Post #720516 by danlovestikis on Thu, Jun 19, 2014 9:29 AM

tigertail777 how far from the hotel is your studio?

MaukaHale glad to be reminded to visit tigertail777's site.

TikiHula a total surprise and I love surprises.

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Since I'm just getting back to work on Tiki Art today I will just HAVE to post photos of our trip. I kept our Cyber Free activities a secret because we didn't want GROG throwing a party in our home while we were gone!

We went on a trip of a lifetime. My first European trip ever. Dan had freshened up his Spanish and started working on his Italian just in time. It was fun to hear him converse with our tour guides.

Our trip was three weeks so I'll be catching up on art while I post a day by day journal until I have some art to share.

We started our journey by getting up at 4 am. Hours later we were on our first flight. We always laugh at the tikis for sale on the plane.

Near the end of 30 hours in flight we were no longer laughing.

It was a long way from California to Madrid Spain. We never slept.

This was the view from our hotel window. We later walked the tree lined street and found a Starbucks for dinner.

The next morning we started our first tour in Spain with a stop at a Don Q. statue. I can't remember the spelling for the famous book. I carried the Tiki Magazine with us for three weeks. I sure hope we make it into an issue someday. Dan just told me it's
Don Quijote. The staue is of Quijote and Sancho.

The tour stopped at little towns. This one had a bar full of cow heads.

Out the window of the bus I spotted a McDonald's sign as well as the crowds that would be with us throughout our journey.

We were starved for tikis so even a mermaid in a gift shop got our attention.

Now we were off to the walled town of Toledo, Spain. This would be one of our favorite stops. It was built in 1200 and looks the same today except for all the tacky tourist items sold in the shops. We walked for hours in this village.

This church was the main stop. To see what artists and architects could do so long ago was inspiring.

This is the front of the church.

The town on a postcard.

A view as we left.

The next day we boarded a bullet train for Barcelona. Wow what a smooth ride at 150 miles an hour.

We could watch our progress on a monitor but most of the time we watched out the window. Spain looked like Southern California.

I had so much fun seeing all the signs that pointed the way. How considerate that they did that just for me Wendy Cevola aka WC.

After a night in a hotel in Barcelona we were off on another tour.

Looking out over the city you could see Sangrada Familia on the left. I had read of the church in National Geographic. I didn't know we would visit this marvel.

We whipped out our TM in front of the church.

Looking up was so much fun. They hope to finish the church 100 years after it's start.

Inside it is a forest. The trees support the ceiling of branches.

Stained glass glowed behind Dan. Take your own ear buds on trips. None would fit in my ears and shoving them in was painful.

This is what the overall structure will look like when finished.

I found graffiti in every city but it wasn't in English.

We walked a street fair that was miles long. We never reached the end before we turned around.

We paid to go to the top of a shopping center by elevator. While we went for a city view I know what you guys are looking at and it's not Dan!

Our last night in Barcelona took us to the beach for a

farewell dinner for our tour group.

There was rioting on the streets so our bus was blocked by the police. We eventually got back to our hotel.

The next day we will board the ship and sail away.

I took 3000 photos but I'll choose just enough to tell the story of our trip. Thank you always for the visit. Cheers, Wendy

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[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2014-06-19 15:48 ]