Ken Follett’s novel, Pillars of the Earth, is the story of vision and devotion, and the construction of a great cathedral over the course of about 200 years.  Throughout Spain there are examples of these great works of faith.  In Barcelona there is actually one in progress: Antonio Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia.  This incredible cathedral has been under construction since 1882. It is scheduled to be finished around 2025.  Of course, you can never tell about these things.  I sat this morning in a cafe across the way from the great …

After two weeks of gallivanting around Spain, we decided to chill for a few days before heading off to a week in Barcelona.  Problem was we needed a hotel room soon (like the next day) and weren’t sure where to go that would be easy and low-stress.  Rick Steve’s guidebook said something good about Sitges – that it was the best beach within a day of Barcelona.  Since that was to be our next destination we decided to try there.  Of course, then there’s the laborious google, expedia, booking.com, trip-advisor, …

If you’ve ever traveled in Spain you’ve seen Bull Boards.  These are bill boards but in the shape of a big black bull.  They don’t advertise anything.  They just remind you that you are traveling in the land of El Toro.  My family loves Bull Boards, as I am sure all families do.  We shout out their existence at every turn.  Many are hard to photograph. They come and go quickly. They are often co-existing with other signage, and don’t often exist in pure form, which is why I was …

Here’s a belated quicky.  Drove through Avila en route from Salamanca to Segovia. Leslie keeps calling these three hill towns, and actually, I think Avila is one. (A hill town.) Lots of folks like this place and rhapsodize about it being the quintessential Castillian village. I can’t really say. It was about a million degrees that day and everyone was too heat-blasted to even get out of the car.  Managed to walk a few hundred feet, but after a short while it was too much.  There seems to be not …

Driving from San Sebastian to Sitges, down towards Zaragosa, there is little to see. It is a pretty flat land, some farms, and a lot of pradera.  To make the trip a little bit more interesting, there is the demarcation of the Greenwich Prime Meridian, which, surprisingly crosses through Spain in a town called Castellon de la Plana. Honestly, I had no idea.