Tagged With "Councurs de Castells"
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Musee de Confluences Opens in Lyon Tomorrow
Wikimedia Photo- Tibidibtibo The Musee de Confluences in Lyon...
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Lisbon's Jeronimos Monastery and Tower of Belem
Our first day in Lisbon was awesome. We got to see so much of the city, and watch the sunset from a castle. On our second day in Lisbon we took the train to Mosteiro dos Jerónimos and Torre de Belém...
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A Day in Lisbon
Lisbon was our first stop in Portugal. Getting around Lisbon was easy, we were able to take the Metro from the airport to where we were staying without any problems. We got the LisboaCard at the airport, which seemed like a great deal, but when we...
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Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Nov. 3, 2013: Brandenburg Gate
Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate is surely one of the world’s most-recognized landmarks, and symbolizes Berlin in the way the Eiffel Tower means Paris and the Parthenon means Athens. It’s been the ceremonial center for marches and...
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Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Oct. 27: Paris's Stravinsky Fountain
The Stravinsky Fountain, its figures inspired by Stravinsky’s music (and especially the Rites of Spring), is one of my favorite places in Paris to sit and watch people, especially children. It’s sandwiched into a plaza between the Pompidou...
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Montreal: Je Me Souviens
There are many great cities to visit in Canada, two of my favorites (for different reasons) being Vancouver and Montreal. Vancouver has one of the most breath-takingly beautiful settings of any city in the world, and I’ll be discussing it...
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Quebec — A Walled European Fortress In America
Quebec, like New York, is both a city and a state (or rather, a province). It’s an island of French heritage and culture within our Anglo-North American continent. We combined this visit with stops in Montreal and...
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Capital of Culture Series: Marseilles
Marseille Cathedral, near the Vieux Port I was lucky enough to spend a few days in Marseilles this past June and was very impressed. It really is an excellent example of what the Capital of Culture designation can do for a city. Have a walk...
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Gumbo's Pic of the Day, February 25, 2015. St. Augustine, Florida
St. Augustine is celebrating its 450 th birthday in 2015 and everyone’s invited! It was in 1565 that Pedro Menendez of Aviles proclaimed the land for Spain. The first Catholic mass was held at what is now the Mission de Nombre de Dios by...
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Left Bank of the Tiber
I’d looked online for an apartment for my week in Rome, until I was sick of the thought of going. At some point I came across a recommendation for a women’s hostel in Trastevere (Tras TAY veree), on what I came to think of as...
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Gumbo's Pic of the Day, February 8, 2015: Toledo and Madrid
My first solo trip was to Madrid and Toledo in Spain. I had been travelling for years, but always in a group. This time I was on my own, and a little petrified. I shouldn't have been as Madrid is easy to get around and the...
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Washington Oaks Garden: a Peaceful Paradise in Florida
With all that Florida has to offer, you'd think it would be hard for anybody to pick a favorite place in the state. In my case though, it's not. By a mile,my favorite place is Washington Oaks Gardens State Park. Washington Oaks is one of the most...
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San Juan's El Morro: Layers of Stone, Layers of History (Where Gumbo Was, #84)
El Morro, the giant fortification that's guarded San Juan Harbor for nearly 500 years, is the sight we saw before we saw it. Its image is everywhere when you do online research for a trip to Puerto Rico; its "garitas"—small domed...
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El Yunque: A visit to the rain forest
When we began planning a trip to Puerto Rico, and planning to include our 14-year-old granddaughter, we sent her some of the material we were gathering and asked her what her priorities were. She, and we, both had El Yunque right near the top of the...
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Six Reasons Why Lisbon Made Me Nostalgic for San Francisco
A feeling of déjà vu washed over me when we landed in Lisbon and set out on foot to explore the city for the first time. As the days passed, I finally figured out what it was. Lisbon totally reminded me of San Francisco...
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San Juan, Puerto Rico: Outside the Walls
Because Puerto Rico was the first freshwater island for 16th-century travelers from Spain, and because it guards the entrance to the Caribbean, its Spanish masters went out of their way to defend it, not only with the huge fortifications at the...
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A summer trip to Valencia, Spain
Last Summer, in 2014, I went on an internship program in Valencia, Spain. My internship took place in a nice hotel near the center of the town and lasted 3 months. While I was there I could visit and enjoy many touristic points while also...
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Old San Juan: Beautiful...and not all old
San Juan, Puerto Rico is a city of contrasts, of modern skyscrapers, crowded residential areas of different eras, resort hotels and casinos along Condado, and much more...but the image that usually comes to mind is really that of Old San Juan, the...
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Casas Particulares in Cuba
Visiting Cuba has forever changed the way I view accommodations when I travel now. For one I was always a chain hotel kind of girl racking up my points and being loyal to said luxury chains. I had the option to book luxury hotels in Havana...
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The Airport...and how it got that way
You've all probably got an airport you hate, and a favorite (or perhaps least-hated) one. And I'm sure you've often wondered why they put the baggage claim there, and why the food is over there, and why it just so often seems to be two miles to the...
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Who Is Puerto Rico's Artisanal Ice Cream King?
That's a tough question...and can only really be decided by tasting and tasting and tasting and...well, we couldn't spend all our time at it, could we? So, intrigued in advance by tales of great ice cream and unusual flavors, we identified...
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Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Where Gumbo was #108
Gumbo was visiting one of Paris' greatest museums, the Musee d'Orsay. Congratulations to TravelGirlJenn who recognized it, with minimal clues! If any one else figured it out, they did not let us know. (One of the...
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Enjoying the Wonderful Sites in Zacatecas, Mexico
Millions of tourists visit Mexico every year, mostly in the winter as people like to get away from the freezing temperatures and snow in the north. Almost all of these people visit the tourist cities of Cancun, Acapulco, Cabo San Lucas,...
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Florida warned: take action against future flooding
17th c. Castillo de San Marcos, guarding America's oldest city, may be endangered by rising waters. With all the jokes about earthquakes in California creating ocean-front lots in Nevada, it's easy to forget that things are changing in numbers...
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Walking the Burgundy Canal
Several years ago, after the completing 100+ miles of England’s Cotswold Way, over hill and dale and, at times, experiencing painful difficulties, I resolved to give up hills in favor of walking along waterways, of which there are many,...
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The Stravinsky Fountain, Paris
I have quite a few favorite places in Paris, but I think the Stravinsky Fountain is the only one I've gotten to on every visit. I never get tired of it, or of watching children marvel at it, or of the whole idea of this wonderful whimsical...
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Britian's Famous Attractions Get Literal Chinese Names
VisitBritian announced the winners in their 'Great names for Great Britain ' campaign The campaign used the existing trend of the Chinese to give literal names to favorite celebrities, places and foods. Over 2 million Chinese visited the...
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A Brief Visit to Avignon
The center of Avignon with the Rhône and l'Île Piot in the distance. The purpose of my stop in Avignon was a pause in a pleasant small city, between arriving in France and the week I planned to spend in Uzes. I recalled...
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Visiting Santiago de Cuba
I really had no idea what to expect of Santiago de Cuba , afterall the next biggest city in Cuba is always overshadowed by Havana. So Santiago was going to surprise us - it could only leave a good or a bad impression right? We showed...
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A Day in Caguas
Caguas is a late-comer by some standards; San Juan, 30 miles away, was already 250 years old when Caguas was settled by Spain—and yet it proudly calls itself “La Ciudad Criolla” and “El Corazon de Borinquen,” the Creole...
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New technologies for de-icing are in the wings
OK, I apologize for the double pun...but it's true in both ways. The ritual of de-icing planes before winter take-offs is costly, time-consuming, and known to be effective, so while many companies are working on ways to do it faster, cheaper or...
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Government St., Mobile: A Great Historic Street (Pt. 1)
I haven't heard anybody else say this, especially in the local area, but Government Street in Mobile, Alabama is one the most spectacular historic streets in the world, even today. I had a chance to walk a good portion of Government St. in March of...
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Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, Quebec. Where Gumbo was, #73
Gumbo was visiting the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, a massive church set near the banks of the St. Lawrence River in the Canadian province of Quebec. Congratulations to GarryRF for being the first to recognize the site, and...
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Jerez Cathedral and Neighbors: Where Gumbo Was (#75)
Frequent-solver Roderick Simpson identified Gumbo's locale as the Cathedral of Jerez, in Spain. Another frequent contributor to the solutions spotted lots of clues: Spanish garb of non-angel statues, size not huge and cathedral not wealthy...
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Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Nov. 12, 2014: Paris Compressed
Taken with 18x telephoto lens from the top of the Arc de Triomphe, this shot squeezes in a lot of familiar Paris, with even more suggested here and there in the middle. There's a corner of the Louvre, the dome of Invalides, Notre Dame at...
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Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Dec. 31, 2014: Sunset, Charleston
If fireworks at midnight are de rigeur for welcoming the New Year, perhaps a fiery sunset is a fitting way to say goodbye to the old. Of course, this one is not really today's but it will do. I took this picture, and its cloudy companions, from the...
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Charleston's Cathedral of St. John the Baptist: Where Gumbo Was (#76)
Visiting Charleston recently, I was struck by its handsome cathedral and unusual spire. The church seems reasonably well-rooted in the 19th century, but the tower reminded me of the turn-of-the-last-century church of Saint-Jean-de-Montmartre ...
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Parc des Buttes Chaumont, Paris: A Park with a Past
Like so many of the great parks, Paris' Parc des Buttes Chaumont, seems to be at one with nature, or even to be nature itself. But while this park is beautiful, and a favorite of Paris families in the northeastern part of the city, it has a...
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Airline scheduling: Hurry up and wait, or run like crazy?
Have you ever stopped to wonder, while planning a trip, how your airline’s schedule was planned? Especially when it seems you’re about to be condemned to a headlong half-marathon across the airport to a flight that leaves all-too-soon, or...
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CheapAir adds non-stop flights to Cuba
CheapAir, which a few weeks ago became the first U.S. online travel agency to book passengers for flights to Cuba, but only through other countries such as Mexico or Panama, has now begun to offer direct non-stop flights. That's become possible...
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Paris by Night: Fleeting Glimpses
I've never set out to document Paris at night, never had a conscious plan to record a particular area or its life. These are just selections from several visits, held together only by the late hour or by something that pleased me. Night doesn't have...
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Gumbo's Pic of the Day, August 12, 2015: Venus de Milo
While at the Louvre in Paris, I saw the Venus de Milo. This has become one of my favorite photos, showing how people still flock in numbers to view the graceful beauty.
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Fort Barrancas Has it All: Cannons, Gun Turrets,Tunnels and Great Views
Fort Barrancas is located within the Naval Air Station in Pensacola. You have to show your drivers license, or other ID, to enter the base. It sits on the barranca ,or bluff, overlooking the entrance to Pensacola Bay. This National Historic Landmark...
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Where Was Gumbo? Paris. Where's the Statue? Everywhere!
Where in the World was TravelGumbo? If we simply said "At the Statue of Liberty," it wouldn't have been a very precise identification, because, as I found and you shall see, the iconic statue is everywhere and in so many forms! In today's blog, I'm...
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A Day in Ponce, Puerto Rico (Where Gumbo Was #87)
On our second-to-last day in Puerto Rico, we headed to the south shore of the island, to the city of Ponce. It's smaller than San Juan, has less tourist traffic—all that, and yet it considers itself the cultural equal of the capital or of...
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Trinidad de Cuba
Trinidad de Cuba seems frozen in time. That was my immediate reaction on arrival. That was my leaving thought after exploring it for a week too. It's difficult not to fall in love with such a enchanting and unique city especially after experiencing a...
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Visual Bulimia? A Bloated Surfeit of Images?
Moments ago a newsletter landed in my inbox from Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal, announcing its 14th edition of the Biannale of Contemporary Photography, curated by Catalan artist/curator, Joan Fontcuberta, to be held in...
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Back to Oaxaca: Xochimilco
PortMoresby finds her ideal neighborhood for a return visit to colonial Oaxaca, Mexico.
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Nov. 3, 2017: Auditorio Adan Martin, Tenerife
Ian Cook shares some beautiful images and the history of the beautiful modern opera house in Santa Cruz.
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Own (part of a) Castle in France for €50
For not very much, you can join a campaign to acquire and restore a 15th century chateau in the Dordogne.