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A masterpiece of human achievement

My Europe Tour 2025 – Blog #28 – Summary of my 44day Tour

The below blog can be more detailed in referring to Blog #1 by scrolling down beyond my 27 Europe blogs in my website of https://bhlifestyles.travel.blog for this amazing tour. My website has this recent Blog #28 first. My life mantra is to always make a positive difference/ improvement to whoever I meet & a slight twist to a Pericles quote (Died 429BC). “What you leave behind is not what is engraved on your headstone, but what is engraved into the minds & lives of others”

My initial passport was obtained in March 2016 at 60yrs old … yes, a late starter. Since then, in the last 10yrs I have been in 9 countries, such as, USA, Japan, Sth Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile & New Zealand whilst also travelling through my own country of Australia.

Europe is one region I thought was well beyond my means & capability, plus the currency killer however, it is time to be selfish & take time out from my ongoing extended family renovations & repairs assistance I’ve been providing over the years in my so-called retirement. LOL!! As I’ve aged, I had realised it is not the amount of moments that I breathe .. but the amount of moments my breath is taken away & that, as you will read on is how this Europe tour unfolded.

I am an ‘owner’ in Wyndham Resorts & through my credit level I can use their in-house Travel Club for assistance in compiling my tour proposal. I was blessed to have Nilli help me out where she organised my Sth America trip years prior & she remembered me too. I first compiled a list of my ex-backpacker friends I wanted to see over there in various countries & checked their availability for timing. Looks like 1st October 2025 to start my trip. From this list I was able to source the expected route & see what I can achieve to link up with everyone. This was quite a challenge to be practical & make it all work. Nili was impressed with my Excel spreadsheet & information provided & made her role much easier she said.

My friends live in Nuremberg, Munich, Amsterdam & Bristol UK. Drawing this out on a Europe map & checking the major places & sights I’d like to experience near to this route, plus keep my mum & youngest brother’s (both dec’d) wishes of places they never got to see. From this, I had to work out how many days I would need to use in each place of stay & to analyze what activities & tours to undertake to fully activate each day. Easy .. sarcasm. One could never do enough research, for there is so much to see & do.

From the above paragraph my tour now included Rome (1st stop), Nuremberg, Amsterdam, Paris, Amiens (brother for WW1 experience), Barcelona (my wish), Lisbon, Dublin, Bristol & London (mine & Mum’s wishes). These places were my most wished places to visit & the transport was relatively easy to address. I had to obtain entry requirements with the new ETA for England at £16 (2yr approval) & took 7mins to gain their approval, plus the upcoming 12th Oct 2025 new EES for the Schengen area entry.

With all this compiled information, Nilli set into action & also gained the best travel insurance which isn’t cheap at my age + still have the COVID part covered due to remaining world uncertainty. She made a few adjustments & upon my approval booked all the flights & most hotels stays & left me to do the train ticket purchases & a couple of accommodations where she couldn’t have access to. From my hometown to Europe & back will entail 44days in total, starting from Brisbane & leaving on 1st October 2025. If you review the calendar photo you can see most of my itinerary.

Europe, for me was always in the too-hard basket & when you throw all the current events we are fed on our media & travel alerts stemming from mass immigration to Germany, France & Italy to name a few then the anxiety steps in & for me I’ll be on my own even though I had done most of my travelling on my own over these past 10years.

My flight out from Brisbane entailed a 14hrs 50mins 1st leg to Doha & that is stretching my flight endurance limit & with a 3.5hr layover left a 5hr flight to Rome, arriving at 7.25am on 2nd Oct. I had obtained an eSIM with Saily within 30days of my departure & they had an excellent plan & with a set VPN too which activated the moment I landed in Rome, albeit my flight mode on my phone kept interacting after landing which knocked me out of internet until I had it sorted, via WiFi later in the day.  As you can see, I managed to do 28blogs for my Europe tour so keep scrolling down on my website to get the full itinerary tour & massive volume of photos to view.

From my blogs you will notice I never took a bus in cities to do the sightseeing like a Hop on Hop Off bus as it never suited me & I was watching my AUD to Euros (2 for 1) comparison, noting my pensioner status. Overall, I managed to travel 47,474klms through 8 countries, by 9 plane trips & 7 train trips using my Polarsteps App (you can follow my trips through this free app too). I highly recommend Polarsteps for travelling where people can trace where you are in real time plus you can write up your blogs & whatever photos you wish & when the trip is over you can get a deal to review & change your entries into a high-quality bound tour book at a set rate. In this 44day tour I walked 609,651 steps which was compiled by my Samsung Health in my phone that equals 475.23klms so that’s a lot of walking. I endeavoured to undertake a city walking tour wherever I can but sometimes the timing doesn’t work out so it’s back to my research & city walking. Hope you like this summary & please refer to my blogs for even more information, facts & statistics.

Rome – Italy

Rome was beyond amazing & you could spend countless days there & still not see everything. I would return to Rome in a heartbeat. That is the major thing to overcome; to realise you can’t see everything. The next thing is to assign a good travel time. I fluked October, being into Autumn mode where it is far cooler at around 20°C, less people but still packed in certain sights whereas in Summer, June to August is really hot in Rome for the pavements are black basalt paving everywhere & the streets & lanes are slightly narrow with the added tourist numbers.  The Piazzas (plazas) offer open spaces but are packed with tourists, especially, The Pantheon & Trevi Fountain. Always best to see these in early morning or late afternoon including the Colosseum, Roman Forum & Palantine Hill due to potential crowd crush & high temps.

There is an underground train station adjacent to the Colosseum & that should be looked at, for it’s also an underground museum which I didn’t know at the time. Same for The Pantheon in having an underground museum. The original street level of Rome is some 7m below the current street levels.

The Vatican is always busy & don’t sit at a table for coffee along the streets getting there as you could be slugged the table fee of some €20 for the pleasure. Take notice of the local laws for some fines are hefty including any train trips to validate your ticket, etc & don’t get confused with economy or 1st class trains. I got stung with an economy ticket on a 1st class train & was conned by the platform lady guiding me to the 1st Class train. Felt like a planned tourist trap. This was the train from the airport to the CBD Termini Station. They have since installed a ticket verification system & with substantial fines so be very diligent.

I spent a full day (13hrs) undertaking a bus guide tour to Positano (Amalfi Coast) & Pompeii which was amazing & on Blog #4. Most of my activity & access tours were through Viator, City Wonders, Get Your Guide, & Crown Tours. To repeat, Rome I would go back in a heartbeat.

Nuremberg – Germany

I was staying for 6nights with a young friend, AJ (privacy) who I helped tour New Zealand back in 2017 when she was backpacking & her & her family were keen to spend time with me seeing I had looked after her so well. I flew into Munich, then caught a 1hr train to Nuremberg. AJ took me to Tegernsee (South of Munich, a perfect getaway resort area) via a quick tour of the Audi Production Factory prior. We spent half a day in Munich & more time in Nuremberg which is a city that is amazing & so much history. Later I spent a night at AJ’s parents’ home NW of Nuremberg in the wine region & it was fantastic to enjoy a loving family’s home & cooking (lots of it!!) & to see such great countryside & very cute villages. Thoroughly enjoyed this friend week & hope to see AJ again soon for she really looked after this old man.

Amsterdam – Netherlands

I was able to fly direct via Nuremberg airport which was a bonus & getting through a tiny airport for a change. Airport train from Schiphol Airport was a breeze to Centraal Station (correct spelling). This city takes a while to get your bearings seeing it is a canal city so be patient. Amsterdam has a very expensive City Tax to pay when you check in to your hotel. My 5night stay & value of hotel rate plus a coefficient in a formula calculates a €128 fee. OUCH!!

Amsterdam is a tram & bike city, so I booked a bike tour & while riding a bike is simple you have the added pressure of avoiding people, cyclists & above all, the dreaded tram lines. Trust me, I saved a woman from getting hit by a tram she didn’t hear or see & most likely saved her life. It was a good way of covering a good distance & to see sights relatively easily. You can hire bikes, but I chose the foot walking mode for flexibility & ultimately safety. This city of freedom is so relaxed & at times I was quite ‘happy’ returning to my hotel for I could not avoid the constant fumes of weed throughout the day where it is legal in public, taverns, etc. You can’t avoid it.

I was so blessed to have my dear friends; Ayla & Renske who could meet with me over 2 separate days. It was like yesterday to seeing them again. 2 lovely women I met back in my hometown when they were backpacking. They both have children now but of course they were all in school. Both these 2 days I never wished to end. Such a great time to see them again & both are so gorgeous & haven’t really changed at all. Amsterdam is so unique & well worth a visit in seeing a city built on top of a forest of trees (tree piles) with slanting houses & buildings. To see Ann Frank’s house, you must book well in advance & I challenge you to handle the maze of the Rembrandt Museum.

Paris – France

I caught a regional train from Centraal Station – Amsterdam to Gare du Nord (Northern station of Paris) 3.5hrs & not a bullet train. The train was good, but Gare du Nord is one of the worst & complicated stations in Europe & I really found that out. It is HUGE & has 5 Halls (Sections of platforms). You have to get a cab, bus or another suburban interstop train to get to the Eifel Tower & main city area. I eventually got a ticket (4 RER B Sud) for €6.30 to Saint -Michel- Notre Dame Station & then changed to Champ de Mars Station, being the closest to the Eifel Tower & my Mercure Hotel. The City Tax was far cheaper at €25.35.

I only wanted to see the Eifel Tower, The Louvre, Notre Dame, Champs Elysees & Arc de Triomphe. If you read my relevant blog on Paris, you will note I was at The Louvre the morning it was robbed so I missed out on that plus the associated Seine River cruise & with the thousands awaiting to see inside Notre Dame I missed that too, but I got my outside photos at least & a good blog & life story. I found Paris to be rather dirty & slightly unkept of appearance, lots of Somalian market vendors selling Eifel trinkets, etc & would only return to see those missed internal landmarks mentioned above, possibly an overnight stay. My blog of the Eifel Tower shows the incredible history & statistics for this wonder of construction.

Amiens – France

I took a dreaded taxi to Gare Du Nord for the early set train departure. I was totally ripped off by an extremely rude French driver. I left by stating we (Australia) saved you (France) twice in 2 world wars & this is the shit we receive. I should have dropped the fare into the gutter for him to pick up. I was thankful my train was in Hall 1 (Ground Floor upon entry).

Travelling to & staying at Amiens is firstly for the train runs through it, has more accommodation available & is a bigger city than the village of Villers-Bretonneux (closer to the war section I am preferring to see). For my accommodation I selected La Pléiade Dorée from my Booking.com provider at my Genius Level rate. Travelling to the war locations I wanted to see involves a bit of hardship + hiring a car is a bit risky for me & to firstly obtain one, so I booked the best war tour available through Tripadvisor for a full day. It wasn’t cheap but goes for 8hrs & includes a private vehicle with a guide.

My WW1 Tour is an extra special day thought about long ago. It is about a ‘promise’ I secretly made to myself to visit the war area surrounding Villers-Bretonneux & The General Sir John Monash War Memorial just out of town. The promise came about when I was trying to organise a trip in 2017 for the 2018 opening of the underground War Museum at The General Sir John Monash War Memorial with my youngest brother, Rod but I won’t go into why he couldn’t agree to go, but it wasn’t his decision not to. Not long after my first planning of this trip & discussing it with him Rod suddenly passed away (at only 54). Rod was an avid reader of books on WW1 & knew a lot more than I on the subject. After he passed away, I made that promise to myself to take him with me .. much like I’ve done on every trip since 2017.

Our greatest ever Australian, General Sir John Monash who landed on Day 1 at Gallipoli 25th April 1915 & through his efforts & strategies saved countless lives & later ensured the safest retreat from the bloodbath of Gallipoli & in 1918 took control of the whole alliance armed forces of countries (England, USA, Canada, NZ & other countries) in an orchestrated front to defeat the German army. He was the only one to ever achieve that chief honour of such a combined force. Only cruel politics & jealousy kept him from being rightly called Field Marshall, for he was born in Melbourne of German Jew parents & as he grew always called Australia his country despite his heritage. He designed & constructed several rail bridges & the electricity network & brought concrete to Australia. A very famous Australian & forever remembered.

I am forever grateful for having the full day with my guide, Bridgitt on a Tripadvisor 8hr tour – Australian Battlefields Tour. She totally looked after me & spoke wonderful English & had supreme knowledge of the war & more recent history of the region. Totally blessed. The tour was well worth the money plus I added a good tip of €s too for driving me all the way back to my apartment.

Barcelona – Spain

My timetable & the rail timetable had me forced to stay overnight in Paris, back at Garde du Nord & then onto a hotel (Tim Hotel) near my departure point of Garde de Lyon for an early 3.5hr bullet train to Barcelona.

Almost every day my breath has been taken away in seeing such amazing sights but to see the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia is beyond any senses & imagination. I was just in awe of its magnificence & to know just one genius Antoni Gaudi at 31yrs old of age designed & engineered this amazing structure before my eyes. Beyond words & comprehension. I bought a booklet in their museum to grasp the many details, etc in this basilica.

How can anyone design the engineering, physics & still get the construction right when it comes to geological construction. If this is not the paramount of human design/ construction on earth I don’t know what is (forget the pyramids, Great Wall of China, etc). I hope you can get a grasp of this basilica, inside & out. The stats are beyond comprehension; there will be 20 towers when completed & with the central tower (under construction will reach 172.5m high, named Tower of Jesus Christ) & the 2nd highest tower, St Mary’s Tower at 138.5m high. 12 of the towers will represent the 12 apostles. I was able to take the tower lift option located within St Mary’s Tower & that is high!!! For a great city viewing & you are welcomed to exit by taking the spiral stone staircase all the way down, to which I did gracefully & carefully. June 2026 this basilica will be completed, making it the tallest church in the world & an observation platform showing 360 for the public within the Tower of Jesus Cross, recently installed.

Gaudi was killed by a tram in 1926 after leaving the basilica where he spent most of his life on-site. His funeral was massive & is body buried next the main altar in The Crypt below the main floor. Through other architects, engineers & sculptors he commissioned & trained carried on his innovative project. The Tower of Jesus with its upper arm of the 56-ft-tall four-armed cross, installed in late March 2026, making it the tallest church in the world & providing a full 360° view of Barcelona city. The cross was built in Germany using white enameled ceramic tiles, stone interior and glass that were made in the Spanish region of Catalonia. It was then transported in parts back to Barcelona by ferry and trucks and finally assembled at the church with precision crane work.

The outside of the basilica is fully biblical, with statues, symbols, nature & about everything else whereas the internal of the basilica is dedicated to light & peace & the stone columns representing trees of life. The colours of life (blue, yellow & green, etc) occur through the glass windows every morning & then changes to red/ orange for the setting sun. Every night, since the Cross installation the basilica has an amazing light show.

Barcelona is a must-see city & there is a lot to see but the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia totally did it for me. Blogs 14 & 15.

Lisbon – Portugal

I had a short flight into Lisbon from Barcelona & took a city bus into the Restauradores (CBD of the historic area). Not a great deal to see in this city however taking a full day bus tour to Sintra, Pena, Regaleira, Cabo Roca Coast & Cascais plus the additional Full Pena Palace and Regaleira really made this stay worthwhile. I was really surprised of what this day uncovered & was well worth the expenditure. Blog #18

Dublin – Ireland

A 3hr flight from beautiful sunny & mild Autumn of Portugal to the usual Dublin windy, rainy 11°C was not fun. Best to get the Dublin Express bus that takes you into the city for 30mins trip at €10. I did a very average walking city tour the next morning for 2hrs, but I’m sure there must be better ones so do your research. The Guinness Brewery Tour for ($52AUD) was well worth the long afternoon tour. Once you find the entrance, the facility is a great experience venturing up to the 7th Floor Guinness Gravity Bar for your free Guinness pint & mingling with a hundred or so thirsty drinkers & a great view of the city of the weather is fine. The history & statistics will blow your mind. 4hrs of free roaming can be over in just ‘minutes’.

The next day was my Walking Pub Tour & I wished I had done this before the city walking tour. Kevin Adams was an amazing guide with so much knowledge & he also does food tours http://www.walkingfoodtours.ie. There are 798 pubs in Dublin alone. He told us The Brazen Head on Liffeyside Bridge St is Dublin’s oldest pub where it started beer moonshining in 1198 & now on the same site the pub was built in 1754. Smithwick’s (Irish Red Ale) is traced back to 1710 as the first official beer produced in Dublin by John Smithwick’s Brewery at St Francis Abbey (Kilkenny) adding on to the same beer produced by the then monks. Pls read my respective blog of this tour to learn some old sayings of drinking & how they came about. So funny & forever in my memory. Blogs 20 & 21.

Bristol – UK

Leaving Dublin was easy for me being close to the River Liffey where I walked over in the dark to the Custom House bus stop (800m) for the Dublin Express to Dublin T2 (€10, booked online for 4.05am) for 06.35am – 07.55 BA (British Airways) on Aer Lingus flight to Bristol Airport, UK (1.5hrs) to stay with my married friends my eldest son & I met doing the Machu Picchu 4day Trek in Peru in 2019. This is where my ETA came into play (new entry tax for Britain).

David picked me up at this small airport & for the next few days, saw lots of Bristol & Bath which were quite surprising & enjoyable & had lots of Roman buildings & infrastructure plus the famous Roman Baths. Sue really looked after me & David at times had soccer commitments. I finally got to inspect the last operational Concorde aircraft jet where my last opportunity was missed back in 1986. Despite staying with great friends my blogs had plenty of info & photos. Sue managed to get me to my train after a 4day stay for London too which was amazing & so thoughtful. Such treasured memories with great friends.

London – UK

The train trip was such a breeze from Bristol (1hr 40mins) to Paddington Station (a very busy station) & it was just a simple 15mins walk to my Thistle Hyde Park Kensington Hotel on Bayswater Rd aligned with Hyde Park. The walk had a mixture of shops, apartments, pubs & basically everything else of a busy suburb. A great location.

Hyde Park is a fantastic green space & HUGE!!!! Kensington is a great suburb & rather close to most of Westminster CBD landmarks & then onto London CBD. Quite a few blogs on this major world city & our birthplace of Australia. Lots of photos & of course I was aligned to not seeing everything. No use writing more as you need to read my blogs. London was brilliant but had to watch the British Pounds against my poor AUD. So much history & architecture.

Home – Australia

I took an iconic taxicab to Paddington Station. The driver was a pleasant surprise to experience a real taxi driver & cab. Without a hassle I caught the 4.30am direct train to Heathrow Airport T2/ T3 platform. At this terminal stop I must disembark but stay on this platform as per the platform announcement & digital signage for the next train in 5mins that took me to my required Terminal 4. So easy.

After my 5day stay in London I was back onto the long-haul flights back to Brisbane & then more travelling to my birthplace of Grafton, then to my new home of Yamba (40mins bus). All in all, my travelling time getting home was in total (allowing for layovers, hotel stay & waiting times) at 44hrs 20mins. 37hrs directly associated with travel & all of a sudden, it hit me … I had just completed Europe Stage 1 & saw so many things I thought were out of my reach in life. At some point I’ll be focussing on doing Europe Stage 2 asap. I quickly reviewed my Polarsteps App of all my Europe blogs & ordered 2 large volumes of my blogs & photos (high volume of writing & photos) & they arrived quickly & are such a blessing to review them to prove I did this tour.

I’ll finish this summary blog now, so please stay safe, happy & healthy & my usual quote I used to put at my endings follows.

Eckart Tolle – “If I am not the hero in my life .. who the hell could it be”? Ciao for now. Stay safe, happy & healthy.

My Europe Tour 2025 – Blog #16 – Barcelona B 25/10/25 

25/10/25 My free day to do whatever. First thing .. sleep in. Yay!!! Take time & eat large at the buffet brekky (included in my rate). I then headed off towards the marina (Southeast) where you see all types of old buildings, Naval HQ, Naval Museum & where you also come across some insane yachts that someone must own in this marina. The ‘ships’ here are enormous & beyond comprehension. Mostly have the Spanish flag mounted. Serious money here. The ship that caught my eye was ‘Breakthrough’ & is owned by Bill Gates of course & is the World’s first Hydrogen fuel-cell superyacht. It has 14 balconies & 7 platforms for 5 decks. You must look it up to fully see what this yacht has. Beyond belief. BREAKTHROUGH Yacht – 119m (390ft) Feadship 2025 | YachtBuyer Bill Gates has never set foot on this boat & I also wish to reaffirm my absolute disgust of this vile human in what he continues to do to this world by stealth.

Today, lots of photos again. I walked around the marina seaport & very new marina complexes but can’t afford the shopping there. Lol!! Walking over a pier at Rambla de Mar to the shopping centre I had to wait for a 40m part of the pier that glides away (photo above) to allow the marina vessels to pass through to the open sea. It takes about 10mins to slide out & the same sliding back. Very ingenious.

From there I walked towards the historical centre, Palau & El Gotic (Gothic Qtr) areas of high-end shops via Laietana & Portal de l’Angel streets where I came across a compilation of close landmarks like, the Historical Barcelona Museum, Barcelona Cathedral, Placa de Catalunya, Placa de Sant lu & Placa del Rei & Placa Reial near my Hotel Espana. A great area to see the old & new works & by chance I ended up eventually at Placa Catalunya with 2 very large fountains, green park space & the bus terminal for the Parada Aerobus Shuttle I’ll take tomorrow morning for my plane to Lisbon, Portugal. A1 Bus leaves here for my airport terminal. It is a 1klm walk for me to board this bus, so only 12mins away from my Hotel Espana.

I headed out later for some food & drink & then was back early to repack for flying (different than by my recent train trips). I did 17,503 steps today = 13.42klms. I’ll end my Blog #16 here. Many thanks for reading my blogs. My next blog will be my journey to Lisbon, Portugal. Please stay safe, happy & healthy. Cheers.

My Europe Tour 2025 – Blog #15 – Barcelona A 24/10/25

WOW!!! Lots of photos!!! From my last blog #14 24/10/25 12.30pm to finish off. With my online ticket from Get Your Guide I bought back in Aus, I am about to enter the beyond amazing Basilica de la Sagrada Familia where after going through the airport-type screening, I can walk through to the mezzanine (inside the security fence, but still outside the monument). I’m in awe of what I’m seeing but not sure what to do. Without noticing, a young guide was standing next to me (Thomas). He helped me download the Sagrada Familia app (Google Play) for all the media connection & narrations. Thank God he was there. Everything flowed after that. Now I’m not going to write everything that I experienced & came across. Firstly, I have no words that can describe the amazing structure before my eyes. Beyond words & comprehension. In total awe. Antoni Gaudi at 31yrs old was in my opinion beyond comprehension in his vision for his temple, later to be unified as a basilica of a gothic type of perfection. Look at the scale of this structure by comparing the people within & around it.

You must read the book I bought in their museum to grasp the many details, etc in this basilica. I’m awe struck at everything that my eyes scan to. How can anyone design the engineering, physics & still get the construction right. If this is not the paramount of human design/ construction on earth I don’t know what is (forget the pyramids, Great Wall of China, etc). I hope you can get a grasp of this basilica, inside & out. The stats are beyond comprehension; there will be 20 towers when completed & with the central tower (under construction will reach 172.5m high, named Tower of Jesus Christ) & the 2nd highest tower, St Mary’s Tower at 138.5m high completed now. 12 of the towers will represent the 12 apostles. I was able to take the tower lift option located within St Mary’s Tower & that is high .. for a great city viewing & you are welcomed to exit by taking the spiral stone staircase all the way down, to which I did gracefully & carefully but didn’t count the steps (above a hundred easily). I don’t believe my photos show you the real insights to this structure, but I hope you can get at least a gist of it. Feel free to immerse yourself into the details as a means of what my eyes are seeing. You will see one photo (bottom right) with a large cross on its highest tower. This is what it will be when this tower is completed.

This basilica has all the sculptures & religious items from the bible on the external faces of the structure & there is so much to see externally, whereas the internal areas are full of open spaces & light to resemble the peace & solitude of prayer. As you enter the internal areas, you are left standing in disbelief of the stone columns, stained glass windows, the roof where it is far too much for your eyes to fathom. The darkest columns (4 of them at 22.2m height x 2.1 diameter) are made of Porphyry stone (a hard purple-red volcanic stone, highly prized from Egypt & extremely strong in compressive forces) & these will carry the entire central tower (Tower of Jesus Christ) & form the centre piece of the structure. The darker grey columns are of Basalt (18.5m x 1.75m); the light grey columns are Granite (14.8m x 1.4m) & the lighter columns of Montjuic stone (11.1m x 1.05m) with the walls of Sandstone. The columns leading to the ceiling resemble the shape of trees with their branches spread out to support the roof structure, quite some 30+m high. How do you engineer & construct stone column trees? The 4 Porphyry columns support the transept vaulting (30+m high) which glows of rich gold with a central skylight & is the Throne of God. The Tower of Jesus Christ continues above it to its eventual height of 172.5m. Gaudi even designed the furniture & prayer benches (pews) & so many more internal items on display.

The centrepiece is the ‘altar-like’ stage, with the enormous pipe organ pipes standing high above it & everywhere is covered with natural light. When you walk behind this ‘altar’ there are low windows forming a curved wall. Looking through these windows you can see below, the real sacred church alter & pews (The Crypt) & the organist playing the organ. Near the altar is the tomb of Antoni Gauci who worked on this basilica from 31yrs old right up to his death in 1926, when he was hit by a tram (Born 1852 – 1926 = 74yrs old). Barcelona gave him a royal sendoff & dedicated his resting place in the Crypt. The centre bottom photo is the window looking down into the crypt & the pipe organ player. The top right photo shows you the small window looking into the crypt below. The top centre photo shows you the altar with the magnificent Jesus & cross sculpture suspended above with the pipe organ tubes behind the altar.

Walking through to the other side (Main entrance in the future) you can see even more external statues & biblical symbols of teachings plus the enormous bronze doors. Each door represents certain events of Jesus & one of the doors has different sized fonts of the Lord’s Prayer written in 49 other languages than the main language in Catalan. The detail on these doors is truly amazing. Gaudi tested a lot of bells to get the tones he wanted for the bell tower & eventually was able to secure a myriad of tubular bells to reach all the octaves of the keys of a piano.

To repeat, I don’t believe my photos show you the real insights to this structure, but I hope you can get at least a gist of it. I took far too many photos to upload as well. To do this monument in a real sense & with the tower viewing it took me 3hrs & I could have stayed longer. I also managed to do a prayer before the alter for a great Yamba lady, Edie who I found out today passed away in her 90s. She was an icon in Yamba & I loved seeing her every time. I’ll miss her. As stated earlier the 2nd highest tower, St Mary’s Tower at 138.5m high is fully completed now & I took the special lift up to the viewing platform within to take the photos of the surrounding Barcelona, noting this structure is the highest in Barcelona. Taking everything possible into my memory I literally spiraled down the volume of steps to the ground floor.

With some trepidation I left this magnificent basilica & in the hope I can retain all that I saw firmly in my memory. I kept looking back at this structure as I casually walked away. If you read my last Blog #14 you would see the sights, I came across going to & from this basilica & well worth mentioning. Of course, I did a lot more walking after & overall, I managed to do 26, 274 steps = 20.42klms. Finished off with a great pizza & a pint of beer. Finally in bed at 11.30pm after blog typing & a part of my sleeping problem being the basilica reminiscing in my mind like a video loop. The bottom photos show you the completion & the right one shows the status Oct 2025 construction as I walked away.

My Europe Tour 2025 – Blog #14 – Amiens–Paris – Barcelona 22/10/25

With plenty of time this morning I had the best & possibly the only sleep in I’ve had since Nuremburg. Really needed it & Amiens was so quiet, plus it was an apartment, like a home would be. I had to completely clean the apartment to remove any signs of my stay there (as I usually do … cleaners would love me) & return the key to the magical place of the stairs around the corner for the lock box. I was able to do a well-timed laundry wash too last night & everything was dry. Another win!!

Boarding the train at Amiens was a breeze due to being a regional station & then another hour later I was at my favourite Garde du Nord Train Station .. NOT!!! From my last experience in getting a domestic rail connection & the taxi mongrel the other day I decided to see more of Paris by walking the 4.2klms to my Tim Hotel for the overnight stay (40mins) which is quite close for my train trip tomorrow. Once I checked in & paid a smallish city tax (€15), I headed off to Garde de Lyon Train Station to test out my train connection for 7.40am departure to Barcelona (6.5hrs) tomorrow. This station is much more simplified & has only 3 Halls (all huge though). My Hall 1 has 23 platforms & I have confidence all will be well tomorrow. The station is only 250m away too.

23/10/25 Everything went to plan (proper planning) & caught my train on time at 7.41am but I didn’t sleep much at all last night. Travelling around 165 -300klm/hr in aircraft seats was comforting but alas, I am still travelling backwards which I’m beginning to think is a European thing to annoy tourists (joking). For the 6.5hrs of travelling there is plenty of farmland to see & I had that rare moment when I thought I had no-one sitting next to me. Bummer .. a guard came up with a man about 60 & he just plonked down, almost hitting me. Well .. the smell of him! A mixture of garlic, old eggs & body odour. Wow!! It was dreadful. Appeared to be Spanish, even his hands were dirty. He was on the train for some 3hrs or so until we stopped at Beziers when he got off. A lady took his seat & she was French, but I wished I had disinfected the seat for her. She never spoke to me either, so I’m on a roll of silence, I guess. We had 20 coaches on our train plus 2 food carriages & 4 engines. That works out about 390m & that is how long some platforms are in Paris & the like. Our carriages were also double deckers too.

There wasn’t much to see along the way with the tracks having high levee banks parallel to the tracks possibly to limit the noise pollution of the trains but every now & then an opening would appear. Southern France was quite fertile & full paddocks of ploughed topsoil & soon to be harvested crops but as you got closer to the Spanish border the whole thing changed & became worse the further south you go. The soil turned to sandy gravel & quartz & grass basically disappeared; it was more like semi-arid land & maybe in a period of drought by the looks of it. The train route consisted of the 1st stop being Lyon, then Montpellier, Nimes, Beziers, Narbonne, Perpignan, Figueres, Girona & finally Barcelona. This train terminates at Barcelona, so everyone is getting off & the platform is full of rushing masses.

Back to the arid lands of Spain, there was some farming done, but on a difficult scale. Lots of the farms needed considerable work done on them. Some I saw seemed they literally walked away from the land with deserted housing & barns. Of course, Spain went mad with their solar & stupid wind farms & they were scattered in clumps & with the high winds I believe that’s why 85% or so weren’t operating (wind speed limited). These windmills could be put up anywhere as there seems no sensitive environment to deal with; such is the arid land. Remember, Spain had a country wide blackout about 2yrs ago, but they had French nuclear energy to fall back on at some unknown cost (repayment). We in Australia are putting these shit things everywhere & the windfarms are being installed through pristine forests, koala habitats, logging forests & dinosaur period rainforests without any environmental impact legislation applied. My hometown area of Nrthn NSW just 3months ago was shut down for selective logging, yet these farms just plough through with utter destruction. Also, when we have a major blackout & it will come, we can’t call upon our neighbours for energy. We are all alone, an island. Complete shutdown. End of this rant … for now!!

Arriving in Barcelona was beyond ridiculous with gusty high wind forces. Despite this & remembering my disgusting taxi ride in Paris, I decided to see more of Barcelona by walking to my hotel, some 4.1klms away (40mins). I walked & by-passed broken limbs scattered all over the streets. They were everywhere & the wind was still around at 7.30pm when I came back into my Hotel Espana Ramblas after checking in. Wind gusts seemed to be around the 80klm mark. Of course, Google Maps played up & sent me about 4mins out of my way but eventually I arrived at my hotel after seeing quite a few sights & landmarks along the way, such as, the Colosseum-like Arenas de Barcelona shopping Centre which looked more like something else in its stature. The Placa d’Espanya statue within a busy roundabout. World Trade Centre building adjacent to the marina. The monument a Colom dedicated to Columbus, again in the centre of a roundabout along the marina. Finally arrived at my quite swanky Hotel Espana tucked away in a very narrow street lane (being renovated over on the left side) & even has a doorman to open the door. The room is rather swish to say the least. A shower you can dance in. King sized bed. Once settled, I started out walking around a bit more to get my bearings & seeing lively eating areas & community buzz at the Plaza Real de Cataluna Espana & the overcrowded fish, meat, poultry & fruit/veg markets. With the daylight fully ended I completed 15,374 steps = 11.98klms for the day. Tomorrow, I have a tut-tut city tour set for tomorrow morning 9am sharp & The Basilica de la Sagrada Familia tour set for 1pm.

24/10/25  WOW, WOW, WOW!!!Of what I have seen today but first I must divulge what started out on the day. Best sleep ever in such a great bed. Showered & off to a great breakfast in the hotel buffet. I was certainly looked after, treated like royalty, really. As soon as brekky was over, I started out to my meeting point, some 2.5klms walking away for the Tut-Tut City Tour (3hrs) to map the main points out on this wonderful city. Of course, I’m never late & was some 20mins early & I had the correct address & confirmed my arrival on Google Maps. Not a sign of a tut-tut, nor a representative. as time went on, I sent text msgs, emails before & after the 9am deadline but yet, not a response. I waited till 9.25am, yet not a response. I also sent an email at 5.57pm & still no response. Eventually I received an email from Get Your Guide operator on 26/10/25 stating they have received my request for a refund due to no tour provided. I received 2 more emails the next day requesting my tour feedback, so I couldn’t let that slide by. Finally, the 30/10/25 (I have since left Lisbon for Dublin) I received their email confirming my refund is being processed to my account. Such a slow response.

With much frustration of no Tut-Tut Tour I left the meeting point at 9.25am & headed towards my next tour, The Basilica de la Sagrada Familia some 15mins walk away & with that I saw a lot of landmarks & fine buildings. Castle of the Three Dragons (castle built for 1888 Exhibition World Fair, now cafe & museum), Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia, Arc de Triomf as the entrance gate to The World Fair in 1888. Sant Pau Recinte Modernista Hospital (1902-30), which is a hidden gem of spectacular, not far from Basilica de la Sagrada Familia. Viewing from the front entrance is amazing. The clocktower is 62m high. I didn’t get to see inside but people are stating it is of disbelief the imagery of architecture & finishes inside. It is now a knowledge centre for various educations of health, etc. Only a kilometre away from the Basilica is La Monumental is another Colosseum type – 1914 art noveau bullring building now used for concerts, etc with a bullring museum. You can go inside & even stand on the sand ring. Due South of Sagrada Familia is the Cathedral of Barcelona, another great architectural Gothic church (13 [1298] -15 centuries) built on previous churches foundations. The dome was completed in 1913. This cathedral has so much history & was operating well before the 13th century in previous buildings.

Of course I’m far too early, so I did a bit of crowd watching in-between looking at this marvelous structure disbelieving what I am seeing. After a while I circumnavigated this amazing place by a few city blocks to get more views of Barcelona living. Found the best coffee place I’ve had since Nuremburg & the staff were thrilled with my response. With more walking & getting nearer to my strict 1pm entry time I checked all correspondence with this tour. Lots of restrictions (like an airport & dress regs). I soon discovered my entry point is on the other side of this construction monument (rear of the structure) & headed off to be early again. I helped a foreign lady who was confused to find Entry Door C which is my access entry too. I was standing, people watching again & I looked over towards Entry C where she was waving & stating to ask the guard to come in earlier than my time allowed. That worked a treat with the guard & now I’m entering at 12.30pm, bonus. I wasn’t able to catch-up with her again to say thanks. The below photo is a teaser for my next blog on Basilica de la Sagrada Familia, this amazing structure of disbelief.

I’ll end my Blog #14 here for I have more to write about this magnificent basilica & far more photos of this brilliance & a little more of Barcelona. Many thanks for reading my blogs. Please stay safe, happy & healthy. Cheers.