London First Day

We made it to London and had quite a first day. We had rain, sleet, snow, thunder, lightening, clouds, and finally some sun! We made our way to Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and the London Eye. Our apartment here is RIGHT next to Hyde Park and you can actually see Kensington Palace from our street!


Tobi up in the London Eye looking at the Thames and Big Ben. By the time we went up the weather stared to clear!


London Eye from across the River Thames. The sun was out and the skies had FINALLY cleared! 


Looking out on the Thames and the car in front of us on the London Eye. Sponsored by Coca Cola (of course)! 


Big Ben from the London Eye. Yes! We got to hear it ring! 


Seems that this bloke got into a bit of trouble. Four Bobbies and handcuffs to boot! 


We visited 10 Downing Street. Seems that they would not let us in to see the Prime Minister.


Tobi in front of the Gardens by Buckingham Palace. The sun was actually out! 


Front of Buckingham Palace. The Queen was indisposed at the time. I take that to mean that she was on the potty! All told we walked over 11 miles today!


Yes, had to take this picture for Paige!


The iconic London phone booth. This is right before it started sleeting!


And of course, we got to see Harry Potter!

More adventures tomorrow!

Munich and Hans Zimmer

Munich day 1. Well, we left Sevilla and 80 degree weather. Arrived in Munich and it is SNOWING! Gotta love that! Despite the weather change, we did manage to venture out and Tobi found her family's Jewelry store...hmmm.....tonight Hans Zimmer in concert. The REAL purpose for this trip! Tobi also speaks German as she lived a year in Austria. It has been pfun listening to her slip between German and Spanish. I am still struggling with English...


You can't see it but it is SNOWING. Landscape is quite a bit different from Sevilla!


I always have to find some Buskers in our travels. Munich has much hipper versions. Cello and Kora, which is a West African Guitar. Pretty cool sounding duo here. They bugged out when it started to snow!


This was the strangest thing. A statue of Orlando di Lasso, who was a Flemish composer from the 1600s if my Music History memory serves me (spent most of my college Music History lectures snoozing). Anyway, attached to this statue was an ongoing tribute to Michael Jackson. When we first came upon this I thought it would be Prince. But no! WEIRD! We later found out from our guided tour that Michael Jackson used to stay at the hotel across the street. Rooms were $1500 a night. We would have stayed there but our hotel was a bit cheaper!


This is funny...Tobi's Maiden name is Christ...what can I say? This is where I found her while I was away watching the street musicians. You can see four Christ's in this picture. Kinda cool. And YES, she did buy some bling in there, which is not your typical Tobi!


Giant Metal dude....what more can I add? 


We toured a toy museum. Yes, that was my find! Tobi was a good egg and went along. I made some new friends.


I can relate to this little guy in the Toy Museum.

Hans Zimmer Concert


Well, we made it to the Hans Zimmer concert, which was at the sight of the 1972 Olympic games, which was in the MIDDLE OF NO WHERE! Great show, huge audience of both young and old. Hans had a large core group along with an orchestra and choir. VERY loud and VERY entertaining. It did my heart good to see folks getting into Movie Music with a full orchestra and choir! There is hope for the future of music. Also great that a slightly overweight, balding, middle-aged composer can be a rock star! The concert was over three-hours with an intermission.


Lion King complete with three featured vocalists!


More Hans. We were in the 20th row. Not too bad. A little loud though for my aging post rock-and-roll ears.



We took a trolly, at bus, and also walked up to the Olympic park. It was snowing a bit. When we got out of the concert, which was over three hours, it was a full blown blizzard and dark. We did find our way back thanks to Tobi and asking folks standing on the street where we should go. Just our luck that the trolly tracks were being repaired by our stop so naturally we had to also take a bus and then switch back to the trolly. All the people we asked were very helpful! We made it back to the hotel at midnight.


Tobi at the Olympic park. The concert hall is at the back. Very cool venue and the concert was packed! It was also nice that Tobi could translate for me at the concert. Hans spoke German as he was originally from Frankfurt. Although he has lived in LA almost 30 years! 


Munich Day 3 and still snowing! We went on a free tour (3 hours) today. Our guide was from England and VERY sarcastic. I loved him immediately! Here is the Polka band at the Hofbrauhaus where drinking beer is a serious sport! Too bad Tobi and I don't like beer. It would have been interesting to try the beer here. The guide had some GREAT stories about the Octoberfest here...WOW!


This is the Hofbrauhaus again. Our guide pointed out that the blue and yellow triangle patterns directly above the hanging lights were at one time Nazi Swastikas. I did not realize that the Nazi movement started here. Because this was an historical site they could not remove the Swastikas so they had to paint a new design over them. We also learned that if you give the Nazi salute in Germany you face a large fine and jail time! 


Tobi posted a great video (on FaceBook) of these guys surfing in the river in the English Garten in Munich. It was 34 and quite cold today. But they were still there.


This is the Chinese Tower Beer Garden, in the English Garten, in Munich Germany! Figure that one out!

On to London!!!

Adios Sevilla!

Adios to Sevilla. We are leaving on Monday, April 25th for a Hans Zimmer concert in Munich (an early birthday present from Tobi). It does not seem possible that we have been here almost three months! I will be sad to leave Sevilla. I will miss the warm and friendly people, the MANY outdoor cafes, the slow pace of life, the Siesta, my morning runs along the river, the parks, the DOGS, the bakeries, grandparents out and about with their grandchildren, and just walking through this city everyday and seeing what is happening. The pictures that follow are from a single mid-morning walk through a part of the city. On to new adventures!


Tobi in the Plaza de Espana next to a statue of Aníbal González who designed the plaza in1929 when Seville hosted the Ibero-American Exposition World's Fair.


The first thing we saw when we left our apartment yesterday was a group of young Spanish men learning how to carry the VERY heavy floats for the Semana Santa parades. It was interesting the see what it looks like under the floats. This must have been quite heavy because they were stopping to rest quite a bit!


Jamon is a BIG DEAL here in Spain. In fact, Tobi learned the entire history and process of how the pigs differ and how the Jamon is cut from her Spanish teacher. Our next stop was at a market close to our apartment. Here is a guy cutting the Jamon using a thin knife and placing the leg in a jamonero. It is a VERY slow process. These are everywhere in Seville and we made Jamon sandwiches on a baguett for lunch everyday!


Next find...a chess tournament! Then we wandered into a church that was having a wedding. Hey! The doors were open and our motto is "if a church's doors are open, we are going in". I refrained from taking pictures. I will miss these mid-morning walks!



There are dogs EVERYWHERE in Sevilla! I love it! All shapes and sizes. This little guy works at a newspaper stand right by our apartment. This breed is called a Teckel. Very friendly and we have become best buds ( don't tell Miles)! This is right before he rolls over for the daily stomach scratching! 



One last stop here on a Sunday morning. This is our FAVORITE Churro stand. Man! will I miss this. My waistline won't though! Adios Sevilla!

Granada and the Alhambra

We took a train to visit Granada and the Alhambra, which is the most visited Historical sight in Spain with over 2.5 million visitors every year. View of the Alhambra, which was actually a city and and the last Mudejar stronghold to be captured. It fell to the Christians in 1492. Tobi's step brother Michael was also with us on this trip. 



At the top of the Alhambra. Notice the snow on the Sierra Nevada Mountains. They told us that the ski resort there would be open until mid May! 



We dropped Michael off at the train station the next morning and we had some time to kill before our train left to take us back to Sevilla. We had some breakfast and headed out to see the tomb of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Tobi with one of our new friends on our way to visit King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. He did not say much as he was deep into his book that morning.


Me with one of our new friends on our way to visit King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. I liked his bowtie.


Tobi with another of our new friends on our way to visit King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. She was also reading a book. Seems to be the thing to do on a Saturday morning.


We got to have an audience with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. They were not very receptive or talkative! 


This is one of my best buddies by our apartment. There are so many dogs in Sevilla and some that we have never seen in the states including this little guy. We are told these are called Teckels. Love these dogs! This little guy works at a newspaper stand by our apartment. I see him everyday and we have become close friends! 

La Feria In Sevilla

Last week in Sevilla they put on something called La Feria where all the women dress in Flamenco dresses, ride on horses, or in horse drawn carriages, and put on quite a show. They gather in Caeitas to eat, drink, and dance. We spent an entire afternoon there taking in the sights, sounds, and smells! WOW is all I can say!


This is how they arrived to La Feria. By single horse or by horse and buggy.


This was at the entrance to La Feria. There must have been over 1000 horses there! We were told that the horses had to be out of the fairgrounds by 7:00 PM or get ticketed. It became too dangerous with all the people, darkness, and drinking!


I called this the Yellow Carriage! 5 women decked out in yellow Flamenco dresses! Notice the "double cheek" kiss! A very common thing here in Spain. That awkward moment when you get the "double cheek kiss...It is a thing here! It has only happened to me once, but VERY awkward!


Young girl on a horse in full costume. They were everywhere!


Arriving in style on a horse drawn buggy!

It was very warm that day and we had to dress up. We were invited to Tobi's Spanish teacher's Casita for food and drinks, but he was not around when we arrived. Bummer! GREAT day all and all!

Visiting Cordoba and a Chris Columbus Egg!

We took the fast train to Cordoba this week (45 minutes at speeds of 170 MPH) to visit friends from Holderness. Actually one of Tobi's former students teaches ESL in Cordoba!

We really liked the city, smaller and more laid back than Sevilla, but also filled with more tourists and police with AK47s! We did ask a policeman what the deal was and he informed us that nothing was wrong and they were on higher alert since the Brussels terror attack. Still.....having coffee and a treat at an outdoor cafe right next to a dude with an AK47 does not a relaxing afternoon make...


At the Gardens in the Cordoba Alcazar


Overview of the gardens at the Cordoba Alcazar shot from the main tower of the castle. Actually a short climb to the top.


Closer view of one of the main fountains with the tower in the background, where I took the first photo perched on top of the tower.


Roman bridge, which has been restored over the years, but the footings are still totally Roman! This is the same river that runs right by our new apartment in Sevilla. We walked over this to the other side. No cars allowed on this bridge!


This is the main Mosque/Church in Cordoba, which is QUITE LARGE and very impressive. It just keeps going, and going, and going...It was originally a Mosque until the Catholics invaded the city and kicked the Muslims out because after all..."No One Expects the Spanish Inquisition" (that is for you Monty Python fans out there)!


I had to include this photo from the Real Alcazar in Sevilla. This is a grotto in the lower chambers. Very cool...both literally and figuratively! They used to hang there in the summers where we are told it went up to 115 degrees here in Sevilla this past summer!


It is always interesting to find new things in this city. We changed apartments a couple of weeks ago and also running routes. We now run along a river that is right by our new apartment. Last week I noticed this in the distance on one of my runs and yesterday Tobi and I rode our Sevilla bikes down to this park. We are guessing it is Chris Columbus. Chris actually left on his famous 1492 voyage from Sevilla!


A rather large homage to Chis Columbus, who, in Sevilla they view and someone who opened up new trade routes for Spain and not as someone who "discovered" and trashed a new world.


Chris holding his map with the "three famous ships" sailing up the map. Very impressive monument at the end of this park, which is at the end of my new running route.


Tobi posing in front of the Giant Chris Columbus Easter Egg!

That is all for now. Weather has been GREAT hear. Sunny and in the low 70s! I am not missing the snow and cold that we are getting in NH and NY right now! No...I am not rubbing it in :-)