Gaudi

Our last few hours in Barcelona. In fact we are going to pick up our luggage from hotel and get a cab to the port. Have just been to the big cathedral to look around and took in a Gaudi exhibition in the Diocesan Museum, his lesser known works on paper mainly. As well there was a good exhibition of works by the French artist Courbet, who had an influence on Picasso and Miro in turn. Of course there were lots of beautiful churchy works of art too from the various centuries, depicting the saints, an old crucifix, statues etc.
Went out for a meal last night and savoured my glass of Spanish red! There is going to be a bit of rain in the Mediterrannean . Hopefully it won´t be too rough.

Barcelona

Arrived in bustling Barcelona today after a very long flight from Singapore - about 15 hours. Still I survived and we are now out and about taking in the atmosphere. Just been to the fabulous market which has all the fruits of the season on sale - bought some cherries, some fig and nut panforte and took photos of the rest. Will load on to blog when able to later on. Monday being the day the museums are closed we wont be doing much apart from finding somewhere to eat. Nice and mild at 20 degrees. Join the ship tomorrow.

Perth

Belltower , kangaroo sculpture and butterflies in the museum.

Patricia Piccinini

This unusual creation looked like a huge nest strung high in the art gallery atrium . Has a little figure of a child in it.

King's Park

Spent a morning roaming this park high above Perth with superb views over the river and city and great displays of Australian flora. Not much colour though at this time of the year.

Guildford

Spent a lovely afternoon in this quaint little township with old houses and antique shops with reasonably priced bric-a-brac.

Perth

Having an enjoyable holiday with good friends Eileen and Frank, originally of Titirangi who left Auckland for the good life in WA all those years ago. I used to make regular pilgrimages in earlier years and this is our second trip in the last three years. This time it was to see baby Finn baptized which was a happy occasion last Sunday followed by a gathering of the 2 families and friends at Marianne and Dean's with yummy finger food and wine and a delicious christening cake.

Monday was a public holiday here too so we went for a long walk along the coast in the morning with the deep blue Indian Ocean stretching as far as the eye can see, with waves crashing on the beach and black-clad surfers out in force along the various beaches every few hundred metres.

In the afternoon we all went for a drive to Guildford about 40km away. It is an old town with lovely trees, parks, old houses and antique shops. It reminded me of Cambridge and has an Anglican boys grammar school in its midst. It is also in the heart of the Swan Valley, a wine growing area, formerly settled by Croatians like in Henderson.

Yesterday we went for an outing in the morning to King's Park, a very spacious park with native plants and trees, from the different parts of Western Australia in particular but also the rest of Australia. Not much colour at present but it was good to be reminded of the variety of flora and to walk among it, with views below to the Swan River below. Lunched at Subiaco afterwards - prices are high - panini and coffee for 3 was A$45.

Today Dieter and I got the train into Perth and went to the art gallery to look at a Patricia Piccinini exhibition of her lifelike and unusual silicone sculptures. She combines very lifelike figues of children and babies often with rather grotesque animal or goblinesque figures. I liked them and understood them better after watching a video of an interview with her.

Walked to St George's Anglican Cathedral for a lunchtime organ concert by the Cathedral Organ Scholar, a smiling Year 11 Guildford Grammar student by the name of Elijah Lim. He played works by Buxtehude, Bach, Mendelssohn and a couple of later composers.

Big OE

Looking forward to yet another big OE to places I went on my first OE all those years ago. 1965 to be precise.

That time we got off the ship near Naples, worked our way though Italy, round the Riviera , all by train to visit some people in Madrid. I had worked with the woman's mother in a Herne Bay resthome where I was kind of cook and bottlewasher and she wanted someone to take a diamond ring and fur stole to her daughter, Diana who had just got married to a Spaniard, Ramon.

Mission accomplished and after a few days absorbing the day and nightlife of Madrid we trained to Germany for the First Holy Communion of my then 10 year old cousins, Gabi and Joachim.

This time Dieter and I are starting in Spain - Barcelona and going on a cruise round the Riviera, to ports in Italy where we can go on trips to Florence, Rome, Naples and then on to Dubrovnik, Venice and Split before returning to Barcelona.

We are going to fly to Germany, see the twins again, and go to Berlin which I also went to in 1965 in that snowy winter with the Wall dividing the city.

Now it is a buzzing international city iwith imany artists and writers making their home there. l Have just finished Nigel Cox's book Phone home Berlin, which is an account of his 5 years in Berlin where he was employed to set up displays in the then new Jewish Museum Berlin, along with another NZer Ken Gorbey. We visiited that istunning and sobering museum last time we were in Berlin. This time we are also planning museum visits, ,so watch this space.

Arohanui till we meet again.