2025 – Apr & May – Ron's Travels

Overseas Adventure Tour to Portugal and Spain, plus London

Lisbon

After about 24 hours of traveling/waiting, I arrived in Lisbon about 8 am. When I got to the hotel, a room was available so I checked in right away and then went to the nearby Calouste Gulbenkian Museum. Among other paintings I liked were:

John Singer Sargent

Paula Rego

Our tour guide, Miguel

Belem (i.e., Bethlehem) district of Lisbon

Monument to the Discoverers who sailed from Portugal

Lisbon Harbor

Horses and carriage in Sintra

Inside the Portugese National Palace in Sintra

Statue of Marques de Pombal near our Lisbon Hotel

Bordalo II Street Art

View of Lisbon from Santa Maria Maior

A 1755 earthquake damaged lots of the tile on buildings in Lisbon so it was decided to use the tile fragments as paving for the sidewalks, a practice that has continued to today. Unfortunately, I found these to be among the worst walking surfaces I have encountered, quite uneven and constantly in need of repair.

However, they do take some pride in the pavement. (Lots of signs in Lisbon include a second wording in English.)

A school music group providing street music on Liberation Day.

Liberation Day as experienced from in front of our hotel

A tile artist at Vila Fresca de Azeital …

Designing our own tiles.

My tile following a boat design trace – better than I expected considering my level of tremor.

Making Azeitao cheese from sheep’s milk.

All done except for the eating!

Azeitao Wine.

A cork tree

Piles of cork bark ready for processing

Display of cork products

For wine aficionados, corks for wine to be drunk soon have relatively large pores to allow for oxidation while corks for wine to be aged have small pores.

Evora

Our Evora Pousada (a historic building converted into a hotel) was originally a convent. In Portugal, monasteries were inside cities while convents are outside the cities; either one might be the home of monks or nuns.

My Room

Ruins of a Roman Temple just outside the Pousada

A car show in Evora. Unfortunately, I did not have time to peruse all the cars.

Section of a Roman wall at Evora …

… and an aqueduct

A David Infante work at the Evora Museum

Vinho de Talha – Wine made the way the Romans did it: just toss the grapes into a large vat and let them ferment (actually, there is a bit more to it than that but that is the general process).

Merida

A Roman theater at Merida

View from my room at Carmona. We arrived during a multi-nation electrical blackout but our effects were minimal since we were on the bus and the hotel had a generator. Looking out the window the following morning, I could see lighted towns in the distance and knew the blackout was over.

Seville – a day trip from Carmona

Seville – the Plaza de Espana

The Plaza de Espana has a section for each district of Spain. This is the one for Cordoba.

Horses and carriages in Seville

In the Seville Cathedral

In Seville at el Arenal

El Arenal (i.e., the sandy area)

Carmona

Murube – a sixth-generation ranch for fighting bulls

Marta, who currently runs the 2,000 acre ranch which includes almonds, sunflowers, wheat and chickpeas, as well as the bulls. (Her mother also runs a nearby bull ranch.)

A bull from 1865

One of the bulls as we drove through their pasture

The bull features seem to show better in black and white

While the bulls accepted our drive through their fields, Marta’s SUV seems to indicate they are no always so docile.

Ronda

A ham shop in Ronda

Lourdes, first woman to be the national hamcutting champion

To be an Iberian ham, the leg has to weigh at least 7 kilos, then buried in salt for one day for every kilo and hung for at least a year or more.

To be a Serrano ham, the leg must hang for at least six months.

Black pig – if the hoof is black, this tells you it’s a black pig.

View from our hotel in Ronda

The view down the river canyon.

With Sachie and May

A view of the hotel from a nearby overlook …

and sunset.

A Ronda cat

A view from the bottom, by Sachie after she and May did the hike down.

Meanwhile, I was at the Ronda bullring, maybe the first special-purpose ring to be built.

A view of the seating

On the surface of the ring

The museum at the bullring

Cordoba

Bridge entering Cordoba

Vegetarian lunch in Cordoba

Views of the cathedral in Cordoba

Originally built as a mosque, the cathedral is huge

Ubeda

Learning about olive trees and olive oil

A net for capturing olives

Lunch at the olive oil processor, many of the lunch items included olive oil in their ingredients.

Another Spanish cat

Inside the Palace del Dean Ortega in Ubeda

Ax excavated/restored synagogue in Ubeda

Toledo

Some Spaniards would like to have dictatorship back: here is the interior of a store in a region known for that feeling.

Some windmills on the way to Toledo …

and a Man of la Mancha statue.

View of Toledo

Madrid

A day trip to Madrid included:

A visit to the Prado, the only museum I visited that did not allow photos inside. We had an excellent “art history” guide who led us to a number of selected paintings, starting with The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch.

The square plaza at the city hall.

Sights/stores on the plaza:

Madrid has chocolate!

The city wanted to abolish the Tio Pepe sign but relented after a public outcry.

The Bear and the Strawberry Tree statue representing the coat of arms of Madrid.

Back to Toledo for Flamenco!

A stop at a silver engraving/inlaying shop:

The Toledo Cathedral

Details of the cathedral

The Santa Cruz Museum has El Greco paintings plus other historical items:

Toledo Military Museum, uniform displays

Also for horses!

Toledo train station, on my way back to Madrid after my tour ended.

My train from Toledo to Madrid. The Spanish trains were the first to do luggage inspection before boarding – they spotted the Leatherman multi-tool I had in my suitcase but let me keep it.

Madrid. again

Back to the Prado again to see a lot of the museum I had missed on the first quick tour.

My second day in Madrid was at the Reina Sophia, which is their museum for modern and contemporary art. I am currently intrigued by Salvador Dali – this one of his early works before he got into …

surrealism!

Train tracks as I left Madrid for Barcelona. My suitcase went through inspection without having to be opened this time.

Madrid – Barcelona

Madrid to Barcelona at 300 kilometers per hour

Barcelona

A Barcelona kiss

Closeup of a Kiss section

Isabel, my Barcelona tour guide – her mom was from Argentina, her dad was from New York, her grandmother was from northern Spain and she spent time in all three places while growing up.