An unabashed tourist and her family explore the world one holiday at a time.
If there’s one thing I love more than cathedrals, it’s castles. I love everything about them. I love imagining myself back into times when they were occupied, walking through dilapidated buildings and seeing the ghosts of soldiers, peasantry and royalty in my mind’s eye. I love thinking about the history of the place, thinking of besiegers and burning pitch and...
I love cathedrals. There is just so much to see in every cathedral, that I gladly pay the upkeep fee and can spend hours wandering inside, gawking at the magnificent stained glass windows, the ornate ceilings, the embellishments of each nave or beautifully grand organ. I suppose it comes from a Protestant upbringing, spending each Sunday morning in church listening...
“A picture lives like a living creature, undergoing the changes imposed on us by our life from day to day. This is natural enough, as the picture lives only through the man who is looking at it.” ~ Pablo Picasso. One of my mandatory subjects at university was Art History. Although my lecturers tried very hard to instil a sense...
We had very strange weather while visiting Andalucía in Spain this year – every second day was rainy and cold, and every other day had clear blue skies and mild temperatures. As luck would have it, the day we spent in the shopper’s paradise that is Mijas Pueblo turned out to be one of the rainy ones. Having parked our...
The picture below was taken from the balcony of our hotel room in Fuengirola in Spain. Whenever I find myself in the northern hemisphere, I’m always intrigued by the white vapour trails left in the sky by passing airplanes. This is something you don’t see in the southern hemisphere – not in Africa, at least. Perhaps someone from Australia or...
The lights dim. Five people make their way onto the stage, the women dressed in shawls and flared skirts, the men ruggedly handsome in their black coats. A haunting melody fills the hushed silence as the guitarist plucks the strings. A woman’s voice joins in and it is as if her song contains all the sadness in this world. The...
Since most museums and churches in Andalucía are closed on Mondays, Gareth and I donned our ski jackets and headed for the mountains on our second day in the Costa del Sol. At first the mild weather made us feel ridiculous wearing bulky coats, but when we stopped at a little pueblo half way to Granada to have brunch, the...
” . . .Cadiz, sweet Cadiz ! is the most delightful town I ever beheld, . . . ” ~ Lord Byron. The Spanish city of Cadiz is said to have been founded by the Phoenicians, making it arguably the oldest city in Europe, although it was apparently completely destroyed in a raid in 1596. What is now known as the...
You know the old saying “time flies when you’re having fun”? Well, I’ve just had the opportunity to prove it true again. After two weeks of seeing the sights in the south of Spain, I’m back home again and in fact back to work again. I’ll bet by this time tomorrow, those two weeks will feel a lifetime away. Another...
Gareth and I usually like to tour independently when we’re on holiday. I would read up on local history and the sights to see, then plan our itinerary around that and tell Gareth all about it on the day when we’re there. This works well, because we can then decide what we want to see and do so at our...