Space

It's August and here in Germany that's the best time of the year to see falling stars. 

I don't know how you feel about this, but I have the feeling that today's people are not as interested in space as they used to be. Whenever I read/ listen to/ watch a science fiction story from the 1950's or 1960's, I envy the people of that age their enthusiasm and their positive thinking about the future of mankind.

Nevertheless there have been two major breakthroughs in space technology in the last two weeks: The landing of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory: Curiosity and the Russians completed successfully a new manoeuvre to fly to the ISS in less than 6 hours (that's less than from Düsseldorf to New York!).

If you want to celebrate this with some space related crafting, here are a few suggestions for you:

Crochet a diskworld

Bake a space-shuttle-cake

Sew a Space Invaders Quilt

Build R2D2 from wood

Get yourself a retro space desktop

 I suggest you start with David Bowie's Space Oddity.

Don't forget to make a wish if you see a falling star!

Andalusia - The Conclusion

I've been at home for more than a week now, but somehow I forgot to write about the last days in Andalusia - shame on me.
Therefore - to correct this flaw - here comes the conclusion:

Leaving Ronda we drove through beautiful mountains to Gibraltar - that little rock of Great Britain in Spain.

We had to pay our fish and chips in Pounds.

Gibraltar proved to be more british than expected. Even though in Gibraltar is right hand traffic, there are british phone boxes and letter boxes. I also went to Marc's and Spencer's and bought some nail polish. However the most british in Gibraltar during our stay was the fog.

Hence we had to bury our dreams to see Africa.

That evening we headed on to Tarifa - surfer's paradise - where we only stayed for one night. We still were very close to Africa which prompted my mobile to change into West African Time.

We spend the last few days in Cadiz. I have very few photos of Cadiz because garbage collection was on strike and the garbage piles were accumulating in the streets. This also had the unfortunate sideeffect of unpleasant aromas in the air. Thankfully Cadiz is surrounded by the sea with kilometers of the best beaches I have ever been to.

And being surrounded by the sea, Cadiz is also one of the best places in Europe to eat fish. You could get yummy seafood at the beach...

... and buy superfresh fish and seafood at the market on good terms. We bought a thuna steak, shells, gambas, some other fish and vegetables for 10 € total.

These were definitely one of the best holidays I've ever had (although it would have been better if I went with Tino ;) ). With this crappy weather in Germany I wish I could go there again next week!
Well, now I have more time for sewing, hang on for updates!

Ronda

Hola!

The trip from Granada to Ronda was our longest so far. We mostly used the smaller roads along the cost "Costa del Sol". Our lunch break was at the fishing harbour of Marbella where we had wonderful seafood.

Than we came into mountains again and to Ronda.

The view from the terrace of our backpackers is spectacular.

 One day we went into the gorge. From down there the depth of the cut is more obvious.

There were only three meters like this  but it looks so professional I had to post it.

The shower is just vacant, I have to grab it before it is occupied again.
Adios!

Granada

Today I'm really tired from hiking in the Sierra Nevada, so I will give you only a few pics from our stay at Granada. Tomorrow we will drive along the Costa del Sol (Malaga and Marbella) to Ronda.

Alhambra

View over Granada

In the Sierra Nevada

Sierra Nevada

Sierra Nevada

Sierra Nevada

Cordoba

We are on the road!
Our trip through Andalusia started with Cordoba.

 On the way to Cordoba we visited the beautiful village of Carmona.

Cordoba is an amazing town. There are still many roman artefacts and even more arabic ones. Expecially the Mezquita Cathedral is outstanding. Several arabic caliphs built a huge mosque (and included roman pillars).  When Cordoba was christian again, the spanish rulers built a rather ugly renaissance church inside the mosque. Hence the building is nowadays a grotesque mixture of different building styles.

 

Citylife is also very nice here, though more touristic than in Sevilla. 

Everywhere we have been so far the people are very nice and helpful. Communication is difficult though, since most spanish people speak neither English nor French. So we have to work with hand and feet which doesn't always lead to the results wished for. Two days ago we wanted to eat some tapas, looking forward fresh vegetables and ended up with this:

 It still was yummy. Guess next time we have to take our heavy tourist guides along. 

Today we are heading off for Granada.

Sevilla

I`m in Sevilla and it`s blazing hot 35ºC. It`s very beautiful here. We have a little appartement in the centre of Barrio Santa Cruz. It`s lovely and we can have breakfast on the large terrasse. In the evenings we enjoy the spanish lifestyle and have tapas and cervesa in bars that are litteraly on every corner.
Here are a few photos to give you some impressions:

The Cathedral with Giralda

A bridge by Eiffel for the World Exhibition 1929

The view from our terrasse

Real Alcazar

In the garden of Real Alcazar

A fountain in the gardens of Real Alcazar

Some Tapas look like paintings

The garden with pool we went yesterday

Tomorrow we will be off to Cordoba.

Yay! Summer!

Finally! School is over, the last few weeks have passed in a frenzy. This weekend was all catching up with the house and garden work.

I even managed to get some sewing done:
1) The July Blocks for sew.quilt.give

 

2) A Wallet-to-Tote for Sandra:

 I had conveniently forgotten how nerve-racking this pattern with all the zippers and curves is. But I got it done (at 1 o'clock in the morning)!

I'm off now for my trip to Andalusia. So see you back then!