Vacation to Spain: Tapas, Hill Towns, and Tons of Photos
bryan November 16th, 2010
As the pressure of being a volunteer at POGO mounted, my wife and I sought to seek relief and flew off to sunny Spain where we had a fun, relaxed vacation.
We landed in Madrid, taxied in to downtown where our Paris-based son was to meet us, only to find out he misunderstood when we were planning on arriving, so the hotel had us booked for the next week. Hmmm! What to do. So we called Paris, he arranged to fly down that night, and the hotel provided us accommodations for that evening.
Things went more smoothly after that. We visited the famous art museums (including the Reina, my wife’s name), managed to sample as many tapas bar as our stomachs would permit, and walked the streets and parks of Madrid. The architecture was wonderfully varied and exciting, so I was compelled to take scores of photos.
Next we hopped a fast speed train down to Seville and stayed in a quaint hostel in an out-of-the-way alley. In Seville the sun was extreme, the sky crystal blue, the people charming, and the food sumptuous. We walked the crowded, friendly streets, visited the beautiful cathedral and palace, and toured the Alcazar—a phenomenally beautiful mosque. While in Seville, we rented a driver and explored the surrounding countryside and mountain hill towns, their homes all white-washed and tiled in red, some built into the hillside rock formations and caves. The beauty of these towns and countryside compelled me to again take an uncommon number of photos.
My wife and I just recently returned from an exciting month’s travel to and through Bhutan and India. Bhutan is a small but progressive state on India’s northern border. It lies just south of Tibet and the Himalayas. The people are beautiful and welcoming, the mountains are spectacular, the government is caring (choosing to focus upon Gross National Happiness rather than GNP), and life there is serene, guided by the harmonious teachings of Buddhism.
India was a whirlwind of diversity and contradictions, with its emerging economic modernization in constant conflict with the traditions of ancient religions and the political corruption rampant in many third-world societies. While in the north central plains of India, we visited scores of temples, mosques, forts, palaces and monuments…each more wondrous than the last. We visited rural villages and met with the people; we were fortunate to spot of tigress in the wild; we rode a camel and an elephant; and we tasted a broad menu of Indian delights that constantly challenged our western palates. It goes without saying that the Taj Mahal is worthy of being 
considered one the Seven Wonders of the World. Life and death on the River Ganges in the holy city of Varanasi is unique unto itself, while life in cities like Kolkata, Delhi, Jaipur (the “pink” city) offers an organized chaos amidst levels of filth and poverty rarely seen in developed nations. In contrast, we were placed in five star hotels that reflected the immense wealth that has existed in India throughout history.
organized patterns of mobility, and a communist run government that is less tainted by corruption and more committed to serving the interests of its citizens. We visited a small and dwindling community of Jews in Cochin that dates back to the trade with Judea during the time of King Solomon. Throughout our journey we were fortunate to have some of the most personable and informative guides we have ever traveled with.
Hey POGO and friends. Here are a couple of the pictures I took on my trip to Australia in October. I’ve gotta say, it’s the best trip I’ve ever taken! Everything was so different from anything I’d ever experienced before (other than that this was the first country I’d been to where English was the native language, and even then, they speak their own wonderful version of the language)–the culture, the land, the people, and the critters.
Almost without exception, the Australians were friendly, tolerant, and humble almost to a fault. One night around a campfire, the head stockman of the station we were staying at played the didgeridoo for us. It was amazing to listen to, and we were all enthralled. At the end, though, James apologized to us for not playing it better!
The distances are unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, as well. Australia is comparable in size to the U.S., but is for the most part flat and sparsely populated. So when we drove somewhere, we drove for 200-400 kilometers to get there, and saw few if any other cars, houses, or people. And because the country was so wide open, you could look out the window or stand at the top of a hill and see forever.
The scenery across the country was spectacular, and each place I went to was so different from the place I’d been the day before. Arid or semi-arid desert in one place, rainforest in another, and ocean in yet another. One of my favorite places was Kings Canyon in Northern Territory. I was awed by the place, which was formed over millions of years by an inland sea, and then took its shape as over more millions of years the earth eroded.
And, of course, I got to see in the wild kangaroos, wallabies, a platapus, crocodiles, sea lions, penguins, wild camels, emu, brumbies, koalas, snakes, birds of so many colors and sizes, and so much more. All uniquely Australian (to one degree or another), and all so very fascinating.