Spain

Excusez-moi, Président Bush, mais vous envahissez le mauvais pays!

France

Tomorrow we return to France. Mary Anne and I love France, but many ‘mericans don’t. Maybe it’s because the French refuse to go along with some of our less-than-well-thought-out plans.

But we showed them! Freedom fries! How’d

Everybody talks about the Guggenheim art museum in Bilbao. Designed by Frank Gehry, the same guy who gave us the Experience Music Project (now MoPop) in Seattle, the Guggenheim has garnered accolades for its design.

In its short lifetime, the museum has joined a rarified list of places that folks

Bullfighting. Meh.

Look, I get it. Bulls are big, have pointy things on their heads, and can be dangerous if provoked. If you want to show your skill at dancing with death, I suppose annoying a bull makes as much sense as free climbing or Formula 1 racing or whatever.

Zaragoza dates back to 14 BC when it was established by the Romans. There’s little left from that period, but there is a spectacular basilica, a Moorish palace, a Goya museum, and enough general interest material to make a stop worthwhile.

But let’s begin with a quick look

There is a claim that this cathedral dates to the fourth century, but I think that’s kind of playing with numbers. The current structure was likely built on the ruins of something earlier, or greatly expanded it. The real action started in the fourteenth century. Practically yesterday.

Rick Steve’

It’s been a while since we were able to get together with our friends Andy and Danielle so it was great that we were able to see them for four days in Sevilla.

Andy and I go way back. Back to about 1982 when he was living in Hong

“Do not weep like a woman for what you could not defend as a man.”

Abu Abdallah’s mother

Ouch!

In 1492, besides Columbus sailing the ocean blue, the Moorish king Abu Abdallah surrendered the Alhambra to the Christian forces of Ferdinand and Isabella. As he cast a last backwards

As you may have noticed, my post on the Alhambra has yet to appear. That’s because I know it’s going to be long and so I’m waiting for the haze induced by nine hours of timezone shift to clear before tackling it.

So, I thought, I’ll

Santa Maria de la Sede is shaped like a square. This is unusual for a cathedral as most tend to form a cross. But the builders had an extra requirement when laying out this structure: to cover the footprint of the 160,000 square foot mosque that formerly occupied the

Whilst on holiday in Sevilla, we decided to hire a motor and nip down to Cádiz for the day.

Sorry. Because we were in Sevilla with British friends, I slipped into speaking like a character from Downton Abbey. From here on, I’m back to ‘mericun enlish.

Cádiz is an

I love T-Mobile Thanks to free cellular data worldwide, I’m writing this post while zipping along on the train to Sevilla.

I was tempted to title this ”Mary Anne Eats” because I found that I have several food photos. Let’s starts with them.

On the way to the