I meant to post some images sooner of the trip me missus and me took last November and December to Spain, France and briefly, Italy…

I posted in Jan last…

We spent 6 weeks sampling a little bit of Europe. Here is a sketchy outline…

Flew to Madrid: stayed in the old quarter… watched the nightlife fire up latish.. after about 9 pm
Cordoba: The Great Mosque, a dressage display. Lots of orange trees
Valencia: Church of St. Nicholas. Also orange trees but not called Valencia
Granada: the Alhambra… Detour to Nerja: Caves inhabited by early humans… 25,000 BCE
Barcelona: Familia Sagrada, Science Museum
Train to Toulouse: caught up with daughter and family. Rode the longest aerial tramway in France.
Bordeau: Bordeau (wine), architecture, light show in submarine base
Amboise and Blois in the Loire valley: Chateaux (3 of, amazing)
Clermont-Ferrand: Dormant volcanoes, home of Michelin tyres
Annecy: lake, waterways
Under Mont Blanc to Italy… Lake Como
Turin: Egyptian Museum
Down to the Mediterranean and back into France… Vence: Xmas with daughter and fam in 500 y o house
Nice: quick look at the “beach” and the old quarter… thence home

(Mostly my images with some from the web)

Madrid

Temple of Debod an ancient Nubian temple.. moved to Madrid with the construction of the Aswan dam

Cordoba

In an around the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba

Above… Islamic section abuts the Christian one

Roman bridge is opposite this ancient wooden Arab waterwheel

.
Stumbled on this night time dressage plus flamenco show

Granada

Olives, olives.. everywhere olives

The Alhambra is a palace and fortress complex located in Granada, Andalusia, Spain. It is one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and one of the best-preserved palaces of the historic Islamic world, in addition to containing notable examples of Spanish Renaissance architecture…

The road to Nerja

Nerja

Caves inhabited by early humans from about 25,000 BCE

Did you make it to the Prado?

Witty Rejoinder said:

Did you make it to the Prado?

no

The list of things we didn’t see is verrrrry long.

So many museums, art galleries and more fkn RC cathedrals.

Ian said:

Cordoba

In an around the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba

Above… Islamic section abuts the Christian one

Roman bridge is opposite this ancient wooden Arab waterwheel

.
Stumbled on this night time dressage plus flamenco show

love the prancing pony.

sarahs mum said:

Ian said:

Cordoba

In an around the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba

Above… Islamic section abuts the Christian one

Roman bridge is opposite this ancient wooden Arab waterwheel

.
Stumbled on this night time dressage plus flamenco show

love the prancing pony.

:)

Imagine riding a horse performing the capriole :)

The rider and assistant had to have a few tries to get it right.

Ian said:

sarahs mum said:

Ian said:

Cordoba

In an around the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba

Above… Islamic section abuts the Christian one

Roman bridge is opposite this ancient wooden Arab waterwheel

.
Stumbled on this night time dressage plus flamenco show

love the prancing pony.

:)

Imagine riding a horse performing the capriole :)

The rider and assistant had to have a few tries to get it right.

i can imagine that easily. it happened to me one day while i was trying to push the horse through bracken. I don’t know what i did but i did it. (ex riding school horse)

Good

Some lovely snaps there, ta.

Bubblecar said:

Some lovely snaps there, ta.

Indeed. Some awesome architecture and art to photograph certainly helps.

At first I thought what killed the orange trees, then it hit me. They are persimmons.

duh you’ve got one of those in your own garden. I said to myself.

Valencia

The Church of St. Nicholas and Peter, also known as the ‘Sistine Chapel of Valencia’

That be him

Science museum

Barcelona

The Sagrada Família

Worth going halfway around the world to see imo

I don’t know why these were facing the glass-fronted door of the toilet in the hotel hmmm

Those churches do make you wonder how they decided: “I think that’s just about enough decoration now, Carlos. It’s finished.”

Bubblecar said:

Those churches do make you wonder how they decided: “I think that’s just about enough decoration now, Carlos. It’s finished.”

Just another spire here and a crenellation there… and there’s some massive sloped walkway to stick on.
Should be all done any decade now :)

Thanks for bring back memories of 1965.

:)

Michael V said:

Thanks for bring back memories of 1965.

:)

Was this a family trip? You must have been a young’un…

Michael V said:

Thanks for bring back memories of 1965.

:)

No worries

I guess it’s come on quite a bit. I gather building had all but stalled prior to getting into design with computers.

Witty Rejoinder said:

Michael V said:

Thanks for bring back memories of 1965.

:)

Was this a family trip? You must have been a young’un…

Yes, My parents sold the house my father had taken 12 years to build and spent it on a holiday – GB and Europe. Wonderful.

:)

Ian said:

Michael V said:

Thanks for bring back memories of 1965.

:)

No worries

I guess it’s come on quite a bit. I gather building had all but stalled prior to getting into design with computers.

Yes it has.

Toledo was an amazing place to visit. I just unpacked a small Toledo Damascene Black & Gold plate that mum bought there. It’s gone a little rusty and I’m not sure whether cleaning it will remove the thin layer of 24 ct gold inlaid (beaten) into it.

Barcelona, cont…

This door looks like it had a run-in with Picasso

.
We got stuck into the Sangria Blanco a couple of times..

After which, one evening, we stumbled upon the most amazing meal of the trip…

Ian said:

Barcelona, cont…

This door looks like it had a run-in with Picasso

.
We got stuck into the Sangria Blanco a couple of times..

After which, one evening, we stumbled upon the most amazing meal of the trip…

Tasty but a lot of peeling.

Bubblecar said:

Ian said:

Barcelona, cont…

This door looks like it had a run-in with Picasso

.
We got stuck into the Sangria Blanco a couple of times..

After which, one evening, we stumbled upon the most amazing meal of the trip…

Tasty but a lot of peeling.

Yes, much shell cracking with the shell cracker pictured and very very tasty

Only time I’ve been arsed taking a photo…

And heading north… fast train to (no time) Toulouse…

I met this grandson for the first time

Cathedral of St Kevin or someone

Commuted via the longest aerial tramway in France
to and from this Kubricesque hotel

Ah the clan lives.

Peak Warming Man said:

Ah the clan lives.

KKK? Nay, Nay, Nay.

what is this? a forum where you actually post about your holiday?

this seems wrong…

Arts said:

what is this? a forum where you actually post about your holiday?

this seems wrong…

This the holiday I take from whatever else is going on.

Peak Warming Man said:

Ah the clan lives.

Psst… It’s only a model

Ian said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Ah the clan lives.

Psst… It’s only a model

and they wear black.

roughbarked said:

Ian said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Ah the clan lives.

Psst… It’s only a model

and they wear black.

Tamb said:

roughbarked said:

Ian said:

Psst… It’s only a model

and they wear black.

It depends what chapter you belong to…………not that I would know……….and anyway you can’t prove anything.

Arts said:

what is this? a forum where you actually post about your holiday?

this seems wrong…

Mhe s a rebel

Peak Warming Man said:

Tamb said:

roughbarked said:

and they wear black.

It depends what chapter you belong to…………not that I would know……….and anyway you can’t prove anything.

And your name’s not Trump…

I really liked Bordeau but it was raining the entire time and I had picked up a nasty cold and lost all sense of taste and smell.

Anyway…

Above: From the hotel window

We discovered that there was an amazing exhibition running in the old Nazi submarine base featuring images inspired by Dali and Gaudi with the music of The Beatles, Pink Floyd etc

Are Spanish people as friendly as Australians?

Bubblecar said:

Are Spanish people as friendly as Australians?

Yeah they were fine. Even the French, who are often supposed to give tourists a very hard time, were nearly always great. Didn’t quite make it as far as Paris though.

Ian said:

Bubblecar said:

Are Spanish people as friendly as Australians?

Yeah they were fine. Even the French, who are often supposed to give tourists a very hard time, were nearly always great. Didn’t quite make it as far as Paris though.

There you are then.

do you speak any French or Spanish, Ian?

captain_spalding said:

do you speak any French or Spanish, Ian?

Only a little mangled French which I took in junior high school and 20 or so Spanish phrases which we hurriedly attempted to learn before leaving Oz. Same deal with Italian for which we had a handful of common phrases.. wasn’t really tackled until crossing the Alps though.

I would have thought that everyone would have a little English.. but NO.. we found that we didn’t have to stray very far from main tourist haunts to find that the natives had no English at all. We sometimes referred to Google translator but more often than not some mime or charades did the trick :)

Ian said:

captain_spalding said:

do you speak any French or Spanish, Ian?

Only a little mangled French which I took in junior high school and 20 or so Spanish phrases which we hurriedly attempted to learn before leaving Oz. Same deal with Italian for which we had a handful of common phrases.. wasn’t really tackled until crossing the Alps though.

I would have thought that everyone would have a little English.. but NO.. we found that we didn’t have to stray very far from main tourist haunts to find that the natives had no English at all. We sometimes referred to Google translator but more often than not some mime or charades did the trick :)

Quite possibly, a degree of fluency in either Spanish or French might not have helped much.

I’ve heard some examples of regional dialects and accents, and they can can be quite different from the ‘central’ language.

captain_spalding said:

Ian said:

captain_spalding said:

do you speak any French or Spanish, Ian?

Only a little mangled French which I took in junior high school and 20 or so Spanish phrases which we hurriedly attempted to learn before leaving Oz. Same deal with Italian for which we had a handful of common phrases.. wasn’t really tackled until crossing the Alps though.

I would have thought that everyone would have a little English.. but NO.. we found that we didn’t have to stray very far from main tourist haunts to find that the natives had no English at all. We sometimes referred to Google translator but more often than not some mime or charades did the trick :)

Quite possibly, a degree of fluency in either Spanish or French might not have helped much.

I’ve heard some examples of regional dialects and accents, and they can can be quite different from the ‘central’ language.

Yeah, my daughter who has pretty good French I think, reckons her dialect was not much chop in the south. She could make herself understood in the shops though.

Ian said:

captain_spalding said:

Ian said:

Only a little mangled French which I took in junior high school and 20 or so Spanish phrases which we hurriedly attempted to learn before leaving Oz. Same deal with Italian for which we had a handful of common phrases.. wasn’t really tackled until crossing the Alps though.

I would have thought that everyone would have a little English.. but NO.. we found that we didn’t have to stray very far from main tourist haunts to find that the natives had no English at all. We sometimes referred to Google translator but more often than not some mime or charades did the trick :)

Quite possibly, a degree of fluency in either Spanish or French might not have helped much.

I’ve heard some examples of regional dialects and accents, and they can can be quite different from the ‘central’ language.

Yeah, my daughter who has pretty good French I think, reckons her dialect was not much chop in the south. She could make herself understood in the shops though.

Money is a great facilitator of understanding.

captain_spalding said:

Ian said:

captain_spalding said:

Quite possibly, a degree of fluency in either Spanish or French might not have helped much.

I’ve heard some examples of regional dialects and accents, and they can can be quite different from the ‘central’ language.

Yeah, my daughter who has pretty good French I think, reckons her dialect was not much chop in the south. She could make herself understood in the shops though.

Money is a great facilitator of understanding.

..even unto l’optométriste.