October 10, 2007

Spain

rmiles7721October 10, 200757Travel

Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia and is the second most populated city in Spain at the present. It’s located on the southeastern coast of Spain, on the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the major shipping ports in Europe as well. Although the city dates to three or four hundred years prior, it was a Roman colony around 15BC and you can still see the effects of the Romans in some of the architecture and in plenty of ruins there.

aulalia

One of the really cool things about Barcelona is that there are 68 municipal parks ranging from fairly small to pretyt large recreational areas. They cover right around 10% of the city itself, which makes it a pretty green place to visit. There are also several beaches in Barcelona, just under three miles of coastline, making it a pretty popular destination for holiday in Europe. Hotels in Barcelona or as they say there, Hoteles en Barcelona, are easy to find, and like anywhere else, the earlier you book the cheaper they are.

As with many of the older cities in Europe, Barcelona sports many theaters and halls for live music, including the world-famous Gran Teatre de Liceu opera theater. Barcelona plays host to several music festivals throughout the year and also hosts the Catalonia Symphonic Orchestra as well.

Madrid on the other hand is well inland and sits right in the middle of Spain. Fittingly, it is the capital of Spain and really the financial capital as well. You can really see the difference from Barcelona, particularly from the Muslim influence that has been there since the 9th century.

penalara

Madrid is a pretty large city and thus boats entertainment and things to do 24 hours a day. Hotels in Madrid are pretty easy to find as the population of Madrid is so great. There are quite a few museums and music halls in Madrid as well, and the night life is very active particularly on the weekends when the younger people will stay out all night dancing and leave only to go to work the next morning. That type of stuff was great for me twenty years ago but I don’t see me dancing the night away any time soon.

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Wednesday Hero

rmiles7721October 10, 20075Site News

This Weeks Hero Was Suggested By Greta, Who Is Herself A Solders’ Angel

Lance Cpl. Cory Jamieson
May Not Solder Go Unloved
Back in 2003, self-described “ordinary mother”, Patti Patton-Bader, started an organization called Solders’ Angels because her son, Sgt. Brandon Varn, wrote her a letter from Iraq in which he showed concern that some of the brave men and women there weren’t receiving any mail or support from back home. Well, she wasn’t going to allow this. She called a few friends and family asking them if they would write to some of the soldiers. They’d never met them. Didn’t know who they were, but they wrote. And in a few short months, Solders’ Angles went from an idea an “ordinary mother” had to having chapters all over the country and thousands of angels all over the world letting soldiers know that they were loved and respected by writing hundreds of thousands of letters, sending care packages, medical supplies, body armor and lending comfort and support to military families. Solder’s Angels and the people who run and support it are heroes in the truest sense.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

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This is an Open Track-Back post for Wednesday, October 10th.