Photography | The Daily Norm

Apr 8

Mallorca (Part V) – Day 3: Moorish Mallorca and the Sóller Ferrocarril

Palma de Mallorca is every bit a city living for the present. Its vibrant city streets are bursting with a thriving cosmopolitan cafe culture and lined with all the latest shopping brands, at its centre it welcomes visitors through a state-of-the-art transport hub, and its galleries and architecture have very clearly embraced the modern art movement, from the avant garde to the daringly contemporary. Yet at its very core, Mallorca, and in particular its capital city, is an island rich in historical heritage, from the few surviving influences of the Moorish occupation, and the gothic spendour of grand churches like La Seu, through to the exquisite examples of modernista architecture which are bounteous in and around Palma’s centre.

Today we went on a voyage back in time, both metaphorically, and literally, starting the day by exploring Palma’s Moorish heritage, followed by a journey on Palma’s century old Ferrocarril de Sóller, a rickety old railway which takes visitors from the centre of Palma, through some stunning mountain passages, across to the idyllic little town of Sóller on the North coast of the island.

The Almudaina

and its Moorish gardens

Unlike some of the cities in the South of Spain, it’s not always terribly obvious that Mallorca was once ruled by the vast Moorish kingdom of Al Andalus, before being wrestled back from Moorish rule by the Christians as part of the 2-century long reconquista in 1229. However, one not insignificant building sat bang opposite Palma’s iconic cathedral makes the connection to Mallorca’s Moorish past more obvious: the Palau de l’Almudaina. The palace is, in its very fabric, a manifestation of Palma’s long and complex occupational history, with its Roman foundations built in 123 BC, its Moorish enlargement, and a series of changes and refits being made to the building across the centuries, from the reconquista, right up to the last major restoration in the 1970s. Today, what was for centuries a royal palace for Mallorca’s Kings (for example when the kingdom of Mallorca was annexed to Aragon) is now largely a museum, but retaining as it does the essence of Moorish Spain, it provides something of a bubble of tranquility in an otherwise bustling city.

We started by exploring the beautiful gardens which extend horizontally along the lower terraces of the palace, from the bottom of the Passeig de Born to the sea. Stunning in their tranquility, and bearing all the hallmarks of a perfectly geometric Moorish design, these gardens are thankfully free to enter and consequently form the backdrop of one of my favourite walks in Palma. Meanwhile, inside the vast stone palace, a roof terrace planted with cacti and aromatic herbs provides a picture-perfect vantage out to sea, while at the centre of the palace, a courtyard garden is a regal proclamation of the building’s importance, with its stone lions and grand central water feature. The rest of the palace was a little sparse, what with its large lofty banqueting halls and various stone chambers. It was interesting to see how more recent inhabitants had attempted to introduce some comfort to the cold interior with large rugs and soft furnishings. Still it’s no surprise that today the palace is better used as a museum piece rather than as a place of work or residence.

The clock was ticking and up in the Plaça España, Palma’s main transport hub, a rickety old train was awaiting us. Passing under the Victorian-looking wrought iron gateway spelling out the name of the Ferrocarril de Sóller, we made our way onto a delightful wooden train which looks and feels like something straight out of an Agatha Christie novel. The railway, which these days serves largely tourists, has been running for 100 years, providing the remote Northern town of Sóller with a life-line link to Palma, originally so that the town could sell its bounteous harvest of citrus fruits and almonds in the capital. The trains which now take tourists along the 27 kilometre route are almost exactly the same now as they were then (save for the electrification of the railway in 1929). As you travel along the old rumbling rail track, initially through Palma, but then through the dense countryside before ascending through a completely stunning mountain pass, it feels like you have gone back in time.

The Ferrocarril de Soller

Around midway through the journey, the train heads into a narrow dark tunnel under a huge mountain (one of 12 tunnels on the journey) and coming out the otherside the train stops so that passengers can literally gawp in disbelief at the completely stunning panorama which unveils itself beyond the rail tracks. The vista is like none other I have ever experienced. The gigantic mountains, which rise up almost incessantly to the skies, make us, mere mortals, feel like tiny insects in their wake, while in the sprawling valley below, the idyllic town of Soller springs up amongst splatterings of citrus trees and almond trees in full bloom. Breathtaking is certainly the word.

From there, the train made its slow spiralling way down the mountain side before arriving in the centre of Sóller, where another rickety old tram awaited to take us to the beautiful little port, another natural harbour like the Port d’Andratx, but this time hemmed in by even larger mountains giving the impression of a cosy, idyllic port-side paradise. Down on the port, alongside pastel coloured buildings reminiscent of the French Riviera and next to the quietly lapping waters, rows of yachts and fishing boats, we sat out to eat another utterly hedonistic luncheon, sipping upon a chilled bottle of albariño and eating innovative tapas, such as “hairy prawns” coated in a crisp angel’s hair and dipped in wasabi mayonnaise, and a juice-dripping melon with salty-sweet serrano ham.

The tram

and the harbour

After lunch, and with time on our hands until the rambling little train journey back to Palma, a stroll along the harbour side turned inadvertently into a hike up the steep slops of the little streets between the shops and houses as our adventurous side kicked in. And once at the top where we could climb no further, we were greeted by a stunning view over the other side of this narrow natural harbour, so that while, one one side, we could look back to the tranquil little port, on the other we could look out to the severe ruggedness of a stark, sheer cliff drop down to an unforgiving sea thrashing against the rocks. Hard to believe that these two ocean environments were only a narrow strip of land apart.

One side…

and the other

With that discovery, we took a little tram back into Sóller, having just enough time to look around the little town centre, and gaze in admiration at the unusual Modernista architecture of the Sant Bartomeu church by Gaudi-fan architect Joan Rubio i Bellver, and also appreciate the unbelievably comprehensive collection of both Picasso ceramics and Miro lithographs which were held in beautiful galleries either side of the Ferrocarril railway station – can you believe the wonder of this place, where even the train station has an art gallery stuffed full of priceless Spanish art? And with that final hurrah we boarded the train home, allowing the rumbling train, the darkening evening and the pinkening skies to slowly lure us into a semi-hypnotic state of calm and utter satisfaction, as after a day of historical adventure we travelled, through the most stunning mountain passes, back to the future.

The Ferrocarril de Sóller is a must-see of Palma. For more details, look at the website here. Trains run every day, fairly regularly (5/ day in the winter, going up to 7/day over the summer).

In the meantime, I leave you with some more photos of the day…

Moorish arch at the Almudaina

The Port de Soller

The port viewed from a plant-filled balcony

The colourful buildings of the port

The church in Soller

And finally, the sunset on the journey home

Mallorca (Part I) – Day 1: Banoffee bienvenido back to the good life (daily-norm.com)
Mallorca (Part II) – Photography Focus 1: Semana Santa (daily-norm.com)
Mallorca (Part III) – Day 2: Port d’Andratx and Es Baluard (daily-norm.com)
Mallorca (Part IV) – Food Focus 1: Forn de Sant Joan (daily-norm.com)

Apr 5

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Mallorca (Part II) – Photography Focus 1: Semana Santa

I’ve never made a secret of the fact that I love the way the Spanish celebrate Easter. Their Semama Santa (Holy Week) processions are amongst the most atmospheric and moving sights that you will see in Spain. Originating in Southern Spain and still at their grandest in Seville, the processions have been overshadowed elsewhere by a common misconception that the nazareños, those participants who dress in pointed hoods by way of penitence for their sins, and who march along silently holding candles alongside the huge tronos (floats) are, or at least resemble, the dreaded Ku Klux Klan.

It’s true that the resemblance is uncanny, but that is where the resemblance ends. The sanctity and purity of these stunning Spanish spectacles do not deserve to be overshadowed by a hideous clan of bigots who ripped off the costume for their own immoral pursuits. Rather, while the hooded figures of the Spanish parades certainly lend something of a sinister feel to the spectacle, they are integral to the magical solemnity which results.

Knowing as I do that the parades are at their biggest in Andalucia, I wasn’t really expecting to find any processions in Mallorca. However, as we ventured out for dinner on our first night, the very familiar drum beat of a Semana Santa procession began to ring in my ears, and as we approached our pre-designated restaurant, we met, by sheer coincidence, a procession just as it passed through the very same street.

The processions in Mallorca are smaller than the Andalucian affairs, but lose none of their power as a result. This is created largely thanks to the brass bands which play stirring, chromatic melodies which are enough to bring tears even to the eyes of even the most hardened atheist. Meanwhile, the pointed nazareños amble slowly along, burning a passage of candles as they process, and behind them, a life-size statue, normally Jesus or Mary, is carried along on a trono (throne). In Andalucia, these are carried by a number of men baring the huge weight of both the statute and its often elaborately gilded platform. Here I was interested to see that the tronos were carried by men actually hidden underneath the platform, and surrounded by curtains, so that all that could be seen of the men were their feet making the painstaking journey through Palma’s streets.

These powerful processions are not easy to capture on camera, being that it is often dark, and the parades are always moving. However, I managed to take a few shots which I feel encapsulate the atmosphere and pomp of these wonderful spectacles. Testament to their rich tradition, and also by way of building in further atmosphere, I have taken these shots in black and white, something which I feel really lends itself to the solemnity and distinctive quality of the occasion. Without further ado, I leave you with a gallery of shots.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2013 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Apr 4

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Mallorca (Part I) – Day 1: Banoffee bienvenido back to the good life

Mallorca, the biggest of Spain’s Balearic Islands, is too often mistaken for being the haunt of booze-loving Brits, in pursuit of 24/7 clubbing, imported fish and chips, and roasting themselves red in the sunshine. Sure, that horribly embarrassing stain on the island presents itself in the form of the town of Magaluf and its immediate surrounds, but being that the town is on a self-contained peninsular, it can be very easily avoided. In the meantime, the rest of the island presents some absolute gems, natural landscapes which are so stunning, colourful and gigantic in scale and spectacle that the phrase picture-perfect doesn’t quite cover it. Meanwhile, in a semi-circular bay south of the island, the Mallorcan capital of Palma is a cultural hot bed, a city of effluvious and dynamic gastronomic, artistic, architectural and historical offerings and which, for the capital of a small island which is only 59 miles across, is quite incredibly self-sufficient in state of the art transportation, contemporary accommodation, boutique shopping and served by an ample airport close by.

Flying across mountainous Mallorca

It was to Mallorca, and more specifically its capital, Palma, that my partner and I went this Easter, escaping the unseasonably depressing frost-bitten lows of the current UK climate, welcoming in 2013’s official summer-time with temperatures which more appropriately beckoned in the summer season, and weather which showered gold sunlight upon an already magnificent city.

Day one was more of a half day, but that’s not bad. Despite getting up later than I would otherwise drag myself out of bed for work, and after ambling along to the airport for a midday flight, we were in Mallorca at 3pm local time, stripping off the layers of winter gloom, both clothing and spiritual depression, as we emerged into the glowing sunshine.

A short bus ride (made longer by the fact that we weren’t overly sure where to hop off) took us central to our hotel, the super chic Scandinavian owned Hotel Tres, where two roof terraces and a glass-sided plunge pool forged into the side of the terrace gave us ample platform to gawp at the stunning city-centre view of the immense gothic cathedral, La Seu, and gaze in wonder at the potent blue sky.

La Seu seen from the roof of the Hotel Tres

Palma viewed from above

The pool of the hotel

La Seu

The hotel’s inner courtyard

Our welcome to Palma was affirmed by a trip to the nearby Grand Cafe Cappuccino under the sun-drenched colonnades of the Palacio March. Cappuccino, my favourite cafe chain, which emerges from Mallorca but can also be found in my beloved Marbella and Valencia, is bound to feature often in my account of Mallorca. For we intend to make a point of sampling as many of the chain’s exquisitely atmospheric branches across the island as possible, whether they be by the beach or in the city centre. For Cappuccino is a café of consistently high quality, with a soundtrack compilation by Pepe Link which is effortlessly cool, mixing cool jazz and bossa nova with trendy club vibes in the evening. The service is always smooth, and the height of efficiency and the waiting staff easy on the eyes. And above all things the coffee and the food is well worth travelling to Mallorca for.

The umbrellas and atmosphere of Cappuccino Grand Cafe

So there it was, under the hazy sunshine of an early Spring evening, that we were served what we had long been waiting for – two glasses of white wine, a plate of super-fresh sushi (sure beats airplane food) and the ultimate in dessert indulgence – an oozing, abundant, creamy and crumbly banoffee pie, a plate of such spectacular hedonistic pleasure that in that moment, as the cool caramel, smooth banana, heady cream and buttery biscuit base hit our palates, we were welcomed back to the good life, the ultimate in Spanish sun-drenched pleasure.

Worth travelling the world for

That incredible oozing banoffee

Welcome to Mallorca, the sunshine island, of crystal clear waters, lush mountainous landscapes, and a hearty Spanish vibe. Many posts will surely follow as I share with you my diary account of the trip, and above all things my vast panoply of photos. I therefore hope that through The Daily Norm, you too will journey with me straight into a Mallorcan summer, taking your first virtual holiday of the Spring.

I leave you with a few more photos of our walk that first afternoon, seeing the magnificent cathedral of Palma from up close and all around, revelling in the vivid blue skies, and gazing over to Bellver castle at sunset. There is much to follow…so see you there!

The cathedral up close

And from the side

Stunning gothic details make La Seu particularly distinctive

Bellver Castle

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2013 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Mar 11

8 Comments

Dodging the rain: A weekend in Marbella

Even by my standards, booking a last minute trip to Marbella in southern Spain for a mere weekend seemed extravagant. Was it really worth trekking some 1000 miles out of London for just two days? The forecast on my phone had already dispelled any hope of a weekend in the sunshine, and the 2.5 hour flight time is always inevitably extended 3 fold by the time needed for check in and security on one end, passport control and the luggage carousel on the other, as well as multiple additional journeys linking airports both from and to my permanent and holiday accommodation. But unperturbed by these concerns, I set out last Friday lunchtime from Westminster tube station (taking the afternoon off work to give me a head start), quite determined to make a jolly good go of it. Joining my family (who are staying longer) on a trip to our Spanish holiday home, it was my intention to squeeze in the best bits of a Mediterranean holiday into a tight weekend, ready to back at work in London again the following morning. So how did it go?

Just look at those colours

I love these cacti planted by the sea

The Marina

Despite 15 hours total travel and days spent constantly dodging the rain and running into the sunshine, I had a fantastic weekend as these photographs are testament. No sooner had I stepped out of my taxi into the quaint old town streets of Marbella, and eagerly breathed in the fresher air perfumed with the citrus scent of orange blossom and the subtle hint of garlic being cooked up in the old town cottages, I knew that in a matter of hours I had been transported to another world.

Albeit snapped quickly on my iphone, this small selection of photographs is testament to a weekend which had its fill of glorious spring-time sunshine, blues and turqoises the vibrancy of which you’d be hard pushed ever to find on the streets of London, food fit for a king and, inevitably, a fair dose of rain. Being that the trip was only 2 days, I felt constantly energised not to waste a single minute. Consequently from the moment of my arrival at 10pm on Friday night, I made the most of my stay, heading straight away to the nearest tapas bar where with a glass of full-bodied rioja in one hand and a fork-full of manchego, serrano ham and octopus salad in the other, I toasted the weekend of all weekends, the stress and worries and cold of London swept well away, and the summer pleasures which reignite with every new burst of sunshine slowly creeping through my wintered pale skin.

Some food highlights…

Coffee by the Marina

A Fritura Mixta (squid, prawns and asparagus)

Zozoi’s indulgent pavlova

Cappuccino’s Tarta de Platano is to die for…

From Friday night onwards, a shamelessly indulgent trip of restaurant trips, coffees by the marina, lunch by the seaside and dinners in quaint old eateries commenced. Strolling through the old town streets I sucked in every scent and visual delight, poking my head into old churches to see the tronos of the town’s easter parades already set out, ready to be adorned in flowers for the forthcoming Semana Santa parades, pricking up my ears to the rhythmic sounds of flamenco wafting from the doors of a nearby bar, and revelling in the tranquil atmosphere and picturesque pleasures of this awfully quaint old town.

Blue skies (and a little wind)

Some birds drop in on lunch at Cappuccino Grand Cafe

The Paseo after a recent rain shower

The Alameda park after a shower

Tronos ready for Semana Santa

So was it worth the effort? Of course it was! Leaving at 4.15pm on the Sunday for a 7.45pm flight back to London, I sat on a coach back to Malaga with my stomach doing inevitable cartwheels at the thought of leaving so soon, but equally delighted at how succinctly and fortuitously I was able to dip into this paradisal environment for a small weekend. It wasn’t sunny all the time, and quite often we would eat one course outside in the sun and run inside for dessert as a storm cloud passed over – but this added to the fun and pleasure of this Spring weekend, in which clement temperatures, even under the clouds, made me feel like I was somehow tricking the seasons.

One minute in the sun…

And a few minutes later its drenched in rain

Paradoxical March – sunshine in the rain

They say good things come in small packages, and for this weekend in Marbella, the words wrung beautifully true. Back now in London, horrendously cold, I feel not exhausted but enlivened by this mini-holiday in Spain – a hint of the summer, just at the time when we frozen Londoners need it most. Viva España, perfectly accessible for the holidays, and for a mere weekend too.

On the plane ready to go back to London

Mar 6

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Valencia (x) – Photography Focus 4: Favourite shots

Is it any surprise that when I struggle into the London tube every morning, my personal space reduced to a bare millimetre minimum, struggling to breathe against the handbag digging into my ribs, that I immerse myself in a world of Spanish rhythms, that I listen to the clap and wail and melancholic guitar of flamenco in my ears, and that I daydream of Spanish plazas, of old town streets, of sunshine and long shadows, of the sparkling droplets of a fountain’s eruption suspended in mid aid, glinting in the sun? How can I fail to drink in every detail of the architectural splendour, the decadent charm, the warm sun-drenched colours and the almost unfathomable blue of a mediterranean sky when its very manifestation is like something from a vision of paradise?

Valencia is not unique in being so aesthetically rich, so inexorably inspirational that as an artist, and photographer, I was elevated to a new sense of creative freedom with every step I took in the city. In fact it is just one of many a Spanish city which has had such an effect on me. But as a city of so many facets, from the crumbling, baroque old centre to the lavishly innovative city of arts and sciences, Valencia is surely unique in the extent to which its visual appeal can extend. The proof is in the pudding: not only has the city inspired me to write some ten blog posts, each featuring a ripe selection of my photos and anecdotes, but across two cameras and my iPhone, I returned with some 1500 photographs after only 4 days of sightseeing, with barely any destined for the trash can.

It therefore comes with no surprise that as I end my Valencia series, I do so with so many photos left to explore, and hard choices to make as to which of those shots I feature in this, a miscellany of some of my favourite photos of the as-yet unpublished series. The final set, published in a gallery below, is as richly diverse as the city itself, from the minor details: rusting door knockers and cracking wood carvings, to the wider picture – the grand plazas, the ceramic blue domes, and the richly sculpted baroque facades. As with so many components that make up a city, so much beauty can be found in even the smallest details – whether it be the channels of bird poo which have run down the bronze sculptures of a grand fountain, or the cracks and staples in a plant pot.

You’ll notice that many of my favourite shots are from Valencia’s historic quarter. While the dazzling white architecture of Calatrava’s new architecture is visually alluring, there is very little, as a photographer, which one can do with these buildings, other than shoot them from various angles, reflected in the surrounding waters, and seen from close up and at a distance. Far more inspirational for me is age and histroy, the effect of time, and the continuation of rich traditions in the modern age. Take the fleeting glimpses I took of Valencian women in their traditional dress – was Valencia ever so perfectly represented as by those women in their ornate sashed dresses and peculiar elaborate headdresses?

But as ever, I could attempt to describe in words what could so easily be done in a photo. And of those there are plenty to share. I leave you then with this final selection of Valencia shots, and a big thank you for allowing me to share my Valencia trip with you. Being inspired is only one part of the creative process. Sharing it with others is where the ultimate satisfaction is realised. With thanks.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2013 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Valencia (iii) – Photography Focus 1: Modernista architecture (daily-norm.com)
Valencia (vi) – Photography Focus 2: Wildlife and Wetlands (daily-norm.com)
Valencia (vii) – Photography Focus 3: A tale of two cities (daily-norm.com)

Mar 2

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Valencia (viii) – Day 4: Inventive gothic to unrestrained baroque – architectural gems of the historic centre

It was inevitable that after 3 glorious days of winter sunshine, in which it felt as though we were cheating the seasons and soaring towards a Spring renaissance, Valencia’s skies would darken, the temperatures would drop, and rain would fill the previous blues of the city’s skyline. Unfortunate though this was, it was our day of departure, and having spent a good few hours languishing in our modernista hotel suite, prolonging our stay through a deliberate slow pace of packing, the skies and dried up somewhat by the time we hit the streets again. It was grey, but dry, thus causing no impediment on our final day of sightseeing.

A what a feast of sights we had left till last to see. Largely because of widespread Monday closures, a number of Valencia’s architectural gems had been left for the last day of our visit, gems which sit at either extreme of the city’s historical architectural profile, from the brilliantly inventive, UNESCO protected gothic architecture of La Lonja, to the ridiculously extravagant, utterly unrestrained baroque of the Palacio del Marqués de dos Aquas.

First up, La Lonja de Mercaderes, a gothic chamber of commerce which is one of Valencia’s earliest surviving buildings, and now protected as a treasure of its architectural heritage. The large building was constructed in the early 16th century and was at once a commodity exchange, elementary bank and meeting place for the merchant classes. Many of those meetings would have taken place in the vast Sala de Contratacion, the huge main colonnaded hall which is the unrivaled icon of the historic quarter.

With its soaring, slim, twisted pillars, curling high like sticks of barley sugar or ropes dangling from the heavens, and the rib-valuted ceiling which those multiple pillars aptly support, the hall is an awe-inspiring site. Little wonder then that this hall is said to have inspired Santiago Calatrava, the home-grown architect of the iconic Ciudad de los artes y ciencias, an inspiration which appears to have manifested itself in the super fine feather-like concrete and steel arches of L’Umbracle and the whale-like rib structure of the Museo de las Ciencias Principe Felipe. Meanwhile, beyond the hall, a small but perfectly formed courtyard makes clear reference to Spain’s Moorish heritage, while up some gorgeously twisting gothic stairs, the Consulado del Mar boasts a similarly elaborate, but more contemporarily gothic wooden ceiling.

Asides from the inside of La Lonja, we were utterly captivated by the extent of pictorial illustration told through elaborate gothic carvings, gargoyles and other architectural decoration. Just take a look at these few examples of the some of the rich stonemasonry on show.

Leaving La Lonja and the fragrant scent of its courtyard-filled orange blossom behind, we headed just around the corner to another of Valencia’s architectural icons: the Mercado Central. Built in the very different Modernista style, the building plays host to Europe’s largest fresh produce market. Like a city within a city, the market is a fascinating labyrinth of scintillating smells and visual spectacles, from huge piles of oranges, stacks of spices and a panoply of fresh fish, to row upon row of iberico hams hung alongside fresh chorizo sausage and huge manchego cheeses. Enamored as much by the food as by the elegant modernista design, I took full advantage of the array of produce around us, taking the opportunity to stock up on a supply of pimenton and saffron which I use with abundance in so much of my Spanish-based cooking at home.

One final stop before a long lunch where we would end up languishing the remainder of the day before our departure home to the UK. Leaving perhaps the most architecturally splendid of Valencia’s historical buildings till last, we headed south of the central cathedral quarter, where our next destination made for a simply unmissable spectacle in the fashionable Calle del Poeta Querol. With its completely over-the-top sumptuous stucco imitation-marble facade, windows literally dripping in the most unrestrained elaborate sculpture and a doorway guarded by a pair of flamboyantly muscled alabaster caryatids, the rococo Palacio del Marques de Dos Aguas makes even Barcelona’s Gaudi houses appear conservative.

We weren’t overly sure what the palace was, or how it had come to be decorated in such a lavish display of extravagant eccentricity, other than it was the family home of the Marquis de Dos Aguas who clearly used the exterior of his house to show off the extraordinary extent of his wealth and artistic sensibilities. But the wealth on show externally was perhaps outdone, astonishingly, by the palace’s interiors, so exceptionally richly decorated that this was like a mini-Versailles, unsparing in every detail of its luxury and opulence. Asides from the grandeur on show, the palace also houses a large ceramics collection, paying homage to the great ceramic tradition in the Valencian region. While interesting, the pieces on show were certainly outdone by the incredible surroundings of the palace, and more often than not I found my eyes wondering to the incredible array of excesses all around rather than rest on the ceramics, from Roman to Picasso, which were on offer for our interest.

Our day ended as all days should – a long indulgent luncheon (which deserves a post all of its own) and a quick perusal of the shopping district on the Calle de Colon. Just as we headed back down into the tube, suitcases and a little shopping in hand, the rain we had thus far dodged started to fall again. Like everything with this Valencia trip, the details all fell into place. The weather was merciful and the city completely inviting. The sights were various, the art plentiful, the old town scenic and the modern alternative a breathtaking diversion. Valencia is now ticked off my list of Spanish must-sees, and if I was tracking my progress down that list with a series of pins of a large map of Spain, I’d place a huge golden star where the pin sticks in Valencia, for a destination worthy of plaudits a plenty, and most certainly a return visit, muy pronto.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2013 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Valencia (i) – Day 1: Beauty and the Bell Tower (daily-norm.com)
Valencia (ii) – Food Focus 1: Palo Alto (daily-norm.com)
Valencia (iii) – Photography Focus 1: Modernista architecture (daily-norm.com)
Valencia (iv) – Day 2: Sea, Sanctuary and Semana Santa (daily-norm.com)
Valencia (v) – Day 3: Last of the big spenders – Ciudad de Las Artes y Las Ciencias (daily-norm.com)
Valencia (vi) – Photography Focus 2: Wildlife and Wetlands (daily-norm.com)
Valencia (vii) – Photography Focus 3: A tale of two cities (daily-norm.com)

Mar 1

6 Comments

Valencia (vii) – Photography Focus 3: A tale of two cities

Valencia is a city with many faces, but a clear divide: On the one hand you have Valencia, the shiny, glamorous new modern city, with its sensational innovative Calatrava architecture, glimmering in all its white reflective glory and pushing the city forward into a pioneering new age. It’s the Valencia where all the money has gone, poured in euro-lined gallons like the vast great pools which surround the City of Arts and Sciences. It’s also the Valencia of power: even the older Plaza del Ayuntamiento boasts a conglomeration of statued facades, elaborate tiled domes, and huge soaring art deco architecture. But then again, this is the seat of the Valencian autonomous government.

The seat of modernity and power…

…versus the old, crumbling historic centre

But walk a few roads North, to the old historic centre, and you see quite another side to Valencia. It’s the old quaint quarter, where gothic architecture meets baroque, where the tourists cluster around bird-inhabited fountains, and the women of the city perambulate in traditional costume attracting the flashbulbs of visitors fascinated by the spectacle. Yet here, just beyond, and sometimes on the main squares and old streets, there are vast sites of what should be prime realty, reduced to rubble. Large houses and crumbling walls are painted with graffiti and murals, wires hang loosely over houses which have been boarded up and left to disrepair. This is the Valencia where the money has not flowed, where those local funds, poured into modern architectural projects which leak euros in maintenance costs by the day, could have been so beneficially received. And yet this is the historic heart of the city. Why has it been deserted?

In this photographic focus post, I am showing you a selection of my photos which I think demonstrate the contrasts of this city. I start with a gallery of the sleek modern face of the newly developed old Turia river bed, and the grand spectacle of the city’s administrative centre. There is no doubting the splendour of these grandiose, extravagant architectural spectacles, and while one can easily be cynical about the money spent, that does not stop me admiring the quality of the brilliantly executed craftsmanship.

Contrast that gallery with this, photos of the old historic quarter. As with my experience in Lisbon last year, I find the deterioration and degradation of Mediterranean architecture to be as much picturesque and charming as it is sad. What is worrying, and so apparently wasteful, is how many empty plots we walked past in the prime historic quarter, sometimes with just flimsy building facades standing, covered in scaffolding or loose protective netting. I assume developers had once intended to construct something on the site, but as is the experience of so many developers across Spain (whose worst financial casualty of the recent economic crisis has been the construction industry) they simply ran out of money.

What I loved however is the clear, predominance of artistic spirit in these areas. Where empty sites reveal large, blank sides of buildings, street artists have stepped in to create something dynamic with paint and spray cans on that area. These do not blemish these charming streets as normal graffiti would, but rather imbue them with a creative spirit. My particular favourite was the painting on one wall of a tug of war, showing a troupe of men exasperated by the struggle of pulling on their side of the rope – we never find out who was pulling on the other end, that being left to the realms of imagination beyond the end of the wall.

Despite the fact that the modern face of Valencia is now the iconic façade of the city which has been sent out to the world, it’s still the charm of the historic quarter which attracts me the most. A vivacious creative spirit coupled with faded grandeur means that there is so much more to discover in this area than where the confident architectural icons of the new city reign supreme, providing picture-perfect postcard images handed to you on a plate. Despite the apparent lack of investment in the old quarter, it is undoubtedly this area where the heart and soul of Valencia continues to beat.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2013 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Valencia (i) – Day 1: Beauty and the Bell Tower (daily-norm.com)
Valencia (ii) – Food Focus 1: Palo Alto (daily-norm.com)
Valencia (iii) – Photography Focus 1: Modernista architecture (daily-norm.com)
Valencia (iv) – Day 2: Sea, Sanctuary and Semana Santa (daily-norm.com)
Valencia (v) – Day 3: Last of the big spenders – Ciudad de Las Artes y Las Ciencias (daily-norm.com)
Valencia (vi) – Photography Focus 2: Wildlife and Wetlands (daily-norm.com)

Feb 28

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Valencia (vi) – Photography Focus 2: Wildlife and Wetlands

Yesterday, I showed you the awe-inspiring, pioneering and back-breakingly costly architectural innovations that make up Valencia’s Ciudad de Las Artes y Las Ciencias. But while I was warranted in focusing on the buildings which have made the “city” within a city famous across the globe, I left out an important feature of the park – its resident wildlife. For at the far Eastern end of the complex is the most visited attraction of all the 6 main architectural sites: L’Oceonografic, a vast aquarium (the biggest in Europe) which, you will be unsurprised to hear, hosts an equally vast variety of fish, mammal and bird species.

There is an inevitable difficulty with photographing the often stunning colourful fish swimming around in an aquarium. The tanks are usually low-lit, and notices remind visitors not to photograph with a flash so as to avoid stunning the fishes. Unless abstract art is your thing, it is practically impossible to capture a moving fish in dull waters with any kind of precision. However, in L’Oceonografic there were a multitude of ponds, marshes, pools and wetlands creating the perfect habitat for birds such as cranes, herons, scarlet ibises, spoonbills, and flamingos, all of which made ripe fodder for my camera. Even better, in the large open auditorium pools, a few dolphins swam and danced around, while in the antarctic area, I captured one of my favourite photos of the bunch – a beluga whale staring at its reflection in a mirror – so cute.

All of the resulting photos, including some rather dazzling shots of stunning ethereal jellyfish, deserve the focus of a separate post, and for this reason, I devote this article to a show of their quite unique and brilliantly colourful beauty. Enjoy.

: A cosy hermit crab

: As will become clear, I love these red ibises

: Flamingos taking their siesta

: A Beluga considers his reflection

: Apparently these are some deathly disease

: Ephemeral jellyfish

: Reminds me of a scene from Hitchcock

: A beautiful dolphin…

: ello ello

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2013 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Valencia (iii) – Photography Focus 1: Modernista architecture (daily-norm.com)
Valencia (i) – Day 1 Beauty and the Bell Tower (daily-norm.com)
Valencia (ii) – Food Focus 1: Palo Alto (daily-norm.com)
Valencia (iv) – Day 2: Sea, Sanctuary and Semana Santa (daily-norm.com)

Feb 27

4 Comments

Valencia (v) – Day 3: Last of the big spenders – Ciudad de Las Artes y Las Ciencias

It’s the poster-book image, the flashy, pioneering facade of Valencia which has overtaken all other pictorial references to the city the world across, waving the flag for architectural innovation and groundbreaking artistic grandeur, sweeping the true financial crisis of Spain’s faltering economy beneath its flashy new white reflective surfaces (even though the pure cost of the development undoubtedly punched its own hefty dent in the country’s financial lacuna). The City of Arts and Sciences (La Ciudad de Las Artes y Las Ciencias) is the 21st century icon of not only Valencia, but also of Spain, a symbol of the country’s progressive cultural stance, leaping ahead of its European neighbours in architectural skill, innovation, and pure bare-faced audacity.

Designed by Valencian-born architect Santiago Calatrava in partnership with Spanish architectural great Felix Candela, the arts and sciences city is a town within a town, a giant complex of architectural spectacles devoted to learning, the arts and science, and set within a glittering azure pool in what was once part of the old Turia river. There are some 7 buildings in all, a panoply of differently angled, curved and bombastically arranged shapes in pearly, clean and uninterrupted white, all dappled and reflected by the blues and turquoises of the huge shallow ponds which surround the buildings, and marking a start contrast to the repetitious lines of one cypress tree after another, each neatly trimmed into perfect alignment with the sharply linear and meandering architecture of Calatrava’s creations.

Cypress trees appear to float on water

Reaching the arts city by bus (bizarrely, despite spending such a stonking amount of money on developing the site, the city is yet to connect it anywhere close to the metro system, and it’s a good 45 minutes walk from the historic centre), we were simply awestruck by the originality and sheer scale and quantity of the architectural feast on show as we drew progressively closer to the complex. Oohs and aahs simply didn’t cut it when these outlandish buildings emerged before us. It felt a little like entering the set of a huge futuristic feature-film, the warm Valencian sunshine being in itself like studio lights, reflected as it was off the dazzling white surfaces of these luminescent buildings.

Wanting to take in each and every detail of this incredible place, we simple decided to start off at one end and walk to the other, gawping at and admiring each respective architectural masterpiece in turn.

The Palau Reina Sofia

We began at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, an opera house and performing arts center which, with the capacity for 4,400 spectctors is one of the biggest opera houses in the world, second only in size to the Sydney opera house and containing some 4 auditoriums. Surrounded by some 87,000 square metres of landscape and water, and comprising two huge metal shells weighing over 3,000 tons, the building is like a vast space-age helmet, appearing to float suspended above a sea of disinfectant or other chemical mass. We did however notice that the building, the newest of the complex, is already showing worrying signs of age – the multi-tiled mosaic surface (paying homage to Gaudi) looks as though its cracking and wrinkling all over. Not a good sign for a building which the architect billed some 100million euros for and which cost much, much more to build.

Elegant curved bridge sweeping across the park

The opera house is separated from the next building, L’Hemisfèric, by a faultless curving bridge which sweeps with ease and elegance across the large watery space, carrying cars from one side of the old river bank to the other. Meanwhile the Hemisferic is a perfectly rounded glass and silver entertainment venue, part Imax, part planetarium and par laserium (whatever that is). The building is designed to resemble a giant “eye of knowledge”, and when reflected in the watery surrounds makes a perfect oval shape, completing the eye-like illusion. Allegedly the large shutter along its “roof” opens along the curved axis of the “eye” like a large shutter – I wold love to see that in action.

L’Hemisfèric

Two for the price of one (or possibly not actually…)

The sympathetically designed cafe

Up next was the vast Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe, an interactive museum of science that is said to resemble the skeleton of a whale, although the spikey diamond shaped window frames reminded me more of a harlequin. While so many of the buildings in the park were shut to the public, this one was open, and at the cost of only 2 euros extra on top of the vast 22 euros aquarium entrance fee, one could tour around the huge science exhibition in this complex. I have to say, I found it all a bit boring and fragmented – there were plenty of self contained little science exhibits which I’m sure would have been of more interesting for school tours following a specific curriculum. Having said this, it was good to marvel at the space – this vast centre is like an airport terminal with so much wasted space – 220 metres long, it comprises 4,000 panes of glass and is also surrounded by it’s own reflective pools which help to magnify the space yet further, and besides which we stopped for a “pick-me-up” expresso sat on equally contemporary looking white angular chairs.

Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe

Inside the science museum

Stairs leading up to the whale bone structure

The museum’s vast interior space

Walking past the science museum one walks either through or under L’Umbracle a feather-resembling landscaped walk way which comprises large super fine archways extending over palms, orange trees, herbs and a plethora of local plant varieties which flourish in this partly protected environment. It amazed me that these tall and slender archways are formed from concrete – they looked so fine and elegant that they appeared feather light, like a hair comb reaching up into the heavens.

L’Umbracle

Inside L’Umbracle

We were making our way to the vast aquarium complex at the far end of the park, but before reaching it passed two other sites of significant interest. First, Assut d’Or, a suspension bridge so fine and tall that it reaches into the sky like a harp, a ship’s sail, or as some would have it, the “ham slicer”. Beyond that was the only blue building of the white series, L’Àgora looking a bit like a ripening fig. We couldn’t tell what it was from the outside, but apparently it’s a covered plaza in which concerts and sporting events are held – another huge space which, I assume, goes unused for much of the year.

The fine harp-like shape of Assut d’Or

With L’Àgora and the Science museum in the background

L’Àgora

Already pretty exhausted by all we had seen, but still full of enthusiasm for the pure ingenuity and extra-human scale of the site, we finally made it to L’Oceanogràfic, an open-air oceanographic acquarium-come-park, which is the largest aquarium in Europe, and with 110,000 square meters of space, 42 million liters of water, and a number of different buildings representing different aquatic environments from wetlands and tropical seas to antarctic and the pacific, that statistic does not surprise me. Asides from the incredibly varied array of aquatic species found within the park, it is also notable for having two of my favourite buildings in the whole complex. Both by Felix Candela, they were designed to open out from the ponds surrounding them like waterlillies. With super thin concrete shells looking almost like bonnets shaped around large reflective glass windows, these buildings are particularly elegant and looked wonderful as the backdrop to the vibrant pink flock of flamingos ambling in shallow waters near by.

Waterlily bonnets in L’Oceanogràfic

So at the risk of simply writing what is already turning into something of a travel guide into the arts and science city, what was our experience of the park? Apart from being frankly overwhelmed by the size, diversity and other-worldliness of the park, it was hard not to explore the complex with a hint of cynicism and a touch of distaste at the sheer scale of the extravagance and expense which must have been poured out by the Valencian government in order to pay for this development. While much of Valencia’s city centre is left to slowly crumble, and prime sites near the Catedral are lying empty, further out in the far suburbs of the city, we have this mammoth arts and science centre which appears to belong to another age. Whether that age was the time of optimism (or perhaps just naivety) when economies across the world felt that credit was limitless and pursued vastly expensive projects recklessly unchecked, or whether it is a futuristic age when architecture such as this will become more commonplace (and cheaper to build), who knows. However for the present the site is dogged by controversy; because for much of the time it is empty, unused and silent; because it costs more to upkeep everyday than it can possibly make from revenues (even when we were there there were several men in every pond cleaning the waters, trimming the cypress trees and polishing the white surfaces), and because the local funds diverted into the project could have helped so many living under financial straits in the Valencia region.

Flamingo’s bask in the sunny L’Oceanogràfic park

The park’s “Wetlands” structure

Yet there can be no doubting the architectural brilliance of what has been achieved here. Such is the extreme of experimentation that it marks a vast contrast to the rest of Valencia’s historical centre. And this isn’t the first time I have seen such innovation in Spain – there’s the titanium-tiled fish-like Guggenheim in Bilbao for example, and the meandering Marquez de Riscal winery building in La Rioja, as well as a number of other examples of pioneering architecture cropping up across Spain, architecture so forward and extreme that its almost as though Spain, still damaged by the shadow of its savage civil war only two generations ago, is trying to shake of the past by surging forward.

But for now at least, that forward pace is necessarily stunted. The Spanish economy is one of the most precariously shaken in Europe, and the unemployment levels (one third of employable Spaniards are currently unemployed) are probably the worst. But in these grim times, at least we have masterpieces such as these works by Calatrava and Candela to gaze at in admiration, the manifestation of a crazy dream in a now long-lost time when so many of us were dreamers, untouched by the economic crisis which has now taken an irresolute firmhold across the world.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2013 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Valencia (i) – Day 1: Beauty and the Bell Tower (daily-norm.com)
Valencia (ii) – Food Focus 1: Palo Alto (daily-norm.com)
Valencia (iii) – Photography Focus 1: Modernista architecture (daily-norm.com)
Valencia (iv) – Day 2: Sea, Sanctuary and Semana Santa (daily-norm.com)
Calatrava’s showcase Ciudad de las Artes appears to be aging rapidly (elpais.com)
A tale of two Picassos – the 1901 prodigy and the introspective illustrator of mythology (daily-norm.com)

Feb 24

12 Comments

Valencia (iii) – Photography Focus 1: Modernista architecture

Regulars to my blog will not be at all surprised to know that I was never far from my camera(s) as I traversed the quaint streets, wide esplanades and picturesque squares of Valencia. Photography, like art, is like an inseparable part of my inner personality, almost like an extra limb by which I can capture the compositions which line up and freeze into photo form in my mind’s eye as I look around me. Valencia was, unsurprisingly, ripe fodder for my photographic expressionism, and so many photos have resulted, that I thought it would be prudent to post my body of work thematically.

First up is a concentration on Modernista architecture, the movement of architecture which paralleled, and to some extent expanded our own art nouveau style, an artistic drive which embellished buildings with floral, leafy detail, replaced straight lines with daring curves and undulations, and generally rewrote the rules of conservative architectural standards.

Valencia’s offerings of Modernismo are not as abundant or over the top as the prized examples of Barcelona’s Gaudi-led architecture, but there are nonetheless plenty of buildings to rave about. As a starting point, I was delighted to learn, upon arriving out our hotel, the Vincci Palace, that the hotel itself is set within one of Valencia’s most admired Modernista offerings, complete with elaborate miradores (corner balconies) of which (I was even more excited to discover) our room boasted one of two. In the same street (the Calle de la Paz), various other buildings overflow in Modernista detailing, from plaster rendering which looks almost alive with curving creeping plant details, to equally elaborate ironwork, but all combined with something of a Valencian focus as plaster and stone combines with softly-toned ceramic tiles.

Beyond the Calle de la Paz, examples of Modernismo are sprinkled across the city’s historic quarter, as wooden miradores, rounded windows, and examples aplenty of differing building shapes and styles standout from the more conventional linear architecture all around. In the impressive Plaza del Ayuntamiento, a plethora of decorated domes, statues and curving, meandering details are scattered across the architecturally diverse central square, while beyond, the Modernista facade of the grand central station, the Estacion del Norte, makes for an impressive entrance to the city’s main transport hub. Also in the centre, the grand Mercado Central is built in the Modernista tradition, with elaborate ironwork, coloured stained glass and more ceramic detailing proclaiming a central food market place for the people built in the Modernismo style.

It is without further ado that I share a gallery of the garlanded, stucco-covered, elaborately decorated buildings and street furnishings which make Valencia’s historic quarter a must-see centre of the Modernista movement.