Barcelona, Mont Serrat - the serrated mountains and La Sagrada Familia.

6th -7th Jan 2014

Barcelona has some very interesting sights both in the city itself and in the nearby Catalonia region. The highlights and cannot missed sites include La Sagrada Familia - an amazingly awesome ( yet unfinished ) Gothic church, Park Guell and of course the football stadium.

Locked in this rectangular maze of buildings, you see the pinnacles of the La Sagrada Familia church. More about that later. Mont Serrat  is a multi peak serrated mountain range located in Catalonia about an hour's drive from Barcelona. It's highest peak is Sant Jeroni at 1236 m height..

Jason and Sue Jan and the serrated mountains
with the Santa Maria Benedictine
monastery in the background

The two red circles show two groups of hikers on the trail.
That is how small and people the trail look from 1/3 way up this trail

There are many hiking mountain trails beginning from the funicular train station up to Sant Joan.  I could only complete 1 and 3/4 mountain trails that day whilst Ken Jon did about 3 mountain trails. Some trails are quite challenging but they are not impossible. It is quite amazing when one realizes  the early monks built these huge monasteries at the end of so many mountain trails without modern technology. It reinforces a very clear point - back in the good old days, people were much cleverer than we actually give them credit for.

Climbers ascending the trail

Ken Jon and Francesca posing above us.
This point is about  1/2 up the trail

Me and Sue Ann are 3/4 up this trail.  After this point,  we girls 

chickened out when we saw the  intimidating steep steps

 ascending an open mountain face. Ken Jon was the only one 

who completed this trail. Note the cave behind us. Here the monks 

could eat at a rock table and enjoy the mountain view 

whilst being sheltered from the biting winds

I am jubilant because I finally finished one trail.
 See the serrated mountains behind me.
Although the temperature is about 6 degrees Celsius,
I feel quite hot after the climb and has removed
my scarf and unbuttoned my jacket.

After we descended to the monastery, I feel cold again
and stayed nicely bundled inside my jacket and scarf.

We spent some time at the monastery where we waited in line to touch the Black Madonna. Then we took the Sant Cova funicular down. Here there was another track with stations featuring different stages of Christ's life. Jason, Sue Ann, Francesca and Ken Jon finished this trail too while I sat it out together with Sue Jan.

At the station where Simeon meets the
Holy  Infant Jesus and his family at the temple

Sue Jan prettily  perched in the pavilion
overlooking the valley below Montserrat

The next day, we went to the awesome Sagrada Familia, a large church designed by the famous Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926). Although still largely incomplete, the beautiful church is gazetted a UNESCO world heritage site. You have to see the inside to do it justice. Antoni Gaudi was a devoted Christian who showed his love of God in the extravagant, detailed and at times, playful architecture of the church.

The stained glass windows

The forest like canopy ceiling

Our creed on what we believe.

A bright burst of rainbow color

Gaudi was not afraid to show his playful childlike streak. He incorporated nature in the architecture of the church. He was a mathematician as well as an architect. He calculated the weight of  each beam and lever and made  stringed models to hang  upside down to ensure the weight is supported. We await our turn to the escalator to go to the top. There we gawk and marvel at the playful colorful uniquely different "smarties" placed on each sacred pillar. We descend down this wonderfully symmetrical spiral stairway that looks beautiful both from the top and bottom view.

Gaudi added playful  colorful and different
"smarties"on top of each sacred pillar.

Down the spiral staircase.

Empty spiral staircase  looks so
symmetrically pretty.
See Jason's face on one end

What do I learn from Gaudi? Be passionate about what God has made you to be passionate about. Give to your work or passion, the time and energy above and beyond the call of duty. And God will bring generations of people, both believers and heathen to marvel and gawk at the passion He has displayed through you.

Yeong Family ++ Reunion in Spain

We planned the Yeong Family ++ Reunion to coincide with Ken Jon's Christmas holidays. I got school ready. I settled the 3 new classrooms and teachers rooms  ready, the Form 1 Orientation with the parents, teachers meetings.  After starting the new academic term 2014, we flew to meet as a family in Barcelona, Spain.

We arrived early on 4th Jan 2014. There we received news that Ken Jon and Francesca's flight would be delayed by 4 hours. We decided to locate our apartment near Sants Barcel and do the Hop on Hop Off bus before returning to the airport to fetch them.

We had fun checking out our luxury apartment and Barcelona after meeting Ken Jon and Francesca. The apartment was on the 9th floor. There was a big  balcony from which we could view the streets.We viewed beautiful sunrises each morning here.

The next morning, Eduardo, Sue Ann's friend who was in Barcelona to visit his family during Christmas came by our apartment. We picked up the rental car and Eduardo drove us up to Cadaques, a pretty seaside resort town along the north east coast of Spain.

Shortly after Cadaques, we went to Salvador Dali house. Sue Jan recognized the house by the large eggs on the house's rooftop. Dali was a famous artist with a very free spirit and quirky ideas such as the eggs and unusual clocks and mirrors etc.

After Dali's house, we continued along the Costa Brava ( wild coast ). We went to the lighthouse at Cape Crues. ( the cape of the cross). The lighthouse warned of the dangers along the rugged coastline. This was very near the French border.

We drove to Empuriabrava, a town with one of the largest marinas in the world. That evening happened to be the evening of the three wise men parade. The three wise men came into town in a luxurious yacht. A street parade continued and the three wise kings threw sweets to the children. We too rushed to pick up sweets, just like the children. We enjoyed a lovely dinner here.

That night we drove back to Barcelona.We went out to see La Sagrada Familia by night. This was a famous church designed by the architect Gaudi.We also saw other unusual buildings designed by him.

That night when I looked at the pat of butter, I realized the Bahasa Malaysia word we used for butter was actually ...Spanish.

More about Spain in the next post.

LG - Life is good in Summerglades, Cyberjaya!

We first visited this site several years back. At that time, it was totally undeveloped. A group of us bought houses here and saw the development grow from scratch to what it is today, pleasant homes for us. Many of the houses are already rented out now at good prices and others are busy furnishing their houses. But we will keep one house totally for ourselves, friends and families to enjoy the simple joys here. What are the joys of Summer Glades?

A picture speaks a thousand words. Let the pictures speak the joy and happiness we feel when we see what we see in summer glades.

Pink lotus in the glades pond

Joanne - pink lady enjoying the pink lotus after her workout

Breakfast in the garden with the lotus in the glades behind.

The ducks from the pond.
You also see migratory birds
there since this is the real wetlands

Duck eggs in the garden.
They oblige if you feed them breakfast

Sunrise over  Lake Perdana in Putrajaya

Cycling around the Perdana Lake in Putrajaya in the daytime.

Life is good!  Amen.
The hot air balloons actually fly over here during the fiesta.

And ... the night unveils even more happy activities. Like ....

Great view of the fireworks without battling the crowds

                                       

Million dollar front row seats to see the fireworks.

We bring friends over to enjoy the sights.

Whenever there are fireworks displays or competition in Putrajaya, we go to Summerglades. Why? We get this front view seat on a hillock above the Perdana Lake without having to battle the crowded hordes down there in Putrajaya or Cyberjaya. And when there are marathons or runs in Putrajaya, we have the option of starting or ending from Summerglades.

Before the Fun Run in Putrajaya.
You have the option of sleeping over in Summerglades
after the run.

On our bicycles at midnight around the lake.

We end  the night with cycling around the lake; enjoying the changing colors of the bridge and the cool night breeze. We have like 11 bicycles there now.

And we have not shown you the pics of our live karaoke singing here that goes late in the night or really to early in the morning. And the yummy food we can get by driving a short distance from here.

LG - life is good here in Summerglades with our friends.

School Principals let loose in China

This was an unusual trip because out of the 20 people on board, 16 were school principals. You think we would be a very serious group? Think again! Try to think of 16 stressed out overworked principals let loose. What do you think we would do?

School Principals let loose.

Dali was a pleasant surprise for most of us. Ok -to be fair, I think none of the currently serving principals did much homework for the trip since we were swamped by work in school.  So we came to Dali with no expectations.We found Dali was situated by this huge beautiful lake Er Hai. . Our hotel rooms had views of the lake in front or the scenic mountains behind

Putting our best foot forward and ...
valiantly trying to maintain balance.

I was intrigued when I heard that we could view cormorants birds catching fishes for the fishermen. Excuse me, I remember studying about this in Geography a very long time ago while I was in primary school. Of course, we needed this optional package. In the end, all 20 of us went on 2 boats. I was surprised to find out the birds were free flying and came to the fishermen's boats when called by them. The fishermen stopped them from swallowing big fishes by tying a straw around their necks but the birds could easily swallow smaller fishes. Sometimes the birds work in groups to catch several fishes.

This cormorant has caught a sizable fish.

We had this interesting steamboat where the noodles were cooked like the opening of a fan. I liked this trip. It was quite relaxing since we stayed a minimum of two nights in each location before we moved on. Another good surprise was the four-stars hotel we were housed in. We slept in rooms with two queen sized beds for the duration of our entire stay  in China . During this trip, I saw the pretty colors of China. The blue sky, green hills, and fields with varying shades of yellow from the sunflowers, maize, tobacco and padi.

If you zoom in to this picture, you can see the
dinosaurs painted on the house walls.

I was intrigued by the dinosaurs I saw painted on the walls of many Chinese villages. In our initial animated discussion , we thought they were Chinese dragons. Later we found out we were passing through Dinosaur Valley and there were even a museum to view the fossils of the dinosaur found in this region.

Dinosaur painted on the walls.

Watching the show in the rain and
with the snow mountains as backdrop

Another highlight was watching Zhang Yi Mao open air show in Lijiang. We are dressed in raincoats and the show goes on , rain or shine. The Snow mountains in the background are part of the backdrop for the show with a cast of more than 500 people. There are so many things to view - the changing backdrop, the cast appearing among us, the cast appearing from different areas apart from the stage.

After the show, we took the cable car to Spruce Meadow. we breathed in fresh air - pure oxygen.Any chance of us looking younger?

At the first bend of the river that flows to Shanghai.

Pretty patchwork fieldsaginst blue sky and white clouds

With Tibetan mastiff dog

Poisonous red flowers. Even the yaks avoid them.

We came back to Malaysia, refreshed. And we had one more day to rest ... before going back to our schools. Thank God for good company, good weather, journey's pleasures and journey's mercies.