Gorgeous Venice. Gorgeous Doors

This past trip to Venice was my favorite. I feel like we had enough time (over the two-night stay) to explore, walk, and enjoy. Venice is such a special city and I really, really love the details that are plentiful if you just look around.

Is this place for sale?? I love it!

We were waiting for the boat taxi to pick us up and go to Murano Island when this happened:

Not a door... but still gorgeous:

Venice -- those buildings though

My first time to Italy was during the summer of 2004. This was when I learned how much I enjoy architecture and design. Venice's architecture throughout the city is absolutely stunning. Even the buildings that look simple at first, seem to have something special about it if you look closely. I love shapes and details around windows... the colors... the arches... everything. One building is as gorgeous as the next.

The Doges Palace (Palazzo Ducale):

BRUGES, BELGIUM

I really enjoyed our day-trip to Bruges from Brussels. The train was a couple hours and super easy.

Bruges is very walk-able and such a cute, quaint city.

Below are some photos from walking through the city... I liked the buildings' colors and architecture a lot!

Momers!

We also walked into this gorgeous church:

Madrid's city buildings

Madrid's city buildings are gorgeous. I really enjoyed the architecture of this city.

Look at those entrances!!

The next three photos were all taken on Gran Via - the main road of the city... and where my hotel was located!

Well, I've never seen THREE palaces within on plaza... but this is the case in Plaza de Cibeles in Madrid. Amazing. The palace shown in the photo below is the most impressive of the three (in my opinion)... and, funny enough, this building apparently started out as the postal service's headquarters! This palace is Cybele Palace but used to be known as The Palace of Communications (Comunicaciones) until 2011.

A view back towards Gran Via (as I am heading to Retiro Park)... and Linares Palace can be seen on the left (...this plaza's second palace of three... crazy).

Casa Batllo - GAUDI - Barcelona, Spain

Another Gaudi piece nearby is the Casa Batllo. I love this house! The roof is multi-colored scales. The front of the house is decorated too... pieces of mosaic tiles create a beautiful design. Read more about this structure on the Casa Batllo Wikipedia article...

Barcelona's stylin'

I really enjoyed walking through the city of Barcelona and looking at the beautiful buildings. The architecture spanned multiple centuries and it is all mixed into one city. Gorgeous. Below are some of my favorites.