White & Fluffy in New York

It's snowing again today but not as far below freezing as yesterday so could take a few photos around the theme...

Central Park with snow

Some more gorgeous white fluffies in the lounge at the cool hotel NYLO New York!

OK there is a less white  fluffy side... outside the Trump building here but the reality of negotiating the streets... its all too wonderful still!

I HEART New York City!!!!

OK we are slipping one in of Wil practicing should we ever get snow or he gets to go to NYLO New York... (2 kg of flour out of the pantry - whee!!!!!!!!!)

Snow is cold and wet

Be careful of what you wish for... I was so excited to see snow and perhaps snow falling in winter ... and today for my birthday in America there is an arctic blast Snow Storm Janus hitting East coast as I write.... Unis, schools, government offices closed for the storm so I could not go to work.... I have been holed up in my room taking intermittent photos... So the heaviest of the snow here has only been happening for an hour but the snow slowly started around 9 this morning... I will update this but here is the window photo record...

9am with snow starting to fall

Around 11am

 

1pm

 

4pm

And THEN the cold will come in... worse than the last one we saw on TV a few weeks ago... Bought a train ticket to New York for Thursday so hopefully will be able to get through... It is colder and snowier up there.... It says it is MINUS 9 equivalent outside right now....

Standing on the western edge of Europe

I stood on the western edge of Europe...

 

 

the beaches in Portugal are amazing... I heart Portugal

Washington DC Jan 2014

Hi from DC!  I am here for a board meeting with ICA. They took us to dinner on Saturday night... and the treat was to be in the famous restaurant Hay Adam which looks onto the White House. Michelle O was having her birthday bash so we got to see them all hovering around in the WH having the party. beyonce singing I believe... The things that happen when you don't have your binoculars on you!!! I know this photo looks a way a way but we could see in the party room - bottom right room....

We had the meeting/stayed at the Hilton Washington... site of the Ronald Reagan attempted assassination. Quite a bit of interest to stand where Reagan stood looking at the spot where Hinkley stood to shoot... academics are strange creatures!

Monday is Martin Luther King Memorial Day so headed down to the National Mall (aka where the Smithsonian, Capitol building, monuments etc are)... Fan- TAS- tic... You would need days and days to get through them all... In the spirit of picking something significant to the location, I did the Native American museum... And a short visit to one of the galleries where there was a Yoga exhibition on... so several thousand years of art/sculpture etc relate to yoga... I believe some days they have yoga in the foyer of the exhibit with mandalas etc in lights on the floor...

At the same time as the Martin Luther King visitors are the bus and bus loads of kids in for a March for Life rally... accompanied by nuns in habits and brothers/priests in Friar Tuck gear... with snow storm coming... anyhow... welcome to FING AMERICA!

Ok off to dinner with Erich and Thom who I know from ICA

I heart Portugal!

I have been working and just generally doing the day to day of living in a small medieval town - drinking coffee, walking the streets, writing in my 1500AD apartment... What a fortunate life!

I thought I should check out Portugal and flew to Lisboa for the weekend... I am in lurve! I was in the old city near Praca de Restaurades which is down by the massive river Tagus (which begins around Toledo) as it goes into the ocean. It is low, shabby and absolutely delightful! THis is in the old city and this viewing tower lets you look around Lisboa...

The food is absolutely amazing plus... every single morsel was divine... The pasteralia is everywhere and the windows are stacked with lovely treats including the portugese tart of course, but all manner of savoury delights as well.... I also ate at little bars where you stand, have a pastry, a beer, and then at the appropriate time, they begin cooking meats etc... how much crumbed pork fillets did I have, but even a lettuce and tomato salad was exquisite...

My little hotel (very funky!) was down here near some restaurants. I could see lobster in the tanks, but could small a gorgeous charcoal cooker but didn't ever quite locate it...

Just a couple of blocks from my place was the Praca Commercia right on the river... still wet and cold here even in Southern Europe... Even got offered some hashish on the streets! Lots of San Francisco touches like the red bridge (designed and built by those who did Golden Gate), as well as trams and furniculars up the hills that go on either side of the streets above Rua Avaica (I think)...

It looks like there is some sort of bike ride up and down the streets where the furniculars run...

Apparently there is a new city centre built for expo but they are trying to rejuvenate the old city centre and the buildings are just divine. Of course with the financial crisis, and after the decades of dictatorship etc etc, the young people who would usually do up these old buildings have of course had to move overseas for work... so there are quite a lot of abandoned buildings... this one is not totally abandoned but you can see just how lovely they are... The outside is all blue tiles - gorgeous! other colours are pink and yellow and being by the sea/river its just lovely

 Lots of African muslims as well adding to the city scene - Portugal of course had Mozambique, Angola and some other African nations in its empire...

Granada and Alhambra

Not sure anyone was quite cured of the shell shock of Costa De Sol as we made our way, not too far to Granada... About an hour or so from leaving the sunny shores of the Mediterranean we had snow capped mountains and more amazing palaces - from the dominant Islamic period through to Catholicism... Most of this is around 1100-1500... Granada had water but still quite close to the coast so was touted as the new capital and Spain and certainly and important place to hold for Europe. Not sure if anyone has noticed that the reclamation of Spain by the Christians from the Muslims is 1492 - the same year that Columbus discovered America. So having control of the Mediterranean also gave access to trade with the new World and Granada was touted to be capital of Europe and America (I did think of this this afternoon when I heard some yanks yelling at a Spanish waiter that they wanted the price in US DOLLARS por favor!!).

 I have a squillion shots of palaces and gardens so here is a small selection...

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A couple of interesting things to note, the lattice screens on the upper floor (white) was where the harem lived...

Mercenary Gypsies assisted the Christians to reclaim Granada. In return they were given the caves on the hills opposite the Alhambra to live in. See about the houses on the hill side there are some things that look kind of like house fronts - these are the caves which are still inhabited today...

Snow capped Sierra Nevada ranges behind the new part of the city.

After all this travelling and hours wandering Alhambra, spent the afternoon in a cafe on the boulevard near our hotel (note Hotel Los Angeles if you are visiting Granada - family owned and has a nice feel)... Anyhow, sat in the sun eating Paella with the snow capped peaks at the end of the street... lovely!

costa de sol on the mediterranean

I particularly went on this trip to see Costa de Sol... I am both appalled and amazed... On the interesting note, tourism, with the growth of consumerism from late 50s and 60s, and the latter years of the Franco regime meant that a tourist mecca in the south of Spain made a massive contribution (and continues to do so) to the Spanish economy. I think they said 90million visitors a year...  OK enough facts and figures, here is the beach ....

We stayed in a resort on the beach front. I can only think of those images of Brighton beach holiday camps. They were like enormous compounds with pools, shops, dining rooms etc with untold numbers of English and German (particularly!) tourists mobbing en masse... You were literally fighting through prams, zimmer frames and wheel chairs to get around, let alone the line up for dinner (at 7PM!! you are seeing the fighting off the zimmer frames) for serves of chicken and overcooked peas with a bit of tropical fruit and ice cream!

So you get a gist of the scale of this operation, here is the hallway to my room... where I was kept up til all hours with the disco downstairs (not sure what the theme was), after the inmates, I mean visitors were having nice games of cards and backgammon in the 'bar' area... Oh yes and there were definitely strains of macarena blaring out as well...

After I finally managed to get my dropped jaw back in check, I did reflect that Bren and I nearly died of cold after 3 days in a wet London/damp dungeon room in April, after which any amount of warmth and fresh air would be pure bliss!! We are so very very lucky!