Adventures in Spain, Part II

Our daughter has been in Spain now for almost two months, and that is just hard to believe that her time there is almost halfway over! She has already finished her midterm examinations! Where does the time fly off too... a rhetorical question I know, because no one I know has the answer!

Twenty-three years ago today, in the very early morning hours of St. Patrick's Day, our precious daughter was brought into this world, and the world has been a better place because of her {smiles}.  We are missing her very much as she celebrates her birthday halfway around the world, and so I thought it would be a good time to share with you some of the memories she has made while studying in Spain. 

This is inside the university campus where she is studying, in the main courtyard. 

Inside the la Catedral de Granada, one of the most magnificent cathedrals in Spain. 

A closer look at the magnificence of this building!

The outdoor courtyard area of the Palace Alhambra. 

Inside Alhambra looking out into the courtyard. Such incredible architecture!

She traveled to the city of Toledo, Spain, and this is a gorgeous view overlooking the city.  

Another view of Toledo, Spain.

And one more... the sunset views were just stunning to see!

Crossing one of the many bridges in the city of Toledo. 

La Catedral de Toledo is one of the largest cathedrals in Spain.

A view of the magnificence inside La Catedral de Toledo. 

Gold statutes inside the cathedral. 

El Palacio Real (Royal Palace of Madrid) where the royal family hosts official events.  The palace was incredibly opulent, she tells us, but inside they were not allowed to take pictures of it!

A picture of the Royal family of Spain. 

She toured the capital city of Spain, Madrid, on a bicycle!  With the group they rode bicycles through much of the city
for several hours! What a great way to explore! 

A marketplace in Madrid

This beautiful peacock graced the grounds of the park they visited in Madrid. 

She has gone on several hikes around Granada, and this is a picture of a hike she took that had
views overlooking the Sierra Nevada mountains. 

She tells us that cats are everywhere in Spain, and they are quite beautiful souls! 

A monument in a park braced on either side by two beautiful orange trees. 

On another hike, they climbed through a canyon, and it was quite a challenging hike.  In places, they had to crawl! 

Crossing this wooden swinging bridge through the canyon. 

What an interesting hike this must have been, much hard work went into creating this trail through the canyons. 

A view of the beautiful Sierra Nevada mountain range in the warm afternoon light. 

A sunset view of the city of Granada

Here she visits an Arabic teahouse called El Banuelo.  

She ordered te pakistani (Pakistani tea) which she really enjoyed and a Baklava, all very delicious. 

She has also gone to visit the Rock of Gibraltar. Here is a picture of the entrance at the base of the Rock 

She says she nearly got blown away by the high winds at the Europa cliff point with
the view of the Trinity lighthouse.  Beautiful view! 

What a gorgeous color the water is! 

She got to see the monkeys who live on the Rock of Gibraltar, and it is a quite well-known fact that these cute little monkeys are trained pickpockets, so they were warned beforehand to not touch the monkeys or turn their back to them, and to hold their belongings close! 

Back in Granada, she happened upon a spontaneous flamenco dancer,
dancing in the street entertaining the crowd who gathered to watch.   

This is La Plaza de Espana in the town of Sevilla. Again, here you can
see a crowd gathered to watch a flamenco dancer. 

A sunset view of the Plaza de Espana, Sevilla. 

Touring Cordoba, Spain. Such an incredibly beautiful stone bridge!

Walking through the streets of Cordoba, she captured these beautiful pots lining the walls of the homes. 

Being a gardener myself, I just have to ask, how do these plants get watered?
 I don't know the answer, but I do wonder! Aren't they beautiful! 

So I will stop there for now... she has recently traveled to Portugal and also the country of Morocco! I will have to do another "Adventure in Spain" post and share those beautiful pictures with you :)

But to bring us all back to reality... this is what it looks like in my world now that we have finished traveling in the sunshine in Spain....

Frosty mornings with warm sunshine and plentiful snow. 

Our morning walks take us past this beautiful view every morning.  

When one looks at this picture, how can you not love winter?
And I do, I love winter dearly... but I am ready for Spring... it is time  {smiles}

Just this morning I captured this wild rose bush decked out in its organdy white gown of hoar frost...
but it won't be long now before buds burst forth and wild roses bloom once again. 
We are all ready and waiting :) 

 I took the dogs on a snowshoe through the woods this afternoon.  The days of snowshoeing and cross-country skiing around our home no doubt are drawing to a close for this season, and I want to enjoy it while I can. 

Enjoying our time in the woods, the dogs are always on high alert, which makes them great companions.
However, their "high alert" stance almost always involves a deer, lol!

Our weather forecast for this upcoming week says that we are to reach highs of 60s on Wednesday which is also the first day of Spring... I do hope for once they aren't wrong! We are all looking forward to the warm sunshine forecast for this coming week, and already we have seen the temps rising during the day with the warm sunshine and have seen a lot of the snow melt, but it has a long way to go yet.  Spring seems to be a bit finicky in her arrival, so one just never quite knows for sure. 
But for now, we are just very grateful for the sunshine in the forecast! 

I hope you enjoyed your "armchair travels" to a land where springtime has been in full swing for some time now, and we look forward to the day coming soon when we shall enjoy it here too :)

How is Spring looking in your world?