More on Spain

Back in 2002, DOTH came to visit me in Romania. While she was there, we took a 10 day trip to Barcelona, in northern Spain (top right, on the above map). Our recent trip to Palma, Majorca reminded us very much of Barcelona. We were hoping for something different, but it was just as commercialized and touristy. It was a bit of a disappointment, but there was still plenty to see and enjoy.


We first stopped off in Malaga, in southern Spain (bottom middle of map) for 6 days, where I attended a conference and conducted a workshop. DOTH didn't partake in the conference, but managed to enjoy the facilities very much: an all-you-can-eat, all day long buffet and snack bar, 2 swimming pools, mini-put, a beautiful sandy beach across the road and some shopping in the vicinity. She mostly worked on her tan!

The middle balcony in the orange section was our room in Malaga

Mini-golf and the children's play area

The quieter of the two pools

Apart from our conference group of about 50 people, the hotel was not very busy, and the rest of the clientele was French. It was a bit funny being in Spain and listening to French conversations all around us!


When the conference was over, we flew from Malaga approx. 2.5 hours, via Madrid (in the middle of the map) and 2 small planes, to get to Palma, Majorca, where we spent another 6 days. Majorca is the unmarked island off the coast of Spain, on the right-middle of the map above. Spaniards say that Majorca is not the REAL Spain. One day we will have to go back and do the REAL Spain!


The hotel in Palma was very nice and you have already seen some of the view from our balcony in my previous post. Sorry the video didn't work. DOTH took 32 wonderful little videos of our trip and it's a shame I won't be able to post any of them here.

This was our walk every day, from the hotel to the centre of Palma. The cathedral is pretty much in the centre of town, so you can see it was quite a distance. I lost quite a bit of weight on those walks....put it back on since, of course!  But it was good exercise and a very pleasant walk.

I'm going to finish this post as I want to be sure I haven't overdone the photos. Next post - the Fish Market!

Sunset in Palma

A Great Vacation!

DOTH (Daughter of the House) and I had a lovely vacation in Spain, just a few weeks ago. I had to take in a week-long conference in Malaga, so DOTH went along for the ride, and we spent another week on the beautiful island of Mallorca.


To my UK friends and family it might seem to be no big deal, since you can get there in a matter of hours, but it was a much longer trip for us - still worthwhile, though! The weather was absolutely perfect; couldn't have asked for better. No rain in the two weeks, and temps just moderately warm.


To be honest, it didn't seem much like Spain; lots of tourists, with massive cruise ships coming in every day, so we were hard put to find anyone speaking Spanish.

Taken from a beach a little further along the coast...on its way to Palma Mallorca...ready to loose thousands of passengers into the city to go souvenir hunting!  We did plenty of that ourselves!  Why?  I guess 'cause it's the thing to do!

Restaurants catering to us tourists, so not many 'typically Spanish' meals, either. But we can't complain. We were right on the Mediterranean Sea, and the views from our hotel room were stupendous!

This is a partial view from our hotel room balcony

This is a 180 degree view from the balcony



Our hotel is right in the middle of this photo, which was taken while we were on a boat tour around the harbour.
We were on the eighth floor

We took some lovely side trips, that I hope to find time to blog about. I remember one of the reasons I stopped blogging two years ago was because of the hassle with posting photos - so I will stop here, hoping that these will work - and continue another day.

This is a Test

Since my older sister (notice the emphasis on older) has managed to use the new blogger system, I thought I'd give it a try, too. If it works, I may be back!  Hard to believe it's been over two years!

Butterfly Beauty

This is my most recent piece - and just took a few hours. So thankful for this template by Ben Kwok on FaceBook, at Ornation Creation. He creates the most amazing templates and we decorate them to our hearts desire!

I decided to use white on black for this one, but am also going to try a coloured one.

It reminds me of some previous work I have done - ends up looking like crocheted work. I love the clarity and simplicity of it.

 

This picture doesn't do it justice, unfortunately, but perhaps clicking on it for an enlargement would help.

Christmas in June

Both of my male British cousins sent me lovely greeting cards this past Christmas. They are so beautiful - winter scenes of an English Village - that I have kept them with the intent of drawing them. You can view my version of the one my cousin Snafu and his wife sent me, a few posts back.

It has taken me 5 months to complete my cousin Alan's card, but finally, here it is:

I love the splash of colour in the bottom left corner.

This is the original:

 

Scanning this hasn't done it justice, but it is especially lovely because of the 'silver dust' snow on it. I hadn't realized how very difficult it is to draw snow without using a white pencil/crayon. I opted against using the silver dust as it can get very messy!

 

Looking forward to what my cousins can come up with next Christmas!

Snowed Under!

Well, a slight exaggeration. But it sure feels like it, considering just how long this snow has been around - a good number of months now, with no thaw in sight. And we are hoping for a gentle, lengthy thaw, or many of us are going to end up with flooded basements!

Even the squirrels are desperate...too much snow to find their hoardings from the beginning of winter. They are now reduced to the seeds dropping from the bird feeders above. The reindeer looks like he is still smiling, but I think he is actually gritting his teeth. Unfortunately, his owners are unable to reach the electrical cord to bring him in. Our whole neighbourhood still looks like Christmas...decorations everywhere. The Christmas lights we spread across the bushes in front of the house are totally buried.

There is at least a foot and a half of snow around us all in this neighbourhood. Not counting the piles from shoveling.

View from living room window

view from my armchair

Back garden

Oh, the indignity of it all...

Aaaa-choo!

Finally, a cat that doesn't make me sneeze!

Template courtesy of, and copyrighted to Ben Kwok -  www.BioWorkZ.com
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I just love working on these templates. If you are interested in 'tangling' (decorating) one, Ben posts a new template on Ornation Creation every Monday. Join the group and enjoy!