Mérida and Carmona
In Mérida I learned about how Mérida got its name (and also how Mérida, Yucatan, got its name). And in Carmona I enjoyed a hike. Here’s a little more
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Portugal after Porto
I’m so far behind in blogging that I’m not even going to try to catch up. I’m just going to summarize the last five days in Portugal and share my photo albums. It seems a suitable approach, because so much of the last five days felt too fast, with whirlwind visits to places I would…
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A week in Porto, plus Arouca, plus Coimbra
Yesterday I met my sister’s friend, Luke, and he asked me what was the highlight of my visit to Porto. I struggled to come up with one, but I finally said it was just such a delight to experience the cityscape from different viewpoints. Porto doesn’t impress with any one spectacular thing. There’s no glorious…
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Northern Portugal and the Douro Valley
There was wine. There’s a lot more to write about the two days we spent in northern Portugal and the Douro Valley, but for some reason, it’s mostly a blur. I remember there was some beautiful scenery and two delightful towns where we stopped on the way from Santiago de Compostela. I remember we went on…
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Galicia, Spain: Santiago de Compostela and more
It wasn’t a genuine pilgrimage, since the vast majority of it was by bus. But starting in France, I made my way (with my tour group) across northern Spain, and we arrived in Santiago de Compostela feeling more or less like pilgrims. We spent three nights there and got to see some other parts of…
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San Sebastian to Pamplona to León: Starting on the Camino
I have too much to catch up on since leaving Bilbao and arriving in León, so I’m just going to give an overview and share some favorite photos from the last few days.
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Bilbao and Gernika
After a few days in France, I’m back in Spain (for the third time on this trip). In Bilbao, where I spent three nights, I met the full group I’ll be traveling with until we get to Porto. I’m now in Pamplona, so before I get too far behind, I want to share just a…
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A Few Days in the French Basque Region
In better weather I would have spent at least a good part of the last few days gazing at the Pyrenees as we made our way from Carcassonne to Bayonne, in the heart of the French Basque region. But there was a lot of rain and overcast skies, so we didn’t get to see any…
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An excursion to Narbonne
This is just going to be a short post to share a little about our group’s day trip from Carcassonne to Narbonne. There is normally an optional excursion to Albi, which is the birthplace of Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, but since the Musée Toulouse-Lautrec is closed on Mondays, Cyril, our trip leader, felt it would be a…
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Carcassonne: the city that insists on being photographed
What happens when you visit a city that is so picturesque that you can’t stop taking photos? In Carcassonne, you just take a lot of photos. I’m so in love with this city. It’s just too pretty to believe it’s real. It’s like leaving the real world and entering a fantasy. I didn’t know anything…
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Two days in Girona
I arrived in Girona late Wednesday afternoon, and I had two full days, Thursday and Friday, to explore the town. To be honest, it was more time than was needed to see what there is to see here. Some people do it as an easy day trip from Barcelona. But I am glad I allowed…
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Barcelona: Architecture, food, art, music, history
Barcelona is the fifth most visited city in Europe (after London, Paris, Rome, and Istanbul). I’ve spent the past six days learning why. Here are my stories about the things I’ve seen and done. I started to write this post at a halfway point in my time here, but I have decided to make it one…
