Marc's Public Blog

sadly googleween for kids was a cluster from what I heard (too many people, impossible to even get to for some)

Long line to get in, 30mn to wait to get through a security line:

Time for the costume contest. I played but didn't win :)

As I said, views from the buildings:

Main Room:

Aweome sets, I got home way too late, thanks to all ;)

Video summary:

DJ Blurr playing in the other room

Martin Cisco

Fadi

Video Summary:

While the museum has lots of displays, most of them are displays of many animals around the world, and they were surprisingly well made:

Pikas!

baby birds, so cute

The prehistoric section was well made too:

Also a small Egyptian section:

Also a small section on native americans:

Also a section onthe human body:

Other rooms had very nice collections of crystals:

I didn't have enough time for it, I could have spent several hours there, but they had a special exhibition which was a lot of brain teasers. That was fun, but I had to limit my time there. Too bad it likely won't be there next time I'm in Denver.

And I finished up with teh space section:

a nice B1A lancer prototype

a land speed record vehicle

As a special bonus, they had the actual X-Wing starfighter from the star wars movies:

The museum also had a small space portion:

So, I'll be honest in saying that it was not the best plane museum I've seen, partially because it was not that big (about 2H to get around it), but also because despite the big hangar space, planes were piled up in a way that it was hard to see them, which was kind of a shame. Still, if you are in the Denver area, it's still worth a visit.

They had a beautiful octopus that was quite active when I visited:

so sad I didn't get to touch its suckers :)

I arrived Thursday afternoon with a bit of time to see the nearby History Museum which was actually quite good and needed 2 visits to finish it up (3.5-4H):

lots of mining history in CO

Mesa Verde is a cool old city under the rocks.

Next, I took a city bike (using the uber app, interesting) to the Denver Aquariuum

Then, I got lucky and the Botanical Gardens had a halloween themed night visit:

Friday morning, I started with a 2H guided walk through town. Denver spends a set amount of money on art, so there is a lot of it:

AFter the tour, I went to the Wings Over The Rockies Air and Space, which was interesting but probably worth only 2 to 3H at most:

Friday evening, I went to the Clyfford art museum during evening hours. Worth 30-45mn as I was not a fan:

Next door was the Denver Art Museum:

some guy took Japanese snow monkeys and took them to Texas to see if they would adapt. They did, but kind of questionable

The buildings were nicely lit at night:

Saturday, I thought I'd start with the Denver Museum Nature and Science, which opened at 09:00. I was there from opening time and ended up spending all day until they closed. They're located in a nice park:

Then, giving that the museum took all day, it was time to go back to the airport.

While it was just mid October, Boulder had already gotten some snowfall just before I arrived. One morning, I took a bike to the University of Colorado at Boulder to tour the campus. It's nothing too special, but still worth a quick visit:

While in Boulder, I also went to visit the [Google office buildings there|perso/google/post_2018-10-16_Boulder-and-Thornton-Office-5-Years-Later.html]

we got a bit of snow just before arriving

very nice patio and mountain view

nice climbing wall

very fancy bike shop

nice

On my way out, I went to see some coworkers in the thornton office nearby (north of denver):

some weapons are missing, is that a bad thing? :)

thornton used to be a doubleclick datacenter, not in use anymore

Modern art is well, variable. There were some interesting bits, others were so-so:

I definitely wouldn't put this first in a visit of Paris, starting with how hard it is to get into it, but I'm happy we got to see it eventually.

Most people don't know that the first heavier than air aircraft was french and dated from the late 1800's. It was however a poor aircraft that was not well controlable, so history didn't remember it as the first aircraft:

More interestingly, the museum is attached to a church was was repurposed as display space:

We ended up spending much longer than planned there, and it was worth even more. Greatly recommended.

We started with Musée des Arts et Métiers (on its own page):

And then we went to Centre Pompidou (on its own page):

Not often that we're in Paris during the summer, so we went around 1st Arrondissement:

We then went to Centre Pompidou, which included fairly good views:

Notre Dame before it burnt

Tour St Jacques

la défense

Then it was time to go home. Nice lighting in CDG airport

Half the collection is outdoors and the other half inside hangars:

Multiple hangars with more aircraft:

Nice collection of engines:

The last (or actually first) hangar had world war 1 planes:

I also have to give them credit for recognizing the French inventor, Clement Ader, who made the first heavier than air flying machine (using a heavy steam engine), 6 years before the wright brothers. Sadly that machine didn't work well but it still flew:

The museum was definitely worth at least 2H if you care about flying things :)

Late september/early oct seemed like a good time to go, not terribly busy or hot, although the main cities were still busy for sure: Séville very busy while Cordoba not at all for instance. Getting tickets for the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona was essential still while some other attractions would have had manageable enough waits, even if it was fine to skip them anyway where possible with advance tickets. Weather was still quite varied between sweating in Barcelona and quite cool in Madrid (down to 13C one day).
And yet, despite the temps that were more than ok, some cities still had stupid and pointless siesta hours that closed most everything from 14:00 to 16:30, really fucking up sightseeing (Hello Zaragoza, get a clue if you want more tourists, especially as a day trip from madrid with quite expensive fast train tickets). On the plus side, this is mostly going away in many cities, or wasn't relevant in October which wasn't considered summer anymore.

History wise, it would take me a while to go through it all, and I wouldn't do a good job anyway, but long story short the muslims invaded part of Spain and stayed a few hundred years until Christian crusades took them all out and destroyed all their mosques except for a select few (and the one in cordoba got an unsightly church built in a very middle, seemingly as a "fuck you"). The Jews also picked the wrong religion apparently and were invited to convert (eh, they only had to accept Jesus, and a few extra books), or were cordially invited to leave. A few remained underground and kept their faith while pretending to be christian and eating pork in front of witnesses.

I can't stay I really support bull fighting, but it was interesting to learn about the history and culture around it, as well as seeing the bull rings, and even a bull raising farm.

Food was good overall. My sampling palate enjoyed the tapas that most restaurants offered, sangria as well, and the many different ways you can eat pig :) (including milk fed pigglets).

The trip, thanks to Rick Steves suggestions (and I'll say that Rick Steves book seem frozen in time and lack really needed updates, as well as in the case of Spain providing a very questionable suggested routing, so we had to work hard to make our own that made more sense, thanks Arturo for the help there), we did go to see UK's Gibraltar which is worth the trip (and unlike what the book said, will happily use your euros if you don't have british pounds), and the day trip from Tarifa to Tangier, while not strictly necessary, was educational, especially with our private guide.
Not unlike France, most of the south is hard to visit with a car, but once you get to Madrid, public transport works fine. Going through smaller towns like Ronda was worth the car, though.

So, that was that for Spain, nice trip, most everything went according to plan. Here is the route:

Zaragoza was the farthest city we saw from Madrid as a day trip. 2H fast (expensive) train:

We randomly picked a day that was a huge Christian festival, festival of Pilar. It was fun but also a huge mess, millions of people everywhere:

Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar was beautiful, but it was a total mess with all the crowds:

it's big, but it was packed

We took the elevator to the top, decent views:

Lots of Roman ruins and museums:

they had a nice amphitheatre

lead pipes, yum

Sadly, some things were closed due to the massive festival, which was clusterf a times, not counting all the things that were closed from 14:00 to 16:00 for siesta:

we were forced to stop for a 15:00 lunch

Thankfully a few things were still open:

One of the open things was the very cool Origami Museum (click for its own page):

Eventually we went to the other part of town to visit, we went to Aljafería Palace:

And then it was finally time to take a late 300kph train back to Madrid:

car converted to coal during the war

Salamanca was the farthest yet. Only a single fast train per day at non ideal times, leading for a shorter day in Salamanca. Jennifer used the time to rest in train:

We started with a surprising good car museum worth 2H (follow the link for more):

After the car musuem, we stopped by Casa Lis, a nice art deco museum, and yet another "no pictures" place:

Next was the great Leronimus Cathedral:

oh my, I hope it's not load bearing

La Clerecía, University of Salamanca, Museo de San Esteban and Convent,

Nice Views:

Walk through town:

yum

The visit was not super long due to the 2H train ride each way, and only one direct fast train per day, so we had to head back not too late.

Our last excursion from Madrid for the day was Avila. We took a train from El Escorial and arrived mid afternoon. A bit late, but just enough time to visit:

we asked our cab from the train station to take us to a viewpoint

Avila has the best city walls in Spain

By the city entrance, we have San Vicente de Ávila:

We then got a tour in a Tuck-tuck:

Next, we went to visit the main Cathedral:

We then went to walk the beautiful city walls:

We then had a very rushed visit of Convent of Santa Teresa de Jesus and then caught a bus back to the train station for a train home:

Our next excursion from Madrid was El Escorial - Valley of the Fallen - Avila. We started with Royal Seat of San Lorenzo de El Escorial:

good thing the entire train didn't crash

Quick cab ride from train station, sadly yet another place that doesn't allow pictures. This was getting old by then:

The outside was nice too:

Next, we took a cab to Valley of the Fallen.

After El Escorial, we took a cab to Valley of the Fallen that waited for us there as there is no usable transport.

It's a Francoist regime monument, Catholic basilica and a monumental memorial which is very controversial as it's equivalent to being a monument to hitler.

It's yet yet yet another place that doesn't allow pictures.

Francisco Franco

we then hurried back to our cab to catch a train to Avila, our 3rd location for the day.

Per recommendation from Arturo, we tried to go see the Royal Palace of Aranjuez. Sadly, when we arrived, it was closed without notice, so we only got to see the gardens. Sigh, mostly wasted time (2H going there and back, and 2H onsite...)

We took a morning local train:

It was a 10mn walk from the train station, and we only got to see the gardens, which thankfully were still ok:

A few days later, we stopped by the Google office in the newer part of Madrid:

there was a 3D printer in the printing room, nice

2 nice cafes:

Spanish meal hours. Lunch until 15:00, and 'pre-dinner' until 19:00 so that you can have your real dinner around 21:00 :)

Funny thing was on the same floor was a wells fargo office:

Todelo was the next city we went to by train as a day trip from Madrid:

We then went to Museo del Greco:

Toledo has other jewish museums and buildings:

Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes:

More walking through town:

Museo de los Concilios y la Cultura Visigoda

Santuario Sagrados Corazones:

nice views from the top

Alcázar de Toledo/military museum

More random things:

We then went to visit the Alcázar de Toledo:

The Alcázar has a nice church inside:

After a long day in Toledo, time to go home:

After arriving in Madrid, we used it as a base to go visit a bunch of neighboring towns as day trips by train. Our first one was Segovia and La Granja:

with a fast train, we got there in around 1H

Segovia is known for its Roman Aqueduct

we followed the aqueduct to its destination where you could get water

Quaint spanish towns have good food :)

We went through the Catedral de Segovia and its viewing tower:

Nice views around town:

The town also had a jewish quarter and some more museums:

After being done with Segovia, we took a cab to La Granja for its Royal Glass Factory:

After about 1H in the museum (which was worth a bit more), we had to leave to go to the Royal Palace of La Granja of San Ildefonso:

I hope they're not about to have sex, this looks questionable

very big gardens

sadly, they sucked and turned off all fountains for the season despite it being Oct 6th

and that was that, very nice palace and gardens. After getting kicked out of the gardens, we had just enough time to get a taxi back to the train station.

A nice section on money

Madrid was the last city went to for our trip, but we used it as a base to hit a lot of nearby, or not so nearby cities (Segovia & La Granja, Toledo, Aranjuez, El Escorial Valley of the Fallen Avila, Salamanca, and Zaragoza).

Getting around was a mix of walking, subway and taxis, but they also had other options:

you can start from the center

Madrid had lots to see too, so after arriving from Cordoba the night before, we went to visit the west side of the city starting with the royal palace and the Cathedral de Amuldena. It was yet another place were pictures were forbidden, which means I ended up with fewer pictures:

Next, we went towards the navy museum, which sadly was mostly closed for renovation. The paying part of the expo was conveniently open though:

We then went to a building nearby that had terrace views:

And then we walked to the archeological museum and had a good vidist (which ended up having to be done in 2 days as it was much bigger than planned). See the page on Madrid archeological museum

The next morning, we started with the Prado Museum which was another museum without photos (again!), so I have fewer:

you can't take pictures, but you can make your own slow copy :)

After Prado, we went to see the excellent Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum (on its own page, which thankfully allowed pictures.

Then we finished Prado (we had to juggle with opening hours) and finished the long day with Reina Sofia (Modern art, not that great outside of Picasso's Guernica, which they have plenty of people to stop you from taking pictures):

don't ask

And that was it for a very long day. After our mostly wasted trip to Aranjuez, we went to Google for late lunch, and got a few pictures from the buildings:

We also went to see Sorolla Museum nearby:

We also had a few nice dinners, including milk fed piglets :)

It was good enough that we went back for more another night:

Some evening/night pictures from various days:

The last day, I started with the Air Museum outside of town (on its own page):

Next, I went to the Basilica of San Francisco:

From there, I had a quick look at Museum Cerralbo:

We then went to Caixa Forum for its interesting architecture:

And last, but not least, was a good walk through the botanical gardens:

Then, it was time to leave and catch a flight home

Cordoba was a good stop between Seville and Madrid, we went to Cordoba for its Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba, but it has more:

This is what the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba looks like

the mosque was modified and a church built in its middle, quite weird

nice walled garden outside

pretty light patterns from the windows

a chapel in the middle, kind of awkward

Next was the Alcazar of the Christian Monarchs:

We then had a look at Casa de Sefarad to learn about jewish heritage (which was also mostly wiped):

Last but not least was the archeological museum:

And it was eventually time to take a train to Madrid, our last area to visit for the trip:

we started with the Alcazar at opening time for our timed tour. Very nice palace:

Next, we took a cab to the Archeological Museum:

After the museum it was then a beautiful walk in the park and towards Plaza de Espana:

From there, I had a quick look at the Military Museum before it closed:

The Catedral de Sevilla and El Divino Salvador were next:

From there, we went to the flamenco museum. Never really loved flamenco, but it was fun to see a bit of it:

we watched enough to get a feel, but without being stuck for the whole performance

Still had more time to walk through town (long days):

So we went to the local bullring, which was less interesting than the one at Ronda:

Next was a cab to the north of town to the Basílica de la Macarena, they host a Shrine of the Virgin that get paraded through town at the right time of the year:

feels like the ku klux klan was there :)

shrine

A few views:

The next morning, we took a cab to the Conjunto Arqueológico de Itálica, some half preserved roman ruins, which incidently I recognized in an episode of gmae fo thrones later:

I had the cab drive us by the bridge

Later on game of thrones, I recognized it:

After the visit we took another cab to the station for a train to cordoba and a day visit

sunrise over Tarifa from our patio

we then took one of the fast 1H ferries to Tangier

Our private guide met us at the ferry and took us around:

We then went for a camel ride by the sea:

Next we went to Hercules Caves:

From there we went back to the old town (Kasba) and its markets:

lots of cats

our knowledgeable and multilingual guide

nice views:

Then, we took the ferry back to Tarifa and walked around the old city a bit:

sadly the city walls were closed

We arrived the previous evening in time for sunset:

The next morning, great breakfast, and we then walked to the Gilbraltar border across the border:

Once the border was crossed, we took the bus to the botanical garden and wildlife park under the cable car:

the bus drives across the airport runway

Speaking of runway, it's probably the only major international airport with a stoplight to allow people and cars to cross the runway in between plane landings. Spooky...

cars released right after the plane landing

fun to walk it and see the runway like this

We then took the cable car up:

great views from the top

Gibraltar has many monkeys running around:

There are several military installations you can visit, including: O'Hara's Battery

lots of tunnels

We then did a lot of walking down to the different attractions:

Next was the suspension bridge, world war II tunnels and city under siege:

the british dug out a lot of tunnels, impressive

great view of the airport (and where the enemies would attack from)

long walk down and back up

We then walked down to walk around town:

much lower taxes, so people buy cigarettes and alcohol and take them back across the border

view of the windows in the rock