilica has taken so long. Firstly -as set out in Gaudí's original plans many features were very difficult and even impossible to build. Modern technology has changed that. 

Having to rely solely on donations from the outset meant money was always short. This requirement has not changed however the huge number of visitors today has swelled the Basilica's coffers and finance is no longer a problem.

As I approached the Basilica the smartphones were shooting away all round me but I realised that no photo of mine at ground level could ever do the exterior of the Basilica justice. My single effort is below along with a photo of a model showing what the completed building will look like.However I did manage a distant shot from a viewpoint overlooking the city which gives a sense of the size of the Basilica.

With 1500 visitors going through the interior of the Basilica every hour it is a very busy space but only one word can describe the interior-breathaking.

As well as being very enjoyable the 15 days  in Portugal and Barcelona gave me 30 worthwhile photos. Not as many as from previous trips to Portugal but I’m happy with that number and I know that if I missed something Ros has it on her phone.

Leica Q3 43 photos

Scenes from the Douro.

The Douro Valley is described as an area of outstanding natural beauty. It does not disappoint. 

It's an old landscape with old long abandoned buildings and small vineyards and huge areas of very well maintained vines in the estates of the major wine/port producers. 

There was a narrow gauge railway line linking Porto to the Spanish city of Salamanca. It ran the length of the Douro in Portugal before it climbed into the hills to reach Salamanca. Sadly it closed in 1980 because it was uneconomic but I'm sure if it were running today it would be a major tourist attraction.

 Most of the track, including some spectacular bridges, is still intact. The base of the track can be seen in the top photo below and the abandoned building may have been a station or a freight building associated with the railway.

Reopening the railway today would most likely be impossibly costly but it would relatively make a stunning tourist cycleway as so much of it is intact.

 Here are some Douro scenes including a photo taken in one of the locks as the ship was undergoing a big lift. The ship just, but only just, fits into the locks. Superb parking skills by the captain. 

 

The grapes from Douro are used in making its most famous product, Port, and a variety of red and white wines.

The dominant producer is Sogrape with its famous Sandeman port brand.

 Leica Q3 43 photos

 

 

Do you remember Mateus Rosé?

 If you were a teenager through the 60's and into the 70's in the UK, Australia, US and probably many other countries Mateus Rosé will hold a special place in your heart. It was the default wine for many of us. It was reasonably priced and it came in a distinctive flagon shaped bottle which, when empty, made an ideal candle holder. 

How many Mateus bottles, complete with a candle and dried cascading wax adorned student rooms and flats through that era? Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, I'm sure.

It may well have been my refined taste in selecting a bottle of Mateus Rosé which impressed my  girlfriend-who later became my wife -on our first date at the local Chinese way back in 1966.

I was somewhat surprised to find that Mateus Rose is still being produced and sold worlwide including here in Australia where it is marketed at the bargain price of just A$12. The distinctive dark flagon shaped bottle has morphed into another, but still distinctive, shape and the label featuring the Mateus Palace has gone. Shame. 

The reason for my sudden interest to this link to my long distant youth is that, along with probably every other tourist who cruises the Douro, we visited Casa de Mateus-Mateus Palace. 

 The Palace still looks just like the wine label. The gardens are very attractive. The interior, complete with musty old palace smells, is pretty ho-hum although our visit was enlivened by a very droll commentary from the young guide.

At the end of the mercifully short tour we were able to sample the local drop. How does it taste? Well, let's just say that we both took a couple of sips and put our glasses back on the table without saying a word to each other. 

As I headed back to the tourist coach I took a photo of the Mateus vineyard landscape complete with a line of barely visible wind turbines on the crest of the distant hills. A very contempory Portugese scene.

 

 Leica Q3 43 photos

Iberian light and shade

I'm back from a great trip to Portugal and Spain. The trip was very enjoyable except I struggled sometimes to get worthwhile photos. 

My previous trips to Portugal in 2016, 2018 and 2019 were all self driving road trips. We stayed at small hotels, we drove the backroads and there were opportunities galore to take photos of the country and the locals.

We had a trip to Spain planned for 2020. Again we were going to self drive at our own pace. Sadly covid intervened and we had to abandon our plans. For my wife, very sadly, that trip of September 2019 was her last before cancer took her in April 2021. 

A lot has changed in my life in the years since that last visit to Portugal. I am 6 years older, with a new partner, so my perspective on travel has changed.

Previously I never had any issues jumping straight into a hire car at the airport after the long flight and driving on the right. It was something I had done for over 50 years. Now, after a 6 year break, I am not confident that I can do it safely.

So we decided on a cruise on the Duoro River starting and finishing in Porto. We flew into Lisbon, and after a few days there, headed north to Porto via Coimbra. After the cruise we flew to Barcelona for a few days and then home.

This itinerary meant travelling in a group and the timing meant we were there early June. Nothing prepared me for the numbers of tourists in all the cities we visited. Barcelona, in particular, was mass tourism on steroids and the locals are not happy about it. But I cannot complain as we were part of the problem.

So there were no backroads. No friendly locals sitting taking the sun in quiet villages. Also over the years many of my best photos have been taken in the morning golden hour as I am very happy to jump out of bed at 6.00 am and walk the local streets. You cannot do that on a ship. It was restricted photography but despite that I came back with a few photos which are, perhaps, worth sharing.

They were all taken with my Leica Q3 43 which I acquired earlier this year. The Q3 43 has a 43mm lens. On the previous Portugal journeys, I had used my Q2 with its 28mm lens. On this trip there were a few situations when I missed the wider lens. Having said that I really appreciate the 60mp sensor on the Q3 which allows me to aggressively crop. And above all else the lens on the Q3 43 is stunning. That's the only word to describe it.

Here are the first set of photos-light and shade- from Lisbon, Salamanca and Barcelona. More will follow.

 

 

 

St Pauls at dusk.

At this time, twelve months ago, I was visiting the UK with a few days in London. One evening I met friends at a restaurant in Borough Market, Southwark and after dinner we walked back along the Thames and crossing over to the St Pauls underground station.

I did not take my camera with me that evening so had to make do with my iPhone to take these 'London at dusk' shots.

I know many rave about iPhone photos but to me they always look 'digitised' and obviously phone not camera photos. 

Here are two from that pleasant walk. I wish that I had taken more- but with a camera

 

 

A special cat photo.

 

Because I love cats, and Rosie loves cats, I take many cat photos. Most are just 'happy snaps' but from time to time I take one which is special.

My beautiful Marvel was very pretty and photogenic and I have quite a few great photos of her which remind me of what a very special cat she was.

Last weekend I visited my daughter and family. They are also cat people and have two rescue cats.

When I visit my children/grandchildren I always take a camera but rarely come away with any worthwhile photos- of people or cats. Often, I don't even manage to take one photo. However the latest visit was different. I took a beautiful photo of Myles, one of their cats. 

To me this photo really captures the character of Myles, who is very friendly and affectionate. It was taken with my Q3 43 and is probably the first photo I have taken with the new camera where I've thought "wow that lens really is special". It's not the sharpness which is outstanding, which you would expect, it's the total rendering and the gentle transition from pin sharp to out of focus. The fact that the light was just right also helped.

The photo is a crop from a DNG(Raw)- file shot at 1/80th f2.8.  ISO 640. It is best viewed on a desktop or laptop computer or a tablet.Viewing it on a phone does not do it justice.

 

Golden Oldies-Part 2

 More photos from that wonderful trip to India 25 years ago. All taken on Fuji Velvia slide film. As mentioned in the previous post I used my Leica M6 with either a 90mm Elmarit or 35mm Summilux lens to take these photos.

I still find analogue photos special but I'm not tempted to try it again.

Golden oldies

 I visited northern India and Mumbai in 2000. I took my Leica M6, a 35mm Summilux and 90mm Elmar and a few rolls of Fuji Velvia. I came back with a some worthwhile photos. 

Last week I found a few of them and sent them to a Leica user friend in India. He suggested that I share them up on the blog so here they are. All taken with the f1.4mm 35mm Summilux lens on Velvia slide film using my Leica M6.

 

Storm approaching

 I had intended to take my Leica X1 with me on my early morning walk yesterday morning but as I stood outside the house I decided that a storm was likely.

The X1 has survived 15 years of hard use but it has never got wet and as Leica make no claims as to its weatherproofing, yet alone waterproofing, I decided not to risk it and set out with just my iPhone. Which is a pity as there was a magnificent and very bright rainbow waiting to be photographed whilst I was on the walk. And in the end the storm missed Terrigal.

Here's the rainbow taken with the iPhone.

 

A soft morning

 

A much softer and autumnal morning at The Haven, Terrigal. Really nice light. Again taken with my Leica X1. The little camera which keeps on giving.

It's a beautiful day....

It's a beautiful day in more ways than one. Firstly. after an overnight shower, a clear, sunny and warm day dawned. I took my vintage Leica X1 with me on my early morning walk and came back with two pleasing photos as the sun rose. And when I got back home there was my beautiful big girl, Holly, sunning herself.

Despite having a collection of much newer and advanced Leicas the quality of the photos from the 15 year old X1 continues to amaze me.

 

 The second and even more pleasing reason that it is a beautiful day is that we are still celebrating the extraordinary outcome of the Australian Federal Election held last Saturday. 

For the benefit of overseas readers of the blog Australia has compolsury voting, no weird electoral college votes, the electoral boundaries are set by an independent body-no gerrymandering here-and elections are held on Saturdays to make it easier to vote. We have a preferential voting system . We vote for individual candidates in our local constituencies. 

 There are two major political forces- the Labor Party-a centre left leaning party- and the Liberal National Coalition-LNP- the centre right leaning Liberal Party combined with the rural orientated National Party. 

There are also the Greens and a rag tag collection of fringe parties and a growing band of Independent candidates. 

Labor has formed the government for the past three years. The polls and most of the media were expecting them to lose to the LNP or, at best, just scrape back with just enough seats in parliament to form a minority government with support from the Greens and/or independents.

The LNP leader, Peter Dutton took the coalition leadership after the previous election. He is hard right and a very unappealing, dour, negative and humourless individual who enthusiastically adopted the Trump playbook with a suite of Trumpist policies- denigrating the Labor leader, extolling anti woke-anti DEI--slashing the public service etc, etc, policies. 

 The LNP fought a shambolic campaign. They were ill prepared. They had few properly costed policies to announce. 

In contrast the Labor team under Anthony Albanese ran a very tight, well disciplined campaign.

The wheels really fell off the LNP campaign when Elon Musk appeared with his chainsaw in our news bulletins and then the appalling Trump/Vance/Zelensky meeting followed by Independence Day and the ill conceived tariffs.

As in Canada, a week previously it all backfired. The Australian electorate overwhelmingly rejected the LNP and Trumpism. It was a bloodbath. The biggest loss of the primary vote by the LNP in Australian electoral history. Literally dozens of LNP members of parliament lost their seats. And the cherry on the cake was that the LNP leader, Peter Dutton, lost his own seat so he is out of Parliament after 23 years.

Labor now have a huge majority. The polls were completely wrong.The media were completely wrong. 

And as Rosie and I spent last Saturday handing out how to vote cards for our local Labor candidate at the local polling place we were doubly pleased.

And to make a beautiful day even better Australian Formula One driver, Oscar Piastri, won the Miami F1 Grand Prix early morning our local time. He has now won three races in succesion and is now leading the F1 World Championship. 

Days don't come much better.

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