Last week of Holiday, Journey Home and Visit to Guggenheim Museum

Tuesday: Most of my family would be catching a flight tomorrow home, and wed be commencing our journey home via car, after a lovely holiday, for the last few days, we carried on enjoy tapas, swimming, walks and go-karting.  It had been a lovely week with everyone, and we went out for our last meal together at the golf clubhouse where we were staying,  before playing cards and packing.
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Reflecion of Church in Villaricos.

Wednesday: After thinking we had late checkout, morning arose and we had to leave sharpish, Packed car and off we go. We went for breakfast in town together before heading to Cartagena, where we walked through the beautiful streets, and saw the roman amphitheater and the great harbour.

After saying good bye to everyone, for their trip to the airport,  we made our way to Valencia, only a few hour drive to where we were staying. For the journey home  we were taking it easy, stopping every night in a hotel, and treating the journey home as part of the holiday

Thursday: Early start, breakfast and in car. Tonight we planned on going to Biarritz for food before staying in our hotel at Bayonne. But we decided to take a detour to Bilbao and visit the Guggenheim. I was very excited once i saw that there was an Abstract Expressionism exhibition taking place.  I saw works of Jackson Pollock,Mark Rothko, Georges Braque, Paul Klee, Picasso, Wassilly Kandinsky, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and Many other incredible artists.  A piece that i was most amazed by was the piece titled "The Renowned orders of the night" by Anselm Kieffer, 1997, 514x503x8cm, acrylic and emulsion on canvas. The piece shows himself lay down under the  immense sky on a cracked surface. What drew me in to this piece, was having seen a photograph of it before, the painting is not only a lot larger than i thought it was but the sheer thickness of paint is incredible. the marks made on the canvas were so appealing and the overall image was incredible. Each part of the painting was treated equally in terms of detail, even the portrait of the face which was so small in comparison to -what seemed like a never ending universe full of stars- was full of emotion. The painting made me feel a sense of loneliness, as if we're such a small insignificance. It was a marvelous piece. Moving on to Jackson Pollock and Rothko, to other artists work that i wasnt expecting to enjoy, but really did. Pollocks work was full of joy and intensive expression, compared to the calm feeling of the works of Rothko in the adjacent room. It was amazing to see Rothkos painting in person, as after only seeing imagery, previously i didn't quite understand the reason to what to me just seemed like stripes of colour, but when seeing them i was very mived, and impressed by the clarity of colour and thickness of paint as well as the composition of each piece, you could really tell the thought behind each piece and this was something i never thought id enjoy. As well as the abstract expressionism exhibition, Downstairs there was an amazing interactive installation piece titled " The matter of time" by Richard Serra. Some installation work really is not my thing, and doesn't do anything for me. However this piece was amazing, each structure you could walk through and played with your senses, Spiraling,  making you feel like you were moving one way and then another, trapped and disorientated, making the space of the entire feel a lot larger than it was, as well as this each of the structures made different echoes, noises varying in tone, pitch, and loudness. the whole experience was like visiting a fun fair for the first time, I was truly amazed. The fact that this artist could create something to go in an ordinary bare room, that changed the whole experience completely. It was very similar to that of the building,which again played with your senses, whilst walking in and around the museum and its exhibitions. A great Exhibition of which id definitely recommend, and a great way to spend my journey home. On the way to Bayonne, i suddenly realised that all though the rest of my family who were on holiday were now home from their flight, they did not get to experience what i did. Which to makes the journey even better.

View up from bottom floor of Guggenheim.

Friday:  Journey To Versailles where stopped the night. On they way we stopped in a lovely small french town for lunch, where i had some lovely baked Camembert. We walked through the cobbled streets and again i took a few photos and sketches, for one in particular i thought would make a nice  George Chapman esque etching. 

Saturday: Today was the last long day of driving to Calais where we were stopping the night. We took a detour to Ypres, Belgium. Something we have always wanted to do was visit the war memorial graves, and visit my mums Granddad's Grave. Sadly this time we did not have enough time to find  his memorial grave, but we did see many other Soldiers, and others who thought beside him. Since getting home we found more malformation about where he is buried, which turned out only to be 5 minutes away from where we were, Hopefully we will go back and see soon. 

Photo of Ypres town streets.

Sunday: Early morning ferry home, back to uni tomorrow, back to work. been a lovely two weeks away with family, and now was time for the end and back to normality. Safe back home on arrival to see our garden had been infested with sheep. Ah home.

Photo of sheep in garden back home.