The Alhambra is Spain’s top tourist attraction, and although this covers a large hilltop site overlooking Granada, it is the three intact Nasrid palaces that the visitors head for. Surprisingly these are a series of small and intimate but … Continue reading
As a precocious 17 year-old, intent on studying architecture, what could be more appropriate for me, than asking for a book on Mies van der Rohe as a school prize? I became a devotee, and when Mies died in 1969, … Continue reading
Mention ‘park’ to any visitor to Barcelona, and they immediately think of Parc Guell, Gaudi’s extraordinary masterpiece, visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists each year. The number of visitors is overwhelming; particularly around the key features of the … Continue reading
I first visited Park Guell, designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi in the last dark days of Franco’s rule, before a resurgent Catalonia and before Barcelona had become a hip tourist destination. Then the park was a sleepy and … Continue reading
April is a wonderful time to visit Seville. In the two weeks after Easter, the weather has become more settled, the temperatures are in the comfortable upper 20s, the wisteria, judas trees and acacias are at their best, but also … Continue reading