Comments for To Spain!

Comment on Sunday July 29 by tzadmin

tzadmin — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 01:38:25 +0000

Apparently I had bad information. As a quick look at a map reveals, Fisterra is not the westernmost point on the Iberian peninsula, just the westernmost point in mainland Spain.

Comment on Compostelas Project Problem Definition by Bob

Bob — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 02:50:46 +0000

Thanks again Tanya. I am enjoying your fantastic voyage. I don’t really connect with the water thing, but the stones are much like “pennies” in the fountain. I think that it should work and could be a great place to finish a pilgrimage. I have a really great memory of one of these places. It was in northern France. We had spend the day doing and seeing everything on the list. We, Kathi’s parents, us and the kids, found a really nice fountain. We were throwing coins in the fountain and making wishes. Kind of corny. I found a purse that had been left at the edge of the fountain. And OMG it had a hugh amount of cash in it. I don’t really remember how much money was in the purse, but there was all of this cash and a pay stub. Looked to be a whole months pay. This took us out of the regular sort of tourist thing. We spent the next day or so looking for this person. We meet so many interesting people and finally managed to get the money back to the lady that had paused at the fountain.

Go for the fountain idea. It just connects to so many people on so many levels. They need to be easy and unthreatening. Maybe calming.

Love you photos. I have never seen the Atlantic Ocean looking so blue. I have always seen it in a more greenish color.

Thanks for sharing. Love to you my friend,

Bob

Comment on Thursday – Friday July 26-27 by tzadmin

tzadmin — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 21:55:40 +0000

So, for my architect/designer friends, let me add a bit about the City of Culture. In short, I was unimpressed. Eisenman took a plan of the city of Santiago and the curvature of a scallop shell (remember I noted that those are important here) and twisted them around and played with them in Maya and Rhino and ended up with this three dimensional realization of the combination. Fine. But once he has created that concept, he pretty much hands everything else off to the contractor, so the details are completely lacking. The transitions and junctions are bad, the forms are needlessly complex (lacking elegance), the material choices aren’t great (I never could get an answer about why cream-colored metal is used between the stones — that HAD to be a conscious decision at some level, but I have no idea why) and it just lacks the polish and detail of other great architecture.

Also, from a functional perspective, the buildings are huge, costly to run and have not yet found their purposes (the program keeps changing). The access to the site is awkward and only by car (even though it is theoretically within walking distance of the city).

And, finally, the models of the site in the visitor’s center pale in comparison to those at Sagrada Familia (in Barcelona). I mean, to begin with, where is the entourage, people?

Comment on Compostelas Project Introduction by tzadmin

tzadmin — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 20:46:38 +0000

Ok, so I’ve already thought of two things I forgot.

1. If you aren’t up on your Latin/Spanish Santiago = Saint (Sant) James (Iago)

2. A major symbol of the Camino is the scallop shell. I have heard the reason is two-fold. First, the scallop shell is made of several “lines” that come together at a point at the tip of the shell like the many routes of the Camino converging at Santiago de Compostela. Second, scallop shells are conveniently sized for drinking out of and it became common for middle ages pilgrims to carry them and bring them home as tokens of their pilgrimage. For this reason, you will see scallop shells EVERYWHERE in Santiago de Compostela.

Comment on Sunday July 22 by tzadmin

tzadmin — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 19:22:25 +0000

Yes, definitely better. Thanks!

Comment on Sunday July 22 by Bob

Bob — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 23:44:34 +0000

Sounds like you are feeling better. Love your comments and photos. Thanks for sharing!

Comment on Thursday July 19 by Bob

Bob — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 19:34:12 +0000

Tanya,

Thanks for sharing. What fantastic photos. Just amazing. Sorry you are not feeling well. Hope it passes quickly.

Bob

Comment on Saturday July 14 by Susan VN

Susan VN — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 03:39:26 +0000

Great pictures! Thanks for sharing them

Comment on The Beginning by czl

czl — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 00:16:01 +0000

Safe travels! We’ll be thinking of you.