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I had no idea this existed, let alone that I would be here one day
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Checking out the Christmas lights, and dodging the rain drops!
posted in: Night Life, Smartphone, Travel
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A little time out in the mountains of North Georgia to get in the Christmas mood.
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Palermo Sicily
We arrived in Palermo to the news that there would be a general strike in the city that day. No expectation that it would interfere too much with any of our plans but, you just never know. Truthfully, Palermo has a big city feel, lots of hustle and bustle. When you throw in a general strike to the mix, well it feels very chaotic. Very unlike the peaceful streets of Erice, or the peaceful feel of Tuscany that we would experience later in the trip. In retrospect though, it may have been a good warmup for Rome. 😉
Trapani Sicily
Erice Sicily
After a day of sailing, which included a very relaxing day of checking out the ship, eating way too much, and attending high tea, our next port of call was in Sicily. We pulled into Trapani on Thursday morning to a party cloudy day. Our morning was filled with a scheduled excursion out beyond Trapani though, to the mountain town of Erice. Erice fascinated me because of both it’s mountain views and the way in which this little town has seemingly been preserved for centuries, all the while still functioning as a home to locals.
I knew Erice would satisfy my desire to see the old ways of life in Sicily, but I wasn’t so sure about how it would be for photography. Turns out, I needn’t have worried. There was plenty to see up there.
Palma de Majorca
After spending the morning exploring Valldemossa, I had a couple of hours left to wander around Palma before it was time to board the ship. Our tour bus driver was kind enough to make a stop right at the Cathedral before heading back to the ship, and since the Cathedral was the one thing I most wanted to see, I took advantage of that!
Valldemossa Majorca
The next port on our grand adventure was Palma de Majorca Spain, but before I could set about exploring Palma, I had scheduled a half-day excursion up into the Tramuntana mountains to visit the village of Valldemossa.
Valencia Spain
Our first port of call after leaving Barcelona was Valencia, Spain. The wife and I decided not to do any of the excursions from Valencia, choosing instead to just take the shuttle bus from the port into the center of town and then walk around on our own all day. Naturally, we had done some research and she had a map with points of interest we wanted to see already marked on it. (One of the bonuses of being married to a travel/event planner!)
First on our list was the Valencia Cathedral, which lays claim to being home to the Holy Grail. Is it really? Who knows, but even Wikipedia gives it the best shot of being the true grail of all the places that claim to have it. Any way you look at it, the Cathedral is still a beautiful place to visit, and also happens to be home to a couple of paintings by Goya, which ain’t too shabby.
Fall Vacation First Stop Barcelona
posted in: Landscape, Night Life, Travel
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Unfortunately, since Barcelona was our departing port for our cruise, we didn’t really get to see much of the city itself. What we did see was either from the back seat of a taxi, or from the deck of the ship in port.
However, the lovely weather, great sunset and night time lights did provide a few chances to grab some photos from the ship.
You can see the small set of photos from this stop over on Flickr. Barcelona is definitely a place I want to go back to, based on what little I’ve seen so far of it. Much more to come over the next few days, but I do have about 1700 photos to weed through first… 😉
More Cruise 2013 Pics