Gonna Try Posting Again!

Have had much success with this app since Granada so just starting posting on Facebook. I'm gonna give this another try and maybe it will behave if I don't try to load a lot of photos. So maybe photos on FB and thoughts and observations on the blog. I don't feel like I've lost a lot since the first part of this adventure was a lot of repeat visits and stuff I posted on three years ago. One can say why bother going again but some of the locations were to visit good friends again, some to see familiar places and introduce friends to them and some were just old memories to be seen one last time. This holds particularly true for Italy. We revisited Florence (at least my 8th time), Venice (at least my 6th time), and Milan (at least my 15th time). The difference is that we had the opportunity to see it through new eyes, Paula and Dave, and that revitalizes everything. So that's behind us now and I would visit Italy again to see our friends, Cosimo and Antonella, in Milan and I would go again to see the Amalfi coast. Other than that, I think I've had enough of Italy. But I can honestly say that I don't ever know that I would have enough of Italian food!!!!

So now we are on to France. Not necessarily new territory for me since we did visit Paris when we were living in Italy. I thoroughly enjoyed all that I saw in Paris in the past (particularly since it was in December 2009 and it was snowing in the Champs de Elysse), but I did not connect with the personality of Paris! As we planned this trip, we were not going to spend much time in France originally since we were going to have family join us at different times. Turns out that our youngest and his family weren't able to make the trip because of work commitments - papa has to bring home the money - so we added France to our itinerary. What a surprised blessing! We have spent the last two weeks traveling through France and I have fallen madly in love with this country! The people are so friendly, willing to help, willing to try to work through the language issues, and the food is amazing. We just left Sarlat La Caneda where foie gras is king and I have decided that it is indeed the food of the gods!

My regret on this trip so far is that Paula and Dave returned before we really got a chance to explore France. Yes we did the beaches of Normandy with them but they returned to Texas right after that. As for the beaches of Normandy and that entire experience, I'm not certain How to summarize it. Maybe because it isn't over for Ernie and I yet. While we were at the American Cemetery in Normandy, we were able to find the listing for his uncle Ernie, his namesake. We had already located his gravesite in Europe and are planning a visit there but we searched on his name in Normandy and the listing came up. Neither of us were expecting the reaction that came. Ernie never met his uncle, he died in October of 1944 and my Ernie wasn't born until 1946. When the listing popped up, we were both reduced to tears. We are planning on visiting his gravesite in the American Cemetery in Lorraine in St. Avold, France.

So, Paula and Dave caught the trains to Paris for their flight home and we continued on to Chitenay in the Loire Valley. We visited a Chateau, drank great wine, ate even greater food and missed our friends. A couple of days there and we moved on to Sarlat la Caneda, the home of everything foie gras - the menus are easy to ready - duck, duck. Goose, duck, goose, duck. Goose, etc, etc., etc. I never realized how really good good foie gras is!!!!

The other learning about France is that stores keep their own hours - sometimes open, sometimes not! No rhyme or reason. Croissants are marvelous as is any French bread. Cafe Au lait is the only way to start your morning. And boy do the French know how to make French fries (fried in duck fat) and cook fish with blurred blanc sauce!!!

The other observation is that the French have weird doors. In order to lock a door, you must pull the handle up before trying to lock it with the key. Then there's the toilets! Of course, Americans are now being exposed to the smaller button and the larger button on a commode. Well,I thought I had it all figured out until I got to our current AirBnB in Carcassonne. Went to the bathroom and pushed the button and nothing happened. I keep pushing with no response so I took a different approach and pulled it up. Lo and behold, it flushed! Oh and the front door handle did not need to be pulled up to lock. Maybe it's because we are in the south of France and they do things differently here. Don't know but am learning just to accept!

So talked with middle son tonight and caught up on stuff. He's going to be joining us in three weeks in Basel Switzerland for a few days in this region. We then go on to Prague where daughter and granddaughter join the party.

So we will see if this post makes it. It's now 10:11 pm and Ernie and I finished a bottle of wine with supper and had a few glasses of Port. I'll wait to post this until I've reread it. Night all!

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First Day in Granada

We arrived in the early evening and planned on getting to our hotel, getting something to eat and then unpacking and sleeping in order to be fresh for the first full day. Went to the cafe/bar across from our hostel for some wine and tapas. If you're not familiar with tapas, they are little bites or small plates served with your drink - you order a drink, you get a tapa. What you get is totally up to the cafe. After we finished, we felt the need to walk a little and we ran into our first procession coming out of the cathedral. The area of Andalusia is noted for the Semana Santa processions. They start on Palm Sunday and go through Easter Sunday. The floats tell the story of the passion of Christ. Each float weighs around one ton and it is carried on the necks and upper backs of members of the church. The procession is led by members of various confraturnities and they are dressed in long robes with pointed hoods. Very similar to what we would call the dress of the KKK. when you first see it, it is a bit disconcerting because of our history in the US, but these confraturnities have been around for centuries. I didn't have my camera with me that night since I wasn't expecting to see a procession so no photos from those floats but there will be several more to come. This was Paula and Dave's first time here and first time to experience this in person. It was actually more fu. For me to watch their reactions than to see the floats.

I think we returned to the hotel around 11 that night, probably one of the earliest nights of the entire week in Granada.

The plan for the next day was to wander, or as I like to call it, get lost in Granada. Hit the ATM first, bought a bus pass and then started walking. We followed the Darro River til we got to the Moorish Bazaar area. One can get lost in the narrow streets and alleys which are lined with shops on either side. The restaurant we wanted to eat at was not yet opened so Paula and I decided to get henna tattoos. Afterwards we stopped at a tea room and killed time.

The Cathedral in Granada. You can see the viewing stands for the processions coming to the cathedral. They process through and then return to their respective churches. Some of these processions left their churches at 4 in the afternoon and returned at 3 in the morning. They carried these floats through outrageously hilly and narrow streets,

Just a ham shop we passed by.

This is the Church of Santa Ana. Take note of how narrow the door is. That's what the floats needed to get through. Sometimes the folks carrying these had to do so on their hands and knees to get through the doors.

There were three floats in the church that would be used throughout the week.

I couldn't believe how well sculpted the faces were.

This was the back of the Virgin's float showing her cape.

 

 

 

Our walk along the Darro.

Just to show how narrow some of the streets are. Mini buses also went up this street.

Another beauty shot!

 

 

The tea shop we stopped at.

 

Paula's tattoo. The writing to the left of the flower is her name in Arabic.

My tattoo with my name to the left.

Couldn't believe the wiring!

 

I think Ernie would have trouble getting in and out of this place easily.

Dinner are Arrayanes in the Bazaar. Ernie and I ate here three years ago and Mostafa still remembered us. Not sure what that says about us but we laughed as much this time as we did before.

That brings us to time to go to the hostel and relax before we head out for the evening processions.

 

 

Kids collect wax balls and keep adding to them every year.

 

Mothers are the same all over the world. This mother was giving her child something to drink while they were stopped.

 

We were really surprised when we saw this float. It was the one we saw in the Church of Santa Ana that afternoon.

We finally decided to start heading home around 10 to have an early evening but actually saw a few more floats so the best laid plans of mice and men......

 

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Leaving Portugal 2017

So I wrote and published, so I thought, three blog postings. Come to find out that they never published due to a problem with the photos, actually the blog application could not locate the link to the photos. I didn't worry too much since I still had the text and would just have to figure out the picture problems. Well, the problem was an IPad that was running out of memory (don't know why 14000 photos would be a problem, lol) along with a very slow internet connection. After much hemming and hawing, I figured out that I just needed to remove a lot of photos from the device and all would be right with my world. Once I did that everything seemed to be working, I was ready to rock and roll! I pulled up the drafts and all the text was gone, along with the photo thumbnails. So here I go again.

Leaving Portugal, had our last breakfast prepared by Ana and Rita and said goodbye.we were spending the night in Lisbon because we had an early flight so our plan was to drive back stopping at Nazare and Obidos to sightsee. We got to The seaside town of Nazare along with what seemed like every other person in Portugal. It is a quaint and beautiful beach town and since the weather had been very warm and the kids were out of school for the holiday, everyone was there. After driving around for a while and never finding a parking spot, we decided to leave and head for Obidos. The sad part is that Paula and Dave never got to try percebes and beer (barnacles). Before you poo-poo barnacles, they are quite good. On the salty side and they go great with cold beer. Guess we just have to come back again.

Thankfully the crowds weren't very bad in Obidos which is a old walled city. I am not going to go into much detail just let the photos speak for themselves:

This photo is specifically for Joelle.

Ernie's brother-in-moustache!

Both the wisteria and red bud trees were blooming.

Flowers even grow in the roof gutters!

 

 

 

That's Dave on the wall.

Paula and I walked up this side of the wall.

 

Ernie wouldn't climb up with us.

What goes up must eventually come down - Paula and Dave coming down.

One of Paula's many beauty shots!

 

 

The tree sort of dwarfs Ernie.

 

 

I have a love affair with doors and door knockers so you'll just have to put up with a lot of these kinds of photos.

They even trellis bougainvillea.

After a few hours of walking around and marveling at this lovely town, we had to leave for Lisbon and a much less than good hotel. We were all glad it was only for one night. Flying to Granada the next morning and that will be the start of another set of adventures.

 

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