Girona Part I

Girona from the bridge

I had anticipated my trip to Girona and Figueres for months before I went in April of this year, 2013. It has taken me all these months to actually want to sit down and write about it. I prefer to find the positive about a place, and so I waited until I could find something interesting and unique about Girona. In reality, now that I review the photos, it really is an amazing place. But the day I took the tour from Barcelona, it was raining and cold. Photos show Girona off better than how it looked on this dreary day. I saw all the crumbling and uncared for buildings, that I may not have seen on a sunny day. The first thing we all did when we arrived was buy umbrellas from the tourist office.

Young woman from our tour of Girona

Our rain-soaked tour group at Girona

It rained off and on throughout the tour. The highlight of Girona is the Jewish quarter and the Cathedral. Our guide never took us through the Jewish quarter that I know of. He instead walked us by the Cathedral and through a labyrinth of streets and then left us on our own to find our way back. That was especially nerve-wracking for me, as I was traveling alone and don't have a good sense of direction. I also was approached by a stranger and that was disconcerting. A very nice young student walked me back to where I needed to meet the bus, after I told her he was following me.

Girona Cathedral stairway

The Girona Cathedral was really beautiful. I didn't see it all, as there was an additional charge for the rest of the tour inside and for some reason, I decided not to continue. It escapes me now why I didn't continue the tour. But the outside of the Cathedral was really impressive. I loved all the architectural details and will do a few more posts on this wonderful structure.

Architectural details of the Cathedral at Girona

Dali Whimsy at Figueres

On the wall of the Dali Museum at Figueres

The Dali Museum at Figueres, Spain is one of the most outlandish places I have ever visited. For me, it was just too much all thrown together. Individually some of the pieces are quite shocking but wonderful. Taken together with all the crowds, it was overwhelming. But now, as I look back, I can appreciate certain elements. I loved the Jewelry Museum right from the start but didn't realize he is buried in that area in a crypt. My loss. That would have been interesting to see. 

Supposedly bread represents freeing the mind

In Dali's crazy and whimsical world, bread supposedly represented "freeing the mind." I found this on a blog that has some great information, Traveling with Sweeney. The link is here. I think Cathy Sweeney definitely enjoyed the Museum more than I did. By the way, I really like her blog and highly recommend it. Birds of a feather, I assume, as she loves to travel just as I do. She even goes solo sometimes, as well as with her husband. I do the same.

More bread and other symbols

I especially loved the Moses statue. Don't know why he has an octopus above him, but why not? I took a photo of the original Moses by Michelangelo in Rome. (I have to admit I like the one in Rome much better.) Doesn't hurt either that Moses is my husband's name, actually Moises ... the Spanish spelling. I try to snap Moses photos wherever I go. In the photo I took, I didn't crop out the little boy. I think he is quite significant.

Moses statue with a little boy

Dali Museum Disappointment and One Highlight

Crowds at Dali Museum at Figueres

Not being a fan of crowds, I really did not like the amount of people I had to contend with at the Dali Museum at Figueres, Spain. The old theater, which is the location of the Museum, is not a nice place. It is old and run-down and based on the number of people that go through there, why can't they close for a few weeks and spiff the place up? I posted a review on TripAdvisor called "Dali Museum is Not for Everybody." You can read it here, and it pretty much sums up how I felt about the place. The day also was rainy, windy and chilly. I bought an umbrella along the way and put up with the tour, but like another TripAdvisor member advises, stay in Barcelona where there is a million wonderful things to do and see.

There was one real highlight ... the jewelry museum portion. Now money was spent here and then some. It is a real jewel! Pun intended. I especially loved the following pieces.

The Honeycomb Heart, 1949

The Living Flower, 1959

Necklace of Entwined Limbs, 1964

Thank you to the wonderful security guy who pointed me in the direction of the Jewelry Museum after I had abandoned the tour I was on. 

Oh My Cod: Great Eatery in Mahone Bay

Photo of the lovely owner of Oh My Cod Restaurant

Well I have been back from the Canada New England cruise that started in Fort Lauderdale for months, and now I am finally posting photos and remembering the great things I did and saw. One thing that has been nagging at me for months is the promise I made to a lovely young woman shown here, that I would do a blog post about her gorgeous restaurant, Oh My Cod, in Mahone Bay, Novia Scotia.

me in Mahone Bay in front of Oh My Cod

The restaurant is awesome, and is just one of the lovely things about the gem of a town. We were there so early that most of the local owners were scraping, painting, landscaping and generally getting ready for the tourist season. I had one of the workers take my photo in front of Oh My Cod while they were working on the outside deck area.

outside deck renovation from the end of April 2016

Thank you, kind soul, for taking my photo. As I am writing this, I cannot find the business card that the owner gave me, but I was able to find their website online and am now a friend on their Facebook page. If you ever make it up to this beautiful town in Nova Scotia, please stop and have a bite at Oh My Cod.
For more information, their website is here. Become their fan on Facebook at their Facebook page here.

More on Mahone Bay in another post!!

La Aurora Part 2

La Aurora workers

As mentioned in my first post on the La Aurora cigar factory, the workers all smoked cigars. They seemed quite oblivious to us milling around and taking photos of them, so I think they get a lot of tours.

Displays from La Aurora

The tour included a lot of history about the making of the factory, how it grew and what it is like today. If you would like more information on this tour, click on La Aurora cigar factory.

The tour guide at the factory, Eugenio, was awesome, but the best person of all was our tour guide for the day, Chucky. He was fun. He was entertaining and he was kind. More about Chucky later. 

La Aurora Puros (Cigars)

La Aurora Cigar Factory

Our best tour on our Christmas cruise on the Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam was called Santiago Insider. It was to the oldest city in the Americas, Santiago de las Caballeros from Amber Cove, Dominican Republic. When I read the information on it, I was expecting to go to a little old town. What is actually there is a bustling city of a million people. 

La Aurora entrance

The highlight of the tour was the La Aurora Cigar Factory. In the entrance, there were some old vehicles they have used over the years. The tour was so interesting, as we walked from phase to phase of the making of cigars. The only difficult part for me was the perk of working there is you get to smoke as many cigars as you like. So all the employees and also our tour guests were puffing away. I had to ask to be let out of the room. It was so smoky, I couldn't breathe.

Equipment for making the cigars

Cigar maker

My favorite part of the cigar factory was watching the workers in the break room.

Break room La Aurora

Mariana and Our Christmas Cruise

my favorite photo of Mariana from our Christmas Cruise

My husband, Moises, and I had such a great time on our Christmas cruise with my sister-in-law, Mariana. She is a lovely person and a lot of fun. We had taken a trip together last April to Florida and got along famously. So when the chance came up to book a cruise on the Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam, we decided to do it. The photo above was taken on the streets of San Juan, where Mariana was our guide for the day.

Mariana with our favorite guys, Anwar and Muli

The first night we couldn't get reservations, but every night after except when we went to a specialty restaurant, we dined with our favorite guys, Anwar and Muli. They were so nice and such a great team, so professional and hilarious. We loved the way Muli danced around the dining room, getting everything done spectacularly.

The cruise was a blast!