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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Day 92 of 111. Iraklion, Greece We visited two sites today in Crete, the Palace of Knossos and the Heraklion Archeological Museum. These are closely related because on the palace site, the frescos and most of the artifacts have been removed to the museum. This site has ruins that date back to the Minoan Civilization,…

Day 91 of 111. The Castle of Palamidi, Greece On a tall hill above the city of Nafplion a castle or fortress was built. This is a very well preserved fortress from the Venetian occupation. The castle dates back to the 18th Century A.D. There are three different fortifications in the city of Nafplion, one…

Day 91 of 111. Epidaurus, Greece This is a city with an ancient amphitheater whose importance was based on the god, Asklepios, son of Apollo who had the power to heal. People would come to his temple, have a good bath, a good meal, relax with entertainment in the theater (smaller back then) and then…

Day 91 of 111. Nafplion, Greece This port has a shallow bay, so the ship had to anchor offshore and we traveled to the shore via “tenders,” the lifeboats on the ship. The sea was very calm, so the ride was very pleasant. From the top of the hill above the city, we could see…