click on photos to enlarge & see slideshow Sitges Inspiring Art from Spanish Museums SAGRADA FAMILIA Gaudi's masterpiece Barcelona Cathedral Foundations from 1298 AD Gaudi's Casa Batllo' Parque Güell, also designed by Gaudi Sights around the city
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click on photo to enlarge Our last day in Ireland Shawn & Isla sharing a Guiness Cliff walk from Bray to Greystones. Glendalough Day trip to Howth for a market & windy walk Welcome to Dublin! SURPRISE ! A rainy welcome to Dublin
click on photos to enlarge Departing Saba Selma's kindergarten class at Sacred Heart Primary School St.Maarten Sabaoke at Scout's Place every Friday night! SHAWN'S SABA GARDEN SHED STUDIO & ARTWORK SHAWN'S CLAY ADVENTURE The clay samples & my coil pots were donated to Sabarc - Saba Archaeological Center. They will be displayed along side other archaeological findings from the island's rich multicultural history in the new Saba Heritage Center Museum. I was very excited to be involved with this local educational facility. I hope to return sometime to possibly join an archaeological dig! Mt.Scenery Trail Tidal Pools & Cove Bay trail Sulphur Mine Trail The best meal of 2016! creatures & plants on Saba People of Saba Arriving in Saba click on photos to enlarge Our fantastic last day, after living in Venice for 3 months. A long lunch alongside the canal, followed by our friend, Anne, treating us to a gondola ride. BURANO colours, flowers, windows Just two days before we return to North Carolina we spent a sunny day on the island of Burano. These are the beautiful days of Italy we will miss very much. SELMA'S VISIT en route to Hamburg. LONDON - a few days spent visiting our friends Karo and Rob in London. An early morning on the Grand Canal - adventuring out in the drizzle to get to an antique market in Piazzola sul Brenta, a couple of hours away. Chandeliers Daily life in Venice. A beautiful sunny day with views of Venice from the bell tower of the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore. Carnivale & Coffee in Venice Carnivale lasts about two weeks, involving concerts, theater, street performances, general drunken mayhem and many people wandering about in fancy and strange costumes. Some are very elaborate... FEBRUARY 14th in Italy MAROSTICA Saturday morning flea market - We visited this small medieval town north west of Venice, known for its chess tournament with living chess pieces. Last weekend we took a trip to visit our friends in Chiusdino, near Siena, where we woke up to this beautiful snow. And a short visit back to Cortona to see many old friends. ACQUA ALTA The past 3 mornings we've had acqua alta. The acqua alta alert siren sounds throughout the city three hours in advance of high tide, giving everyone warning and signalling the level of the tide. We reached a level 2 today. It's really quite strange to see a city continue about it's daily business in a big messy puddle of water. Stores are flooded, restaurants are flooded, people are sloshing about in gumboots (or plastic bags), everyone's trying to navigate a route that's not too deep, temporary raised boardwalks are laid out on the main walkways, septic lines "struggle", trash is floating everywhere. I'm fascinated by it all! Here are a few of Shawn's Venice paintings... A misty Sunday trip to Murano, the island famous for glass, and usually packed with tourists on a sunny warm day. We enjoyed the mist and the solitude but it was the coldest day we've had! We've not had much rain and haven't yet experienced Aqua Alta, although this was a taste of the tide rising in St.Mark's Square. Museo Diocesana Day trip to Torcello. Torcello is a quiet and sparsely populated island at the northern end of the Venetian Lagoon. It is the oldest continuously populated region of Venice, and once held the largest population of the Republic of Venice. It now has a full-time population of 10 people, including the parish priest. Palazzo Grimani Early morning walk to the market... New Year's Eve we flew from Durban, South Africa, to Venice, Italy. From summer to mid-winter, from amazing wildlife and dense vegetation to pigeons and stone buildings - yes, it's a little challenging adapting but we are soaking it all up. We've spent the past few days navigating the warren of alleys & canals, finding our way around our neighbourhood. We walk and walk and walk, with map in hand, constantly searching and always amazed at the rustic and enchanting beauty of this weathered magical city. click on photos to enlarge CHRISTMAS IN SOUTH AFRICA 2014 on Chris & Sandy's farm in Eston MARKETS OF WARWICK STREET, DURBAN To learn more about these markets check it out @ www.marketsofwarwick.co.za The Bead Market iMPEPHO and LIME MARKET Lime traders sell balls of white and red lime mined from iNdwedwe, north of Durban. These lime and clay balls are used as sunscreen, white-wash paint and for pottery. The women who sell these balls actually live here, under the interstate bridges. BROOK STREET MARKET and BEREA STATION MARKET This market runs alongside the Badsha Peer Shrine. Women sewing and selling brightly colored pinafores, and men sewing religious clothing. On the upper level you will find the food court, where dishes are washed in massive enamel pots. BOVINE HEAD MARKET An authentic Zulu delicacy of bovine (cow) head meat, along with traditional dumpling served on wooden boards… EARLY MORNING MARKET Early Morning Market is 100 years old, selling produce, spices, flowers and live poultry. HERB MARKET and MUSIC BRIDGE MARKET The Music Bridge Market pumps so loudly with music, each stall with it's own variety cranked as high as it would be in a nightclub. The bridge connects to the Herb Market where traditional healers sell their wares. No photos can be taken in the Herb Market but it is an astounding visual feast with every variety of concoction available, dried animal skins, bones, skulls, bladders... FLORA & FAUNA MONKS COWL, DRAKENSBERG MOUNTAINS, KwaZulu-Natal 9 December 2014 Some scenes from the Midlands as we meandered our way to the Drakensburg mountains... Local shopping experiences... iMfolozi-Hluhluwe game reserve, Zululand, 11/25/14 Here is a sampling of the animals and birds we saw over the three days at the game reserve. We saw a total of 43 different birds, 18 mammals, 3 reptiles and a bunch of insects. The game reserve covers more than 11,000 acres.
Coming in to land after our 15 hour flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg, we were very excited to catch the first glimpse of African soil beneath us. We arrived in the early evening and it was drizzling and 61F/16C. I was expecting it to be a lot warmer but after leaving home in North Carolina at 14F/-10C we were not about to complain. We checked in to our hotel near the airport and Shawn enjoyed his first spread of South African style dining. He was very satisfied with his dinner of lamb curry, bobootie, pork chop, roast chicken, roasted veges and potatoes, finished off with a koeksister. A couple of glasses of red wine at $2 a glass went down very well. PENNINGTON, KwaZulu Natal The Hadeda's (Ibis) are nesting in the tree just outside our bedroom window. They are our 4.30am alarm clock, half crow/half car alarm! We are treated to Gwen's famous fruit salad for breakfast, full of delicious fresh paw-paw and mangoes which we bought on the side of the road on the way home from the Durban airport. While enjoying breakfast on the patio this little guy decided to join us... |