Spanish Album - South

The Meseta (between Valencia and Cordoba - south of Madrid)


On the road. The soil here is a lot more red than it appears in the picture.


A teahouse in old Cordoba.


Our hotel in Cordoba was on this square. There was a coffee shop on the ground floor with free internet, so that is where we would start and end our days in Cordoba. I had a lovely plate of 'gambas' on a sunny Saturday afternoon at a cafe on this square.


Groves of olive trees.


Typical Andalucia - Moorish fortresses everywhere.


Aaste checks her email in Granada.

Spanish Album - Barcelona

CP Bear takes his first look at Barcelona.


The Ramblas.


Bird vendor on the Ramblas.


Street musician - Plaza Catalunya

Spanish Album - Girona

Swedish winter

Well, the Spanish road trip is behind us now and we've been back in Gothenburg for a week. The weather here has turned chilly, windy and wet - exactly what you would expect for the west coast of Sweden in December. It is dark too! I'd forgotten what it is like to live in the north. Gothenburg is at about latitude 57 N. Edmonton is at about 53 N. Toronto on the other hand lies at about the same latitude as Monaco, where the temperature yesterday was a sunny 14 degrees. (Monaco not Toronto). All this is to say that even on a sunny day in Gothenburg in December it is getting dark by about 4:30 in the afternoon and at 7:30 in the morning as I have my morning coffee and watch the folk head out to their jobs - it is as dark as if it were the middle of the night.

I remember the winter darkness from my childhood, and in a somewhat strange way it feels kind of comforting. It is kind of cozy to be all warm and toasty inside with the dark wind howling outside. Makes me yearn for a fireplace though!

I went out to the bar last night. Those of you who know me won't be surprised to hear that I already have a 'regular' bar. It is, of course, a friendly place that is quite crowded and busy by about 9pm on most evenings. It was 'hopping' last night. One thing I will not miss about Sweden is being constantly asked about hockey. Once they find out you are from Canada, almost all Swedes (or at least Swedish men) immediately start talking about hockey players. I suppose it may be the one thing our two countries have most in common. I will however, miss the happy friendly partying people.

Some of our 'homes'

More often than not I try and find affordable 'apartments' for us to stay in. Quite often these apartments are barely more expensive than low cost hotels and allow us to cook our own meals. It is definately a compromise for me as one of my favourite things when travelling is dining out - both for the foody experience and for the cultural experience. However, given that Aaste is a picky 13 year old vegetarian and that food can be a major cost - renting apartments works for us. Of course, when we are lucky, it also provides free internet access which is also helpful.


Our tiny, but wonderful apartment in Barcelona.


Aaste sitting in the window of our Barcelona home, overlooking the courtyard.


The courtyard.


Our apartment in Granada.


The bedroom in Granada. The place is called Arte Vida and is filled with original art work, some of which is quite good.

West meets East

At one point I had hoped to maybe include Istanbul as a destination in this journey. My desire to visit Istanbul was to explore a place where the west and east collide. In these days of increasing tensions between Islam and the 'Christian' west I think I was unconsciously pulled to places where I could explore the historic roots of this tension and experience places where the two cultures co-exist. Unfortunately it does not appear that a visit to Istanbul will be on the agenda this year. However, I had totally forgotten the Islamic history of Spain - of which we have been immersed in here in Andalucia. Even Girona, our first stop in Spain, has an Arabic history.

At this point I feel I must stop to muse that I did chose a week in Egypt.... a country whose official name (which I had not known) is: The Arab Republic of Egypt; and during our week there we were greeted multiple times each day with the call to prayer broadcast via loudspeakers from the Mosques of the city.

Similarly I found myself drawn and compelled while on the Queen Mary to attend lectures that explored the growing animosity of the American empire towards Islam.


The Mezquita Mosque in Cordoba.

At the airport in Sweden, I bought 4 films with which I hoped to keep Aaste entertained during the next two weeks. One of them is entitled "Kingdom of Heaven" and is a Hollywood story by Ridley Scott (a director I mostly enjoy) of the crusades and the struggle between Muslim and Christian for possession of Jerusalem. (Historical accuracy of this film is of course extremely negligible see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Heaven_(film)

Today, we spent the afternoon in the Alhambra. The Alhambra is an ancient, famous, and beautiful Moorish city and palace in Granada. Afterwards I sought out an English bookstore in Granada as both Aaste and I are nearing the ends of our books and starting to panic. I purchased "Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree: by Tariq Ali - the first in his 'Islam Quintet'.

It is strange how the universe works.... or my subconscious perhaps?

Images from the Alhambra:

Spanish Road Trip

My original plan was to visit far more places than we actually will. Between my sciatica and my varicose veins, driving for long periods of time is not really a possibility for me. But we spent a couple of days in Cordoba, and are now in Granada - so aregetting a bit of a feel for Andalucia.Lots of olive groves! When I get our computer online again I´ll try and get some pictures up.

Still in love with Barcelona

I first visited Barcelona in 1980, and then again in 1991. At Aaste's request I put Barcelona on our itinerary for this trip. She did not need to twist my arm. I loved this city the first time I visited it and each time I come, I renew that infatuation. Every time I visit I swear I will one day come here for an extended stay so that I can really get to know it. Maybe next time.

Barcelona is modern and bustling and gothic and artistic. It is a wonderful blend of old and new. It is clean and it's people seem happy and content. What's not to love? Well... possibly (but not entirely) the unbelievable amount of motorcycles! Certainly not the 2 Euro bottles of fine red wine!

I will post pictures soon.

Comments on this blog

Duh..... I've just figured out that I had the settings set so that you had to have a blogger account in order to leave comments on this blog. I 'think' I have now change this so that anybody can now leave comments. At least I hope so. Would love to hear from anyone out there who is actually reading this drivel. Hope it is easy to do so now.... so hit that comments button people! Thanks a million.

Girona, Spain

One of the 'catches' to flying Ryan Air is that they often fly in to obscure out of the way airports. For instance, while flying to Barcelona from Goteborg return cost us about $50 each, the plane didn't actually go to Barcelona. Rather, it lands at a less known airport about one hundred kilometers away in Girona. Turns out this is not necessarily a bad thing at all. Girona is an ancient walled city originally built by the Romans (I think). We haven't explored it yet, as we just arrived last night, but we will this afternoon. I booked a rental car (Scoda, Octavio) which we picked up at the airport and then drove to our reserved hotel. Of course, we got lost on the way.... darkness and construction made finding our hotel a bit of a challenge - but we made it.


Our hotel in the morning sun.

Pictures from Egypt

I have quite a few observations from Egypt that I'll eventually share here....but for now here are a few pictures from our excursion to the pyramids.

Vestre Slidre

Before we left Norway, we took a drive to the Valdres Valley north and west of Oslo. It is from this region that my father's Norwegian ancestors hailed from. We visited the Valdres Folk Museum in Fagernes, where I spent some time looking up family records in some very old parish registries, before driving out to the municipality of Vestre Slidre. My great great grandfather left Vestre Slidre in 1866, sailing to Quebec City and then settling in Minnesota. I was trying to find the exact location of the farm that he had come from. I was unable to confirm this information in the museum's records but did find some other interesting information. For example, when he was born in 1835 his parents were unmarried and although he was his father's first son, he was his mother's second son. Interesting facts they liked to record. :-)

Catching Up and ... Egypt here we come!

I really have been lazy lately.... We spent two weeks with my friend Gunnar, in Gothenburg, after leaving Norway. Mostly we concentrated on Aaste's school work during that time. She watched way to much television and refused to leave the house if given a choice. I love Gothenburg, so I was out and about almost every day.

We have been in Stockholm now for the last week almost. It is, of course, beautiful. But as it is the largest city I have seen since Dublin I am finding it much harder to get to know. With Oslo, Gothenburg, and Bergen you can get a handle on the city within a day or two - not with Stockholm. Of course it doesn't help that the place is built on something like a dozen islands.

We have again been exceptionally fortunate with our 'intermediate' relatives and have been able to get to know another cousin, Sindre, and some of his children. We have been staying in the guest apartment of his condo complex, which has been very affordable in a very expensive city!

Last week I booked a 'last minute' one week get-away to Hurghada, Egypt for us. Hurghada is supposed to be a beach resort along the lines of Cancun - ie) nothing was there before and now it's a massive city based entirely on tourism. Anyway... it is in the desert and the snorkeling is supposed to be fantastic. Although it is about 6 hours from Cairo and the pyramids there are, apparently, excursions from Hurghada - so we will spend 1-2 days doing that!

Well - the sun is shining here in Stockholm... so I best get out and enjoy it on our last day here.

Flåmsbana

After leaving Bergen we spent two nights in Flåm; a small village situated in the innermost part of the Aurlandsfjord, a tributary of the 204 kilometres long Sognefjord. A major part of the attraction of Flåm is the trip to get there. The Flåmsbana, or Flåm Railway is one of the worlds steepest railway lines on normal gauge. The gradient is 55/1000 on almost 80% of the line, i.e. a gradient of one in eighteen. It is only 20 km long, but took 20 years to build and has 20 tunnels and takes about 40 minutes to travel.

Rushing Water

To live in fjord country is to have the sound of rushing water always in your ears. Or so it seemed to me.

Beautiful Bergen

Bergen is an incredibly beautiful city. You can read all about it elsewhere - but here are a few of our pics:




These famous wooden buildings along Bergen's waterfront are over 900 years old.

More examples of 'jugenstiles' from Alesund

Jugenstiles being the Norwegian word for art nouveau.

Alesund

When I first communicated with Tommy about visiting Orsta, he had asked what in particular I was interested in. Among other interests, I mentioned art, design and architecture.
Tommy and Inge Petter planned a day for us in Alesund. Alesund is the region's slightly larger town and is about a one hour drive from Orsta.

The intriguing aspect of Alesund that makes it a particular tourist attraction is it's architectural style.

In 1904 the entire town burned to the ground. As a result, over the next decade or so the town was re-built in the art nouveau style - but with a Norwegian twist. Many of these buildings remain today. As an aside - the re-building of Alesund was an enormous boost to the sagging Norwegian economy of the time; providing employment for hundreds of out of work tradesmen, engineers, etc. etc.