Too Much Fun and Where to Eat in the Boqueria Market, Barcelona, Spain
The Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria in Barcelona, Spain, is a food and wine lover’s paradise. It is one of the best tourist attractions in the city. Here, your eyes can be bigger than your stomach. So, watch out! Most dishes are huge enough to share by two people. Remember you can always […]
Bilbao, Spain: The Guggenheim Museum and More
Jump to now, North Carolina, USA, where I am this weekend for Becky and Al’s wedding. She is a Women’s Creative Writing and Yoga Retreat friend. (Registrations for 2016 are coming in. If you want to attend, make your reservation soon.) And, now I’m going backward in time: To choose and edit more Spain photographs from […]
A Glimpse of Dali’s Jewelry: Surreal Glitz and Glam in Figueres, Spain
As you may have guessed, I’m back in the U.S.A. recovering from jet lag in my sister’s NoCal home, though missing my morning cup of Spanish espresso. Fuerte. Muy fuerte. My body is still in the state of “Does anyone know what time it is?” Memories of Spain are swirling in my brain, especially the […]
Artist Salvador Dali at Port Lligat, Girona, Spain
Port Lligat on Spain’s Costa Brava, is a niche in the rock wall coast line of the Mediterranean Sea, just around the bend from Cadaques. This tiny fishing village is where surrealist artist Salvador Dali lived and painted for most of his adult life. We ended up here more or less by accident, since we had […]
Why Visit Girona, Spain?
Girona, Spain, is a half-hour north of Barcelona Sants station by AVE bullet train going at 200 km per hour. It catapulted us into the Middle Ages. It has the best preserved medieval Jewish neighborhood in Europe dating from the 8th century with an outstanding museum atop an archeological dig that contains a mikvah. There […]
Inside the Nasrid Palace: The Alhambra, Granada, Spain
Carved wood, intricate plaster arches and decorative columns, outstanding 13th century mosaics, and water, water everywhere define the palaces of the Nasrid kings at the Alhambra, Granada, Spain. The best description I have found is this one from Islamic Arts that offers you a virtual walking tour. How to Buy Tickets It is not easy to […]
Quick Look: The Alhambra, Granada, Spain
Rather than playing catch-up, I’m skipping over the Guggenheim museum and our visit with Brigitte Huet and Ivan in Bilbao for now and jumping into the present: Granada, Spain, where we arrived last night. Just in time for some stunning views of the Alhambra. We are staying at the Casa Morisca which is in the old […]
Wide Angle View: Antoni Gaudi’s Basilica Sagrada Familia, Barcelona
Awesome. Inspiring. Surreal. Transformational. Meditative. Astonishing. Captivating. Beyond imagination. Crazy. No words can adequately describe the Basilica Sagrada Familia in Eixample, Barcelona, Spain. You can learn more about this architectural wonder by reading works of art historians, cultural pundits and architects than you can from me. So, I won’t say much more than this is […]
Barcelona, Spain: Tapas at Midnight
We are still jet-lagged after two full days here in Barcelona and can’t seem to get the rhythm of sleep down. But, we have discovered the tap-tap-tap of tapas with a great orientation to Bilbao Berria tapas bar right down at the corner from where we are staying across from the Barcelona Cathedral. What’s […]
Sunday in Santa Cruz, California. Next, Spain
On Tuesday, my sister and I are leaving for a three-week trip to Spain, postponed from last October because of my knee replacement surgery. The knee is not totally back to normal but I’m bringing my beautiful hand-crafted North Carolina walking stick procured from the Pittsboro Roadhouse to help traverse ancient cobblestones. Yesterday, I spent the […]
The Journey Begins: San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico
Most of our Penland School of Crafts travelers continued on with me from Oaxaca to explore Chiapas. Our journey began at the ADO bus station where we boarded an overnight luxury bus called the Platino with twenty-five reclining seats, leaving at 8:30 p.m. and arriving in San Cristobal de Las Casas at 7:30 a.m. the […]
Madrid, Morocco and Mexico: Conquest, Empire, Power and Religion
Madrid was my gateway city to and from Morocco. I planned two full days there on the way back for arts immersion. (It wasn’t enough time!) What was quickly revealed were the inextricable links between Spain, Mexico and the Americas, and North Africa. This last stop on my journey tied it all together. Our histories […]
Oaxaca Filigree Gold and Silver, Antique Jewelry, Pawn Shops and Prayer for Rain
Gold filigree earrings are a favorite of traditional indigenous women in villages throughout Oaxaca, Mexico. Mexican gold filigree jewelry, usually 10k or 12k, is gifted at life cycle events and is an important part of engagement and marriage traditions. Antique pieces are usually more costly because of the workmanship. Filigrana, the art of working gold […]