Hopefully you have already registered on the National Do Not Call List: https://www.donotcall.gov/confirm/conf.aspx Your state may also have their own Do Not Call List, which may prevent some calls that are allowed by the National laws. In Texas you can find this at: http://www.texasnocall.com/ but these don’t prevent all unsolicited calls.  One of the ways […]

Literally “summer wine”, this is a popular cocktail in Spain and Portugal, similar to sangria, but easier to make. The ingredients are just red wine, gaseoza (fizzy water, sometimes flavored), sugar or honey, and maybe a slice of lemon or orange.  Serve over ice. You can make an even simpler version at home using just […]

As a working photographer I spend a lot of time on my feet.  And when we travel during the summer, we tend to do a LOT of walking.  Its a great way to see where you are and a decent substitute for the regular exercise we’re not doing that we normally do at home. But […]

Or at least avoid the bad ones. Long gone are the days when sweet talking the gate agents at the airport would get you an upgrade, so this isn’t about moving from coach to business class without paying for an upgrade (if you know how to do that let me know!) Even within the same […]

Spaniards love their pigs, or more precisely dead pigs in form of ham, or jamon. You see it everywhere, but Madrid seems to have more shops selling this local delicacy than anywhere else we visited.  Apparently every home has a special device designed to hold ham legs for slicing. You find places like “The Museum […]

Desayuno in Spanish, petit-dejuener in French, pequeno almoco in Portuguese and a whole host of other names in other languages.  Breakfast is one of the stranger meals when you travel. For one thing, it is sometimes included in your hotel rate, but often not.  On a recent trip to France, most hotels’ rates for breakfast […]

Getting to and from airports is often a hassle in many parts of the world.  The worst are those where the airports are a long way from the city and the transportation options are limited. The best have integrated rail transportation and make it quick and easy to get to and from the airport.  And […]

If you like cities, you will likely like Madrid.  It is big, bustling, full of life and populated with classical and modern buildings as well as leafy parks and vibrant unique plazas. We did a  lot of walking, since our hotel was located in the downtown area of the city. Thankfully we were 5 stories […]

Upon leaving Cordoba and Andalusia, we drove about 3.5 hours to Toledo, which is close to Madrid.  After a quick picnic lunch, we walked around the casco viejo (old city) especially the Jewish quarter. The streets of Toledo are very steep – lots of up and down. And there are tons of churches, many of […]

We’ve spent a couple of days in Cordoba, which was for a long time the capital of Andalusia. The history of Cordoba is in many ways the history of Spain.  Every major group in the country’s history has played some part here, and left their mark on this rich, and interesting city. Although the Iberian […]