Blogs from North, Jordan, Middle East - page 6

The main attraction that got us cruising is not as you may think free food 24/7 (although this comes mighty close!!) It's not even being waited on hand and foot or even the wall-to-wall trivia. The main lure to this form of holiday for us is that it is always a pleasant experience to wake up somewhere new every day. Even when you spend 5 continuous days at sea on a Transatlantic crossing you wake up somewhere new every day!! Surely waking up to nothing but sea doesn't count and blows my statement out the water (so to speak.) Not so. You may wake up and see nothing but sea but it is a different part of the sea than the previous day. Granted, looking out across the ocean can be flat, bland and samey as ... read more

GRANADA. 29,30 November, 1 December, 2014. Over the past 3 days we have travelled extensive distances between Seville-Cordoba; Seville- Granada, viewing some amazing historic structures and gardens. Southern Spain has an exceptional collection of Islamic architecture and religious art. We travelled by fast train to Cordoba for the day. The city is famed for its Cathedral. It was on the site of a church built by St Vincent in the third century. Subsequently the Moorish invaders in 800 AD took the site and built a very large mosque. In the 1400s the site was captured by the Catholic monarchs, who adapted the Mosque, constructing a Catholic Sacristy Vault inside. The result is an exceptionally beautiful building constructed of red and white marble, granite, soaring columns, topped by curved rock hewn arches, intricate design stone masonry around ... read more

MADRID. 7,8,9,10 December, 2014 Good Weather We arrived late afternoon, much colder here, and took the taxi to our hotel in the centre of town. The streets are teeming with people, a public holiday here on Monday, and every Spaniard must be on the streets of the capital ! The crowd is so thick that you get pushed along, with no opportunity of window shopping. We went for an early morning, 11am, walk, sun rises at 8.30 am, Spaniards at 12.30pm (bed at 12.30am). The parks had frost, although it was a crisp clear blue sky. Walked through the Plaza del Sol, along the Grand Via, saw the King's Palace right opposite the Madrid Cathedral ( the royals and church were on good terms in the century of construction). Buildings are grand, although we both feel ... read more

VALENCIA. 4,5,6 December,2014. Good weather We have been blessed with great weather, Blue skies, sunshine, moderate breezes and cool to cold temps. Today we took the slow train to Valencia, Spain's third city with a pop. of about 1 million. The train station was in the centre so we could avoid the taxis and walk to our hotel. Very Grand 1900 style building. Spain has many splendid parks and squares, as does Valencia. All are decorated with lights for Christmas, however they aren't switched on as yet. The shops are poorly decorated for Christmas, its as though they are embarrassed to celebrate it, very underwhelming for a Catholic country. Valencia hosted the America's Cup when Switzerland won the right to host, and it seems that many billions of euros were spent on public amenities. Also believe ... read more

Now that we have good internet connection here are some more photos from Sat when we crossed from Israel into Jordan, visited the ruins at Jerash, and then spent the night in Amman.... read more