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...

Already April!

I can't believe how time has flown here. It is already April. I can't believe that the month of March is already done with. I have been traveling so much lately that I feel I need to update you all on what I have been up to lately. I don't even know where to start. Well, let's see...last time I wrote an update I was just going to Pamplona, Spain and then to go skiing at a ski resort called Formigal. The city of Pamplona is known for the 'Running of the Bulls'. It is a city that is about 70 kilometers away from Logrono. The day that we went to Pamplona was absolutely beautiful! We had packed bocadillos (sandwiches made on amazing Spanish bread) with us to be able to eat outside and relax in the middle of the day. We chose to sit and enjoy our lunch in one of the main plazas of the city as shown in the photo below.

Here are a few more photos that I took in Pamplona, Spain.

This is the countdown to this year's 'Running of the Bulls'. It happens during the first week of July.

Here I am standing in front of the building where the 'Running of the Bulls' starts from. There are massive crowds of people in this plaza partying and celebrating during that week.

Here I am standing on the street where the 'Running of the Bulls' takes place. Boy it is a small street!


The day after we went to Pamplona we woke up at about 4:00 AM to head off with a bus load of people from Logrono to go skiing at Formigal. Formigal is a ski resort about 20 kilometers away from the border of France. It took us 4 1/2 hours by bus to travel there. It was a beautiful bus ride. We got to watch the sunrise in the mountains throughout the drive.

Here I am wearing a mismatch outfit for skiing since I didn't have any winter wear except my winter jacket here in Spain . I had a great pair of gray sweatpants that I borrowed from Ben over a pair of jeans. I also forgot my sunglasses that day so our great group leader borrowed me a pair of his!




It was a long but fun one day of skiing at Formigal. I was happy to see snow for at least one day this winter.

Planning, Planning, Planning

Hello All! It has been way too long since I have last updated you about my adventures in Spain. I have been kept very busy lately. Ben and I have been on many recent travels and also planning for many future ones as well. Right now, I am in the long process of labeling all my photos so that I can put them up on the internet and then you will all know what and where they were taken. Little did I know when I started the process that it was going to take this long of time! I sometimes forget how with a digital camera you can take over 500 photos in a day and then trying to label everything gets very difficult. I hope to have some photos up for you soon! Within the next week.

Okay, I will tell you about a few of the past travels that Ben and I went on in the last month. Starting off month of February we traveled to Madrid to meet my good friend Amanda that came to visit us. We had such a great time being able to show her around Madrid and Logrono. She was here on February 1 - 8. During the time that she was here, Carnival was going on in Madrid so it was great being able to go and watch many parades and see people all dressed up in different costumes.



On February 9 - 11, Ben and I went to Lisbon, Portugal. The city was amazing! It was a very quick trip but we were able to see many sailboats on the sea, a gorgeous sunset over the water, and a tour of both the old and new parts of the city. It was a great place to visit. The temperatures couldn't have been nicer. It was about 70 degrees and perfectly sunny. Ben and I were able to eat meals outside. It felt just like summer.

On February 16 and 17 we took a short train trip to another city in northern Spain, Burgos. We walked and toured the city. Burgos is known for its large Cathedral. We ended up having a 10th floor hotel room that looked at the Cathedral! It was very beautiful to see during the day and lit up at night. We also visited a national monastery. The monastery had some kings and queens for Spain buried there.


Tomorrow, Saturday we are taking an early 7:00 AM bus ride to nearby Pamplona for a day trip. Pamplona is very famous for the 'Running of the Bulls' that happens during the Festival of San Fermin in July. We unfortunately will not be here in July for the event so we are going to go tomorrow to see what the city is like.

On Sunday we are also getting up very early. We have decided to go skiing in the Pyrenees mountains. We will be leaving Logrono at 5:00 AM to make a full day of skiing at a resort called Formigal that is about 4 hours away. I think it will be fun! The only bad thing is, is there might not be much snow. It has already started feeling like spring time here. The trees are all budding and blooming and we already have flowers in the parks! I have been checking the weather for the ski resort and it is showing high 50s and a chance of rain! I really hope the rain will move until Monday and be a beautiful day for us to go skiing.

Well, that is what we have been up to lately. We are also very excited to have many upcoming adventures. We are going to London the week of March 8 - 11. We also have our Easter break coming up from March 19 - 30 where we will tour the cities of Sevilla, Gibraltar, Granada and Cordoba. All four different cities in 10 days! After our break is over we are excited to have Ben's family coming to stay here for the start of April and Ben's sister coming here for the last week of April. We will be traveling to Barcelona at this time. Finally, we have just bought tickets to Paris! I have always dreamed of going to Paris so I am happy to finally know I will get to see the city in person.

Along with all the trip planning, we are also kept busy here with preparing for our school classes and tutor jobs on the side. I hope all of you are doing good at home. I will make a new blog to let you know when all my photos are up online. Have a great weekend everybody!