The Travels of Eric and Lorna

A view of the beautiful gardens in Generalife. One of the courtyards in the Nasrid palaces in Alhambra. Another room in the Nasrid palaces in Alhambra. More carving in the Nasid palaces. The facade of the Alcabaza, the fortress of Alhambra.

A cool pile of corroded swords from the Barcelona Archaeology Museum. A view of distant Sagrada Familia. The big, famous La Boqueria market in Barcelona. This market was really fun. The back of Barcelona cathedral. A view of the facade of Casa Batllo.

This is the room in which the Nasrid Sultan met with his advisors.

I've never seen this kind of 'suds canon' before, but the kids were certainly having a blast.

Here is a video of the geese that live in the cloister at Barcelona's cathedral.

A video of Plaza Mayor in Madrid.

More of the amazing stone carving in the Nasrid Palaces. A view of the Albacin neighborhood from the Alhambra. The main tower of Alcabaza. This is the Gate of Wine. Merchants entered here and paid the taxes on all of the goods they were importing for sale.

Cool ceremonial axe in the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art. A piece in a special exhibit on Roman art in the Catalonia Archaeology Museum. A view of La Rambla. I didn't care a lot for La Rambla, actually. It was mostly a lot of people and tourist crap.

Now that we are home, I'll talk about our hotels. The hotel in Madrid was called Suites 33. It was a great hotel, in a great location. Here is the link to the tripadvisor page on the hotel: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187514-d644639-Reviews-Suites_33-Madrid.html My review of the hotel is on the site. My username is patzeric. Here is the hotel's website: http://www.suites33.com/ We both liked this hotel. The rooms were huge and clean, and the location was great. In Barcelona we stayed at a place called L'Antic Espai, which translates as "antique space." It was a nice hotel, but it really wasn't to my taste. The rooms were filled with antiques, and the common areas were filed with antiques and tchokies. I was always scared I was going to break something. That said, it was a nice place, and the location was great. The tripadvisor page (my review will be up in a day or two) http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187497-d619946-Reviews-Hostal

Cool bull sculpture on the upper part of La Rambla. Stained glass window in the Barcelona cathedral in Barri Gotic. Buildings in Barcelona. Lower part of Casa Batllo. The view from the balcony of our hotel in Barcelona.

This is a picture of Plaza Mayor in Madrid. This is a closeup of the statue of Phillip III that is in Plaza Mayor. Madrid street view. This is a strange looking bird we saw in the botanical gardens in Madrid. I don't know what kind of bird it is. If anyone does, please post it in the comments. Another Madrid street view.

Well, after 13 hours on airplanes, we made it home. It's good to be back. I'll post some more pics and final thoughts on Spain over the weekend.

Those of you who know me in real life (and I am guessing that is everyone that is reading this [Hi Mom]) may or may not know that I am faciniated by city walls. Whenever I go to a city that has them, I always seek them out. Here is a shot of the old city wall for Granada going up a hill in the distance. And here is a shot of the walls close up. Here we were going on the 'wall walk' which went between the inner and outer walls for a while. Here is the interior of Alcazaba, the fortress. Here is a closeup of the decorations on Charles V's palace. And here is the facade of Charles V's palace. I'll post some more large pics when I get home in a couple of days.

Do you want to know why Spain is awesome? This is why Spain is awesome. One reason, anyway.

There may not be many updates for a couple of days. Tomorrow we check out of this great hotel, and the day after we fly home. When I get home I will post some more pictures, as well as a wrap up of the trip overall. If you want to save some time, here is the wrap up; Spain is awesome and everyone should come here.

Granada, of course, has a very impressive cathedral. Here are some pictures of it. Very cool illustrated manuscript chior books.

We visited the Archaeological Museum of Granada today. Here are a few pics from it. Some pottery. A view of the courtyard (the museum is in a former palace, of course.) An ancient astrolabe. Some very cool lithics.