• waiting in Madrid

    Many people were surprised when I told them during my trip to Mallorca this February that I had never been to Spain before. Spain has always been a popular holiday destination for Irish people. But, there were no foreign holidays while I was growing up, apart from the rare trip to America. My family always looked West, not East. I’ve slowly been seeing more of Europe, but I never did the inter-railing thing during the summer off from college or the sojourn in France or Italy. It was always a race to the first flight to New York once exams were over so I could work in the city for…

  • Gothic sacraments

    This is an image from my visit to the Cathedral de Mallorca in Palma city in February. Technically, I was being rather naughty taking this image, but I couldn’t help it when it came to this startling section of the Cathedral, which is the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament. I have a thing for massive, elaborate Gothic churches. It goes back to my time studying art in school. We had a section called History of Art, which I loved, and that’s where I learned about Gothic architecture. The Cathedral in Palma has to be one of the most outstanding examples of Gothic cathedrals I’ve ever been in. In Spain the…