Month: April 2017

April 14, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 100 of 111. Toledo, Spain From Madrid it is about a 45 minute drive to Toledo. This is an Medieval town originally surrounded by a large wall for defense. Even from a distance, we can see two iconic buildings, the Alcazar and the Cathedral. We had to leave our bus outside the city walls…

April 14, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 99 of 111. Madrid, Spain One of the biggest attractions of this overland trip was the chance to spend some time in the Prada Museum. Unfortunatly, absolutely no photographs were allowed inside the museum. Ron had a list in his head of the masterpieces he was hoping to see and I think we saw…

April 14, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 99 of 111. Madrid, Spain The ship was docked in Barcelona when we took off on a train to Madrid. We will meet the ship when it gets to Cadiz. We only have a few more ports and then a seven-day sea voyage to get back to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA. It has been…

April 13, 2017 Paul Groves

While the ship is docked in Barcelona, we boarded a train for an overland trip to Madrid. This was a high-speed train that got up to a speed of 187 mph (301 km/h). When we found our Madrid tour guide and boarded the bus, we drove to a beautiful public park that used to be…

April 13, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 98 of 111, Barcelona, Spain Besides the churches he worked on, Gaudi was commissioned by several wealthy families to design houses for them. These two houses are located on the Barcelonian version of Rodeo Drive. We passed Gucci and Cartier’s as we walked from the La Pedrera to Casa Batllo. Casa Batllo has an…

April 13, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 98 of 111. Barcelona, Spain We are in Barcelona, Spain. The excursion today focused on the works of Antonio Gaudi, a Spanish Catalan architect best known as a practitioner of Catalan Modernism. We toured his best known work, a huge church called the “Sagrada Familia”. It looks like a cathedral but is officially designated…

April 12, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 97 of 111. Palma de Mallorca, Spain We visited the Puerto de Mallorca Bullring. The architecture was interesting as well as the embellishments around doorways, etc. Apparently, there are still bullfights a couple of times a year, but the whole topic is controversial. Our guide went to see bullfights as a child with her…

April 9, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 95 of 111. Valletta, Malta Malta is a group of three islands in the Mediterranean below Sicily. It has been an independent nation since 1964, but was an important military base by the British during WWII earning it the George Cross that is part of the Maltese flag. The island itself dates back to…

April 8, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 93 of 111. Delos, Greece Delos was the mythical birthplace of Apollo — god of light and music — and his twin sister Artemis. These were the children of Zeus and Leto. The sacred island is uninhabited, but its earliest settlements date to the 3rd millennium BC. The entire island is an archeological site…

April 8, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 93 of 111. Mykonos, Greece The town of Mykonos is delightful. It is nearly Easter, so the houses and shops are being whitewashed and everything is bright. The colorful accents really stand out against the white, such as the blue dome on the church and the red doors on one of the restaurants. The…