Geneva day 2

 We went to sleep early yesterday which was great! I was basically running on empty and was beginning to feel sick but I knew it was just fatigue nothing else. I slept like a rock, i did not care about any noises or other disturbances. My iWatch says i slept 8:30 hours which is huge for me but i am glad i did, if not the vacation will start going downhill… This morning only my friend Abdelhak and I were left in the house, his wife went to work and girls went to school… It is a grey day again, welcome to Switzerland!!! We decided to drive to CERN and to the “lake”, lake Genera that is !!! My friend, Abdelhak, worked for CERN for years and had huge scientific contributions in the Hicks Boson research world!!… as his high school classmate I am very proud of him!! 

Here are some pics from today …

At CERN 

Abdelhak in front of an old museum of CERN

A very impressive piece of art with all the important scientific discoveries 

A cross-section of the accelerator 

In front of the United Nations!

United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR)

Deloite Building

The famous lake Geneva

Bisons on a farm 

Hello from Geneva (Switzerland )

 Well it has been a long day again, up at 4:00 AM, and still up… I am learning to live this fast pace, but I am not sure for how long?!. The EasyJet flight was on time so nothing to complain about from that point of view… today was more like catching with my friend, Abdelhak, I have not seen him in 40 years!!! I also met his beautiful family. We did some walking around his neighborhood and went shopping for food as well. My friend decided to cook dinner for everyone so we went to the store to buy what we needed. The seafood dish was delicious and everyone enjoyed.. here are some pics from today, though nit may..

Hello from Malaga

 I slept 3 hours last night !! I am a walking zombie but so far I am holding just fine. I had to get up at 4 AM in order to take the 7 am train to Malaga. I did not know how long the walk from my friends house to the train station would take. I added one more star to Grenada today, the safety star, I already said that before  but now I add the star because even when no one is out there, I felt perfectly safe.. it was pitch dark in the narrow alleys but i never felt threatened. I will be buried alive in Quito or Algiers if I did the same!!! Trains in Spain are great!!! On time and comfortable and reasonably priced so all in all thumb’s up !! How about Malaga ?? I love it !! I guess I just love the whole country of Spain with its wonderful people and beautiful cities… Malaga is not Grenada, it does not have Alhambra to brag about but is has the Picasso museum and more.. like the Mediterranean sea, the beaches … I walked until my feet said stop  then I listened to my feet and took a taxi to the hotel… however there was a small problem before that… my phone died and I did not know where to go because all the info was in the phone and the phone died!! Ok don’t panic I said, I just went into an Italian restaurant found an outlet next to a table and that was it… I asked the restaurant’s owner whether I could charge my phone he said off course and I said off course to lunch back .. so both of us won !! They were all sweet ….  So to all you people relying on phones for all your information, wake up !! The phone can die, be stolen, or dropped and broken into million pieces then reality strikes and you have nothing … the old fashion way never dies: print your info and secure it in your bags. Ok enough of this lecturing, I am on vacation and so are my students … so here are some pics from Malaga…  Enjoy

Taken from the train: Olive trees everywhere 

Wind turbines on top of lots of hills

A church in Malaga with lots of school kids going in 

Beautiful windows and architecture 

What a ceiling!! 

More awesome buildings anywhere you look

One more …

I am the “L” in Malaga: who am I??

Exercising in the beautiful park.. 

Picasso 1

More beautiful buildings

Picasso 2

A funny story from today: Because of sleeping only 2 hours last night, as soon as I got my room today, 3 pm local time, I decided to lay down on the bed in the hotel room and before long I was in la-la land.. After two hours I woke up and I was hysterical thinking that I missed my flight because the sun was out and everything was bright … I did not know it was still the same day.. After looking at my phone, i saw the date was still 29th not 30th  then i cooled off …  this is the outcome of lack of sleep. Take away… get enough sleep no matter what !! 

 

Grenada the beautiful

 Well today i tried to go away from the usual tourist areas of  Grenada so I increased my distance away from downtown. I started my walk this afternoon by heading in a different direction entirely. Well, I discovered quickly that there are beautiful parks everywhere so I kept going and going farther away from downtown …. There were no safety concerns at as every direction I went had plenty of business going on. One advantage to doing this was that coffee shop had plenty of seats open inside and outside. Here are some of the pictures i took today …all in all another beautiful day in Grenada… 

Yes there is a river in Grenada

Another beautiful park

A cute artistic bench in a park

Arts is everywhere 

Small colorful church 

Beautiful water fountain in the back of the tall statue

Plaza de Toros (bull fighting arena)

Another beautiful cathedral 

Alhambra from the Arabic. الحمراء

 Now I know why Grenada is known by its “Alhambra”, it is an amazing place and have yet to see the inside of the different palaces, rooms, gardens… those tours are sold out and I have to find a way somehow to see the inside if not I have to come back. The name Alhambra comes from the Arabic word “hamraa”  meaning “red”and it is a red palace on top of a hill overlooking Grenada. What a stunning place, the gardens the water the thick walls of the forts all built by Berber workers from North Africa. Grenada and the whole andalussia area is full of monuments. There were buses and buses of tourists from all nationalities plus all the people walking directly from the city like myself… 

Here are some pics, they speak for themselves…. I have no words to describe what I saw today …just amazing …

Alone in Grenada

 Well today was a slow day in Grenada as my friend and host left for Geneva to be with his family and left me alone in his awesome house!! I took my time to get out of the house as I am on vacation and I have nothing but time and places to see. So first, I started with checking what all is left to see in Grenada and surroundings then started looking into neighboring cities such as Seville, Cordoba, Cadiz and Malaga! All these are within couple two or three hours from Grenada. Keeping in mind that I m flying to Geneva on the 30th to meet my friend’s family before embarking on a road trip to Aix en Provence, France, to visit a high school friend of ours. All in all the trip is beginning to take a turn for a faster pace of moving around. That is all fine by me as i need a fast pace ti burn all the energy I stored over the years of not traveling. 

Here are more pictures of Grenada I took today … 

Main Street

The Cathedral with a bus in the foreground 

Inside a church where a wedding was taking place

Cathedral from a different side 

Narrow street with a top cover to protect from summer hear

Colorful building with the cathedral in the back 

More awesome ancient buildings all over Grenada

History is everywhere in Grenada

A plaza where people dance, sing and just have fun

Casbah type streets filled with small shops… a lot of Moroccan shop owners 

Grenada is a very safe city, i walked everywhere in the day and at night and i have not been threatened by anyone. On the contrary people are so friendly and willing to help. They try their best to speak some English… I have been in cities where narrow streets are to be avoided; Algiers, Quito, and Lima; come to mind, but not Grenada. Another thing about Grenada is that all bars serve “tapas”, i.e. you buy a beer 🍻 of any size and you get a small plate of food for free. The food can be shrimps, vegetables, rice, some other seafood… with two or three beers you literally get a full meal for free!! So all you beer drinkers come over to Grenada…