Because We Can

The day began with another guided walk through parts of Madrid. One of our stops was the old market where they sold meats, fish, fruits, vegetables and assorted other things. I haven’t a clue as to why Linda took this photo, but I’ve used so few of her photos that this one just begs inclusion. On a good day I take about 300 photos while she takes 30. I’ll let you decide if fewer photos means a higher quality of subject material . I take back everything thing I said. See how she has captured the very essence of what makes man the superior of the human species. The fabulous form of this grouping, showing strength yet sensitivity, an inclusion of intensity that underscores their greatness. What a photo , one that proves Linda is a truly wonderful photographer.  Now the other side of the story. This is inside a convent where the nuns make what are arguably the best sweet treats in all of Madrid. The reason for the looks is because our wives are in the other room where the trea...

It was back to Madrid today, where the morning was taken up with a guided sight seeing walk. Lots of history in Madrid, not all of it good. Seems like it mattered what your station in life was, and whose side you were on as to whether the good old days were good or not. What’s that saying, those who yearn for the good old days and want to turn the clock back are likely to die the same horrible death they did the first time around back then. That doesn’t have anything to do with the photo, but it has been a couple of days since I went off on a tangent, and the Catholic Church did so many horrible things in Spain that I won’t even mention the Church today. Back to lunch: cod tapas, fried pieces of cod and cod coquettes. A wonderful white wine for Linda and a vermouth for me, both from the barrel. We are definitely eating too good. And paying virtually nothing for it. It is unreal how inexpensive good food is in Spain. In the afternoon we visited even more churches. They seem to be...

AVE is the name for the fast trains in Spain. We had taken one into Barcelona, but the REALLY fast AVE in Spain is the one from Barcelona to Madrid.   The entire trip wasn’t at 300 kph, but it was easy to tell when it got up to that speed. I don’t know for sure what that is in mph, but the way everything was flying past out the window, it was mighty fast. We didn't stay in Madrid when we got off the train, rather we had our first trip on our tour bus, heading off to Segovia. It is always amazing when looking at what the Romans did, and in Segovia what they did was still standing in remarkable condition. I can remember reading about Roman aqueducts in those history classes many years ago. Now we were seeing one and it was far more impressive than I had imagined. Next it was off to the castle, and on the way we came across this. Some people get all bent out of shape worrying whether they look like a tourist or not. We never did learn exactly why the Romans left Segovia, bu...

We’re outside, it’s a map, it’s a city guide, but best of all, it’s not raining today. They seem to have many rules about who can give guided tours in cities in Spain, so for our tour of the Gothic Quarter, we got our first dose of English with a strong Spanish accent. At first it was hard to follow what the guide is saying, but as the minutes go by, it got easier to understand at least most of it. Since everyone except one couple had been on Rick Steves tours before, it wasn’t one of those tours where everyone is tightly clumped to together, and the longer the walk went on, the more pronounced the straggling became. Nygil was like one of those sheep dogs, always keeping a watchful eye and getting the worst of the stragglers back towards the main body. And then there are interesting things that have everyone paying very close attention. In this case it’s not the building, it’s what is on the building. That’s not a child’s drawing, it’s the only building that has a Picasso on i...

  Today we were traveling to Barcelona to begin our two week Rick Steves Spain and Morocco Tour. They say it is 16 days, but since it doesn’t begin until 5 PM the first day and ends immediately after breakfast on the 16th day, it is really a two week tour. Enough of that, what is interesting was our train trip.   For one thing, we were taking three different trains. For another it was raining cats and dogs all day long, with the occasional lions and tigers thrown in for good measure. We had about a half an hour for our two connections, but when our first train was 20 minutes late, it sure didn’t start off so good.     With the lousy weather there sure wasn’t much to see out the window. Then we ran into some luck, our next connecting train was also delayed 20 minutes, so we had no trouble with that connection. That was at Narbonne, France, and there it was actually raining hippos and elephants, plus the wind was blowing the rain nearly horizontally at times. Th...

    There are churches and then there are churches. This is the one in Albi France. The one built after the Roman Catholic Church massacred and slaughtered thousands of Cathars because they didn’t believe as the Pope wanted then to believe. To show the power and might of the one true Church, this church, that was more fortress than church, was built. Actually it was to make sure the Cathars toed the Papal line, as much as it was to worship in, though there weren’t a whole lot of Cathars left after the Pope’s butchers were done. Sorry, but history is history, unless it gets rewritten by the victor, as is often the case. Then years or centuries later the real facts come out.   I always love how Catholic Churches display Adam and Eve. The Bible says they were naked but you never see them that way in these churches. Makes one wonder what all else they cover up with their so called faith.   No cover up here, just the plain good food. When Linda eats raw salmon i...

  As is often the case, it is not what you look for, but what you find that is the most interesting. Earlier we had found the old bridge we were looking for, and it was most interesting, but then we walked through what might might be termed a part of town where tourist don’t often go, climbed a set of stairs and found another bridge.   It turned out this bridge led to the university, and we had a great time walking around the “campus'’. Then we stumbled on this church. Well that might not be exactly true. I saw the back of this church and circled it until we found the entrance. It turned out to be very interesting, and included the usual huge pipe organ. I can’t imagine why every organist in the US wouldn’t want to take a tour that visited many of the great churches of Europe to hear the organ being played. Every one we have ever heard has been so spectacular, and we just stumble on them being played.   This one gave us a real laugh. She was dressed on top like th...

  Off to see some of the sights of Toulouse, we followed along an old friend. The Canal du Midi may not be navigable through Toulouse, but it runs right in in front of of our hotel. The only boat on this section was a permanently moored restaurant, but that still brought back many pleasant memories of canal boat trip of a few years ago.   I have a fondness for stained glass windows, and they are certainly easy to find. Just walk into one of the many churches and look up.   I have to hand it to Linda, she has her own things she is fond of, such as this mounted Koala Bear in the Natural History Museum. Will not bore you with the dozens of other photos she took, but I will say that this museum puts most of the ones we have seen in the States to shame. Plus most of the exhibits were in both French and English. Why is this woman smiling? Because after a walk in the rain (we did have our umbrellas) we literally stumbled upon a little restaurant that had baked chicken...