Category: Fall 2022 – from Southern France to Spain
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A final stop in London before heading home
With a short flight from Barcelona to London we took a few more days to hang with Zoe and savor this amazing trip before heading to what will now become our home in downtown Sacramento, Christmas appears early here in London…we started to see evidence of some of the beautiful light displays even thought its…
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Cosmopolitan Barcelona – Revisited
The city of Barcelona sits on the northeastern coast of Spain along the Balearic Sea. It is the capital of the autonomous Catalonia region and with a population of 1.6 million, the largest city of the region. It may arguably be most famously the home of astounding architectural works from the amazing genius of Antoni…
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Traversing Northern Spain
Santiago De Compostela We took a commuter train to travel from Portugal into Spain, landing in lovely Santiago De Compostela in the Galician region. We stayed two nights at the Hotel Spa Relais & Chateaux A Quinta da Auga in a lovely spot just outside the city. In addition to the lovely inn and restaurant,…
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Perfect Porto!
Next stop for our first foray into Portugal was the northern coastside town of Porto. To make this journey, we rented a car for the day and made a quick stop in Óbidos, an ancient walled city; did some beach gazing in Nazaré (in search of their famous big waves, which were not out that…
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Discovering Lisbon
Lisbon is a city that prides itself on its maritime history and more importantly the role Portugal played in discovering new lands. A city on a beautiful river (the Tagus) that opens up to the wide North Atlantic Ocean, it was a perfect spot for setting sail to Africa and Brazil (where many Portuguese colonies…
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Bon Voyage…time to explore the Greek Islands!
Welcome to the Azamara Quest This was our first ever cruise, something we were both a little skeptical about starting out but decided to try. In part, we wanted to get a taste for Greece as we know we want to spend time here at some point; and it was also a great a opportunity…
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Under the gaze of the Acropolis
We started out our time in Greece with a few days in Athens, and followed up with another couple of days to enjoy this beautiful city following our cruise. We met up with our traveling companions (Heather, Scott and Gretchen) at the lovely Electra Metropolis Athens hotel with its stunning rooftop view. Spent as much…
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There’s no place like Rome!
The city of Rome is both astounding and overwhelming! The ancient ruins are mind-blowing in their quantity, enormous scale, intricate skilled-craft artisan details, and engineering feats somehow achieved without today’s technology and tools. It does leave you in awe and wonder at the capacity of us human beings. There was much to capture during our…
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Re-visiting Magical Venice
Entering this city just takes my breath away. There is just nothing like a city with the “sea for it‘s floor, the sky for it’s roof and the flow of water for it’s walls” (not sure where I heard this, but pretty sure it’s a quote). We were met with an amazing transfer…a lovely guide…
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Back to Firenze (Florence) Again
This is a city I could visit over and over again and still have things I want to return for! We spent a glorious 4 days re-visiting some favorite places and exploring some new things. In addition to just walking through the city at different times of the day, we also jumped on a ”golf…
Gary and Jillian's New Adventures 