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alhambra
“You will capture the spirit of Granada,” advises a guide book, “if you watch an autumn sunset, from the secluded garden of Albayzin, where the only sound to be heard is the soft murmur of the fountain and the trill of a bird as she returns to her nest, when the high peaks of the Sierra Nevada are tinged with red, with the pink [hue] of the old towers of Alhambra, bowed down by the weight of tragic legends, silhouetted against the mountains.”
barcelona
Barcelona—what fantasies the mere mention of this Spanish city conjures up! Barcelona is fiercely modern, passionately separatist in its aim to be Catalan and Catalan only, and delightfully light-hearted, yet seriously intent in its expressions of freedom.
barcelona: gaudí's contributions
"Gaudí was, indeed, considered a true modernista and a prophet among his peers. He pointed the way for others to follow in intertwining the past with the future in order to create a vocabulary that would best express the ideas of the new, free-spirited and forward-looking generation of architects. ¡Bravo, Gaudí!"
budapest
Two is better than one, they say. If that's true, then Budapest is better . . .
See, there used to be Buda and Pest, but then they became one, so now it's twice as nice . . .
the cloisters
Housed in a monastic structure on the highest land formation of the island of Manhattan, looking like an imposter on the soil of this young nation, stands The Cloisters. A branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it consists of an elaborate collection of pilasters, columns, abbeys, windows, doors, and notable pieces of art and artifacts from Medieval Europe.
florence
Florence is the crown jewel in Italy's attractions, a big "small town" whose citizens still portray the nature of their progenitors: "learned, wealthy and quarrelsome." It is a magnet that has always attracted outsiders to its walls, and still becons millions of tourists each year.
helsinki
With integrity and fidelity to high art and good taste, the architecture of Finland, as exemplified in Helsinki, continues to provide visual enjoyment and cultural edification to all who have the good fortune of spending time in this “White City of the North.”
isle d'orleans
Seemingly untouched by its mother metropolis Québec, Isle d'Orleans is worlds and centuries apart from the tempo of modern life that throbs in the near distance, cut away by a hanging bridge. Such tranquillity and visual beauty apply balm to the technology-sickened soul.
porvoo
Porvoo is Finland’s favorite child, its heartbeat and pulse, a kaleidoscope where past and future are present.
quebec
The rising sun spread beams to the eastern sky in hues of chartreuse and lilac, painting a magnificent backdrop for the dark cityscape dominated by the steeples and towers of the noble and historic edifices. The old city wall with its conical watch-towers and gracefully arching gateways cut a pleasant picture right from the Middle Ages.
saratoga
Visitors to Saratoga are instantly caught up in the singular architecture of its public buildings, parks and private homes that speak of bygone days that were free and deliberate in their magnificence.
tallinn
Rising on the southern shore of the Finnish Gulf, Tallinn, the capital of Estonia,
looks like a fanciful illustration straight out of the most imaginative travel guide with its unique architectural heritage, and it feels lighthearted—where else has independence been achieved through a Singing Revolution?
toledo
Of all of Toledo's fascinations, the home and museum of El Greco, Spain's illustrious mystic artist, takes the visitor back hundreds of years—if not all the way to 1585 when El Greco himself domiciled in this place, at least far enough back to assure an ethereal feeling of having arrived somewhere in the misty past.
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