Our summer adventure

Hello, we are back in Spain for a few days, but I will post more from Prague.... Jeff said Prague is his favorite city so far, so I am glad we visited for his birthday! We visited some more churches, the royal garden, and we saw so many beautiful buildings, here are a few photos Then we went to Terezin, outside of Prague, near the border of Germany. Terezin was a fortress originally, then a camp for political prisoners in WW1. But it is most famous as a prison/concentration camp/ghetto in WW2. Though it was not an extermination camp like Auschwitz, 30,000 of the 150,000 people who came through Terezin died there due to starvation, crowding and disease, and most of the 90,000 who were later sent to extermination camps also perished. I didn't take a lot of photos, but here is the entrance to the camp, with the motto "work sets you free" We went into one of the rooms, about 30x30, that housed 100 people. The bunks were still there, hard to fathom the s...

(I recently found out that some of you are posting comments that aren't showing up. A few show up, but not all of them. I am not really sure why, I will look in to it and see if I can figure it out.) Antequera had a big festival to celebrate the world heritage site designation. It started at 10 pm (!) and the whole town came out. There are 25,000 candles lit in squares and churches, light displays on the sides of buildings, and food carts. We made it to about 11:30 pm until the boys were too tired to continue, but the party continued, including toddlers and seniors out in the streets. The next day we went to Lobo Park, a wolf sanctuary/reserve. They are breeding wolves and studying behavior and nutrition. They have a large property and have multiple packs, and they do their best to maintain natural behavior. They socialize pups starting at about 10 days old, but only enough so they aren't terrified of people (because they couldn't study their behavior if the wolves...

Today marks the halfway point for our trip. I think we have some mixed feelings about that - Monte sometimes says he wants to go home, although that is mostly when he is upset about something. I feel like it has gone pretty fast, and though I miss some things, I am really glad we are doing this and am looking forward to the second half. I think Teo is mostly having fun but is sometimes a bit homesick. Jeff is enjoying it, but I think it might be wearing on him a bit. Anyway..... We are in Antequera, Spain for about a month. It is a town of about 45,000, basically right in the center of Andalusia in southern Spain, centrally located between Málaga, Córdoba, Granada, and Sevilla. Two years ago, the town suddenly became a tourist destination when it was named a UNESCO world heritage site. I read an article in the paper about how this has affected the town, and I think they have some growing pains related to this, since the locals aren't really used to tourists. The main reason th...

OK, Granada. Some of you may know that I spent a couple weeks in Granada in 2004, and was seriously considering moving to Granada.  We are staying at a cave house with a great view - here is a picture of a dinner al fresco: And one bedroom in the cave house: The main attraction in Granada is the Alhambra, a giant palace/fortress complex that was originally the ruling place of the Moors, until 1492 when Ferdinand and Isabella conquered Granada. Most of the buildings retain their Moorish roots. The Alhambra has become so popular that you need to buy timed-entry tickets to see the palace. Which meant we had to get up very early and trek up a hill. But we took the road less travelled, and had the path to ourselves And now, for pictures of the Alhambra itself: And of course we need a picture of some of the cats - this is a feral colony with caretakers, so this is them laying around after a big meal. They were all ear-notched (left ear) ...