September 11, 2011

I recently blogged about an event I attended on September 11, 2011.  I had forgotten about some other things I saw that weekend in observance of the 10-year anniversary.  There were some amazing memorials set up all over the city.

I went to Bryant Park where they set up a chair for every person who was killed on 9/11.  It was a really crazy to see...such a good visual.  So many chairs.  They also had a typewriter set up where you could type your memories of the day.

 It seemed fitting to go see the progress of the 

Freedom Tower, such hope in that building! I

cannot wait to go up in it when it's finished!

In Battery Park City, they set up a flag for every person killed.

It felt like I wandered through the flags for ever - way too many.

 And then I happened upon this.  I had never seen it before!

This sphere was a work of art that sat between the World Trade

Center towers.  It was badly damaged, but they left it as

is and moved it to Battery Park City where it's been since just

6 months after 9/11.

And right next to the sphere is an eternal flame.  I had no idea.

There really is always something new to see in  NYC.

Spain! - Seville, Day 1

Our 6th day in Spain had us up early to catch another train.  Our hotel in Granada had a big buffet breakfast, so we ate there before heading to the train station.  It was just a few hours to Seville and I don't remember, nor did I write much, about that trip.  In Seville, we checked into our hotel.  This was definitely our least favorite hotel of the trip.  It was just a bit more run-down.  It was called Monte Triana and it was in the neighborhood of Triana.

Once we were settled in our hotel, we set out to explore.  Triana is right on the river, so we walked there first knowing there were cafes all along the water.  We chose Ruta dia Plata for lunch.  It was good - the highlight was warm goat cheese with walnuts and honey - yum!!

The best part of our neighborhood was that it is known for its ceramics store.  We wandered around this little district for quite some time, popping in & out of different ceramic stores.  I came away with 2 deviled egg plates and an ornament.  It was really fun shopping for this stuff!

Triana wasn't the most central, but we could get to the city center fairly quickly by bus.  I do definitely prefer those cities that have subways as opposed to just buses!  We hopped one of the buses and enjoyed seeing more of the city.  It was full of interesting, colorful buildings with lots of tile and some really old, impressive buildings that I no longer recall what they were.  In ways it reminded me of Madrid with narrow, winding pedestrian streets.  It's not quite as beautiful, charming, and well-maintained as Madrid though.  We walked down the streets known for their good shopping - Tetuan, Sirepes, and Cuna.  Many stores were closed for siesta, so we had fun window shopping and just scoping the area out.  We did venture into El Ingles Cortes which is Spain's big department store chain.

We ran into a BK to get Michelle a diet coke and I thought

this advertisement was hilarious! Apparently, all you need

for romance is a BK chicken sandwich and some candles.

We wandered thru the Santa Cruz neighborhood, which was a really neat, quiet neighborhood with quaint whitewashed homes and streets lined with orange trees.

 There was a nice, small park in the middle of Santa Cruz

Our exploring led us thru the Old Tabacco Company.

We wandered into the Hotel Alfonso XIII, which was such a gorgeous hotel!!!

I always love good city parks.  Seville has the Maria Luisa Park.  It was much more rustic than the fabulously maintained Retiro Park in Madrid.  We still liked this park though.  The Plaza de Espana is in the middle and it is covered in pretty tile work and has row boats circling through.

The tile just doesn't show up in the pictures! But,

it was all over the ground and the  banisters

here are all tile as well.  It was all over this park!

More tile!

After the park, we passed by the

Seville Cathedral and Giralda Tower.

For dinner, we went to Alameda de Hercules, which is one of the big plazas/squares in Seville that is surrounded by restaurants.  We ate pizza and a potato dish with sangria and it was all very good.  Afterwards, we got some gelato for the walk back to the bus.