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Four Beautiful Towns of France & Germany----a photo essay

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Four Lovely neighbours of Heidelberg Four lovely neighbours of Heidelberg A pictorial journey   Wyssembourg, France Wyssembourg is a small town in France. It is on the border with Germany and not far from Heidelberg, Germany's university town. We had taken a train that touched Mannheim and Landau on the way. When the train pulled up at Wyssembourg station, an almost empty platform soaked by drizzles preceding our arrival greeted us. An absolute beauty! Right from there it was a comfortable saunter through a picturesque, pretty, clean and graceful little town. I was so awed that even this potpourri of adjectives is not enough to describe the photogenic French town. A little river Lauter flows through the town. It is so small and so narrow that on first view it gives an impression of a narrow canal flowing through the town. Not far from its larger counterpart Strasbourg, this cute town is rich in history. Born in the seventh century, the town grew up around ...

Barcelona 2

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BARCELONA 2   Sagrada Familia- the amazing, still unfinished cathedral   Barcelona is proud of Antoni Gaudi. It is Gaudi's city. The two seem to be almost indivisible after Gaudi delivered some architectural wonders to the city he loved. Park Guell and Sagrada Familia are two architectural masterpieces he created and gifted to his city. Though Sagrada Familia is now in UNESCO World Heritage sites, I perceived it as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. I was stumped when the temple façade loomed up for the first time. Awesome! It is an incredible beauty! The only similarity to the Gothic architecture was the Latin Cross Floor Plan which Gaudi maintained in his design. The core in the Plan is occupied by four aisles of 7.5 M wide each and a nave of 15 M wide totaling 45 M The complex geometries developed by Gaudi deviated significantly from the Gothic designs. Such as introducing a system of angled columns and hyperboloidal vaults to do away with the need for...

Barcelona 1

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Barcelona SPAIN  A fascinating country. An engrossing history. And exotic in every sphere. The thrilling story of the Spanish Armada; the chivalric romances of the errant knight Don Quixote; the daredevilry of the brave Matadors in tackling the bulls continue to fascinate me. The Romans, the romantic Moors who ruled for almost 800 years, the swashbuckling Spaniards who demonstrated their prowess as conquerors, explorers, bullfighters, flamenco dancers, football players all seemed to be beckoning me to unravel the mysteries of this captivating land. Finally, in 2019, we chalked our visit to Spain. My traveling companion (my wife) is an ardent learner of Spanish, which proved to be a forte during our journey to Spain. Our adventure in Spain started with Barcelona.  We flew into this city from Frankfurt. Surprisingly Barcelona's El Prat International Airport (also known as BCN) wore an ordinary look, in unexpected contrast to the jazzy name and character of th...