In June my brother contacted me and asked me if I wanted to go on a nine mile hike with him to Lake Ingalls. That seemed a very long hike for me, but I know I can easily walk five miles on the trails around here so I thought I would probably be able to manage a nine mile hike although I knew it would be a challenge. My brother David is almost exactly a year older than I am.…
Continue Reading “Surviving a Challenging Hike to Lake Ingalls”
This post is a few weeks late, but I didn’t want to interrupt my series on our European trip. Now, however, I want to look back at these last four years of blogging. The actual day of my first post of Battered Suitcase was July 29, 2019. My first article was “Why Travel?” which has served as a bit of a guide to my posts over the years. My goal has been to help travelers have information on a variety…
Continue Reading “Celebrating Four Years of My Blog, Battered Suitcase”
Monday was my 72nd birthday. It was also a travel day as we were to take a train to Madrid where we would leave Spain to fly home. However, our train didn’t leave until nearly 3:00 so there was still time in the morning to do a little more exploring of Granada. We headed out towards downtown again. We were headed to the University which we had been near the day before, but it had been closed. I thought we…
Continue Reading “Our European Journey Comes to an End in Spain”
Sunday in Granada was another picture perfect day with blue skies and warm temperatures. After our early start to the day yesterday, we decided we were not going to push ourselves today. I woke up late and had a leisurely breakfast before we headed out to see what else Granada has to offer. We headed into the downtown core. We knew there was a large cathedral there so we thought we would start there. Since it was Sunday, I wasn’t…
Continue Reading “Discovering Granada, Spain Outside of the Alhambra”
Today was Alhambra day. I read that it was best to go early to avoid the crowds. Since it was also a Saturday, I figured that was even more true. There is one part of the Alhambra that has a timed entrance. All the rest you can enter as you please. I read that one couldn’t be late for the timed entrance so we got up and left shortly after 8:00 for our 9:00 entrance time. We grabbed some breakfast…
Continue Reading “Alhambra: The Ultimate Moorish Architecture”
The southern part of Spain is known as Andalusia. In many ways it is primarily an agricultural region. Historically what made it significant was that for many years it was under the rule of the Moors. The Moors were Muslims mostly from North Africa. They brought their own distinctive architecture into the region, the Moorish style. When Christians took over the region again, they changed some of the buildings such as turning mosques into churches. However, many buildings still remain…
Continue Reading “Looking for Moorish Architecture in the Alcazar and the Alhambra”
During our one full day in Seville we walked ten miles according to my wife Silvette’s phone tracker. Seville is one of the most fascinating cities I have been to in terms of architecture and places to visit. My almost 420 photos taken on this day would confirm that. I saw a sign there that said Seville is underrated as a tourist destination. I think that’s true. More people need to be aware of its intriguing and unique places. Our…
Continue Reading “Walking through Seville’s Beautiful Architectural Treasures”
Wednesday morning arrived, and we prepared to leave Faro for Seville, Spain, home of flamenco dancing. One street over from our hotel was a bus stop for Seville. However, there was no easy way to get there so we ended up dragging our suitcases around on the cobblestone sidewalks again. Fortunately we had checked out the location earlier as the bus stop doesn’t even have a sign there. The people standing around with suitcases were a big clue that we…
Continue Reading “Encountering the Flamenco Culture in Seville, Spain”
When we started talking about taking this European trip, my plan was to go east from Porto to the town of Salamanca, Spain. However, when it came time to schedule our trip, I realized that would be tricky. Instead I discovered that from Porto we could take a train all the way south through Portugal to the town of Faro. Faro was not a town on my radar. In fact I’m not sure I had ever heard of it before.…
Continue Reading “Traveling South to Explore Unique Faro, Portugal”
Easter Sunday dawned with a slight haze over the city of Porto. While we had plans to see more of Porto including a trip on the Douro River, first we would attend an Easter service. We had decided that instead of going to one of the many older churches down in the historic district of Porto, we would instead attend the service at the local church. It was a few blocks away from our hotel. We arrived a few minutes…
Continue Reading “Cruising the Douro on Easter Sunday in Porto, Portugal”
