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. :-)