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Gandesa and The Pilgrimage to Fontcalda
In May last year, I was on an amazing rowing tour down Spain’s incredible Ebro river. My tour group had just spent our first night at the lovely Port Massaluca Campground. High winds prevented us from heading back out on the water that sunny morning so we made alternate plans for the day. We decided to do some local exploring by car instead. And that’s how we ended up on a visit to the town of Gandesa and the Pilgrimage to Fontcalda. Cathedrals of Wine We decided to begin with a visit to the Centre d’Estudis de la Batalla de l’Ebre – Battle of the Ebro Study Centre. This museum…
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Adventure Rowing Down the Ebro: Mequinenza – Massaluca
Our second day on the water of this amazing rowing tour through Spain dawned overcast and drizzly. This was quite a contrast from the heat and sun of the previous day. Despite this, we bundled up and headed out. We were determined to keep to our schedule. We were also looking forward to a visit to the sunken village of Fayón the following day. The weather continued to worsen as we traversed the Caspe-Mequinenza Reservoir. However, the sight of an abandoned monastery majestically mounted on the cliffs of the Ebro brought us a ray of sunshine that chilly morning. Battling the Mighty Ebro Shortly after though, our greatest challenge of…
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The Sunken Village of Fayón and the Road to Nowhere
In the heart of northern Spain, on the shores of the mighty Ebro river, sit two of the most fascinating sights I have ever seen. The first is the sunken village of Fayón and the second is, what I fondly refer to as, the ‘Road to Nowhere’. I had the privilege to discover both while adventure rowing down the Ebro last spring. The Sunken Village of Fayón My fellow rowers and I had made our way downriver from Mequinenza. And about an hour and a half into our row we came upon the most intriguing sight. It was the top half of a bell tower sitting in the river, several…
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Adventure Rowing Down the Ebro: Chiprana – Mar de Aragon
The seed for my second international rowing tour was planted during my first one. I had made two new friends from Cologne, Germany on that trip and they told me that they had organized a tour through Spain that previous spring. And, they were planning on doing it again the following May. Of course I told them that I was interested. So, a short ten months later, we set out adventure rowing down the Ebro river together. Preparation I headed over to Europe during the last week of April, reuniting with my Cologne friends in their fascinating city. They had already put a tremendous amount of effort into the planning…
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Sant Pau: The Other Modernista Wonder of Barcelona – Part 3
As I continued my exploration of the incredible Modernista complex of Barcelona’s Hospital Sant Pau, the Operations House was the next gorgeous building to catch my eye. Set amongst the fantastic patient pavilions and fragrant lavender gardens, it floated in the Spanish sky like a heavenly mirage when glimpsed from within the incredible Administration Pavilion.Upon closer look, I saw that the cerulean blue of that beautiful sky was reflected in the colour of the mosaics printed on its façade. And the names spelled out in these tiled artworks were those of distinguished doctors. Like the pavilions surrounding it, the Operations House is covered in a variety of symbolic stone carvings.…
