Portugal

The old women there really did dress like this--unless they were widowed. Then they wore similar outfits all in black. I loved them and took a number of photos of women walking down the street, but this one is my favorite.

I'm lumping all of the Portugal photos together mostly because we only had a couple of days there and it was at the end of my trip, so I took fewer. I've posted some of my favorites from here before, but I'm adding these ones to my list. Thanks for looking...we're nearly done our tour of Southern Spain and Central Portugal.

Cordoba, Spain

The first photos are from the Good Friday celebrations for Semana Santa in Cordoba. Unfortunately, there was a lot of rain this year and most of the celebrations were cancelled. That day, they did do a shortened procession as the citizens were so anxious for something to happen. It was great--much different from Granada(not that it wasn't fabulous in Granada--just much more rambunctious there). Here, people were silent and it made for an eery kind of scene with the incense and the black hooded penitent. Attending these ceremonies was, for me, the highlight of our trip. The middle picture is an example of inside The Mezquita where Muslim culture truly collided with Christianity in a way that it only can in Spain. The last three photos were from a procession where they transported a crucifiction cross from church to church accompanied by these macho soldiers. It was an incredible event. This cross spends 12 hours inside each church before moving on to the next one in celebration of holy week. Thanks for looking.

Granada, Spain and The Alhambra

Granada was by far, my favorite city. These photos do not even come close to capturing the essence of coolness that oozes down every street. The first shot is of the famous Alhambra. We hiked up to the photo taking spot and there was this amazing group of street performers. They sounded just like the Gypsy Kings. It was so great that I think the photo I have of just the Alhambra pales in comparison to the one with them playing in front of it. So, that's what I've posted. It is a totally artsy city and the graffiti is soooo cool. Canadians are far too polite to graffiti like this(at least, Albertans are). And, then the last three photos are of inside the Alhambra. The first being inside the palace, the second in the garden, and the third a manhole cover. I thought it was neat how everywhere you went there were these unique manhole covers. Anyways...thanks for looking! If you are heading to Granada--we know a fabulous place to stay ;)

Casa Batllo, Barcelona, Spain

So, I have had many requests for photos from my trip...the only thing is I took close to 3,000 and it took me a long time to process the chosen ones. So, over the next little while, I'll litter my blog with my favorites. These are my favorites from the private residence designed by Gaudi--the Casa Batllo in Barcelona. Not your typical vacation photos...and don't expect those. Bob would want me to warn you that there is only one photo of the two of us as I only relinquished my precious camera once. There are maybe...maaaayyybbee 20 of Bob. But, my slideshow has 500...hmmm...do I have a problem?

POTD: Something Old

Not as old as some of my other posts, but this is about a hundred years old I think. This is a door on the entrance to the world's most visited construction site--La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. Gaudi was for me, the primary reason to visit Barcelona and I was not disappointed. His work is amazing. Hard to capture in images, but I thought that this was cool. Thanks for all the positive feedback. It has been a major ego boost posting the last couple of days.
Just to answer your question, Lorrie, most of these churches still have regular services(not Sagrada obviously as it is not completed). In fact, in Spain they were all decked out in Easter glory--lots of silver and gold and huge bouquets of flowers--white, red and purple. It was fabulous! Thanks for looking.

POTD: Something Old

This picture was taken in Alcobaca, Portugal at the Mosteiro de Santa Maria which is the oldest church in Portugal having been founded in 1153. Yet another photo from my trip. Thanks for all the comments yesterday. We had a fabulous trip and I took over 2500 photos. My husband bought me a little 30gig mp3 player which could store any type of file so I could shoot in raw without having to have more than three cards. It's a Toshiba if any of you are interested. And, the trampolining classes are much like gymnastics with a heavy focus on trampoline. It is an olympic sport, but my 2 and 4 year old just like to jump and the time worked out for our schedule. Lucky us to have a gym here in Okotoks that trains trampoline artists. Thanks again to everyone.

POTD: Something Old

Lucky for me this week is 'something old'. Now I can concentrate on all my photos from my trip and still have a post everyday! This is a statue in the gardens of The Alcazar in Sevilla, Spain. Thanks for looking!

POTD: Something Old

Something old and something new...the castle walls in Obidos, Portugal and the new flowers of a cherry tree. The castle was built by the Moors in the 12th century. How's that for old?!

POTD: Me on the beach in Nazare Portugal

So, sometimes the emotion is all in how you see a photo. This is a picture of me that my husband took on the beach at Nazare. It is my favorite photo of me from our trip. He kept taking shots of me and I kept not being thrilled with the results. Then, after a night of drinking much wine and port(notice the color of my lips), I explained to him the rule of thirds. This is the resulting photo. I love it. It was so cold and wet that night and it totally captures that. So, I didn't take it, but I love it.

POTD: Emotions

So, I'm kind of on topic...These were taken at a cancelled Semana Santa procession in Granada, Spain. I was told that the church works all year looking forward to this one day when they parade their 400 year old floats(called Paros) through the street in all their glory. The only problem is the virgin Mary and Jesus statues are made of plaster and cannot be outside in the rain or they will be destroyed. It rained the whole week in Granada--which is very unusual--so every procession was cancelled. The people were very upset. The band did play and we were brought into the church to view the floats. There everyone was shouting in Spanish "Aurora: Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful"...Aurora means the dawn and was the name of the specific Virgin Mary they were there to pay respect to. It was very emotional(honestly, I even shed a tear or two). So, the first photo is of the crowd shouting as they got inside the church(it's in black and white as, honestly, there are issues with the color one that I am having trouble resolving). The second photo is an outside shot of the crowd just to give you an idea of how many people were there. And, the third photo is of the band members after they had played.

POTD: What I did on my Easter holiday...

These photos were taken on Easter Sunday during the resurection procession for Semana Santa celebrations in Sevilla, Spain. We had an awesome time on our trip and particularly enjoyed participating in Semana Santa in the cities we visited. It was refreshing compared to North America's attempt to commercialize every holiday we have to see a country who embraces their culture and takes 4 days off of working to celebrate their beliefs in glorious fashion with their families. No chocolate easter bunnies here...just a few hard candies passed out by the penitent(the guys in the hoods--not just white as seen here, but black, purple). The emotion is raw, the excitement of being packed into a tiny street with thousands of others while we watch the procession is unsurpassed. We were sad not to be with our own kids on Easter, but what a way to spend it! Next year I will buy white, red and purple flowers and decorate our house with a little Spanish flair.