All posts by Megan Alton

Spain: La Rambla

October 27, 2012 Megan Alton

Marbella was beautiful and I can’t wait to return. Barcelona, however, is a whole different experience. On the personal side, it’s been great for getting Porter onto a regular napping and sleep schedule, albeit a Spanish one that involves a 10:30pm bedtime. On the tourist level, it’s been absolutely wonderful staying on La Rambla. I haven’t had to go beyond a few blocks to find new places, people and experiences. On the other hand, I’ve been a bad tourist and not gone to see the famous Barcelona spots or taken many photos. Not yet anyway. It’s just too easy to be swept up in the current of people and to disappear down the small side streets.

Today we took Porter to the aquarium, which he loved, and then Luke found us the best Chocolate and Churros in Barcelona. And it was! All of Barcelona was there waiting in line. I also went with my dad to set up our booth at the EACTS trade show, which is why we’re in Spain to begin with. That trip ended with the purchase of a beautiful new leather bag from the beautiful leather bag shop. Despite Spain’s current economic “crisis” I have found the people friendly and the culture vibrant. Come to Spain, it’s awesome.

Family portrait at La Xina (China) dinner. Porter is the lovey-est boy I know.

We did hugs and kisses for at least 5 minutes.

Mini honus, the size of a silver dollar, for sale on La Rambla.

I got video of this experience, it’s really cute. I’ll post it (and more) tomorrow, I promise.

Walking down La Rambla Friday night. It’s this busy all the time. Except at 7am.
I really need to do a fashion post, because people here are into it and I’ve got a really good idea now that I’m an expert people watcher.

The booth, pre game.

Blowing up the mannequin.

Me and my new friend.

Line for chocolate and churros.

Granja Xocolateria only moments from our hotel!!

Pile ‘o churros bathing in sugar.

Before

Churro spa treatment in whipped cream

Beneath the huge pile of cream is the pudding like dark chocolate.

Heaven

oh my god, yes

It’s super thick. My husband loves me, and I know this because he brings me to chocolate and churros.
It was the only thing I wanted to do in Spain. Now I can go home happy. Maybe I’ll have more before we leave first.

Being green goes way back.
Respecteu els animals i les plantes.
“Respect the animals and the plants.”

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Spain: Videos

October 26, 2012 Megan Alton

I had a request for more videos, so here they are. I’ll try to do more in our future trips. Do you want videos of places or Porter? Probably both, right?

Bullring in Ronda

Gibraltar monkeys, one of which attacked me and tried to take my bag. Effing monkey!

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Spain: Barcelona Begins

October 25, 2012 Megan Alton

I had all this awesome text written for this post on our trip from Marbella to Barcelona, then after saving it, all was lost. I’m simply too tired to write more, so I’m posting the pictures without text until a time when I’ll tell all. For now you can use your imagination and the following keywords: Barcelona, Las Ramblas, Hotel 1898, roof top views, late dinners, awesome Grandparents, so happy.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDykdSajouI&w=320&h=266]

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Spain: Granada & Alhambra

October 23, 2012 Megan Alton

Today Luke and I took a trip, with our friendly tour guide Peter of Indigo Travel & Events, to the lovely city of Granada, home of the Alhambra. And no, it’s not bottled water. Granada is a lovely city, with marble sidewalks and a vibrant student community of the young and fashionable. It’s also home to the Alhambra, which is what I would compare the the Getty Museum in LA, only a thousand years older. Get ready for pictures, cause this is a photo worthy location. There are many photos of all our travels that haven’t made it onto blogs, so when we return and I have use of our regular computer I plan on a follow up post with those and accompanying videos.

I finally got my hands on some churros!

Walking through the city.

Shout out to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain! You know, of the Columbus days? Laid for their eternal rest in this very church.

Spices and dried fruits

Herbs to cure what ails you.

Amazing dried fruit, mmm fresas.

Peter and Luke at the entrance of the park below the Alhambra.

On of 36 look out towers.

The ground.

More ground designs.

The ceiling. Individual pieces of wood held together with tension and no glue, and this was just the first room.

Floor holds up after 1,000 years.

Hand cut tile. Like there was any other way back then, I suppose.

Some of the scripture, in Arabic, was poured into casts and adhered to the walls.

These photos do NO JUSTICE to the absolutely amazing details on every surface of this place.

Wanna see the emperor? Clean your feet first.

View of old Granada.

The Arabic fountains are so much more elegant, and quiet, than the more modern European fountains.

My next kitchen back splash perhaps?

Wood puzzle ceiling.

In most museums you can’t touch anything, here you can touch EVERYTHING.

My most favorite part is the ceiling in the emperor’s seating room that looks like stars (again made of thousands of hand cut pieces of wood). I repeat, this photo does it no justice whatsoever. You’ll just have to visit for yourself to truly understand the magnificence.

It’s a lion fountain!

This is where they would hang out and look good.

Garden view from the room of one of the emperor’s many wives.

Skylights

The ground here is made of smooth pebbles, like all the other photos of the ground design. And it’s only for walking on.

Pomegranates, the fruit of Granada. Get it??

The most literal translation they could have come up with.

Welcome to the gardens, where the ground is designed in the shapes of flowers, of course.

Water, from 6 km away in the original Sierra Nevada mountain range, rushing down the hand rail of the steps.

If I had the time and correct camera there could be a thousand photos of the Alhambra. It’s an amazing place to visit, and if you’re ever in the south of Spain, take the time to go there and see it for yourself. The details and artwork are breathtaking and very very old. It’s age makes it that much more beautiful. So incredibly beautiful.

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Spain: Beach Day

October 22, 2012 Megan Alton

Today Luke and my parents took a trip to Cordoba while Porter and I had a day at the beach. There aren’t a whole lot of photos since I was playing with Porter at the beach, taking naps and watching Donald Duck. It was a perfect day together. Tomorrow Granada!

Here’s the picture from today’s sunset on the lanai. Africa across the Mediterranean, nice.

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Spain: Rock Of Gibraltar

October 21, 2012 Megan Alton

Alrighty. I’m writing this post after an amazing meal of Argentinian barbacoa and many glasses of wine with an after dinner drink of Bailey’s, so bear with me. Today we went to visit the English owned peninsula of Gibraltar. What is the rock of Gibraltar you may ask? Well, it’s a giant rock that has holes drilled in it, with cannons in the holes. It’s essentially a fortress owned by the Brits on Spanish land. It’s one of those rare tax free places that people go to purchase vast amounts of alcohol and tobacco. That was not our goal today however. Luke is a history buff and this was another great opportunity to visit a landmark of historical importance. We went to the top of the rock and had an amazing view of Spain, Africa and the straight of water connecting the two. If they were so inclined, the British military could easily blow anyone out of the water, or off the shore of Africa. Luckily, they are civilized and would rather make the place into a tourist destination. The highlight of my day was having a giant wild monkey (yeah, monkey) jump on my shoulder and try to get into my purse. It scared the crap out of me and I screamed like a girl. Effing monkey. It was otherwise a lovely day. I love Andelucia, Spain.

Porter is getting plenty of quality time with PopPop and Tutu. It’s a win win for everyone.

Now that’s a rock!

These monkeys were huge. Again, effing monkeys.

Diamond Jubilee 2012. Squeeeee!!

Skate park

Former Arab ramparts, with British flag a flying.

That’s a happy husband. I think he loves being in the cradle of civilization.

Plaza

Solid as a rock.

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Africa: Rock the Casbah

October 20, 2012 Megan Alton

We finally made it to Northern Africa!! One step closer to crossing off bucket list #1, visit 6/7 continents. Porter stayed with the grandparents while Luke and I took part in the “self imposed hostage crisis” that is the guided tours through Tangier. Thanks Rick Steves for that lovely visual. It was like a crazy parade of tourists through the old town of tangiers, which was a ~~little~~ lot disconcerting.

Thanks to our local tour guide Mohammed, his cousins constantly get an influx of tourists through their various shops. Today those tourists were us. I’m not sure how any big purchases are actually made, because we were herded through the various shops with such speed that there was never any time to look in my wallet to see which coins and bills I had. Certainly I could have been more prepared.

We’ve decided that, if we don’t have to, there will never be another group tour of anywhere ever. I will never look at a group of Asian toursists in America the same again. It takes courage to stick out that bad.The hardest part of the day was the final 15 minute walk to the busses, when all the vendors knew we were almost out of their reach, and the final assault of sales reached a crescendo. If there had been time to shop and haggle in the market, I think I could have gotten into that. But as it was, on this tour, the constant harrassment made it an experience I wouldn’t mind never having again. The only time I’m looking forward to this whole type of experience will be at the Grand Bizarre in Istanbul, with my husband.

There was a lovely tour of the new parts of Tangier, which is loaded with construction and developement. Thanks to their newest king, Mohammed 6, the country is doing better than ever. Women are getting more freedom and the economy is getting stronger. Everyone seems to think this new guy is pretty rad. All told it was a great experience and I’m so glad we did it. Now for the onlslaught of photos!

We left Spain from the port of Tarifa.

Luke was really pumped about this trip. Thanks to him we actually did it and for that I love him even more.

Ramparts in Tarifa, Spain.

A pre-boat cafe con lech and muffin breakfast.

Moroccan flag

Apartments near the port of Tangier. It was pretty third world here.

Tallest mosque in the city. I was bummed not to hear any calls to prayer.

Oh look, we’re about to make a right hand turn from the inside lane.

The houses got progressively better the further out of the city and higher into the hills we went. Some things about cities are the same around the world. Everyone likes a view.

I couldn’t bring myself to do the obligitory camel ride.

This was a pretty tender camel mama/baby moment. It made me miss my baby.

You can’t really tell, but there are some beautiful villas and apartment buildings being put up in the hills.

Entrance into the Casbah. Hold onto your purses (sanity) ladies and gentlemen.

You like kitties? Tangiers is for you!

This is what up looked like.

There were moments of real beauty.

Straight of Gibralter, where the Atlantic meets the Mediteranean.

There were bonafide snake charmers, but the snakes looked like they just wanted to go back into their baskets.

This was the view of Mohammed all day long. I’m pretty sure he’s on the phone, calling the next shop, to tell them we’re on our way.

If you look closely at the top of the building in the center you will see a lovely garden and outdoor area. That’s where I want to see.

We were being moved along so quickly that the photo of what was hundreds of eggs was blurry.

Center of the old town. Look, there’s Mohammed on his phone again.

My absolute favorite part was the food market. It was exotic, real and smelled delish. For all the fresh meat hanging around there were no funny smells. Just real fresh food.

Bunny anyone?

Maybe a leg of beef?

Piles and piles of spices.

I smelled the olives long before I saw them. It was a thing of beauty.

Speaking of beauty, I literally cried when I sat in the carpet shop. They were truly amazing pieces of art.

This is the photo of the pharmacy that I wasn’t supposed to take. Hee hee. I hope it doesn’t give away all their trade secrets.

Lunch was lamb kabobs, cous cous, cabbage, carrots and chicken with a healthy dose of hot sauce. I loved it. The German gal next to me, not so much.

A wee shot glass of mint tea. Rick Steves podcast said there would be orange blossoms and sugar in it too. There wasn’t. LIES!

I heard the squeals and screams from a block away and knew immediately what was going on.

RECESS!

Bye bye Tangier.

This is me, proudly displaying my VDT sticker aka “self imposed hostage” badge.

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Spain: Marbella Sick Day

October 19, 2012 Megan Alton

Today Luke and I took a grown up day and travelled the Mediterranean Sea to the exotic markets of Morocco. Wait. No. That’s not what happened at all. That’s what was supposed to happen, and if we’re lucky tomorrow we’ll watch the sun rise from a boat between the continents of Europe and Africa. Today’s trip was thwarted by some nasty little mandarin oranges which didn’t sit so well with Porter’s little tummy. The day started early enough, but looked more like this:

If Porter looks green, that’s because he was. 3 hours of a heaving good time an hour long nap made today our rest day. He was holding onto that water bottle for dear life. Poor guy.