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Topic: Travels and Impressions

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CatsbyAZ

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Re: Travels and Impressions
« Reply #2534 on: June 30, 2025, 11:03:00 AM »
More thoughts from Madrid–

At one point my buddy wonders whether living in Madrid is comparable to New York. In a cosmopolitan way, yes. More notably, Madrid is centered by Retiro Park, it’s a green, forested haven equivalent to Manhattan’s Central Park. My week in Madrid well acquaints me with Retiro Park due to crossing it twice a day, starting in the morning walking from the more working-class neighborhoods at the Park’s south, and making my way north to my buddy’s vivienda in the wealthier neighborhoods above Retiro Park. The neighborhood south of the park is Pacifico, lined shoulder to shoulder with residential buildings. Little room for parking or breathing. Parents walk children to school. Shop owners roll up aluminum shutter gates to reveal various storefronts. The faint scent of cigarettes carries through the streets. Real Madrid fútbol banners and jerseys hang like laundry from the windows. Navigating my way through Pacifico’s dense grid, I orient my sense of direction by watching for the belltower of Parroquia Nuestra Señora de la Paz (Parish of Our Lady of Peace):


Cincydawg

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Re: Travels and Impressions
« Reply #2535 on: June 30, 2025, 12:49:47 PM »
Great stuff.

CatsbyAZ

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Re: Travels and Impressions
« Reply #2536 on: July 01, 2025, 11:04:41 AM »
Turning north at the church tower, Retiro Park is reached in another few similar blocks. From the park’s south edge, I walk up its east side and into Central Madrid’s fancier neighborhoods where my buddy is residing for the summer with his family. Their second-floor vivienda faces another city park. Below his balcony, the wider sidewalks are frequented by fashionable Spanish women. Their figures slim and tall, their elegant dresses and hair flowing, their faces striking and clear. Joining the crowds back on the sidewalks for an afternoon walk, we near the Puerta de Alcalá, Madrid’s version of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and pass by sprawling café patios, luxury brand fashion shops, ornate building facades, and Michelon rated restaurants. With near record high temperatures sweeping across Spain, a heat wave blankets Madrid. The sun not a clear sun in a clear blue sky, but a glaring sun in the yellow sky of its relentless glare. The heat not like the sweltering desert, but the humidity lingers into the evenings, highlighting why Siestas are such a lasting fixture of the Mediterranean regions. Before I walk back to my hotel for the evening, we cool off with iced glasses of sangria or vino blanco. His family’s summer in Spain is the dream Americans have when they long for own relaxed season of living in Europe.


Brutus Buckeye

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Re: Travels and Impressions
« Reply #2537 on: July 01, 2025, 11:37:04 AM »
Has anyone ever been to the Arctic Ocean? Hudson Bay counts.

betarhoalphadelta

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Re: Travels and Impressions
« Reply #2538 on: July 01, 2025, 11:50:41 AM »
Not me. 

Farthest north I've ever been in NA is Edmonton, and as for eastern Canada, is Ottawa. Farthest north I've been overall is Stockholm, and that's on the Baltic Sea, not the Arctic Ocean...

Cincydawg

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Re: Travels and Impressions
« Reply #2539 on: July 01, 2025, 12:09:07 PM »
I MAY have flown over it, but probably not.  The southern tip of Sweden is our farthest north, or maybe Alaska.

Brutus Buckeye

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Re: Travels and Impressions
« Reply #2540 on: July 01, 2025, 02:18:56 PM »
I've been to Alaska and the Yukon. 

FearlessF

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Re: Travels and Impressions
« Reply #2541 on: July 01, 2025, 02:22:37 PM »
US 16A is a scenic road between the towns of Keystone and Custer. It winds its way through Black Hills National Forest. The road is famous for its views, switchbacks, and the pigtail bridges - three bridges that make 360 degree turns and the road completely circles around and passes over itself as it climbs the side of the mountain.
But the most popular attraction of this road are the narrow one-lane tunnels carved into the mountain itself that are aligned with views of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial.
The road is designed to be driven slowly-maximum speed is 35 mph- so roll down your windows, breathe the fresh mountain air, smell the ponderosa pines, make frequent stops, and enjoy the views.


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Riffraft

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Re: Travels and Impressions
« Reply #2542 on: July 02, 2025, 10:13:49 AM »
Going on a cruise in a couple of weeks and just read that Honduras is requiring proof of measles vaccination or immunity.  Well I had measles some 60 years ago and won't get a vaccine booster since I am immune. And i am not going to get a blood draw to prove it i guess I am not getting off the ship there.  Been to Honduras many times so the only ones losing is Honduras because they won't be getting my tourist dollars
« Last Edit: July 02, 2025, 02:10:54 PM by Riffraft »

Cincydawg

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Re: Travels and Impressions
« Reply #2543 on: July 02, 2025, 10:26:37 AM »
We were informed by the cruise line that if we didn't have an approved visa for each port, we'd be denied boarding.  They were pretty serious about that, I had messed up our Sri Lanka application, it was confusing, and our names were wrong, and I could not get it corrected.  I had some back and forth with the cruise line about that, they finally let us board.  Oddly enough the weather was too rough to land in Sri Lanka.

MarqHusker

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Re: Travels and Impressions
« Reply #2544 on: July 02, 2025, 06:30:29 PM »
Turns out landing on a Denali glacier is a great idea. 


MarqHusker

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Re: Travels and Impressions
« Reply #2545 on: July 02, 2025, 06:32:39 PM »
The gulf of Alaska where I was fishing earlier this week is not the Arctic ocean, but it was 46 degree water.

Brutus Buckeye

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Re: Travels and Impressions
« Reply #2546 on: July 03, 2025, 05:16:58 PM »

MarqHusker

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Re: Travels and Impressions
« Reply #2547 on: July 04, 2025, 04:20:33 AM »
Ive stayed at some interesting Airbnb/Vrbo properties but none like this.

Very well appointed  .


 

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