Cordoba, Spain in the Springtime!

Cordoba, Spain is an absolute beautiful city in the springtime! On March 27, 28 and 29 Ben and I went to discover the great city of Cordoba that I had also traveled to before. The city fragrantly smelled of fresh orange blossoms everywhere! We happened to find one of the best hostels that we have stayed in so far that gave us a cool attic-style room with a nice terrace to sit out on to enjoy the wonderful weather we had. We were also lucky to share that terrace with an older couple that came to Cordoba from Belgium. It was great to meet other travelers.

There are many different sights to see in Cordoba such as the Mezquita, a 14th century synagogue, the Alcazar of the Christian Kings, the Palace of Viana with its many patios, and many presevered Arab baths.

The Mezquita, which means 'The Mosque', dates back to the year 784 when its construction started and was eventually converted into a Cathedral after the Reconquista in Spain. Below are a few photos inside and outside the Mezquita.




Our hostel was near The Alcazar of the Christian Kings. This palace was very beautiful and had excellent gardens to walk around in. The next photos are from The Alcazar of the Christian Kings.



Another famous place to see in Cordoba is the Calleja de las Flores which means in English 'Street of Flowers'. The flowers are beautiful in this small street in the old part of the city. When you get to the very end of the street it provides an excellent photo with the street and the Mezquita in the distance. I love this photo of Ben as his sweatshirt really brings out the red flowers on the street.


This photo is one of the bridges in Cordoba. The river didn't have much water in it when we were there. This bridge leads to The Tower of Calahorra which was under restoration. Usually the tower provides a great look out point to view the city of Cordoba from above.

Cordoba is a great city. I think Cordoba would be one of my favorite cities in southern Spain right now. The people were friendly, the sights were beautiful to see, and our hostel was excellent. If you like flowers, this is the place to visit. The next few photos are just some of the flower photos I took while I was in Cordoba.



After Cordoba Ben and I had a long day of traveling to get back home to Logrono. We had to take two different bus rides which equaled to be about 9 hours of sitting in a bus. After seeing all the different cities and their beautiful sights during Easter Break, I know that my adventure through the south of Spain was definitively worth it all!

Granada, Spain during Easter Break

After Gibraltar we traveled to Granada, Spain on March 25 & 26. I had traveled to Sevilla and Granada once before when I went with my high school Spanish group about eight years ago but it was great to visit and see all the beauty of the south of Spain again. The city of Granada is a very good tourist destination. It has many beautiful sights.

One of the most famous sights to see in Granada is 'La Alhambra'. 'La Alhambra' is an old palace which is made of up of many buildings built by both the Muslims and Christians. It is easy to tell which parts of 'La Alhambra' are made up by the Muslims and the Christians. The gardens in the palaces are very beautiful!! Everything is a wonder to see. There are many fountains, patios, gardens and towers. There are excellent views of the city center of Granada, the mountains that surround the city and also the famous neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city that are all white!

This is one of the most famous places to take a photo of in 'La Alhambra'. We had a remarkably beautiful day to visit the palaces.

Many of the walls in 'La Alhambra' were intricately carved. I enjoyed seeing all the different carvings in each room.

I am standing in front of another beautiful garden in 'La Alhambra'.

More beautiful fountains and gardens in 'La Alhambra'.

In the background is the famous neighborhood, in the outskirts of Granada, with all of the white painted houses.

The mountains that surround the city of Granada.

The Cathedral in Granada is in the old part of the city. It is very hard to take a photo of the Cathedral when you are close up to it. This Cathedral doesn't have any major square or plaza around it and is very close to all the other old buildings. This photo was taken from the top of a tower in 'La Alhambra'.

I'm standing on the tower with the Cathedral behind me.

I am sitting in the famous neighborhood of white painted houses with 'La Alhambra' in the background.
After Ben and I visited Granada for a couple days we traveled on to visit Cordoba, Spain for a few days before heading back to Logrono.

Gibraltar & the monkeys!!!

Gibraltar was a great place to travel to for a day during our Easter break trip. Ben and I stayed in a small town in Spain called 'La Linea de la Concepcion' next to the border between Spain and Gibraltar. We walked across the border (which is an airport runway) without any trouble into Gibraltar and went on our way to find the monkeys of Gibraltar. We decided to take a small cable car up to the 'Top of the Rock'. There were many many tourists and the line was long but way worth it! We finally arrived to the top very close to the closing time for the cable car to go down to the bottom again. We decided we would stay up there longer and take photos of the monkeys and then walk down the mountain. There are some people that do that.

The monkeys were absolutely great! I loved every minute of it. I took so many photos of all the monkeys. After we stayed up there for awhile we started our descent down the mountain. I never realized how sore you can be by walking down a mountain for a long time! As we were walking down the mountain we would find random groupings of monkeys all around the road and have to stop to take many more photos of the monkeys. We were very close to the bottom of the mountain and we saw three tourists taking photos of about five monkeys. We decided that we had to go and take more photos. The monkeys were running wild all around us. I went to talk to Ben who was a little farther ahead of me taking some photos of the monkeys and as I walked past one of the monkeys he jumped on my back! I had a monkey on my back!!! I couldn't believe it. I leaned over to make my back like a table hoping that the monkey would jump off fast and luckily he did. Ben and a quick opportunity to see the monkey on my back as I shouted with surprise not knowing what had just happened to me! It felt like a big big cat had jump on my back. It was very surprising. I didn't even have any food on me so who knows why the monkey did it. Now I will always have an exciting story from Gibraltar.

The monkeys run wild and are not afraid of people. This monkey decided he want a ride down the mountain on the top of the SUV.

Ben was deep in thought with a monkey in Gibraltar. He loved miming the monkeys. The monkeys wouldn't even move if people got close to them!

I loved taking many many many photos of all the monkeys. They were all very photogenic for me.

This is my favorite photo of a monkey that was just about to jump from part of the building to a tree up above.

I am standing at the 'Top of the Rock' with the Straight of Gibraltar and the mountains of Africa behind me. It was great to have such a beautiful day in Gibraltar that we were able to see Africa so clearly.

After spending one day in Gibraltar with the monkeys, Ben and I traveled to Granada, Spain.

Easter Break: Sevilla

Ben and I started our Easter break in Sevilla, Spain along with my friend Tina that came to visit us from California for a week. Sevilla, Spain is most known for their religious processions during Easter. Processions go on all of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. The processions can take up to more than 14 hours. There are many different processions each day. Each procession is done by a different brotherhood of a church in Sevilla. The way the processions work is that the brotherhood starts at their own church and walk to the main central Cathedral in the old part of the city.

After they arrive at the Cathedral, they walk around the outside of it and continue walking in the procession until they reach their church again. The processions can take any amount of time. It depends on how big the brotherhood is and how far away the church is away from the Cathedral. The biggest processions of all go on during the late hours of the night on Holy Thursday until midday the next day. Some of these processions had more than 2,500 people in it!

Ben, Tina and I decided to stay up the entire night with the millions of other people in the tiny streets of the old part the city. It is an incredible experience to be in Sevilla during Easter Break. Words cannot describe how much I enjoyed the time in Sevilla for Easter. People all have mini chairs or stand all day and night watching the slow processions go by them. There are many people lined up along the streets with just enough space to let the brotherhood walk through it. It is a very emotional and jubilant time for many. Here are some photos below of the night processions that went on during Holy Thursday and Good Friday.

First, is a photo with many candles and the Virgin Mary. These are very common in the processions. About 25 - 35 men of a brotherhood are below carrying this very heavy float throughout the streets of Sevilla. All of the men below cannot see where they are going. They are led by somebody else outside of the float. They take many breaks during the procession due to how heavy it is! The floats are used to reenact the events of Easter of each of the corresponding days.

Men walk through the streets carrying very large candles for hours in the processions. They always have their faces covered and are all in matching different colored outfits for each of the different brotherhoods. A lot of the men would even go barefoot to feel the pain that Christ had felt.

Here is a photo depicting Christ on 'Judgment Day'. This float was part of the biggest processions of all called ' La Macarena'. In Spain, 'La Macarena' is another name to refer to the Virgin Mary.
Below is a photo of men carrying crosses. Each of those crosses are very heavy and they usually walk barefoot as well! On these crosses below you can read 'Pasion' which is the same in English for 'Passion'.
During Easter break we also had time to visit many of the monuments that Sevilla has to offer. Ben and I toured the Bull Fighting ring in Sevilla. Sevilla is very known for their bullfighting. The Sunday we were in Sevilla was the opening day of the bullfighting season.

Below is the main Cathedral in Sevilla that all the processions would walk to. The Cathedral in Sevilla is the largest in Spain and also the third largest Gothic style Cathedral in the world. It was very beautiful inside. Inside the Cathedral is a tomb with the suspected remains of Christopher Colombus.

I am in the gardens at the Alcazar in Sevilla. They were very beautiful.

Tina and I are hanging out by a park. It was great having her come and visit us and getting to share the experience of Sevilla during Easter with her!

These are the customary outfits of the brotherhoods that they wear during the processions. They can range in many different colors depending on the day during Easter and the brotherhood.

After five days in Sevilla for all of the Easter celebrations Ben and I traveled on to Gibraltar to go to the top of the rock and see the monkeys of Gibraltar.

Happy Mother's Day!!

As it is Mother's Day in the United States today, I want to wish my mom a Happy Mother's Day from way over here in Spain and also to all of the other mothers that read my blog. It is very interesting to learn the Spanish culture this year. Some of their holidays are not celebrated on the same day as they are in the United States. The Spanish people celebrated Mother's Day on May 4th, one week earlier than in the USA. Mom, Grandma Bernie, Grandma Joyce and everybody else reading this, I hope you have a very special Mother's Day this year! I am thinking of all of you. =)

London, England

On March 8 - 11 Ben and I traveled to London, England for a long weekend. We were very excited as we got to stay with Katie Dolan, from Grafton, that has been living there for about 5 years now so we had a personal tour guide for the first day to get the feel for the city. We were let loose to tour the large city by ourselves the next couple days. We saw many different famous sights of the city. Below are some photos from the trip.

One of the famous guards in London.

Buckingham Palace

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben

View of the city

A busker grabbing a boy after he gave him some money.

Tower Bridge

Very windy on top of St. Paul's Cathedral

Front of St. Paul's Cathedral (it was very big!)

The most famous British saying...