On a walk in Barcelona a South American Bird

    Since my childhood disease I have not found walking fun. I hurt. But, that does not keep me from trying. Often I will need to stop while my wife walks on ahead. But there are many reasons to walk. We were in Barcelona returning from a visit to Park Guell. (Worthwhile visit. Get tickets online and be on time or else...)

    As I ambled around a bend (I always amble) I saw a parrot on a road closed gate. I like the windows. That was brought my eye there in the first place.  I find that parrots are only present in Spain when have escaped their cages. They are from South America. Enough have found freedom to have some small families in town.

 

Sidetracking

We were zooming along the road from Innsbruck to Liechtenstein when I proposed we take a quick trip into Germany so we could say we were there. We headed over the border not far to Mittenwald.  I need not have done that because since then we have spent a good portion of time in Germany. Coming back to Austria, I saw this village between the trees and stopped to take this photo. I just liked the scene.

Photos you must take

Here I am in the guardhouse of the Spain's National Palace in Madrid.

You just must do it.

Like people posing pretending to hold up the Leaning Tower.

Timing a photo at the One O'clock gun at Edinburgh Castle.

My favorite is getting into famous pulpits,

Think of more?

 

Village School Botswana, Africa

When we were in Africa we took school supplies and books to a village school.

The students speak English as well as their native language because the country was once part of the British Empire.

Look closely at this photo and see how many students share computers.

There are between two and four at each place.

The computers are old models brought in from European Schools. It was fun to get to know some of the students, but made me wonder how these kids learn like that.

 

Neuschwanstein Castle - 5,845 miles way

    It was Fall in Bavaria and we took off for Neuschwanstein from Munich because almost everyone does. This is a different view than you usually get, but this is what it looks like from the road up. You will wish to take the shuttle to the top. Even at that, the ride is a tad wild. You can walk down like we did, but be warned that it is steep. The castle is fun, but the view of the valley is wonderful. In the Castle you will find treasures but the are lots of stairs just like all castles.

Warm day/Carousel rides

This man was out hustling  ice cream in a plaza in Granada Spain.

Behind him is a Carousel.

Two things struck me about this.

I am reminded about how much I enjoyed the common life in Granada. It has the Alhambra, but the city is walkable and friendly.

The second thing is the fact that there are still Carousels around Europe. While a few countries in the world have "Eyes" like London, the old school carousel is still going strong: Florence, Paris, and large and small towns.

Granddaughter aboard in a small town in Tuscany.

 

Tourist vs. Travelers

This is the front of a horse cart in Seville.

This is one of most beautiful plazas I have ever seen.

The time you spend on a carriage ride you can spend on a stroll in a park.

We were covering some area in in a park and descovered

The Plaza de Espana with it water features and beautiful tile.

Tourists see the former, Travelers see the latter.