Istanbul May 13 2010

Istanbul is a dramatic city where history is found and made on every street corner. The Turks are wonderful people and go above and beyond to welcome you to their country. The central tourist area, Sultanahmet, is easy to cover on foot making it possible to see many of the major attractions in a couple of days. We had a general idea of the major sites and set out the morning of day one from our hotel to see The Blue Mosque and Aya Sofya. We seemed to have an early start on the tourists as there were few line ups which suits me fine “thankyouverymuch”!


The Blue Mosque, which began construction in 1609, is still in use today as a place of worship therefore, as a woman, one must cover up to be allowed to visit. There are scarves and sarongs at the entrance for those who are dressed “inappropriately”, that being us, we three girls covered up. We slipped off our shoes and padded onto the very soft carpet to view the inside of the mosque. The ceiling has been recently restored and is glorious. Predominantly blue, but also gold and yellow, iznik tile mosaics adorn the ceiling giving the building its auspicious name.

Priorat – Cataluña Spain March 31 to April 2 2010

This is a long overdue post but in all good conscience I must share our tour of Priorat with you before I move on to our more recent journeys.  Forgive me?

I had spent a great deal of time trying to find information on the internet regarding the wine region of Priorat.  I suspect the trouble lay in the fact that I don’t speak Cataluñ or Spanish which made it was tough sleuthing.  This wine region south of Barcelona sits in the shadow of the well known region of Pendes where the majority of Spain’s Cava sparkling wine is produced.  The region was brought back to life in the 1980’s by five young Spaniards who believed the terrior could produce wines to rival the great Rioja and Ribera del Duero reds. 

Barcelona March 27 to 30 2010

Our first trip of 2010 was to the enchanting north of Spain where we were able to indulge in all our favorite past times, gourmet eating, wine tasting and golfing. The first stop on our trip was the modernista city of Barcelona. We stayed in the funky and functional Casa Camper hotel in el Raval just a few blocks off of la Rambla which is the main pedestrian stroll in the city.

La Rambla is lined with interesting vendors selling everything from food and flowers to canaries. The stroll is also host to a multitude of street buskers all vying for a place amongst the vendor stalls and hoping to attract tourists, their camera and more importantly their euros! It makes for a colorful afternoon to simply stroll along pop into food markets and eye up all the intriguing characters.