We only had two days to explore Spain's largest city, so we had to pack a lot in. Luckily it wasn't quite as hot, so we were able to use most of the day. We went to the royal palace on the first day, which was built and designed by spanish monarchs over the years. It was very luxurious, and much different from the other palaces we visited in spain because it was entirely european. Some of the highlights were the porcelain room, which had walls lined completely with porcelain, and the Stradivarius violin collection. We also went to the cathedral, which is right next door. It was weird because it was very modern. It was built in the 19th and 20th centuries. Then we went to the museum of the Americas, which was a collection of artifacts brought back from America during the Spanish conquest. They also added more recent objects from the native tribes, but the coolest things were the gold statues from the Incas and Aztecs. The picture below is us outside the royal palace.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Last days in Spain
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
If you want to see more pictures
Sevilla: Tapas, Bullfights, and Flamenco
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Ali-hambra
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Valencia: Our Last Stop on the Mediterranean
We loved just wandering around the old city and looking at all the buildings. The city has lots of blue tiled domes and polished copper domes as well. We climbed the bell tower for only 2 euros and saw it all! On our second day we went to the free fine arts museum that was very pleasant. We then walked to a modern art museum that was only 1 euro because the lady just assumed we were students. We both enjoyed the modern art museum more than the fine arts museum because it had so much weird but cool stuff. At night we went to a restaurant called the Ginger Loft and had possibly our most favorite food of the trip. It was a very swanky place, had excellent spanish and asian food, and wasn't all that expensive! I got the Chinese beef and Trillion got the chicken quesidillas, which were served with a really good aioli. Here is another look at the cathedral with its many blue domes.
After 8 hours at the 2 museums, we walked back through the park that is in the river bed where they were having three different music concerts and cultural celebrations, as well as a fair. We walked to get our bags and then went to the train station, and eventually we got our 12:45 overnight to Granada. This last picture is for Chris, I hope you're reading. Also, Trillion wrote a lot of this so I want to make sure she gets her credit.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Barcelona!
Friday, July 15, 2011
The top 10 things I miss about the US
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Levanto, Florence, and a bunch of beautiful beach towns
Friday, July 8, 2011
leaving levanto
Its the last night in levanto...
we plan to eat at a place we all like...again...the triangle place.
late at night sometimes just before we go to be we watch some italian tv. the game show on channel five...
it has made a real impression on us...trying to figure out the rules....and the length of the show..3 hours! it is all just really DIFFERENT.
they always seem to mix in random scanty clad girls and then weird humor at totally random times.
overall just bizarre tv.
as usual...more later
jim
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Under the Tuscan Sun
The highlight of the week was definitely the town of Siena. It is the biggest hill town in Tuscany, and and by far the most exciting. The primary reason for that was we went there during the start of the palio horse race. It is a race between the town's contradas (neighborhoods) and it is a big big big deal for the sienese people. The race is three laps around the town square, the piazza del Campo, with riders riding bareback. The first horse to cross the finish line wins for its contrada, whether there is a jockey on it or not. You might think that is farfetched, but second place this year was just that, horse sans rider. Here is a picture of the huge town square with the cathedral in the background.
I was getting to the point where I thought the pharmacist must have been exaggerating, when all of the sudden, during the parade out of the goose contrada, the horse was leaving without the parade of people behind it. I knew something weird was happening, and just a second later the fists were flying. There was a huge fight of about 50 people from two rival contradas, and from our perspective (which was pretty far away) it looked like everyone was just waving their fists in the air. It was absolutely crazy, and definitely something you don't see everyday.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
levanto its hot!
Well we are here in levanto now....i will just skip capri and sorranto since barrett covered them well i am sure.
lynda and i drove to porta fina a super upscale hill town next to the ocean. it was filled with the rich and beautiful...much like a mini capri.
we enjoyed the drive there...we took the back roads on purpose.
yesterday we took the train to a couple of nearby towns here in the cinque terra and all jumped off rocks into the blue water....at least most places it was blue......
we are going out to eat as a group most nights and find the food good...but expensive.
7 has been the most daring ordering things with fish and other things from the ocean in it.
we all eat a lot of pizza!
this town hops until 2am, and our apartment is right over the town park. even young kids are out riding their bikes and kicking balls etc until 2 or even 3am .....there is a sign which says no bikes balls running on the grass etc which is ignored by EVERYONE.....its italy...
well off to the beach ...kids are already there.
jim