Barcelona is famous for its basilica, La Sagrada Familia (The Holy Family). This building is another (probably the most) famous work of architect Antoni Gaudi. Although I don't find this church even remotely attractive, I was interested in seeing it when we were visiting Barcelona.

Instead, we wandered through town to see the Cathedral Barcelona, which appears below in an image I borrowed from the internet.





This is what the we saw when we visited the famous Cathedral.


I managed to take a couple of pictures of it. Guess I will try to see them both next time I visit Barcelona.




The disappointment of the Cathedral was made up for by the heavenly waffle shop we visited. Dozens of kinds of waffles, covered in your choice, of chocolate, hazlenut, cinnamon, bananas, cream, coconut and maple. I wish it was in my house.

Palma

I spent one quick day in romantic Palma de Mallorca, wandering through the huge Gothic cathedral that dominates the skyline of the entire city.

La Seu was built on the site of an old Arab mosque in the 13th century, but has been reconstructed, renovated and restored almost constantly since then, a project that Antoni Gaudi worked on for many years in the early 1900s.

The massive building can hold approximately 18,000 people.








The Cathedral is distinctive for its beautiful stained glass windows, most notably, its large rose window. Measuring 12 metres across, it is the largest Gothic rose window in the world. It contains more than 1,200 pieces of coloured glass.

The day ended with lunch in a sunny square. Being in Spain, I had to have the paella and sangria, both delicious.

Olivier Jarda, Rhodes Scholar!

Congratulations Olivier!

Olivier, who is my sister Eliza’s boyfriend, has just won a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University in England. The Rhodes Scholarship is the oldest and arguably the most prestigious fellowship in the world. Past Rhodes Scholars include Bill Clinton, Rex Murphy, and Kris Kristofferson, to name just a few.

This year, 80 students from around the world were awarded this honour. They were chosen based on high academic achievement, personal integrity, leadership potential and physical vigor, among other attributes.

Right now, Olivier is finishing his degree at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, with a double major in Political Science and Economics and a minor in International Development Studies. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Saint Mary’s newspaper, a member of the Track and Field team, and this year was named a CIS All-Canadian. Last year he was the Vice President of the Saint Mary’s University Students Association (SMUSA) and has been involved in many other things on and off campus.

He is also the singer and bass player for the band Turnstiles, which completed a cross-country tour this summer.

At Oxford Olivier plans to study relationships between developed and developing countries in terms of foreign policy and nation building. Wow.

What an amazing accomplishment Olivier!