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.

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.

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 - 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!

Egypt - Ancient City of Memphis

Jenny and I were fortunate to be able to go to Egypt recently to see some of the amazing ruins 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.

In this posting I wanted to go to the ancient city of Memphis, which doesn’t exist today but there are a number of modern cities that lie within the old historical borders of ancient Memphis. The ruins are about 15 miles south of Cairo.

The Step pyramid or the Pyramid of Djoser is the oldest of the pyramids and built about a hundred years prior to the Pyramids of Giza. What started as a single step, ended with the six steps by the end of Djoser approximately nineteen year rule. It is easy to see how the pharaohs transition from the step pyramid to the true pyramids of Giza.

Shot taken inside the Temple of Djoser.

Ramesses II statue is currently in a temporary museum just outside of Memphis. The 32oo year old statue was reconstructed in Cairo in the mid-fifties, but taken down because of the deterioration from the city. This 83 ton statue will be moved next year to the new Grand Egyptian Museum due to be completed in Cairo in 2011.

Ramesses II statue in the open air archeological museum in Memphis. There are many statues of Rameses the Great in Egypt; he rule for over sixty years and lived to be over ninety years old. I will be discussing his Abu Simbel Temple later.

Picture taken in Cairo, not Memphis, but wanted to show this picture. As I indicated earlier, Egypt is a third world country. I saw this scene many, many times and of course more frequently outside of the big cities. It reminded me of some of the pictures I took in the early eighties in the interior of China.

Egypt - Giza - November 2010

Jenny and I were fortunate to be able to go to Egypt recently to see some of the amazing ruins 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. As a result. many of the sites we saw are in really good condition.

I have so many pictures to post I will break it down to several posts in keeping with, what I think, that short posts would be better for all.

Great Sphinx, as a symbol of Egypt, is as easily recognizable site as the pyramids. Built probably about 50 years or after the pyramids.

A close-up of the Great Sphinx. I had to crop this picture in order to get it without so many people around. As with many of our world Heritage Site, we are loving these sites too much. I hope they will be here for my great-children to see!

The three Pyramids of Giza: Khufu, Kafhre, and Menkaura built in honor of three Kings around 2600BC. The oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the only one still in existence.

As you can see, the city is fast encroaching upon the Giza Pyramids.

Jenny enjoying the local culture!

Trip South: Max Patch

Jenny has always thought she would like to hike the Appalachian Trail, yes all 22oo plus miles. Last year she read an article about a local man who took three months to hike it with details of problems faced during the trip; he said he wore out two pairs of shoes.

The Max Patch is a very popular section of the Appalachian Trail where day hikers can go and and get a taste, however, a very little taste! While at the Max Patch, Jenny met a lady who was hiking part of the trail; she was carrying a forty-five pound back pack that Jenny could barely pick-up. Jenny no longer talks about hiking the Appalachian as one of her, “Bucket List”.

The Max Patch, located in the Hot Springs township of NC, about one hour northwest of Asheville, NC

Jenny hiking the Appalachian Trail!

Trip South - 2010

Jenny and I just returned from a two week trip down south where we attended the Epsilon Alfa Chapter (HPU) Brothers of the Sixties Theta Chi Reunion in Asheville, NC, Greenville, SC to see the Andrew Wyeth Collection at the Greenville County Museum and then to Raleigh area to visit family and especially to attend a party at my niece Dana and her husband Craig's house to welcome my nephew, Ryan home from the Army and Afghanistan and my niece, Lisa, home on an R & R trip from Afghanistan. It was a great party and great to see not only Ryan & Lisa but everyone. More on this trip on later blogs.

Here is just a couple of shots of the trip:

Maj Coleman "serving" Sgt Braswell a piece of the celebration cake!

On every trip south, one must stop at a Bojangles to get a country ham and biscuit or a spicy chicken and biscuit. Great!

I love this shot of my sister's Shirley refrigerator.

Photo of the Week # 32 - Iguazu Falls

Igauzu Falls, with 270 different falls, it is the widest falls in the world, but not the highest; Victoria Falls has that record. The above picture was taken on our trip to South America in 2006.

Photo of the Week # 29 - Yosemite

Every time I go to the Hyde House and see Bierstadt's Yosemite Valley with the Cliffs of El Capitan on the left and Cathedral Rock with the Bridal Veil Falls on the right, I think of the picture I took on our trip there in 2005. This is the same view as Bierstadt painted in 1865, but my picture isn't anywhere as good as his!

Photo of the Week #28 - Venice

Yes, one of the many, many pictures I took while we were in Venice in 2001. This was the end of our European trip.

Photo of the Week #24 - Cambodia

The picture above was taken in 2008 and is probably one of the world's most frequently photographed. This is Angkor Wat Temple; hundreds of temples were built by the Khmer civilization between 800 and 1220 AD. These temples are truly on of man's astonishing feats considering when built. Also I was amazed just how many are still standing and in fact Angkor is still being used today.

NYC Trip - May 2010

I love NYC; that is I love to visit NYC. There is so much going on: the crowds (I know I’m not too keen on crowds but...), museums, great restaurants, and exploring different parts of the City. If there be a drawback, it is so expensive!

This trip was made primarily to see Peggy and attend the stationery show at the Jacob Javits Convention Center. Peggy had several of her new designs on display by Crane & Company, as a result of winning a nationwide contest to find three young designers. In her they found the best! I'm told that they are going to market these three designers under "Studio Stationery Designs" and not part of Crane & Company. I went of the web site and I cannot see it, but maybe later.

Of course we had time to check out some museums and explore the City, again. We went to The High LIne Park in the former Meatpacking district. Check it out! Although not finished, we thoroughly enjoyed the area. Of course what was more important was the dinner at the Standard Grill. Just an enjoyable night. See Peggy’s May 28th blog “Friday Yumminess” post. She really makes you hungry!

Peggy at the Crane Booth with her designs on the top row on the left.

Jenny & Peggy in front of the Crane & Co. display.

Speaking of exploring the City! We went to Flushing to check out the area. I got to see the Mets Citi Field, but no game. The Chinese food left something to be desired.

We checked out the National Academy Museum, but unfortunately they had a special exhibition, so we were unable to see the permanent collection.

Mother and daughter trying to see who is the tallest!They are standing in front of the American Building of the Metropolitan Museum. Oh, the Picasso Exhibition is great! It continues until August 15, 2010, so don't miss it!

A hidden treasure! I saw the Morris Jumel Mansion on a NYC travel show several months ago and wanted to check it out. It is located Upper Westside, but worth checking out if you are a history buff. We also went to the Gracie Manor located on the Upper East Side; but don't go without reservations.

Photo of the Week #21 - South America

Although I have to admit I haven't been very diligent in posting to my blog especially "Photo of the Week" since it has been a number of weeks, maybe months, since I have posted a picture. But tax season is over and now I have more time.

One of the many side streets in Cusco, Peru. Picture was taken in 2006 on our cruise around South America.