Florence

Palma de Mallorca

Second stop on the cruise tour, Palma de Mallorca. Palma is the capital and major port city of the Spanish Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean. It's a popular vacation spot for many Spaniards and other Europeans alike. I had heard, and after visiting there confirmed, that it's a major destination for Germans.


Here's a view of Palma and Bellver Castle on a hill north of the city from the window of our cruiseship; I think we were having breakfast at the time.

Here's Palma's port and bay seen from the hilltop Bellver Castle.


La Seu, or the cathedral, of Palma is a massive gothic structure. The pillars inside were especially towering although slender at the same time. Next to the cathedral is the Palace of the Almudaina which used to be a Muslim palace which was later converted over to a Christian palace after the Muslims were expelled.

Here's a view inside the Palace of the Almudaina.

Santiago de Compostela

I took the bus from Porto, Portugal, to Santiago to Compostela, the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia in northwest Spain (directly above Portugal).

The landscape of Galicia is nothing like the rest of Spain. It rains a lot, and it's very green with rolling hills and beautiful coastlines.

Galicia is almost a mix between Portugal and Spain. The landscape is more similar to northern Portugal and the people are similar also. Spanish people in this region speak both Spanish and another language called 'Gallego', or Galician. Gallego is like a mix between Portuguese and Spanish. It's very similar to Spanish and even shares a great deal of vocabulary, but it sounds more like Portuguese.
To go to Santiago I had to go through the largest city in Galicia, which is Vigo. Vigo is a large port city with a large river entering the ocean.


Here I am in Santiago de Compostela. This is the famous Cathedral of Santiago (remember that in Spanish Santiago is St. James the Apostle) where it's said that Santiago is buried. This shrine to St. James the Great has been luring millions of tourists a year for centuries (since medieval times, in fact). It is the final destination of the prestigious Christian pilgrimmage 'Way of St. James', or Camino de Santiago. People from all over the world walk, bike, or drive the trails of this pilgrimmage from its origins in Europe or different points in Spain and follow it until they arrive in Santiago.

Here is Santiago (St. James) slaying the Moors, who controled Spain from the 8th century to nearly the 13th, when the Spanish Catholic Kings expelled them from the country. During a battle between the Christians and Moors in the north of Spain, legends say that the image of St. James the Apostle could suddenly be seen in the midst of the battle on horseback fighting against the North Africans. Hence they've gone crazy for it ever since.

Santiago de Compostela has a wonderfully preserved old part of town. I really liked the whitewashed buildings and box windows.

Here is the altar of grand reverance to Santiago inside the cathedral. There's a lot of gold.




I'd really like to walk the Camino de Santiago this summer if I can. Many people do the pilgrimmage in stages, since it's really quite long. From the border of France and Spain, the pilgrimmage is 760 kilometers. To walk this amount, at an average of 30 kilometers a day, it would take you about 26 days to reach Santiago.

You would go through famous northern Spanish cities like Pamplona, Logrono!!!, Burgos, and Leon on your way. So, it's a month long vacation, and if I end up doing it (because I would want to do the entire way through Spain walking, which would take me a month) I will definitely write a lot more about it.

Salamanca

I went to lovely Salamanca in the south of the autonomous community of Castilla y Leon for a weekend with my friends Isabella (from Germany) and Cesarina (from Italy). We were really lucky and had great weather one of the days, bright sunny skies and temperatures in the 60s; not bad for half a month before the first day of spring.

Salamanca is most famous for its university, which is ancient old (founded in 1218). It's housed within huge gothic palaces, like the one in this picture. The city has a large number of students, many of them coming from all over Europe and the U.S.

We went tapas crazy when we were there, going out once every day during our stay. The picture above is of 'costillas', which are ribs.


Here's a nice view of Salamanca from across the Tormes River. The Romanic bridge is the old entrance to the city, full of Romanic architecture. The big cathedral is actually two churches combined together. The older cathedral on the right is Romaneque, and the larger on the left is newer and Gothic.

Here's a tapa we had called 'jeta', which is similar to something called 'morro', which is literally the face of the pig. Mmmm...

The Plaza Mayor, the 'Main Square', is Salamanca is one of the most beautiful in Spain. It's a hot spot for students and tourists and Salmantinos alike congregate there to take in the sun and the relaxing atmosphere. There are many cafes, restaurants, and shops in the square that used to be a the bullfighting ring. Concerts are other big events are usually held in the Plaza Mayor, which is said to be able to fit 20,000 people.

Here we are, Isabella on the left, Cesarina in the middle, and me on the right. We're on top of the cathedral looking out over the city.


We're sitting in the Plaza Mayor at night.

We shared tapas and tried to order different things. There are potatoes on the left, bread and goat cheese in the middle, and Spanish mushrooms (setas) on the right, accompanied by good old Spanish cervezas (cañas con limon para las chicas).


Here I am standing in front of the towers of the new cathedral.

León & Astorgas

First trip that I've made in a while. Found some decently priced bus tickets, made a schedule for a weekend, and booked a hostel, and away we were to León, capital city of the province by the same name. León is located in the northwest of Spain in the autonomous community of Castilla y León. It's a province that's characterized by ancient Roman ruins and walls and by the mountains (los Picos de Europa) it shares with neighboring province to the north Asturias.

León the city is one of the highest capitals in Spain elevation-wise; and we decided to go there in the middle of winter. It was cold and a little rainy when we got there, so we made for the first monument we could, which was the Basilica of San Isidoro. The picture below is the patheon which holds the tombs of past kings of León. The Romantic paintings on the walls and ceilings were especially impressive, and they're supposed to be some of the best example of such work in all of Spain.


Walking, we were able to see most of the old part of the city, which is surrounded almost entirely by medieval walls. At some points near the walls you can see evidence of the even older Roman walls that were there before.

I went with my friends Julie (from Florida) and Danny (from Logrono, Spain).


Another of the most important points of interest in the city of León is the fantastic cathedral with its massive stained glass windows.





Here I am standing outside the great gothic cathedral of León at night.


The second day we were there we took a short bus trip to nearby Astorgas, another ancient Roman city with walls, another grand cathedral, a plaza mayor (main square) with a nice ayuntamiento (town hall), and a palace constructed by the famous Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi. Both Gaudi's palace and the cathedral are visible behind me and the wall in this picture.


Here we are in the plaza mayor. I tried to set a timer on my camera, and it was a little low, I guess.

Prague, Czech Republic

Fantastic! Utter brilliance. Prague made it through the World Wars without many of its beautiful buildings getting destroyed. Nicely done, Praha; you managed to save one of the most picturesque cities in Europe. The architecture is once again outstanding, as is the river location, which is eerily similar to the layout of Budapest: a river in the center (in Prague's case it's the Vlatava) and a hilltop castle on the western shore providing stupendous views of the entire city and surrounding landscape. I think it's a pretty good format to structure a city; I'll probably model my own after this one.

Me with the Vlatava River. There are many bridges joining the two halves of the city.

The oldest most famous bridge is called the Charles Bridge. Charles Bridge is like Las Ramblas on a bridge. No kidding. There are tons of artisans selling their art, there are musicians playing, and street performers dancing, not to mention the fabulous statues of saints of religious figures adorning all sides of the structure and the outrageously cool views of the Prague Castle up on the hill and the unique designs of the entrances to the bridge on both ends. It's a party smashed onto a bridge. Sound like a good idea to you? Maybe not, but it works.

Here is one of those gateways to the bridge that I'm standing in front of. The color and style of buildings like this one (there are more like it in Prague) is something that I had never seen before. It may appear a little strange at first, but I really think that these structures are special in a good way.

We took advantage of another opportunity to climb the highest thing in the city to get some cool aerial shots. Not only are we on top of the highest hill, we're on top of a mini-version of the Eiffel Tower on top of the highest hill. They told us that it was near the exact height above sea level that the actual Eiffel Tower was at (since it has the advantage of being on a hill). Anyways, this is a photo of the Prague Castle. The castle district contains a palace-museum, a large church, an old old neighborhood of shops, dungeons, towers, and fortress walls.

Nearby our hostel was a rock-out restaurant-tavern called Jama. They served Czech food along with lots of other stuff too, but I just had to try to "Czech Feast". I actually didn't finish this one, so those who know me know how big it must have been. The "Feast" included pork, steak, chicken, red-apple kraut, roasted potatoes, and some biggy dumplings. Yes, there was gravy; yes, there was Czech beer.

The inside of the Prague Basilica which stands within the walls of the great castle. An immense Gothic style church, it dwarfs everything else inside the castle district.

The Prague Basilica from the outside. It was a nice day that day, wasn't it?

From the hilltop castle district we had some nice views of the city. Compliments to my photographess.

Oh, here's a good one. Some statue near the castle of a young boy. Some of these statues you see around are lucky to touch, for some reason or another. The lucky part to touch on this boy just happened to be his penis (you can tell because the dark bronze gets really shiny from everyone touching it). These Japanese guys thought they were pretty funny. And so did we.

One of me standing on a different bridge. That's the more famous Charles Bridge straight behind me and the boat. The Old Centre of the city is to my left.

I am standing in the Old Centre of Prague right here. I couldn't help but grab a Czech beer while we walked around and marveled at all of the wonderful buildings within this old square. The big black structure behind me is the Town Hall. We didn't get the chance to go inside, but that's all the more reason to return someday.


Ab is doin her thang in the Old Centre square, Town Hall to her right, and the tower with big cool clock to her left. I think that I could spend more time in that square than just about anywhere else we visited.