Those walls are dividing the property amongst the many different owners of the land.
A perfect depiction of the Yorkshire Dales.
Always living "on the edge."
Sep 22, 2006
Sep 18, 2006
Up and running!
THIS SITE IS NO LONGER UNDER CONSTRUCTION...
I just finished the last entry on Spain below. Enjoy!
YESTERDAY:
I am in the process of posting some text to go along with the new pictures below, but got interrupted by my "marital duties" of cooking dinner. Check the site tomorrow for the completion of this blog entry! :)
I just finished the last entry on Spain below. Enjoy!
YESTERDAY:
I am in the process of posting some text to go along with the new pictures below, but got interrupted by my "marital duties" of cooking dinner. Check the site tomorrow for the completion of this blog entry! :)
Calella
Our last stop in Spain was Calella. It is described as "one of the most beautiful villages on the coast." The city has embraced tourism without being swamped by it giving you the feeling of the true lifestyle of the locals. There is a relaxed charm about the place and it is truly an enjoyable town with a population of only 17,000.
With our 2:30 pm departure from Girona, we arrived in Calella around 4. We checked into our room, walked to the local grocery for some snacks, and headed straight to the beach. As you can see from the pictures below, the beach was a convenient 1 minute walk from our room. We camped out there until the sun went down around 7-8. It was so wonderful to feel the warmth of the sun beat down on our skin again in contrast to the cloudy skies in Harrogate. The beach we laid out on only had a few differences than one you might find in Redondo Beach, CA. First of all, the sand is extremely course and is more like pebbles. And secondly, you might find that about 10-15% of the locals, both male and female, are at the beach dressed a little differently than what we're used to, if you know what I mean. It was unique... to say the least. We just tried to mingle more with the touristy crowd and mind our own business.
The remainder of the night was spent walking around town and getting dinner. We couldn't resist the local pizzeria and were comforted by the food that reminded us of home. After dinner, we had some gilato (amazing Italian ice cream) and went on a romantic evening stroll. Ahhh, it was paradise... Writing this entry is making me want to go back!
Day #2 in Calella was in my opinion the highlight of the whole trip and quite possibly one of the most wonderful days in my life. By 1:00 we were heading out into the Mediterranean Sea with everything we needed for the next 7 hours. We rented a motorboat and snorkeling gear, bought a raft, and were fully stocked with all the delicious food a girl could want. The rest of the day was spent in complete and utter relaxation soaking in the sun and basking in the glory of the day with my husband... It was a day of luxury.
We stopped at several coves and beaches along the coast and found many good snorkeling spots. One of the most surprising things of the day was how the sea was completely loaded with jellyfish! At one point when Brandon was driving the boat I said, "What's all those brown, round things I keep seeing in the water?" He didn't know. It wasn't until Brandon was snorkeling and saw one of those "brown, round things" only 2 feet from his face did he realize that they were jellyfish! From that point on, we were on the lookout in attempt to avoid them as much as possible. We saw over 10 HUGE, white ones that were so beautiful and cool to watch swim around. Their movements were so smooth and angelic and it looked like they were floating in slow motion. The jellyfish were also a little scary and we certainly kept our distance. We had to return the boat by 8 PM that night, but the whole day was just so perfect! It couldn't have been planned any better.
Our last night in Spain was similar to most evenings on vacation: relaxing, soaking in our environment, getting some dinner, and walking around in town. And of course, we had to get our last fill of gilato in before our departure back England and real life.
Spain is an amazing place and the trip was more than I could have hoped for. A big thank you goes out to my wonderful husband who did all the research, all the planning, made all the phone calls and reservations, and provided all of the funding. :) Three cheers for España! Hip, hip hooray.
With our 2:30 pm departure from Girona, we arrived in Calella around 4. We checked into our room, walked to the local grocery for some snacks, and headed straight to the beach. As you can see from the pictures below, the beach was a convenient 1 minute walk from our room. We camped out there until the sun went down around 7-8. It was so wonderful to feel the warmth of the sun beat down on our skin again in contrast to the cloudy skies in Harrogate. The beach we laid out on only had a few differences than one you might find in Redondo Beach, CA. First of all, the sand is extremely course and is more like pebbles. And secondly, you might find that about 10-15% of the locals, both male and female, are at the beach dressed a little differently than what we're used to, if you know what I mean. It was unique... to say the least. We just tried to mingle more with the touristy crowd and mind our own business.
The remainder of the night was spent walking around town and getting dinner. We couldn't resist the local pizzeria and were comforted by the food that reminded us of home. After dinner, we had some gilato (amazing Italian ice cream) and went on a romantic evening stroll. Ahhh, it was paradise... Writing this entry is making me want to go back!
Day #2 in Calella was in my opinion the highlight of the whole trip and quite possibly one of the most wonderful days in my life. By 1:00 we were heading out into the Mediterranean Sea with everything we needed for the next 7 hours. We rented a motorboat and snorkeling gear, bought a raft, and were fully stocked with all the delicious food a girl could want. The rest of the day was spent in complete and utter relaxation soaking in the sun and basking in the glory of the day with my husband... It was a day of luxury.
We stopped at several coves and beaches along the coast and found many good snorkeling spots. One of the most surprising things of the day was how the sea was completely loaded with jellyfish! At one point when Brandon was driving the boat I said, "What's all those brown, round things I keep seeing in the water?" He didn't know. It wasn't until Brandon was snorkeling and saw one of those "brown, round things" only 2 feet from his face did he realize that they were jellyfish! From that point on, we were on the lookout in attempt to avoid them as much as possible. We saw over 10 HUGE, white ones that were so beautiful and cool to watch swim around. Their movements were so smooth and angelic and it looked like they were floating in slow motion. The jellyfish were also a little scary and we certainly kept our distance. We had to return the boat by 8 PM that night, but the whole day was just so perfect! It couldn't have been planned any better.
Our last night in Spain was similar to most evenings on vacation: relaxing, soaking in our environment, getting some dinner, and walking around in town. And of course, we had to get our last fill of gilato in before our departure back England and real life.
Spain is an amazing place and the trip was more than I could have hoped for. A big thank you goes out to my wonderful husband who did all the research, all the planning, made all the phone calls and reservations, and provided all of the funding. :) Three cheers for España! Hip, hip hooray.
Sep 15, 2006
Girona
How did we land ourselves in Girona you may be wondering? What amazing castle or famous cathedral does this place have to offer? I too was curious about the answer to that question. So I asked my personal travel agent, Brandon, "Why Girona?" He answered, "Because the airport took us here." Apparently, there was nothing extraordinary about the place that led us to spend 1 of our 5 days there. It was merely because the city was close in proximity to the airport and was an accessible place to stay as we made our way between Barcelona and Calella.
Although it initially was nothing more than a mid-way stopping point between the two "real" locations, it turned out to be the neatest, most enchanting town.
We arrived in Girona late in the evening around 8ish-9ish on day #2 of our vacation. We checked into our hotel, ate dinner, walked around the city, and called it a night. However, there a few details I'd like to go into about these activities. First of all, I failed to mention a unique thing we learned about Spain's culture in my first entry about Barcelona. So I will share it with you now.
The timeframe in which people in Spain operate is very unusual. I would say an average American's schedule is to get up, eat breakfast around 6-9, lunch is around 12-1, and dinner is known to be anywhere from 6-8. The British lifestyle is also along the same timeframe. In Spain however, everyone operates on a completely different schedule. I don't know when breakfast is exactly, but it seemed to be a little later than usual like 8-10 AM. But then lunch is served anytime from 2-4 PM! Restaurants aren't even open for business until 2:00! I'm over there dying for food at 12:30 and we can't find a place that's open! We had to resort to the train station's cafeteria... which had a good amount of breakfast food still available. And THEN there's dinner. I'll just say that it was quite normal for our main course to be placed on our table at 10:45 PM. And at 11:30 PM, when we were just finishing up dinner, the whole town would still be alive and out eating. So different; I was blown away. But surprisingly, after day 1, it was fairly easy to switch over to their ways. Anyhow, I thought it was interesting.
So night #1 in Girona, we ate at a place called... Yeah, I forget the name, but, that's not what's important. I wanted to tell you about the food we had. We partook in a very popular food tradition over there called Tapas. It's where instead of ordering one main meal, the menu consists of a ton of small portion items. So you pick out 5 different meals and get to enjoy lots of different tastes. We loved the idea and the food was all quite delicious.
The next morning we walked around the city some more and took lots of pictures. We headed out for Calella around 2:30. That's it for this week. Hope everyone has a great weekend.
"Be kind and be courteous."
Although it initially was nothing more than a mid-way stopping point between the two "real" locations, it turned out to be the neatest, most enchanting town.
We arrived in Girona late in the evening around 8ish-9ish on day #2 of our vacation. We checked into our hotel, ate dinner, walked around the city, and called it a night. However, there a few details I'd like to go into about these activities. First of all, I failed to mention a unique thing we learned about Spain's culture in my first entry about Barcelona. So I will share it with you now.
The timeframe in which people in Spain operate is very unusual. I would say an average American's schedule is to get up, eat breakfast around 6-9, lunch is around 12-1, and dinner is known to be anywhere from 6-8. The British lifestyle is also along the same timeframe. In Spain however, everyone operates on a completely different schedule. I don't know when breakfast is exactly, but it seemed to be a little later than usual like 8-10 AM. But then lunch is served anytime from 2-4 PM! Restaurants aren't even open for business until 2:00! I'm over there dying for food at 12:30 and we can't find a place that's open! We had to resort to the train station's cafeteria... which had a good amount of breakfast food still available. And THEN there's dinner. I'll just say that it was quite normal for our main course to be placed on our table at 10:45 PM. And at 11:30 PM, when we were just finishing up dinner, the whole town would still be alive and out eating. So different; I was blown away. But surprisingly, after day 1, it was fairly easy to switch over to their ways. Anyhow, I thought it was interesting.
So night #1 in Girona, we ate at a place called... Yeah, I forget the name, but, that's not what's important. I wanted to tell you about the food we had. We partook in a very popular food tradition over there called Tapas. It's where instead of ordering one main meal, the menu consists of a ton of small portion items. So you pick out 5 different meals and get to enjoy lots of different tastes. We loved the idea and the food was all quite delicious.
The next morning we walked around the city some more and took lots of pictures. We headed out for Calella around 2:30. That's it for this week. Hope everyone has a great weekend.
"Be kind and be courteous."
Sep 8, 2006
Barcelona
We arrived back from Spain safely on Tuesday night. The trip was awesome! We traveled to 3 different cities and took a total of 250 pictures. We started out in Barcelona, then went to Girona, and ended up in Callela. Because there's so many pictures to post and so much to say I'm going to do one city at a time.
Barcelona is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe, due to its great climate and culture. It has several renowned museums as well as famous modernist architecture. Two of the architects that I was most familiar with are Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe and Antoni Gaudi. You will see their work scattered in the pictures below. Barcelona is a bilingual city: Catalan and Spanish are both official and widely spoken... Brandon and I speak neither, haha. But somehow we managed to get around fine. :)
During our time in Barcelona we just did all the touristy things: visited all the hot spots, took a walking tour of the city, and saw what the hype of Barcelona is all about. The weather was quite nice at about 85 degrees. The pictures below will tell a better story about our time than I can describe in words. So enjoy... :)
Barcelona is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe, due to its great climate and culture. It has several renowned museums as well as famous modernist architecture. Two of the architects that I was most familiar with are Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe and Antoni Gaudi. You will see their work scattered in the pictures below. Barcelona is a bilingual city: Catalan and Spanish are both official and widely spoken... Brandon and I speak neither, haha. But somehow we managed to get around fine. :)
During our time in Barcelona we just did all the touristy things: visited all the hot spots, took a walking tour of the city, and saw what the hype of Barcelona is all about. The weather was quite nice at about 85 degrees. The pictures below will tell a better story about our time than I can describe in words. So enjoy... :)
The RyanAir flight (also known as the "sky pub" according to Brandon) that took us to Spain. The extremely cheap tickets might explain why the seats don't recline, there's no complimentary drink or food service, the leg room is a joke, and there's not even a pocket available for magazines. But hey, you can get to Spain for $50 roundtrip so we're not complaining!
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