Central Madrid

Plain Spain

---

October 11th 2010
We arrived in Santander to overcast skies. It looked a recently prosperous place with lots of new apartment buildings. (It should be prosperous with all the money we've all invested in the local Bank!) Pampas grass grew prolifically on the sides of the road as we sped out of town, staight into the Cantabrian mountains. Then something very unbritish occurred. As we sped through the tunnels and over ... read more

Europe » Portugal » Algarve » Lagos

---

Following its heyday as a world power during the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal lost much of its wealth and status with the destruction of Lisbon in a 1755 earthquake, occupation during the Napoleonic Wars, and the independence in 1822 of Brazil a... ... read more