Park Guell

PArk Guell was this huge park designed by Gaudi. It had all kinds of paths and open areas. All really detailed and very interesting. Here is part of the stair case at the entrance. Above where you can see the peoples heads is a big open area.


Her is one of the covered paths with seats on the columns. The columns hold up a road above.


Here again is a double path built into the side of the hill.


Here is one of the covered paths that the columns are at an angle.

Here is the one and only Sagrada Familia. It started being buit in 1882 and it is forcasted to be finished in about 20 years. Right now there are four towers at each side entrance. They are 394ft and are only 8 of the 18 that the church will have when it is finished that tallest one being 558ft. The church was un imaginable in size and design but it is nothing to compared to what it will be when it is done. It is absolutely huge. Also the two entrances you see here are just the two side entrances. The maine one will be even bigger. The money used to build it is from ticket sales. They do get some donations but the donations were around 1 million a year and the ticket sales were around 20 million.
This is the newer side that is devoted to the passion of Christ.


Here it is again from the front.


Here is the side devoted to the birth of Christ. The detail is absolutely amazing. This is the older one that was just about done when Gaudi died in 1926.

Here is the whole thing with the towers.



Here is a picture from the inside. These columns are designed to resemble trees. When the roof is completed the wholes in the top will be up covered and let light in like the tops of trees. The columns were 3 feet tall when the Olympics were there in 1992.

Casa Batllo

This is a Gaudi house we went into. It was incredibly detailed and very cool. THis is the ceiling of the main drawing room.



THis is one of the atriums in the center of the house. The tiles on the wall were blue and white but the blue got more intense as it went up so that when the sum light was on them they would all look the same color and uniform.


Here is the roof in the front of the house. It is supose to kind of resemble a dragon.


here is on of the hallways in the house.

Our week break was last week. I went to Barcelona, Spain , Amsterdam in the Netherlands and Rotterdam in the Netherlands. It was so much fun and I got t o see so much. Here are a few pictures from Barcelona.
This is a really cool market near our hostel.


Here is Calatrava's telephone tower up near the Olympic stadium.
The Olympic stuff was pretty cool we got to go in the stadium too.



Here us the "Olympic Port" its called. They are two business towers and then Gehry' Fish is there at the bottom. THis is from the beach that we went simming at.



Here is a picture in Barcelona Cathedral. this was a huge beautiful Gothic cathredral.

Here are some pictures from Pompeii. It was really cool seeing all the different parts of the city. Most of the buildings were kept in good condition by being covered with ash. There was a big eathquake about 15 years before the volcano covered the city so some building were still being rebuilt at the time so some of the bgger buildings were in ruins.
Here is one of the bodies that was found during the excavation of the city. They would find a cavatiy with bones in it and they would fill it with plaster then dig the hardened ash out from around it. This would create the shape of a body with the bones still in it.


Here is the amphitheater from the city.


Here is one of the streets near the center of the city.


This is in one of the bath houses.



Here is the main center of the city with Mout Vesuvius in the back ground.

Here are a few pictures from the Island of Capri. I went down there a few weeks ago. It was maybe the most beautiful places i have ever been in my life. It is about 6 hours south of Florence of the western coast of Italy. I also went to Positano which is a little farther south on the Amalfi Coast and then Pompeii which was a little farther north. It was an awesome weekend and a lot of fun. It was through a company that took us down there so they had a lot of the things planned out. It worked out really well because there was a lot to see in a weekend and they had it all planned out really well. This is from the top of highest point in Capri.


These are the two famous rock things right off the coast of Capri. We took a boat tour around the island. the boat went through that little arch in the right rock too.


This is from the boat looking back at the main part of the island of Capri

I´m in Barcelona, Spain. I am staying at a small layed back hostel in a great location in the center of the city. Shannon and I got tickets for a bus service that stops at 40 places around the city and has busses running 3 routes around from 9 in the moring to 8 at night. You can jump on and off when ever you want. It is really cool. When you are on the bus they gave us head phones that you plug in and listen to a recorded tour of where you are going. SO that is really cool and we have a map that has all the points that it stopps so it is easy to find and the big double deckers busses are easy to spot. It was a really good deal. Plus we get a booklet of coupons for most of the museams and restuarants that the bus stopps near. We did one loop tomorrow and we are going to do the other tomorrow. We saw a bunch of Gaudi stuff today, all kinds of stuff from the olympics that were here in 92. It is alot of fun and I will have to put some pictures up when I get back.

Sorry it has been so long. I am not being very good with this I know. Everything is going well though. I got a new bike so that is making things easier. I am doing well in all my classes and this week is midterms. It will be a lot of work but next week is break an i can't wait. I will be off to Barcelona, Spain on thursday. On monday morning I will make my way to Amsterdam, Netherlands spend 4 days there then make my way to Rotterdam, Netherlands. It should be an awesome time and I am exicted. I will try and better about updating this. I will put some more pictures up soon.

Here are the Walls that surround Lucca. I will tell you more about Lucca later

This was Piza. That is the baptistery in the four ground then the cathedral and there in the back laening over is the tower. Also in the back to the left is the cemetery. They were all so beautiful. The baptistery is famous for its acoustics. A lady sings every hour and we got to hear her sing. It was crazy the fullness and volume of the sound with just one lady not miked was incredible. The cathedral was like nothing i had ever seen before. The inside was huge and so intricate. The cemetery was neat too. It had a bunch of old sarcophagi and a few left over frescoes that were rally nice. Most were ruined when the allied forces bombed near by in WWII and the lead from the roof melted down the walls and ruined virtually all the frescoes. We would ruin history. The tower was really cool to see in person. We did not get to go up it but it was really interesting how much it was actually leaning.

Here is my bike i bought. It has a rack on the back a basket in the front and a front and tail light. You push this wheel thing against the tire and as you go it generates the light- really cool. The roads a pretty bumpy for the most part so shocks would be nice but it does alright. I had nut fall off but the guy at the Hardware store gave me one for free and fixed it for me so that was cool. Riding in the city is really intense but fun. For the most part the people are more of a pain then the cars cause they don't move. The cars keep there distance for the Most part. I got hit by a smart car the other day cause they didn't look both ways but i am fine and the bike has no damage to show, but other then that riding in the city is a lot of fun and much more convenient then walking everywhere

PICTURES

Sorry there as nit been any other pictures up yet. this site does not allow you to put up albums of pictures and the size of the picture files from my camera are to big so they take forever to upload them one by one. So i found a site that i can do that. the link for my site is.

http://nickgriffin.myphotoalbum.com

This will allow me to put up loads of pictures from my trips quick and easy. I will try to put up some pictures very soon. I know i keep saying that but I will get better soon once i get in a groove better. Everything is going well!

I know I have not updated this in a while but I will try to do it on Tuesday of next week. I have been busy with work at nights and gone on trips during the day and have not had time to put some pictures up. Everything is going well though. I bought a bike last week! It is really sweet. It is a one gear city bike with a rack on the back and it now has an after market Basket on the front. It is a bumpy ride but it beats time time to walk to studio and class. On Friday we went up o the Chianti region and visited a winery. It was a 900 hear old castle that was owned by the Pazzi family and then the famous Medici family. I have plenty of pictures so come of that. Today we went to Piza and Lucca. Piza was beautiful. We went in the baptistery, the cathedral and the cemetery. all were awesome. We oviously saw the tower but did not go up in it. It was 15 Euro. Lucca was a very interesting city. The town is fully enclosed by a old wall. We had lunch then took a bike ride all along the top of the wall. Pictures are to come. I will hopefully get them up mid next week

Caio

Terrace view

Here is the view looking down the terrace toward the center of the city.










Here is the view looking in the other direction past my room looking at the Cappelle Medici.

My room

Here is the view looking through my room out onto the terrace. The room is really nice. I will put up more picture once i take them.















Here is my room from the terrace. That is the front door out in the entrance lobby.

I Made it here.

The flight over worked out fine I got here on time with all my luggage. The apartment is very nice and roomy. I will put up some pictures once i get settled in. We dont have internet in our room so i have find places here and there.