From Charleston SC to Barcelona Spain

We visited charming Charleston South Carolina for two days a city with about 750,000 people, slightly smaller than Ottawa.  We stayed in a hotel located in the middle if the historic downtown area, very close to where all the action is.  We took a tour of the historic area and the guide was focussed on the Civil war which after twenty minutes or so is a little much but we did travel through many interesting spots, the most interesting was the old market area which was about 5 minutes walk from our hotel.  

Old mansion in downtown
Charleston SC

The tour was dotted with old historic mansions which were interesting to look at.

Typical house in
historic district

Most of the regular houses in the area were built on long narrow lots and feature a big pillated porch running most of the length of the house, and the entrance on the street which you would think is the front door to the house is actually door that leads on to the porch which you cross to get to the actual entrance to the house (see the photo on the left of this texte).

Entrance to the
Old Market

Inside the
Market

The second day, we went to the market and spent a good portion of the day exploring this area of the downtown and then on to King Street where there are still many old style shops and boutiques.

On Saturday morning, after an early wake up and a small breakfast in our room, we left for Brunswick Georgia which for some reason my new GPS (which by the way I love even more than my old one because it has "lane assist" a feature that indicates which lane you must stay in when you approach a multi-lane intersection) had calculated a distance of 410 miles when in fact the distance was closser to 190 miles.  We were in Brunswick shortly before 10:00 am so I went to our booked hotel and asked to cancel our reservation which they did as courtesy and we decided to stop for a good breakfast and drive through to Miami, another 400 miles away.  With the speed limit at 70 mph most of the way and the traffic travelling at almost 80 mph, we arrived at our hotel in Miami by 5:00 pm, freshened up and had a nice supper at a pub just down the street from the hotel.

Front loby at
The Wave

The next morning we headed to The Wave in Fort Lauderdale where we will be staying when we return here for our three month stay on January 15th.   The building which was converted from apartments to condos in 2008 is very modern an really quite nice.  It has a very large heated pool in the back which is a few steps to the beautiful sandy beach.  After having seen the surroundings of this place, we are confident that we are in for a great three month stay here with our friends Art and Ethel in January. 

Beautiful
sandy beach
at The Wave

We had a few items we wanted to buy for our cruise so we spent the rest of the day shopping for these.   In the evening, in preparation for our flight the following day, we re-organised our luggage to take what we needed for our visit to Barcelona and the subsequent trans-Atlantic cruise and leave the rest in our car which we left in the hotel parking lot for the three weeks we will be gone before returning to Florida.

Monday morning and we were scheduled to fly out of Miami to Barcelona Spain at 6:30 pm.

so we slowly packed the car with the things we were leaving behind.  We had to vacate our room by noon so after a nice long lunch, we headed for Miami International airport.  Of course we arrived there way ahead of our departure time so after we checked in, we played three games of cards, the score, two for me, one for Rosella  ....  they were all close games.

We were flying with Luftansa.  Eight and a half hours to Dusseldorf Germany with a 90 minute stop for a one hour flight to Munich with a 55 minute stop amd then a two hour flight to Barcelona Spain, 16 hours later we were in our destimation city. 

While the flight out of Miami was about 95% full, we were assigned seats at the rear of the plane and both managed to move to seats that were adjacent to vacant seats so we had lots of room for this long 8 and a half hour flight.  Shortly after our departure they served complimentary drinks, even for the low-class flyers in the economy section, then a pretty nice meal followed by complimentary digestives.  Lots of room, free booze and half decent food!  What more could we ask for?

Unfortunately, I had coffee after the meal and as a result was not able to sleep very much during this leg of our travel.  The rest of the plane travel went off without a hitch.  We arrived in Barcelona, bags in tow as scheduled at 3:30 pm (10:30 local time in Miami).  Since we had not eaten anything substantial since early morning, we had a snack at the airport before taking a cab to our B&B downtown where we had stayed a few years ago when we came to visit with our traveling friends Art and Ethel.  Tony, our host was here to greet us upon arrival. 

The B&B is loated in the old section of the city just five minutes walk from Las Ramblas, a very wide, 3 km closed pedestrian steet lined with kiosks selling everything from live animals to artisan ice cream and featuring buxters, lots of boutiques and restaurants and a super large, encloses market area.  The Ramblas is busy from early morning to very late at night and is always bustling with people enjoying the tree lined market ambiance; a great place to do heavy duty people watching.

Rosella reading
by the balcony

Being the off season, when we arrived at the B and B which occupies three apartments in the building in which it is located.  For now, we were the only clients so Tony assigned us a nice large room in the back with a small balcony and gave us full access to the whole appartment including the kitchen so are in fact staying here in a three bedroom apartment for the whole duration of our stay here. 

Upon our arrival, after opening our bags and freshening up a bit, we headed for a little stroll down Las Ramblas.  What a great evening it was, though a little cool (probably between 12 - 15 degrees C) the place was humming with activity and lots and lots of people enjoying the sights and sounds of this amazing place. 

We stoped at a grocery store on the way back to our B and B, bought a baggette, cheeze, fruit, yogurt and bottled water and had a picnic in the kitchen of our appartment.  We were both in bed and sound asleep by 9:30 but because of the time-lag, were both wide awake by 1:30 am, and unabled to fall  back asleep so we got up, Rosella read for a while and I caught up on my email and we both went back to sleep.  Rosella was up by about 9:30 am. I slept past 11:30 am. 

Guell castle
off
Las Ramlas

Both pretty well rested, we took our time to get prepared and headed out to Las Ramblas again to go visit the Guell Castle which was designed by the famoud modern architect Antonio Gaudi and is inconspictuously located between other buildings on a street just off Las Ramblas.  This building was acquired by the Barcelona city administration.  and they took over 17 years to restore it to its original form and boy, what a superb job they did!  

Stairs to the
upper apartment



Main entrance

Decorative
ceiling

Bay window
outside

Hallway between
bedrooms

Restored pipeorgan

Restored pipes

Alter inside
castle

Decorative roof-top
chimneys

We thoroughly visited the castle  and while it is very difficult to demonstrate the extreme luxury and beauty of this structure with a few photos, Rosella and I both agree that this building, which was spared absolutely no expense when it was originally built, (they estimate that Guell's fortune today would be about 70 billion-yes that is a  "B" - over $100 billion Canadian) is probably the nicest building that we have ever visited.

We then proceeded with a twenty minute walk to find a restaurant that was recommended to us by Tony.  With lots of asking for directions from people on the street, we found the place but regrettably, this being Barcelona, the restaurant is closed between 4:30 and 8:00 pm so we headed back to las ramblas where restaurants do not close in the late afternoon and stoped at a really nice catalonian pub nad had paella and fish for supper.  The food was excellent and with window seats overlooking Las Ramblas, the ambiance was superb.  More strolling and people watching and we were back at the B&B by 10:00 pm. and in bed by eleven.

Tomorrow by 9:00 am, we take the hop-on, hop bus for a tour of the city.

Stay tuned for more! 

Our travel adventure continues!

On we go in NYC

Monday morning we were up bright and early, had breakfast and headed for the subway.  Today we were doing ''The best of Brooklyn Multicultural Food Tour'' which started on 4th St in Manhattan. 

The ''F Subway train was back in business so we arrived at our destination in Manhattan about fifteen minutes after boarding the train, so we were there very very early. 

Trying out the cannoli

After finding the exact spot from where our tour would depart, we got back on the subway and headed for La Bella Ferrara pastry shop in Little Italy to try out some of their famous cannoli with a cup of coffee.  This  pastry is made with a round folded waffle with the consistency much like a waffle cone and is filled with a vanilla flavoured creamy stuffing.  Rosella had heard about these on the cooking shows she watches on TV.  We were told by our guide yesterday that these were probably the best in NYC.  We both agrees that while they were very good, they were probably not worth the special effort we made to get to and from this place.  So you win some you lose some and some come out a tie.  This was a tie!

We took a cab back to 4th St to get on our Food Tour and Isaak was our guide.   Being born and raised in NYC, he was very knowledgeable about all aspects of the city.  We started by making two stops on the Lower East Side.  

The first stop was at Yonah Schimmel's Knish Bakery.  Knish is an eastern European  Jewish or yiddish snack food.  It is a dumpling covered with a dough shell that is either baked or fried.  I the most traditional version, the dumpling is made entirely of potato.   

Traditional knish

Early 20th century counters

This place was opened in 1903 and has not had any renovations inside since then, same counters, same ceiling, same dumb waiter to bring the pastries from the basement kitchen, same everything.  Being inside is really a step back into the the beginning of the twentieth century.

Sharing a cherry
cheese knish
on the sidewalk

We had a sampling of the traditional knish and Rosella and I bought a cheese stuffed cherry knish to try out.  The traditional knish was really excellent with a special delicatessen mustard but the cherry/cheese knish which we ate on the sidewalk outside was to die for!

Appetizers galore!

Isaak then took us to "Russ and Daughters Appetizers" where they specialise in hundreds and hundreds of , you guessed it, appetizers.  There we tasted pastry type appetizer which was very similar to balaclava.  It to was very very good. 

Lots of Polish goodies

The bus then took us across the river to Brooklyn via the Jewish district and we proceeded to a Polish restaurant where we sampled a whole bunch of authentic Polish food, like perogies, kielbasas sausage, pickled beets just to mention a few.  This sampling was almost a meal in itself. 

Yummy chocolate

Then we proceeded to visit The Jacques Torres Chocolate factory where we samples some of the best chocolate the we both ever had, truly a very special treat. 

Cubana sandwiches
in the park

The last stop was at a Cuban deli where Isaak had us try Cubana sandwiches, a Cuban specialty made with a crusty bun filled with pulled pork, cheese, ham, pickle, and tomatoes with a special sauce.  It to was an excellent choice.  





Rosella and I both agreed that this was a very worthwhile tour and we gave it a score of 4.9 out of 5, well worth the effort.  The bus dropped us at about 3:30 pm at the same spot we began the tour in the morning.

Billboard in
front of MSG

The next stop, Madison Square Gardens (MSG) for the highlight of this NYC visit for Rosella, The Josh Groban Concert.  We were there by 4:15 pm, the doors opened at 6:30.

Macy's all decorated
for Christmas

So we decided to walk around and went into Macy's on 34th St.  I ended up buying a tie for our forthcoming cruise.  After killing the time away and a bit of a rest at the Macy's cafeteria, we headed back to The MSG for the long awaited moment. 

Elew - Jazz pianist

The opening act, Elew a Jazz pianist started right on time.  This very talented guy really knows how to shake up a piano, he was amasing. 

Josh's opening songs
 in the middle of the arena

After he was finished, they turned the house lights on and took about 25 minutes to prepare two stages for the Josh Groban segment of the concert.  Finally, the lights were dimmed and out came Josh on a small stage in the centre of the Gardens, directly in front of where we were seated. 

Josh on the
main stage

From there he sang a few songs after which he was escorted through the crowd to the main stage where his orchestra had been accompanying him for his opening songs.

He sang many of Rosella's favourites and a few that we had not heard before.  We both agreed that a hockey rink with over 15,000 people in it is not a very intimate setting for such a beautiful voice.  However we thoroughly enjoyed our evening with Josh.  We took the "F Train back to the hotel, got home past 11:00 pm, way past Rosella's bed time.






Tuesday morning we were up very early, getting ready for our departure from NYC.  We were on the road by 8:15 am but our journey through Manhattan to take the Lincoln Tunnel to take us to the outskirts of the city took the best part of two hours.

We then made our way to the entrance of the Shenandoah National Park, about 250 miles from NYC where we drove the Skyline Drive through this magnificent winding, mountainous forest with a maximum speed limit of 35 mph, filled with lookouts and vistas and lots of wild life along the way. It was a very special ride! 

Admiring the scenery in the park

Hmmmm - checking out
the tourists!

Mama bear and her cub
alongside the road

It was pouring rain when we got up this morning.  We had planned to drive a good portion of the 200 or so mile Blue Ridge Parkway but to no avail, with the rain and the fog, it was useless to continue on that journey.  So we took the Interstate highways and made our way to Charleston North Carolina where we will visit this historic town for the next two days.

Stay tuned!

CELEBRATING THE BIG 65!

Rosella and I will be both celebrating our 65th birthday in the next 6 months, and we wanted to celebrate these milestones in a very special way, 

We have planed a special holiday that will span from now till the end of April,  We started our journey earlier on Thursday of this week by heading out by car to visit New York City for a few days.  The main purpose of this visit is to attend a Josh Groban concert at Madison Square Gardens next Monday November 14th.
On Tuesday we continue our road trip by heading out towards Miami Florida via the Blue Ridge Parkway in West Virginia,Virginia and North Carolina with a  two day stop in Charleston South Carolina to visit this historic part of America.

Then its off to Miami where we will take a flight to Barcelona on November 21st to spend the next 6 days exploring the Catalonia region of Spain.  Here we will be staying at the same bed and breakfast that we stayed in when we visited Barcelona with Art and Ethel a few years ago.  It is located 5 minutes away from the famous ''La Rambla'', a beautiful, long, tree lined pedestrian street with a marketplace atmosphere.

On November 28th, we board Celebrity Cruise Line's Solstice ship for a 13 day Trans-Atlantic cruise with stops in Malaga and Seville Spain, Lisbon Portugal and Ponta Delgado in the Azores and then 8 full days at sea before our arrival in Fort Lauderdale on December 11th, the day Rosella turns 65.  By shear coincidence, our daughter Renée and Duane her husband will be in Fort Lauderdale that evening waiting for the second leg of back to back cruises which they had planed long before we decided to do the Trans-Atlantic cruise so we plan to have a very special time to celebrate Rosella's birthday with them.

We then travel to Destin in the North Western part of Florida where we rented a condo for a month close to our friends Charles and Rose-Marie LeBlanc to spend the Christmas and New year season with them.

On January 14th, we head South to Ft Lauderdale where we will be joined a few days later with Art and Ethel who are flying to Ft Lauderdale to spend the next three months at The Wave Condominium in Hollywood Beach. 

During our stay there, we plan to take another last minute cruise to explore the Eastern Caribbean islands with Art and Ethel.  Rosella and I will leave Ft. Lauderdale for our return journey home on April 15th for our return to Shediac a few days later.

Our first stop in Bangor Maine

As outlined above, we started our journey on Thursday morning and drove to Portland Maine. 

Our hotel there had a heated indoor-outdoor pool.  You enter the pool inside the hotel and cross to the outside through a special barrier that joins the inside to the outside of the pool.  So we suited up and went for a nice long relaxing swim outside in the cold pouring rain, it was a great experience.



On day two, we drove to Bethel Connecticut, about 1 hour away from New York City, spent the night and headed for Long Island City on the outskirts of Manhattan right after breakfast early Saturday morning and were in our hotel room here in New York by 11 am.

Time to freshen-up and change and we were boarding the subway train on this beautiful sunny November afternoon, headed for Central Park to spend the rest of the day.  The  NYC Subway F Line which is two minutes walk from our hotel and would normally take us directly to Central Park in Manhattan in ten minutes is currently under renovations so we boarded another train that took us the detour route. 

Lunch in Manhattan on 60th St

Three subway lines with lots of confusion and asking for directions about where to go next, an hour and a half later we were having soup and sandwich in a little Café on 60th St in Manhattan and after that were on our way to Central Park for a glorious sun filled afternoon. 

Under the Statue of Liberty
 in Central Park

New Yorkers and  other tourists were out in droves,  the artists, the buskers and entertainers, street vendors, were all at their finest  The  fall foliage was still very colourful, folks were paddling boats, kids and adults alike were steering mini-sailboats on the lakes, all were enjoying the sights and sounds of this very magical place in the heart of NYC. 

Putting on a show in Central Park

Creating a portrait in the Park

Rowing in the Park

People watching in the Park

Mini sailboats in the Park

The subway return ride was much easier, from Manhattan, we were back in our room within 20 minutes.  We decided to have supper at a pizza joint right next door to our hotel and the pizza was excellent.   After that, we spent the evening winding down in our room.  I did a bit of searching on the Internet and read Thursday's edition of the Moncton Times and Transcript  while Rosella watched TV with lights out by 10:00 pm.   Having gone to bed so early, I woke up at 4:30 and started preparing the first segment of our blog for this trip. 

Today, Sunday Nov 13th, right after breakfast, we were on our way to Time Square to board our bus that would take us on the NYC Freedom Tour by land and Sea including 9/11 memorial. The bus took us to pier 84 where we boarded a NYC water taxi that took us along the Hudson River towards Battery Park, just a few blocks from Ground Zero and the 9/11 Memorial. We made our way along the streets to reach the memorial. By going there with a tour group, we were guarantied entrance to the memorial which otherwise is booked well into the new year. it took us a while to go through security and reach the memorial site but it was well worth the wait. 

The two one acre rectangular waterfalls which sit directly where the former World trade Towers A and B were located on the 16 acre World Trade property fall a distance of 30 feet and drain in a giant square opening at the bottom of the fall. On the edge of both falls are inscribed the names of all the people that died on September 11th including the passengers on the four flights that came down that day, the victims at the pentagon as well as the 6 people that died in the 1993 when a truck bomb was detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center.   With the construction on the new North Tower being built in the background of the memorial, it was a very touching and sombre experience.

Victim names immortalized

Full view of the waterfall

New North Tower under construction

NYC Water taxi

We then took the bus back to the piers to continue our Water taxi towards Brooklyn where Rosella and I decided to leave the group and walk across.

Strolling the Bridge

Were on Brooklyn Bridge
with Manhattan in the
background

Bird's eye view
from the
Brooklyn Bridge

The Brooklyn Bridge, one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River. With a main span of 1,595.5 feet (486.3 m), it was the longest suspension bridge in the world from its opening until 1903, and the first steel-wire suspension bridge.

Sunset on Manhattan

By this time, it was late in the afternoon and the sun was starting to set on Manhattan. 

We took our good old time to stroll across the bridge and when we got back to the Manhattan side, we boarded the Subway with a beautiful sunset background to find our way back to our hotel in Long island City.  It is now early evening  !

Stay tuned!