Tag Archives: city

Wednesday Wander – Parc Guell, Barcelona

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It’s Wednesday, and time to wander again. This week I’m heading to Barcelona, Spain, and to Antoni Gaudi’s magnificent Parc Guell.

High on a hilltop overlooking the city, the park is accessed via a series of escalators and steps up a narrow and very steep street. There may have been some complaining from certain family members on our way up the hill, but when we got there it was certainly worth it!

Built between 1900 and 1914, the park was the brainchild of Count Eusebi Guell, who wanted to create a luxury housing estate on the site, and worked with Gaudi on the design. However, only two houses were ever built, one of which Gaudi and his family ended up living in for twenty years – it is now a museum.

Designated a World Heritage Site in 1984, the park is full of Gaudi’s signature design style, from undulating dragon-spine rooftops to stylised stalactites and sculpted pillars. The park is laid out across several levels, and can be walked in a circular fashion up to the topmost point (marked by a stone cross) before heading downhill once more.

I’m a huge fan of Gaudi’s design style, so a visit to the park was high on my list of things to do when we visited Barcelona. And I was definitely not disappointed. Although it was a bit crowded at times, the views, the design, the wonderful shapes and whimsy of Gaudi’s unique vision were all there to be seen and enjoyed. There is a freshness and modernity to his work which makes it hard to believe it’s over a century old.

Thank you for coming on another Wednesday Wander with me – see you next time!

If you enjoyed this post and want to read more, you can find me on Twitter @AuthorHelenJ,  Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Plus my latest book release, A Thousand Rooms, is now available on Amazon. Visit my Amazon Author Page to see more.

Wednesday Wander – Taronga Zoo, Sydney

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taronga-2This week I’m wandering to a place on the edge of one of the world’s great natural harbours. It also happens to be not too far from where I used to work. This is Taronga Zoo, in Sydney, Australia. Officially opened in October 1916, the zoo is just over 100 years old, and ‘Taronga’ is an aboriginal word meaning ‘beautiful view’. Very appropriate, I think, considering the outlook.

taronga-1I’ve chosen to focus more on the fantastic views from the zoo, rather than the animals. Located in Mosman at the end of a promontory poking out into the harbour, the zoo looks out at the Harbour Bridge and Opera House to the right, across the city and out to the Heads on the left. It was a warm but hazy day when we visited – I’d just had a fairly major operation and my parents had come out to spend time with me. I remember it being one of the first days I felt up to walking around, so it was nice to be out.

taronga-3 One thing I experienced at the zoo was hand-feeding giraffes. You were given a bag of carrots and the giraffes would bend down, their long purple tongues wrapping around the carrots and pulling them out of your hand. It was quite something to see such beautiful animals up close, and I suppose that is part of the magic of zoos, and key to their enduring appeal.

While I’m not sure where I stand on the subject of animals in zoos, I do know that many zoos do a great deal in terms of animal conservation and protection, and that Taronga has spent a lot of time and money investing in vastly improved habitats over recent years. They’ve also run several successful breeding programs, so they must be doing something right.

Thanks for coming on another Wednesday Wander with me – see you next time!

If you enjoyed this post and want to read more, you can find me on Twitter @AuthorHelenJ,  Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Plus my latest book release, A Thousand Rooms, is now available on Amazon.

30 Day Writing Challenge – Day Twenty One – Everybody (also, A Wednesday Wander)

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It’s day twenty one of the 30 Day Writing Challenge, and today’s prompt is: Everybody.

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The beach near my old house in Australia

It’s also Wednesday, which means I’ll be taking a wander. However, in line with the prompt, this wander will be slightly different in that I’ll be trying to answer a question that just about everybody asks me, once they hear I’ve moved back to England from Australia. And the question is: Why did I leave Australia to come back here?

The short answer is: because my husband’s work brought us over here. But there is more to it than that.

Melbourne and the Yarra River

Melbourne and the Yarra River

In the UK, Australia seems to be sold as a sort of dream destination, an island paradise with white beaches and blue water and a cruisy outdoor lifestyle, where wages are double or almost triple that for the same job in the UK. The people look the same, speak the same language, the cities are comfortably cosmopolitan and it’s just sun, sun, sun all year round. People cannot believe I would leave such a place to come to a small green island that, according to some, gets more than its fair share of rain.

A beach in Wales I used to visit as a child

A beach in Wales I used to visit as a child.

Don’t get me wrong – Australia is a fantastic place. I lived there for seventeen years. My husband is Australian. Our daughter was born there. I have a great deal of love for and fond memories of both Melbourne and Sydney, as well as all the other places I visited. It’s a beautiful country and a lot of people who I love live there.

London

London

Yet, there was always a part of me that longed for mist and green grass and ancient buildings. For cold Christmases and tiny villages, rain-soaked high streets and cool mountains. A part of me that never quite felt at home among the brilliant sunshine and blue water. I remember coming back for a visit to the UK just over nine years ago. We were flying over the coast heading towards London and I looked out of the airplane window. The sun was just rising and I could see the Thames like a silver ribbon, winding inland. My husband leaned over to look out as well, then said to me, ‘How does it feel, coming back here?’ I watched the green landscape unfold beneath us and said, ‘Like coming home.’

If you enjoyed this post, you can find me on Twitter @AuthorHelenJ,  Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Plus my latest book release, A Thousand Rooms, is now available on Amazon.

 

 

Wednesday Wander – Ancient Rome

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I spent most of today wandering around Roman ruins and a museum with a group of children from my daughter’s school. I saw some wonderful mosaics, coffins complete with skeletons, and dozens of finely made Roman artifacts.

So, for my Wednesday Wander this week, I thought I’d take a trip back to where it all began. Where an empire was formed that reached east and west, controlling territory as far away as this misty small island (and possibly further still, if the stories about South American shipwrecks are true).

ancient-rome-2This, my friends, is ancient Rome.

Well, it’s what’s left of it, anyway. I took these shots from a viewing platform overlooking all that is left of that mighty city – the ground level is far lower than that of modern Rome, which is why I appear to be so high above the ruins. I quite like how all the fallen columns seem to have been gathered and placed tidily together – I don’t know whether they’ve been reinstated in the intervening years, but it did seem to me as though work was ongoing at the time.

ancient-rome-1Another thing that struck me, as I looked at these photos, is how much digital photography, particularly on our phones, has changed the way we record things. I took these photos with a regular old film camera, back in the days when you had to drop the film off and wait to see if any of the shots were good. Film wasn’t cheap and I was travelling on a budget, hence why I have only three shots of the city, rather than the eight thousand or so I’d probably take today.

ancient-rome-3I remember Rome as a city of contrasts – full of great beauty and history, yet crowded and dirty. I also visited ancient catacombs along the Appian Way – went underground and saw ancient tombs and painted shrines, roped off areas leading who knows where. I have no photographs of this at all.

I think I might need to go back to Rome…

Thanks for joining me on another Wednesday Wander – see you next time!

You can find me on Twitter @AuthorHelenJ, plus check our my Facebook Page, Instagram and Pinterest page for book info, photos, blogs and more…

Wednesday Wander – Lost Lagoon, Vancouver

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Looking at this photo, would you believe it was taken in the heart of a large North American city? Sure, there are a few giveaways if you look closely – streetlights just visible through the distant trees, and a manmade fountain in the centre of the lake.

This is Lost Lagoon, in Vancouver, Canada. Once a tidal mudflat connected to Burrard Inlet, it was home for centuries to the area’s First Nations tribes, who used it as a rich food source. Before it was landlocked in 1916 by the construction of the Stanley Park Causeway, the lagoon was open to the sea, the movement of the tides causing it to ‘disappear’ from time to time.

A local writer who loved to canoe on the lake gave it the name ‘Lost Lagoon.’ She wrote:

‘As that perfect summer month drifted on, the ever-restless tides left the harbour devoid of water at my favorite canoeing hour, and my pet idling place was lost for many days – hence my fancy to call it the Lost Lagoon.’ Pauline Johnson

I used to live very close to Lost Lagoon, and spent a lot of time walking there. Raccoons played in the undergrowth, squirrels and waterbirds made their homes in the ancient trees, yet just a block away were the towers and noise of Vancouver. Such contrast is part of why Vancouver is so often named one of the world’s most liveable cities, that such an oasis of calm can be found at its very heart.

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Thanks for joining me on another Wednesday Wander – where will we go next week?

Wednesday Wander – Federation Square, Melbourne

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I lived in Melbourne for many years. I loved living there, walking along the Yarra River to work while rowers glided past and cockatoos swooped and shrieked in the eucalypts, the city a gleaming array of towers on the opposite side. It’s a beautiful city, usually ranked in the top five world’s most liveable. When I first moved there, the old Gas and Fuel Towers still stood at the entrance to the city, two huge brown sixties monoliths blocking the view in all directions, a misguided planning decision if ever there was one. This seemed to be a general consensus because, soon after I arrived, the towers were demolished, opening up the cityscape once more and leaving a large building site designated for a mixed-use public space.

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A competition was held, designs submitted, and a winner chosen. Melbourne is a city that embraces modern architecture, sculptural cutting edge buildings standing next to crenellated Victorian masterpieces – just about every style of architecture since the 1850’s can be seen on its wide streets. What the city wanted was a new architectural icon, something to rival Sydney’s Opera House. So the new design, with its eco-friendly elements and exciting use of glass and metal, was seen as a clear favourite.

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Except, when they started building it, people didn’t like it. We were living across the road from the site at the time and would routinely curse the builders. Pile driving started at 7am even on weekends, plus the constant clatter and scream of concrete cutting and metal assembly echoed off the buildings and along the brown winding river. The emerging buildings looked like tin sheds crumpled by some giant’s hand and then dropped haphazardly across the coveted riverside site. There were complaints that some of the elements would block views of the Cathedral, and so the plans had to be changed. Everyone wondered why it was costing so much and taking so long to build.

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Then it was finished. And we went along to have a look. I still cannot say that I love the exterior, even though it features in some of my wedding photos. Yet the inside was a revelation. Soaring spaces, angles and glass, small windows framing snapshot views of the city and river. The buildings house museums, offices, galleries, shops and restaurants, while the sweeping plaza with warm stone cobbles and stepped layers is perfect for meeting, or just lazing with a cool drink on a hot Melbourne day.

Fed Square 4Federation Square is now almost fifteen years old and, while I don’t think it compares to Utzon’s Opera House for sheer visual impact, I do think it has a charm that is not immediately apparent. And that, perhaps, is what makes it quintessentially Melbourne. Unlike Sydney, where harbour and bridge and scenery hit you straight away, Melbourne is a city of layers. Of hidden laneways and after hours clubs, leafy homes and rambling parks. And so perhaps this design was the most appropriate, after all.

 

Thank you for joining me on another Wednesday Wander – if you’d like to know more about Federation Square, clicFed Square 6k here. See you next week!

City Of Dreams

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IMG_0219Last night I visited the city again.

A city without a name, yet one which I visit often and know well. Where a river runs through to the ocean and killer whales beach themselves on the shore, where a walk can leave you hanging at the edge of a perilous drop, and the only way forward is to let go. Where familiar streets from other cities join together into a strange new whole, where I know the way but am often lost.

This time was no different. I had a job, and on the way home the subway did the thing it does so often, the track peeling away to turn along an unfamiliar route, leaving me stranded far from where I wanted to be. I knew how to get back, so my faceless companion and I took the walkway through the Asian market, past scented wood and spice and flowers, to end up dangling above city streets before letting go, fear and exhilaration screaming through us as we sailed down to the streets below.

I woke to the yowl of a cat in the street outside, the familiar humped shape of my husband warm comfort as I shuddered with the aftermath of the dream. Then I went to find sleep again. And I was back in my city, though this time twenty five stories up in a building that may or may not have been burning, with people who, for some unfathomable reason, wouldn’t take the stairs with me.

I woke once more, this time to my alarm.

It’s a strange place, my city of dreams, and yet I know it well. I know if I am driving that the road will be endlessly circuitous and choked with cars, never getting me to my destination. That the buildings are a mix of ancient and modern, that whales call in the blue water nearby, salt spray dashing against the stone walls and railings. If I go out of the city to the nearby mountains, another town awaits. One of stone and twisting streets, castellated walls and golden lit windows, shops filled with gleaming merchandise.

It is a place of fear and beauty, my city of dreams.

If you enjoyed this post and would like to read more, you can find me on Twitter @AuthorHelenJ,  Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Plus my latest book release, A Thousand Rooms, is now available on Amazon. Visit my Amazon Author Page to see more.