My Vacation Ends in New York

 After 30 days of running around the Iberian peninsula, I am back in the USA and in my favorite city: New York!! Stopping in New York was timely as the US prepares to celebrate the 250th independence day!! Unfortunately the weather has not cooperated as the temperatures soared into the 100+ yesterday !!! 

There was a lot of construction in Manhattan!!! Big cranes, scaffoldings and side walks blocked were all signs of a city on the move … however, the big talk of the day was the heat wave that was gripping the city and the east coast, I literally thought i was going to die from the heat!!!… As I was leaving penstation, there were a lot of people with big media cameras waiting for something.. I approached one of the people and asked what was going on and I was told that there was a big wedding to take place in Madison Square Garden!! I found out later that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce were getting married at the Garden!!! Police barricaded all the streets around the Garden so I had to navigate around those too… In any case, I managed to get out of the traffic jam caused by the wedding and move on to other less crowded avenues and streets, well somewhat less crowded.. 

Though Europe has all the history and beautiful old buildings, New York has its own charm and wow factor!! Europeans love to visit New York too…

With these final comments, I bring the summer vacation 2026 to an end and this blog will now go into hibernation until my next trip … ???  Here are some pictures..

Time Square 

High buildings everywhere 

Time Square 

Cool buildings 

More highrise buildings 

Empire State in a distance

World cup venue with all the country flags

More high rise buildings 

Back to Malaga Again

 It is said that everything has a beginning and an ending.. well these vacations started in Lisbon Portugal and they are unofficially ending in Malaga Spain… Two amazing cities with lots of history, food and entertainment !! I love Europe and the Iberian peninsula in particular!! Fun people with a joy for life and family.. I now have added Portugal to my list of countries visited, and Lisbon, Porto, Cadiz and Cordoba for my list of cities! The first two cities are in Portugal, the last two in Spain. I was a lot more ambitious leaving the US thinking that I will see a lot more countries and cities but the heat wave and simply put « fatigue » shortened my list .. my vacation strategy lately has been: I will go as far as my body takes me!! I am very happy for what I accomplished in this vacation… met highschool friends, visited a new country and four new cities… so all in all a great time was had by everyone involved .. the lesson I learned from this vacation is that I need to do a better job planning ahead to eliminate the stress during the vacation itself.. two instances come to mind, the Porto visit was unplanned with no hotel room or anything else so I had to spend time in Lisbon preparing the Porto visit which added unnecessary stress.. the same happened in Spain with Cadiz … no preparation whatsoever and it stressed me a bit.. but it all worked out well … but as I get older, stress is an enemy not a friend so i need to fix that issue with better preparation… the logic is simple: we go on vacation to relax and enjoy and if we add stress then it takes away from the joy so.. prepare better is the answer!!

The high points on this vacation was the reunion with my two best high-school buddies!! It has been over 45 years since we last were together!!!! Finally we came together in Grenada for few precious days.. we talked about our highschool days, other friends and teachers and off course ourselves and families.. It was a priceless time… we hope to repeat this again but who knows … we can only plan but the real plan is not in our control… so we enjoyed the moment !!! As the saying goes  « live for today because tomorrow may never come » … 

In summary and as I head back to the States 🇺🇸 I can say I succeeded in adding new places to my growing list of visited places .. and for all you out there reading these lines.. Enjoy everyday, and do your best at what you do and get out and see the world.. if you can that is.. 

The casbah of Grenada

 Narrow streets that can only accommodate foot traffic can be found in many places around the world, Quito Ecuador comes to mind. In Cadiz, most streets in the old part of town are narrow but one car can go through driving slow and carefully! In Grenada some streets are so narrow that they can only accommodate foot traffic and even then you have to squeeze through in some places. I hear the Casbah of Algiers is similar, i.e. just foot traffic. In Grenada’s casbah, there are lots of nicknac stores, souvenirs stores that tourists love to walk through… there are lots of Moroccan owned stores in those narrow streets, I know so because I overheard them speak Arabic and the background music is also in Arabic. Well, I spent my whole morning in those narrow streets today, just enjoying the scenery of tourists taking pictures and buying souvenirs… there was a building in the middle of the casbah that looked like a mosque or an old islamic school. Arabic writings were on the walls with very decorative tiles. One of the repeated Arabic writing was ‘There is no winner but Allah’!! I saw the same statement in Alhambra as well.. It is a powerful statement and reminds us to keep things in perspective and that all the rat race in this world is futile… 

When on vacation, I love days when I have no plan and I just meander through the city, enjoy the landmarks, take in all the sounds and enjoy the scenery… today is that day in Grenada…. Enjoy some of the unique places in Grenada..

The arches and the remnants of the Islamic civilization 

In Grenada

Goodies are everywhere 

Souvenir stores

More goodies (I won’t be taking a blood test for a while)

More souvenir stores

The same ….

The same …

Nicknacks are everywhere 

The Cathedral seen from a narrow streets

The Cathedral at sun set… 

A cool building I thought

Cathedral seen from a square with a water fountain

Back to Grenada

 The heat wave is temporarily gone for few days so i came back to Grenada to get my big backpack and prepare the next phase if any?? I say that because after 26 days traveling i m beginning to get tired from the frantic pace I m on at the moment! However, looking ahead to next week’s eastern US temperatures does not give me a good feeling about going back either so….. hmmm! Where next ?? Stay tuned I guess my head is working on something, but not sure my body is agreeing to that but ….

Because of the soccer world cup being in North America, I went to sleep at 3 AM, and I walked across town at 3 am!!! There were very few people out except for some cats 🐈‍⬛ !! This place is so safe, I did not have a single moment of fear, it did not even cross my mind !!! I walked in some narrow street, wide street, uphill and downhill… the only fear I had was twisting my ankle on a cobble stone!! And yes that can be painful and possibly vacation ending.. so i paid a lot of attention to where stepped and no time to worry about the rest!!! When I got to my friend’s, who is not here but left me the key, I just went straight to sleep!!  

Leaving my hotel room early in the morning

A view from the top of the hotel room lobby

A modern bridge over Cadiz bay.. the center part opens for big ships to pass

Crossing a small town on my way back to Grenada

Crossing Seville on my way back to Grenada

A small town in a barren country side

The moon rises over Grenada

Cadiz, Day 2

 Day 2 of Cadiz is more of the same, exploring and exploring… the old town is very compact so it is actually easier to explore that the other cities in Andalusia.. it is a narrow piece of land surrounded by water.. to make things even easier i took a bus tour just like in Lisbon, however this was not a two day job but rather a one hour job!!!  This goes to show the size difference between the two cities. Just like most European cities, Cadiz has two sections as well; the old and the new. Today i saw both sides, very easy to tell them apart.. the new side is more of the business side of town with lots of banks, factories and other commercial enterprises.. also large two-way streets…  whereas the old side everything is narrow and mostly one way streets everywhere…  the port of Cadiz has contributed a lot to the Spanish naval fleet and was a launching point of two of Christopher Columbus trips to the America’s… It was also used during war war 2 by the allies… here are some more pics from today…

A nice monument in Cadis

Beautiful plaza with lots of shade by the water

Picture from a tour bus of the cathedral and a beautiful street light

Green spaces are everywhere and they help in the heat of the day

Another picture of the cathedral from the tour bus

The modern city of Cadiz

…. Same as above 

Sane as above 

Sitting in a side street cafe is my favorite pass time 

 

Cadiz, Day 1

 Well I ran away from the heat of Grenada to the cool breezes off the Atlantic in Cadiz. Cadiz is the oldest city in the Andalusia area of Spain. It was built by the Phéniciens, taken over by the Romans and then the Muslims before the crusaders took it back … Lots of history here.. With the addition of Cadiz I have now visited the five largest cities of Andalusia; Grenada, Cordoba, Seville, Malaga and now Cadiz… 

The organge-colored regions are the ones I visited this vacation

(Lisbon-Porto-Madrid-Grenada-Cordoba-Seville-Cadiz-Malaga)

The last Five Cities on the list above are all part of Andalusia province of Spain. This is the region of Spain that used to be Muslim and run by the berbers known as the Moores. The heritage left behind by the Moores is amazing and shows their level of advancement in every aspect of life.. They left souvenirs that will live forever and will remind future generations of their contributions to humanity in all areas, especially architecture and construction, as evidenced in Cordoba, Grenada, Seville and now Cadiz.

The trip to Cadis was also timely as a heat wave was spreading through Andalusia and especially Grenada where I was few days ago… I was literally going from coffee shop to coffee shop seeking cool temperatures!!!

The bus trip to Cadiz took six and half hours and stopped in Seville! Lots of people got off in Seville and not many people came on the bus. The ride to Cadis from Seville was rather fast and before long I saw the vast expanse of water representing the Mediterranean sea 🌊… The bus terminal was also much smaller!

The first thing I did once in Cadis bus station is find my hotel on the map and decide to uber, taxi or walk.. Well the decision was easy, WALK!! First, i just got of sitting for six and a half hours, it was high time to move! Second the hotel was not far at all so a no brainer decision … Cadis being an old city, one thing that strikes right away are very narrow streets, i.e. one way streets and some of them just for pedestrians! Nearly a casbah like streets, not that i know the casbah!! But i have seen streets like this in Quito and elsewhere around the world. The hotel actually texted me as soon as I arrived in Cadiz asking if I was still coming, bizarre I thought since I already paid for the room!!! Nonetheless, I politely said yes, I was in town and walking to the hotel.. and before long I showed up. Apparently, there was demande for my room so they were wondering if i was indeed coming!! In any case, the lady at the front was very nice. She handed me the key, after taking some info from my passport.. the room is actually a very nice suite with a small kitchen. I was not going to cook anything I am on vacation!! After a shower and a brief rest, I was off to sightseeing…. Here are some pictures from today..

Narrow streets everywhere in the old city

The cathedral 

Inside the cathedral

Inside the cathedral 

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From the top of the cathedral

From the top of the cathedral

From the top of the cathedral

Front view of the cathedral