HEAVEN ON EARTH

While planning my vacation to Barcelona, Spain, a friend recommended that I take a day trip to Montserrat, which is a mountain range about an hour drive from Barcelona. On top of the mountain is a Benedictine Abbey and a basilica (Santa Maria de Montserrat), which was founded in the 10th century and continue to operate to this day with less than a hundred monks. The place has become a major tourist attraction as well as a pilgimage site for young Barcelonians who hike overnight to watch the sunrise from the heights of Montserrat. On the day of my visit, it started raining in Barcelona and our tour guide warned us that it may get foggy in the mountains so visibility may not be good. I was feeling disappointed during the drive as I was looking forward to photographing the rock formations around the monastery and throughout the range. When we arrived at the abbey there was fog all over the place, however, I was still able to partially see the rock formations and realized that the fog made the whole place look like we were in heaven…it was a breathtakingly beautiful sight. As the day went by, the fog started lifting exposing more gorgeous rock formations driving me wild with my iPhone’s camera. My biggest regret that day was leaving behind my DSLR in the hotel and using my iPhone instead. Photos would have been more gorgeous had I used my DSLR. Anyway, here are a few photos I took during my trip to Montserrat, which in literal translation means “saw mountain” as it looks like a handsaw from a distance.

SPRING AWAKENING

I was in New York City this week to accompany my parents for their first visit to the Big Apple. They are currently in the United States for vacation so I thought it would be great to take them to NYC while they’re still strong enough to handle all the walking. A trip to New York isn’t complete without visiting Central Park so we braved the cold and headed for this famous destination. Most of the trees were still bare while the grass were mostly yellow, although, signs of green were slowly sprouting all over the park. I’ve always visited Central Park during the summer so this visit kinda provided me a different look of the park. The bare branches allowed more sunlight to reach the ground creating a brighter look and exposing more details.  The photograph above was taken by my iPhone 7 Plus using the Pano mode.

%d bloggers like this: