Tarragona, Valencia and Catarroja

The last part of our vacation took us from Barcelona to Tarragona and then on to Valencia and Catarroja.  (Part ONE and part TWO of our trip, plus a couple of my FAVES, if you missed them)

First, Tarragona:  

If I *had* to pick a favorite place from our trip, I think Tarragona would be it.  It's amazingly beautiful as the above photo clearly shows.  It's right on the Mediterranean (as was our hotel) and has a fascinating history (yeah...my degree is in history, so I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to this stuff!).  I also celebrated my birthday while we were there--so that automatically gives it bonus points, right? 

My birthday dessert...fresas con nata (strawberries and cream) which was delicious!  My candle wouldn't stay lit because of the wind.

Overlooking the Mediterranean and an old Roman amphitheatre.  Tarragona was a Roman city (Tarraco) and there are a lot of Roman ruins around the city.  I could have spent another day there checking them out, but my husband was a little bored with it after a couple of hours.  

More of the Amphitheatre.  Inside the center of the amphitheatre, there was also the ruins of a Christian church, which was really interesting.  You can see the wall of it in the left foreground of this photo.  

Roman Circus

Roman vaults

Finally, we went to Valencia for a couple of days.  Yet another church.

View from our hotel.

We took a short train ride to the pueblo of Catarroja.  My husband lived there about 9 years ago and heard all about how great this one little horchata shop was, but because it was seasonal, he never got to visit it.  So we did, and it was rather tasty! 

This is the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències in Valencia.  It consists of some museums, an opera house, and an aquarium.  We hadn't planned on going here, but it was really close to our hotel so we decided to walk through.  I'm glad that we did.  It was pretty neat.  

We had a really great trip.  Spain was amazing.  I had forgotten how much I love to travel! 

Barcelona

Here's part II of our trip.  Here's Part I, and here's just a couple of my favorite pictures that I posted last week 

After a few days in London, we flew to Barcelona.  I panicked a little at the airport, looking at the signs.  I read Spanish reasonably well, but the signs weren't making any sense to me.  I thought my Spanish was much rustier than what I expected.  Then I realized that most of the signs were in Catalan.  Phew.  Not quite so rusty!  Even though it's a Spanish dialect, reading the signs really threw me for a bit. 

I loved Barcelona.  It is a really beautiful city.  We walked all over the city...and only got a little lost! 

La Rambla

La Sagrada Familia

Palau Nacional/ Montjuïc

Estadi Olímpic in the reflection, Montjuïc

La Boqueria

Columbus Monument

Parc Güell

Parc Güell and La Sagrada Familia were designed by Antoni Gaudí.  Look him up if you want to see some seriously funky architecture.  Parc Güell was really fun.  

Parc Güell

Parc Güell

and maybe my favorite Barcelona picture, also Parc Güell:

London, Stonehenge and Avebury

Big Ben

Westminster Abbey

The London Eye

From inside the London Eye

Cleopatra's Needle

Beautiful blue skies in London?  Yes, please.

White Tower

At the Tower of London

The hubs in Windsor.  (He hates the word "hubs", by the way)

Stonehenge

Henge at Avebury

Avebury

Silbury Hill

Avebury

Trafalgar Square at Midnight

Somerset House

My husband and I just spent a few days in London, before heading to Barcelona for a week.  It was great.  We met his mom and step dad in London, saw the sights, saw a couple of shows, stayed in a great hotel right on the Thames, practiced my night time photography, then spent a day driving in the English countryside to see Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and it's sister site at Avebury.  

I thought Avebury was really interesting.  It's a huge place...much, much larger in scale than Stonehenge, but not as complete.  It has a huge trench circle surrounding it and there is a very cute little village that was built partially inside the circle.  I loved the church there.  You can walk all along the trench and through the standing stones.  Silbury Hill is nearby and is a giant neolithic mound with no known purpose.  

The English countryside is gorgeous.  I'm pretty sure I would move there without hesitation.  

I'm Home...

...from playing here...

{London}

And here...

{Barcelona}

...and I just want to go back, ASAP!  

It was a blast.

{More pictures are sure to follow...}

This View...

...is pretty much the view we had from my backyard when I was in high school.  A couple of houses obstructed it a little, but you can't block those desert skies.  This makes me a little homesick!  

Window Herb Garden

I love having a garden and I really want an herb garden.  But since we are renting and have limited garden space, I planted 8 different kinds in pots and put them on my window sill.  We have really wide window sills that are perfect for this.  Not all of my plants are doing particularly well--some of them (mainly my dill and cilantro) aren't very well suited to a container in a window sill, but I still wanted to give them a try.  I also have oregano, marjoram, lemon balm, parsley, thyme, and chives.  I love it!  Cutting fresh herbs when cooking is the best   :)  

Card Set

For Mother's Day, I made my mom a set of miscellaneous cards.  My little sister and I had a "Girls' Day" and made a ton of cards and watched chick flicks that I've wanted to see, but can't get my husband to watch with me.  I hadn't pulled out any of my papercrafting supplies for almost a year!  I made about 10 cards and it felt so good!  But now I have to put away my mess...and I'm totally procrastinating it.  Anyway, here are the ones that I made for my mom's set:

Card 1- All Paper- Pebbles; Stamps- Stampin' Up; Ribbon- JoAnn

Card 2 & 3- All paper- Pebbles; Ribbon- JoAnn; You're the Best rub on and Canvas- Stampin' Up; Congratulations rub-on- Pebbles.

Card 4 & 5- All paper-  Pebbles;  Thanks rub on- Pebbles; Chipboard label holder- Stampin' Up (painted black); Brads- JoAnn; Ribbon- Offray brown grosgrain; Flower Stamp- Stampin' Up; Sparkle embossing powder- JoAnn; Versa Mark stamp pad.