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”
On our second full day in Porto, Portugal we would see even more of the beautiful blue and white tiles of Portugal, but first we needed to do something more mundane, laundry. One of the issues of a long travel journey is figuring out how to do laundry. Since we were traveling for three weeks, washing our clothes from time to time was important. In Brussels the hotel had laundry on site, even on our floor so we did laundry…
Continue Reading “The Blue & White Tiles and Red Roofs of Porto, Portugal”
Our first full morning dawned in the Portuguese city of Porto. Port is north of Lisbon at the mouth of the Douro River. It is the ancestral home of my wife whose roots go back to Porto on her father’s side. It is an old city and also hilly. Over the next few days we would be doing a lot of walking up and down those hills. Porto also has many churches. Sometimes it seems that the churches are right…
Continue Reading “Wandering the Hills and Riverfront of Porto on Good Friday”
With only a few days in Paris and a wedding taking up a lot of time, we certainly couldn’t see everything Paris has to offer. However, besides the Eiffel Tower, the one other must see location is the Louvre. We headed there Wednesday morning. The Louvre is one of those places one could spend hours, even days going through. Filled with a variety of art from different eras, locations, and styles, it is an art lover’s dream location. We didn’t…
Continue Reading “From Paris’s Louvre to the Streets of Porto, Portugal”
We went to Europe to celebrate the wedding ceremony of my son Aaron and his fiance Michelle in Paris. Destination weddings have become quite popular these days so let me take some time to explain a little about how having a wedding in Paris worked. I didn’t have much to do in terms of planning the wedding. However, I heard about it so I can provide some insight. First of all a couple cannot get legally married in Paris unless…
