Budget Friendly, Green European Travel Options Budget-friendly bicycles for rent in Seville, Spain “Are you looking for budget friendly ways to travel in Europe without harming the environment? I wrote this post for the Uptake blog and outlined some alternative forms of transportation. While Americans like to travel by automobile, in some parts of [...]
No one snoozed in the pews when visiting Santiago City’s church service. “It was theatrical,” marveled Lafayette’s Marcia Linn. “There were four monks harnessed in a basket that allowed them to work a pulley system to propel an incense burner filled with hot coals fifty feet into the air. Every day we saw hundreds of [...]
Nancy Brown with her mother Janet Mooers at Espani Fountain in Zaragoza, Spain circa 2007 Traveling with multi-generations THE TRAVELERS: Lafayette, California mom and consultant Nancy Brown, age 40-plus; and her mother, Janet Mooers, former Moraga resident and international traveler, age 80-plus. THE TREK IN A SEC: This mother-daughter duo was Barcelona-bound. [...]
San Sebastian While "the rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain" according to Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) in the 1964 film "My Fair Lady," the rain in Spain that our tour group encountered fell mainly in the resort town of San Sebastian. As Hemingway reflected in "The Sun Also Rises": "The trees seem [...]
It was noon in Pamplona's Plaza de Castillo. A cacaphony of bells exploded from every direction as if competiting for a mother's attention. "Look at me. My bells chime loudly." In fact, the calamity was almost comical. Our Tour Guide, Francisco Glaria of Novotur Guides, had not only run with the bulls, (don't tell his mother) he had also [...]
Titanium coated Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain In the former industrial city of 354,000 residents, Bilbao has transformed itself from the once ugly ogre to the dashing young prince of the Vizcaya Province. Once surrounded by cranes, container ships and sludge, the rejuvinated city straddled by the Nervion River, now offers public [...]