Casablanca2011

Casablanca, located on the Atlantic Ocean, is the largest city in Morocco with a population of approximately three million. Casablanca is Morocco's largest city as well as its chief port. Many americans, born before 1942, when they hear Casablanca, think about the film Casablanca starring Humphrey Bogart. I admit, that if it isn’t my first thought it is my second, so we had to go see Rick’s Cafe where a lot of the action took place in the film. But then we found out that the film was shot in Tangiers and some entrepreneur built the bar after the film was made: as my granddaughter might say, “bummer”!

The Hassan II Mosque is the largest mosque in the country and the 2nd largest in the world after the Grand Mosque of Mecca. As many as 25,000 worship can worship at one time and another 80,000 can be accommodated on the grounds. Its minaret is the world's tallest at 690 ft.

Another shot of the Mosque.

Rick's Cafe. Looks good doesn't it?

The post office built around 1918.

Close-up of the Post office. Beautiful mosaic on the front entrance.

Some of the local beauties with the lovely Jenny!

Local market with the Medina Mosque in the background.

Malaga2011

Yeah, I know I didn’t know where it was also! I had to look it up. Malaga is located on the coast in the southern part of Spain; it is one of the oldest cities in the western world. Founded in the 8th century BC by the Phoenicians; its claim to fame: Pablo Picasso was born here in 1881.

Now that is about all I going to say about Malaga (you can go to the web site and get much more), since we spent our day in Mijas a beautiful resort village, with its white-washed homes, located about an hour from Malaga.

These beautiful white wash buildings in Mijas, located in the Sierras de Mijas mountains, was what I was attracted to when we saw all the information about our trip. It looked so beautiful and reminded me of scenes we saw years ago in the Mediterranean.

A side street in the village. I read somewhere that an ordinance existed that prevented any structure in the village that wasn't "White"!

I loved the informational signs!

The Immaculate Conception Church is set in a beautiful gardens, beside the famous bullring at the top of the old part of the village with breathtaking views down the mountain to the sea.

The Grotto of the Virgin de la Pena on the cliffs overlooking the valley; in fact "Pena" means Cliffs in Spanish. There is a interesting legend about this chapel, so check it out!

Valencia2011

Our next stop on our European trip was Valencia. It is a place we had been before but it had been about ten years, so we were excited about going back.

We had a great day in Valencia; I think we hit most of the high spots certainly every thing we wanted to see. We climbed to the top of the tower of the Valencia Cathedral, The Cathedral of the Holy Chalice. The climb just about wiped me out. After that we went for some lunch, pintcos which is some expensive snacks that Jenny just loved. We went to Sagardi Restaurant, and I think it made her day and was one of the highlights of her trip to Valencia. Then we went to the new Art & Science Campus; of course this was just great. All we could do is take picture after picture of all the beautiful buildings.

This is the Cathedral with the towel we climb in the foreground; it wasn't that we hadn't done it before!

Here is a picture of the Holy Chalice of the Last Supper. Check out the web site; supposedly many experts actually believe that it is the real item! I'm not convinced.

Jenny getting a lesson on how to "draw" the local fermented apple juice at Sagardi Restaurant. It was pretty good!

One of the side streets!

Just one of the many photos I took of the City of Arts and Sciences Campus.

Sorry! Just one more! This complex was built in the mid-1990's is at the end of the old riverbed Turia. Turia became a garden in 1980, after the bypass of the river by the great flood of Valencia in 1957.

Barcelona2011 - More

My daughter also traveled with us and I would advise not reading this blog but go to her blog at bluepoolroad to see how a professional blogs!

After Madrid, Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain with almost to two million people. It is such a diverse place that even though we have been there twice we haven’t begun to see much of this beautiful city.

The highlight of this trip was visiting the Picasso Museum located in the Old Quarters. The museum is located in five large town houses dating back to the 13th century. Of course there have been a lot of refurbishments over the years to convert to a museum. But it was beautifully done and one doesn’t even realize he is going from one townhouse to another. All of the paintings were arranged in chronological order which made it so easy to follow the changes in Picasso paintings over the years.

Afternoon snack by the Cathedral

Just one of many side streets in the Old Quarters.

Barcelona - 2011

So we are back from our European trip and to say we took a few pictures might be a slight understatement. I'm just glad we have gone digital and we do not have to print all of our pictures, the good ones and the really bad ones.

Our first stop was Barcelona, so since I posted a picture of La Sagrada Familia before we left, I thought it appropriate to start off with this beautiful, and very unusual cathedral.

The first thing that I notice this year was the number of people there to see the cathedral. There were buses everywhere and lines almost a block long to get into the cathedral. Ten years ago there was little or not wait.

The other thing I noticed was so many more cranes hovering over the construction. Maybe there is a big push to complete and also with all the people visiting maybe there is more money in the budget for construction. Completion date is estimated to be 2026, hundred years after the death designer, architect Antoni Gaudi.

This is basically the same view I took in 2000; it is a little closer since the trees now are taller and the same view would cover more of the cathedral.

The is the view from the other side.

Travel Photo -La Sagrada Familia

With my wife and I planning a European Cruise, in which we start in Barcelona, my thoughts go back to when we were in Barcelona in 2000. The picture above, as everyone I'm sure recognizes, is the La Sagrada Familia designed by Antoni Gaudi.

Gaudi began construction on La Sagrada Familia (Blessed Family) in 1882; died in 1928 with only a quarter of the church completed. The construction passed a mid-point in 2010 and was consecrated in November 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI . The anticipated completion date is about 2026.

We are anxious to see the changes that have been made to the church in the pass ten years.

AARP Tax-Aide

Another Tax season is over! Many of you know that I am a volunteer for the AARP Tax-Aide Program. The program is an IRS/AARP sanctioned free tax preparation service primarily for taxpayers with low and moderated income. Of course most of our clients are seniors but we serve non-seniors as well. It is a lot of work, which begins with training in November, but I receive much more from this service than I give.

Stockholm

I have been very fortunate to have been to Stockholm a couple times over the past fifty years, and I have always thought it was one of the most beautiful cities in Europe or maybe the world.

This is a slide I took in June 1958 of a street in Stockholm. I will have to search to see if I can find what this street looks like now! The camera I used was a 35mm Cita vintage about c1955.

This picture was taken in 2004 when we stopped in Stockholm on a Northern European Cruise. I loved these side streets; every corner you turn is like a "kodak" moment!

This shot was also taken in 2004 from the window of our hotel . I placed the camera on a ledge on our balcony for this shot; I am going to have to start taking a tripod on our trips!

Travel Photo - Munich, Germany

Here is a couple of pictures I took of the Konigsplaza in Munich, Germany in 1959 while my buddy and I were driving a 1947 Mercedes (not mine of course) from Rhein Main Air Force Base in Frankfurt to beautiful Lake Thun in Switzerland. We were very fortunate to have arrived just after a rain shower; I love the reflection in the payment.

Here is a current shot of the Konigsplaza; compliments of Wikipedia!

Enough!

Let's hope this past snow storm is the last for the winter, but I wouldn't bet the ranch on it! Right about now Sunny Carolina is looking good!

Travel Photo - Lisbon, Portugal

Portugal has been on my mind recently since we have booked a European cruise that goes from Barcelona to Copenhagen this summer. We are really looking forward to this trip; it is on Oceania's newest vessel Marina.

This is a slide I took of a street in Lisbon c1958; I scanned the slide to convert it to digital and I cannot get over the colors after all these years!

Golden Corral

Happiness is having a Golden Corral in your neighbor! Now I can have fried chicken, fried fish, and hush puppies every night!

Egypt - Abu Simbel

Jenny and I were fortunate to be able to go to Egypt recently to see some of the amazing ruins and antiquities dating back some 5000 plus years. The Egyptian Government, with the help of many other governments, have done a beautiful job of restoring some of these priceless work of arts: yes works of art.

On day nine we had to get up about 5:00am to catch a flight from Aswan to Abu Simbel to see Rameses II temple. This was an optional tour and although I was getting a little tired of seeing beautiful temples, we had booked the tour before we left the States, so off we went. I’m glad we did go because it was fantastic!

Jenny and I have flown on many airlines in different countries, and when we or at lease I, take the first domestic flight in a country; I get a little apprehensive! Of course it helped that we had already flown from Cairo. Both of our flights were as good as it gets when one talks about all the hassles one gets when he flies. The Aswan Airport had security guards everywhere: read military. This was the first airport I ever had to show identification and flight itinerary before entering the airport.

Abu Simbel is about 150 miles southwest of Aswan and located on the western bank of Lake Nasser. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Monuments called “Nubian Monuments” which includes sites as far north as the Philae Temple just south of Aswan, a temple we visited he next day, of course!

Lake Nasser is over 340 miles long, with about 270 miles of the lake in Egypt and the rest in Sudan; where the lake is called Lake Nubia. There are two dams built in Cairo which created this massive lake; Aswan Low dam completed in 1902 and Aswan High Dam completed about 1970. The first dam wasn’t was large enough to control the flooding therefore the large High Dam was constructed.

I wanted to introduced Lake Nasser first because Abu Simbel Temple (actually two temples at this site but I refer to both singularly) had to be moved when the High Dam was built otherwise it would have been flooded and lost forever. The two temples was moved around 1964 over 200 feet higher and about 660 feet west of the lake. This unbelievable engineering feat was financed by international donations under the direction of UNESCO with archeologists, engineers and skilled construction workers from around the world.

This is a model of Abu Simbel site which shows where the site is now compared to where it originally was located. Today the lake is several feet above the original site.

The site as it looks today; Ramses II temple is on the left and Queen Nefertari is on the right.

A closeup shot of the facade Rameses II Temple.

Egypt - Karnak Temple

The Karnak Temple comprises a vast mix of ruined temples, chapels, pylons, and other buildings, also known as the great Temple of Amun; Construction begun by Pharaoh Ramses II (ca. 1391–1351 BC) and was added to by virtually every Pharaoh for the next thirteen centuries. It is located near Luxor, about 300 miles south of Cairo. The Karnak complex takes its name from the nearby village of el-Karnak just north of Luxor.

For the largely uneducated ancient Egyptian population this Temple could only have been the place of the gods. It is the mother of all religious buildings, the largest ever made and a place of pilgrimage for nearly 4,000 years. Although todays pilgrims are mainly tourists. It covers about 200 acres.

Entrance to Karnak

The huge, intricate, carved pillars of the great Hypostyle Hall.

The granite obelisks erected by Hatshepsut at Karnak in the mid fifteen century B.C. to the great god Amun were among the most magnificent ever constructed. She commissioned hundreds of statues of herself and left accounts in stone of her lineage, her titles, her history. On one of her obelisks at Karnak she inscribed: "Now my heart turns this way and that, as I think what the people will say. Those who see my monuments in years to come, and who shall speak of what I have done."

Just one of many statues located at Karnak

Travel Photo - Yosemite - Cathedral Rock

Our daughter lives in LA so on a trip to visit in 2005, we all went to Yosemite National Park for a few days. As I remembered, it rained most of the time but that made for some great waterfall shots. This one is one: Angel Falls. Beautiful!

Travel Photo -Hong Kong

Followers of this blog will remember I had a "Photo Of the Week" category, but since I haven't been able to post weekly, I have replaced it with some of my travel photos taken over the past, well, fifty plus years.

I start with on of my favorites: Junk in Hong Kong Harbor, taken in 1982. While I was living in living Hong Kong, I always thought that the Hong Tourist Association would pay someone from China to cruise the harbor periodically so all of the tourist could take this shot and go home and show it to family and friends; the results would be, "Boy, I want to go there and see that"!

Egypt - Hatshepsut

Jenny and I were fortunate to be able to go to Egypt recently to see some of the amazing ruins and antiquities dating back some 5000 plus years. The Egyptian Government, with the help of many other governments, have done a beautiful job of restoring some of these priceless work of arts: yes works of art.

We saw so many tombs and temples that as I write this, I cannot remember what was what? But Hatshepsut I remember well because its beauty and, well a woman Pharaoh, although not the first; in fact her name means. “noble lady”. Most Egyptologists considered her to be one of the the most successful pharaohs. She ruled for a little more than twenty years in the mid fifteen century BC. It must have been difficult to rule and accepted as a woman, and just maybe that must have been why she depicted herself in many of her surviving images as a man.

Hatshepsut also is credited with being one of the greatest builders of of all the dynasties. The obelisks at Karnak, which I will be posting later, is among tallest and most magnificent ever constructed.

This Hatshepsut mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri, one of my favorites of the temples that we saw. What a beautiful temple and to think it was built in the around 1460BC.

Close up shots of Hatshepsut; notice the beard!

Jenny and the security people at Hatshepsut!

Just one example of the intricate art work inside the temple.

Large granite sphinx bearing the likeness of the pharaoh Hatshepsut, depicted with the traditional false beard in the Metropolitan Museum.